His laugh quickly turned into cursing the asshole thatlived here. “Holy shit,” Sayer rasped. “FBI. Is he fucking serious? The brothersare going to string him up by his toes and castrate the bastard. This is bad.”
My skin felt itchy all of a sudden. I closed my eyesand remembered all the commercial vans lining the streets as we’d made our wayhere. “We need to go.” I grabbed the files, tapping them into a hasty pile.“Sayer, now.”
We shared a look and then jumped into motion. Wegrabbed Frankie and Atticus from the main floor and hightailed it out of thehouse, sprinting through back yards and down side streets until we felt safe weweren’t being followed.
We headed back to the party and handed over theinformation. We spent the rest of the night laughing and kissing and sneakingvodka drinks and ignoring the fact that after tonight, we would never see FatJack alive again.
Chapter Fifteen
Present Day
I stepped out of my bathroom and glared at my phonewhere it was still plugged into the outlet by my nightstand.
“This is stupid.” I didn’t know if I was talkingmyself or the phone.
The clock read 6:57. My hair was half styled and I waswearing a bra, matching panties, and my thin,short-sleeverobe. It was time to call cabin eleven and give Sayer his first wake-up call.
I loathed the idea. Everything inside me rebelledagainst it. I mean, how long was I going to let this guy hold me hostage?
Granted it was only Wednesday morning, but I wasalready annoyed.
And yet I couldn’t risk the fallout should I notfollow through with Sayer’s request. Would he turn me in to thebratva?The Colorado police?To the FBI? Who was he working for thesedays? And how much danger was I in?
See? There were too many unanswered questions to playthis one loose. I was just going to have to suck it up and deal with it.Besides, it was only a wake-up call. I was still safe at home even. This waspart of my job.
I cleared my throat in preparation of making the call.And then I cleared it again. “Stop being stupid, Caroline, just make the dumbcall.”
I closed my eyes and prayed that it would keepringing, that he wouldn’t be mean enough to answer, but—
“Hello?”
Uh…Uh…Blank.
“Uh…” I pinched my nose and forced my brain to ignorethe sleepy way he answered and the weirdness of hearing Sayer’s voice on theother end of a phone call after all this time. “Uh, this is Caroline with yourdaily wake-up call.”
Stupid. Stupid.Stupid.Most of all was my groggy voice from my still sleepy body. I wantedto sound professional on the phone. Firm, yet sophisticated. Instead, I soundedlike I’d just rolled out of bed and I needed to be quiet so my gentleman loverdidn’t overhear.
Which would have been fine if I had a gentleman lover!
“You sound like you’re going to launch into theairplane safety speech, Caroline.” He emphasized my name. His words werecutting, meant to be harsh. “Try it again.”
“You want me to try to wake you up… again?”
“Yes.” He sounded fully awake now. I could hear himmoving around on the other end.
“I’m not going to—”
“One more time,” he ordered. “With feeling.”
I sunk down on the edge of my bed, taking a handful ofcomforter in my hand and crushing it in my grip until my knuckles turned white.With all the energy of a cracked-out chipmunk, I pasted on a fake smile andsingsonged, “Goodmoooorning!”with as much pep as possible. “Time to wake-uuuuup!”
He sighed heavily, like he was disappointed in me.“Yeah, that’s not working for me.”
Juliet appeared in my doorway, rubbing her sleepy eyeswith one hand and holding herblankiein the other. Iquickly threw one finger over my lips, warning her to be quiet.
She made a whimpering sound and I flung open my armfor her to cuddle into. She hated mornings. She would much rather stay up latewith me than drag herself out of bed every morning for school or daycare.Weekends were our favorite because we both loved to sleep in.
Running to me, she threw herself into the curve of mybody and laid her head on my chest. I smoothed her hair with my free hand,praying she would stay quiet enough that Sayer wouldn’t know she was there.
