“How’re you paying?” I ask her when she steps out and walks over to me again. “Cash or card?”
“Card.” She reaches for the right back pocket of her shorts, frowns, then moves onto the other. She does that a few times – keeps searching all of her pockets – but all she manages to find isnothing.
“Fuck,” she whispers, then pats her shorts once more. “Fuck-fuck-fuck.” She looks at me with evident guilt on her face. “I can’t find my card,” she says.
I put my tongue to my cheek. “I can see that,” I muse.
“Umm…” She sighs. “Look, if you gimme an hour, I can drive home and get you the cash. I don’t have any on me at the moment, and I seem to have forgotten my card at the estate.”
I pull off my cap and tousle my now-sweaty hair. “There’s no need for that. You can come by tomorrow, if that’s convenient for you.”
She shakes her head. “No, that’s not fair to you.” She pauses, looks contemplative, then says, “Drop by the estate after you’ve closed shop. I can pay you then.”
I hesitate at that.
I know every single one of the guards that’s stationed by and in her mother, Miranda’s, fancy house. Me and the crew do, after all, conduct all of the kills for her and her brother, Chase. I’m aware that every guard under his payroll has rotational shifts – ones that take them back-and-forth from his to his sister’s estates. Cignette, of course, doesn’t need to know thatIknow all of this shit, or that I kill for her uncle.
Still, none of it means that I can simply trot up to their house. But hey, when the fuck have I shied away from jumping right into a roaring inferno?
Never, as far as I can remember.
I scrub a hand under my jaw and say, “Sure.” Why the hell not, right? I’ve already been acting deranged in the presence of this woman, so what’s a little more madness to top it all off and damn me furthermore?
Besides, being alone with her might give me a chance to do the thing I’ve wanted to do since she got here: stake my goddamn claim on her. And yeah, it’s very Neanderthal-like of me to say that, but this is who I am, and Cignette will have to get used to it, whether she likes it or not. Because one thing I know for sure is that she can’t be with Gavin, not afterI’velaid eyes on her.
“Great.” She smiles, and this time, I feel its impact straight to my cock.
We exchange numbers, and I can’t help but think how Jayce is going to have my ass for this. But I guess it’s too late for me to back out now, so eh, whatever.
“Oh hey, I forgot to tell you,” Cignette begins. “You’ll have to come over before 12a.m., because that’s when our gates close, and they don’t open for anyone until 8 in the morning.”
Weird. I wasn’t aware ofthatlittle tidbit.
I give her a nod. “Got it.”
“Ledge!”
Cignette turns, and as she does, a gust of wind blows by us, pushing her hair sideways.
My eyes fall on her back, and there, inked on her skin, I see an untethered swan. I only get a brief glimpse of it before I have to avert my gaze from her and look in the direction of the voice.
“What?” I bark at Varsha, Jayce, and Alex. It’s the former who’d called my name.
Alex and Varsha give me knowing looks, whereas Jayce simply shakes his head at me before saying, “Alex is hungry. We’re headed to McDonald’s for a quick bite. You coming?”
I glance at Cignette, then at my crew. “Yeah,” I tell Jayce. “You guys go ahead; I’ll catch up in a bit.”
They nod and head out, and when I look down at her, I find Cignette gazing up at me.
I step close to her, and she inhales a sharp breath. “Are you gonna go back to Gavin now?” I ask, then cage her in by placing both of my hands on her Cadillac’s hood.
She scans my face. “No,” she answers in a rasp.
I tread closer, and when my hips brush her stomach, I stifle to urge to rock them against her.
“Good.”
She smiles a little. “Good, huh?” she sasses.
