They said no screaming, but no one mentioned kicking. I also dropped my weight, trying to make myself as heavy as possible. Three more steps away from the van and the two men who stood on either side of it looked at me hungrily when a new player entered the field.
A sleek black Hummer came to a squealing stop directly in the middle of the alleyway’s entry, affectively blocking us all in.
“What in the mother fuck now?” Rainman asked, but no one answered him. It seemed the newcomer in the environment wasn’t playing for the same team.
He had to be sent from my cousin.
In my moment of distraction, they lifted me up and shoved me into the back of the van. The door shut behind me and I screamed again because I was pretty sure a bullet couldn’t make it through the metal frame. My scream cut off as the car doors closed on the other side followed by gunshots.
Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.
I dropped to the floor, trying to make myself as small as possible as they pinged around the outside of the van. The gunfire sounded like someone lit a firecracker in the alleyway, and then it stopped and everything grew super quiet.
I braced, ready to fight against whoever opened the door and make my getaway, but as the handle turned and the door slowly opened, it wasn’t one of the four men who tried to kidnap me. A gorgeously handsome face smiled at me from the opening.
Hot damn.
This was a pure gentleman—tall with dark brown hair swept back and put perfectly in place. He didn’t look as if he had been in a gun to fight with anyone in the last thirty seconds. His smile radiated happiness and his teeth were all perfectly white and straight. It was a weird thing to notice, but it was like how they say when you witness a crime, you fixate on the perpetrator’s weapons. I just couldn’t look away from that perfect smile. It took me at least ten seconds before I realized he was also holding a gun in his other hand, but he wasn’t pointing it at me.
Had my cousin hired one of the hottest hitmen bodyguards in Chicago? I was thankful for the save, but if he had me followed, we were going to have a serious talk.
After I told him thank you for saving my life.
“Shiloh Richter, would you like help out of this disgusting van?” he spoke, and it was like angels sang. Okay, that might have been too much, but he was seriously hot.
The unknown man held out his hand, and I placed mine in it, letting him help me step to the ground with him while maintaining my balance. Like a true gentleman.
CHAPTER 2
“You must spend a fortune in carbon offsets,” I said as I allowed the strange man to walk me to the Hummer. He clutched my hand as hard as I held on to his. Like a lifeline.
At my question, he looked over at me warily and shook his head. “No.”
It was a strange answer. My cousin always wanted to portray a normal existence in his day-to-day life. Most people who met Westley never realized he was the leader of the underground criminal organization because he seemed legitimate. Did this guy get to drive around in a Hummer and Westley not make him buy carbon offsets?
Criminals. Why did he have a hummer at all? Westley never let his guys drive one before, so why send someone to rescue me in one now? Public image was important and normally he made conscious choices. These questions floated around in my mind, but the danger flags weren’t flying yet because the man was still holding on to my hand as if I was the most precious thing in the world.
Again, I just survived a kidnapping, so I couldn’t really fault myself for my inability to think clearly. My thought processes were still catching up with the night’s events.
The gentleman held the door open for me, and I slid into the back of the Hummer, buckling my seatbelt. I definitely needed to find a way to ask my cousin for information about his new man without giving away my interest. Neither of us grew up with illustrious fathers, but he’d assumed the role of my pseudo-one, even though he was only five years older than me. If I gave one inkling that I found his guy interesting, he’d probably shoot him in the same back alley where he rescued me.
“So what you do for the Grandmaster?” I asked, staring into the man’s eyes as his driver started the car and we peeled away from the aftermath in the alley.
He’d led me away from the destruction into the safety of his vehicle, and I never questioned a second of it. I’d been so taken by him I didn’t even glance behind us to see the carnage.
My savior stared at me as if he worried I’d had a heart attack or something.
Like the answers to my question might freak me out. Like he planned to say, “I’ve been your personal bodyguard for the last two years,” or shit like that. I was definitely not okay if my cousin had me followed behind my back, even if this one time it proved handy. There was no excuse for violating a woman’s privacy, even if the bodyguard threw off serious hot guy vibes.
My rescuer smiled a little deeper and tilted his head to the side. “Do I look like a man who works for the Grandmaster?”
Huh?
That was a weird question. It also brought me out of my hazy bubble of happiness for a split second—long enough for me to register the many inconsistencies about my situation. It also gave me the chance to really look at the man.
I mean, really look at him. Study him a bit.
He was still as gorgeous as I’d found him when he opened the van door, but his eyes held way too much intelligence. He was not a grunt worker for the Grandmaster. Those men… You could tell. Let’s just say that. He was also wearing a suit. A full three pieces. Quite frankly, it was a little overboard for the situation.
