But the suit fit him like a glove. It was obviously tailored. He did not buy that suit off the rack. It reminded me of the way my cousin preferred to dress when he had business. He said running a family business—even if that family was of your own making and not by blood—required him to maintain a certain presence. One of control and calm. The man beside me wore the same presence like sparklers.
“No,” I said, drawing the word out as my brain put all the pieces together.
And then panic flared. Shit. What did I do?
“What? Did you just…” My sentence trailed off because it was so ridiculous I hated saying it out loud.
The guy next to me, who I slowly put together was not my friend, smiled deeper. “You’re almost there.”
“Did you just kidnap me from my kidnappers?”
He shrugged. Just shrugged. And then one side of his lip tipped up a little higher than the other, as though he was quite proud of his misdeeds.
Only a crazy person would be proud of kidnapping somebody who was already in the process of being kidnapped. Plus, it wasn’t a fair shake to me because I was under a lot of stress with the first kidnapping. How did he expect me to figure out what had happened in the second kidnapping?
This was so not good. Like really, really, really not good. Like if I survived, my cousin would put me into lockdown for the rest of my life. Not good.
Westley always warned me that sometimes the deadliest people looked like the friendliest or the prettiest. He also warned me about the new group of heavy players moving into Chicago, trying to run the streets like they were their own renegade police force.
Did I listen?
No.
That’s what happened when he interrupted my television time with important shit.
We both lost.
Really, at least fifty percent of this entire situation was his fault.
Something told me this man didn’t count himself as part of the new Chicago team. He didn’t look Midwest. I always imagined if I had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting one of the other bad guys in town, I’d know it right away. This man had the arrogance I’d expected, but deeper.
I rested my hand on the door handle, and in the next second the locks on the car engaged. Assholes! I twisted my head back in his direction, anger written all over my face. “I thought you were the good guys!”
He laughed. The jerk face actually laughed at me. Okay fine, he might’ve been laughing because I considered the Grandmaster the good guys, but he didn’t have to be so rude about his assessment.
“Where are you taking me?” Depending on which area of the city he lived, I’d be able to make a decent guess on which Chicago family he supported. His accent was definitely American, but that meant little in this day and age.
“Don’t worry. It’s not much further away.”
But I was worried because I was in a strange vehicle with a strange man and hadn’t used my opportunity to get out because I’d been too busy daydreaming about his hotness level. When Westley found out, he’d go full-on overprotective cousin on me. There went working the night shift at the bar for extra money. I’d probably spend the rest of my life with a He-Man following me around, trying to act like he wasn’t hiding a gun in his pants.
Stupid.
Stupid.
Stupid.
Stupid of me. I deserved it after being dumb enough to get into a car without being sure if they were friend or foe.
“You know when he catches you, he’s totally going to kill you and all your friends. Right?” The threat didn’t really work on the other men, but maybe on this one.
From the way he patted me on the shoulder, it didn’t. “Is this the part where you threaten me with death and dismemberment? I really don’t have time to argue over who has bigger balls. If your cousin wants me to call him the biggest baddie in Chicago, so be it.”
“You’re admitting the Grandmaster is a better criminal than you?” That was the oddest thing anyone had ever said to me. Rule number one when you were a bad guy was not to admit someone was worse than you. Took away from the scary effect.
“Sure, Chicago. Because I’m not from here.”
My heart stuttered. For real, it just skipped two beats. If he wasn’t from Chicago, where did he live? How did I figure out his allegiance?
