“Who is this guy?” Sylvester asked. “What’s he look like?”
“All I know is his name is Jason, and he’s been watching me for a while. He’s good at what he does. He’s covered in tattoos, like you—” I gestured to Maddox. “—but he’s got a blackout tattoo on his neck and his left arm. Gray hair. He’s probably in his forties. Maybe early fifties, I don’t know.” I paused before I muttered, “He’s hot.”
Lola chuckled. “Girly, you do seem to have a type.”
While his girlfriend found me amusing, Sylvester, on the other hand, came at it from an analytical perspective. “I’ve never heard of anyone like that. Whoever he is, he must’ve kept a low profile when he got here. Still, I’ll have my men keep their eyes open for a gray-haired man with a blackout tattoo.”
“If he was doing all of this for Tessa, I don’t understand why he wouldn’t just kill you,” Lola said with a shrug.
“I know, I don’t get it, either. I asked him, and all he said was that he wanted to see the whole picture. He knows Tessa isn’t telling him everything. He wants to see it all for himself so he can decide what to do.” I ran my hand through my hair. Lola had helped me put on my metal fingers, the ones without the blades. I was whole once again.
“What kind of hitman needs the whole picture?” Maddox grunted out. “If he was hired to do a job, shouldn’t he just do it?”
That was something I’d thought about, too. I opened my mouth to respond, but right then another presence appeared in the room—a rather tall, mountainous one, one who rushed straightfor me and swept me off the couch and into his arms, earning us both a giggle and a clap from Lola.
“You get her, big guy,” she teased Mike as he hugged me so tightly I thought he might crack a rib.
“I’m okay,” I told him, and only after I said it a second time did he finally let me go.
“What the fuck happened?” he asked, hazel gaze earnest as he sat on the edge of the couch and pulled me down with him, keeping me on his lap—a very PDA move on his part. He’d never been a huge fan of that sort of thing.
So then I had to explain it all over again, something I’d have to do at least one more time, maybe even twice, to Kieran and Fang. The latter was ready to see me now, it was where Mike and I would go after this, but Kieran hadn’t answered his phone, so I had to leave a voicemail from Lola’s number once I got here. My phone, with any luck, would be sitting in my room at my place.
And Kelly? Well, I’d have to check on her later. Right now I wanted to focus on me, for obvious reasons.
“Oh,” I deadpanned, “you know me, always getting kidnapped. At least this time I escaped on my own, so I like to think I’m getting better at it.”
He let out the world’s most earth-shattering groan.
“And, bonus for you this time,” Lola finished the story for me. “Her kidnapper was a sexy gray fox with tons of tattoos. I think our girl here has a teeny crush on this Jason guy.”
If looks could kill, well, I would’ve been a goner a long time ago. Still, the expression Mike sent me right then was one that made me squirm, and since I was on his lap, my squirming had an effect. He had to grab me by the hips and stop me from moving.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Mike muttered the first part under his breath, “but we should get going to Fang’s. If Tessa’s behind this, we need to be on the same page… Kieran included.”
“He didn’t answer his phone,” I whispered.
It was Sylvester who said, “For once, not my fault. I don’t have him on anything today.”
Hmm. That was weird, then. Very weird. If he wasn’t working, what the hell was he doing that he couldn’t answer the damn phone?
Lola waved us off. “Go, go. You probably want to do a full-body inspection on your girl to make sure she’s okay.” She sent a dramatic wink Mike’s way, which caused the man to frown deeply.
On a more serious note, Sylvester said, “If we hear anything about this guy, I’ll let you know the moment I do. He made his first move, so I don’t think he’ll be sticking to the shadows any longer.”
“Yeah,” she said. “We’ll get him, one way or another. The question is… what do you want to do with him once we have him?” She bit her lower lip and leaned on Maddox’s shoulder. Viper, who stood off to the side of the couch, still sipping his coffee, was unimpressed by the whole thing, as if stuff like this happened all the time.
And to them, it probably did.
Mike groaned, grabbed my hand, and said, “Come on.” He got up and pulled me out of the room, adjusting himself once we were safely in the hall. It was only when we were in his car, on the road, that he asked me, “You sure you’re all right? You don’t have to pretend around me.”
“I’m fine, really. It was more annoying than anything.” I got quiet for a few moments as I relived the whole ordeal. Considering everything, I guessed I was pretty calm. Weirdly calm, some might’ve said. “This time, it was different, and I don’t just mean it was different because I’m used to getting kidnapped.”
He glanced at me, waiting for me to continue.
“He was… he was different. He wasn’t some lowlife grunt doing it for the money.” How the heck could I explain this to Mike without sounding crazy, like I had a crush on him? Hmm.Maybe sounding like I didn’t have a crush on him would be impossible, because I kind of did. “He was calm. He acted like he really did want to see the whole picture.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Mike muttered. “We need to find out who this guy is and where he came from.”
