King slid his phone from his pocket and pulled up a pic of Laura Dawson. She stood in a crowd of inner-city kids, grinning broadly for the camera. Her record was short and simple. College. Social worker. Clean history—minus her brother. She’d be an easy enough target to track and as Dawson’s only living relative—his only connection to the normal world. A connection King had absolutely no issue inexploiting.
The recon mission Diggs tried to pull today would have probably ended with questioning Laura and leaving. King had a different plan. The best way to lure out the beast would be to set the bait. If he took Laura back to the mansion, Dawson would have to come out ofhiding.
He’d already resigned himself to be the black sheep of the team, knew he would have to deal with blowback from his team leader, Reaper, after the fact was done, but that was something he could live with. And if Reaper kicked King off Team Mayhem because of it, so beit.
He was better off operating alone,anyway.
Diggs turned a corner, disappearing from his line of sight. King casually got out of the truck, his Beretta safely hidden at his back, another tucked in his boot beneath his pants, his blade at his hip beneath his shirt. He’d even slid a tiny twenty-two into the cargo pocket on his pants. He doubted Dawson would actually show up here, but he wasn’t stupid. He might be thirsting for revenge, but it wouldn’t cloud his judgment. Dawson had moved with a speed and efficiency well above anything ever considered normal. And while King had gained massive amounts of strength and speed enhancements from the serum, he wasn’t as fast as Dawson. That was a lesson hardlearned.
Tucking his hands into his pockets, he attempted to walk down the sidewalk like he belonged there, but from the stares he was getting from the locals and the kids, he might as well have been Satan walking up to heaven’s gate. He knew they were staring at his eye patch, which had started to itch. He resisted the urge and kept on walking. He hadn’t been out in the public much since his injury; as a matter of fact he hadn’t left the compound at all. After about a week’s worth of sympathetic looks from his team, they’d grown accustomed to his eye patch. They’d stopped averting their gazes when he walked into the room, especially after he threatened to kick all their asses if they didn’t stop looking at him like he was some disabledweakling.
Yet here he could feel the eyes on his back and hear the whispers following in his footsteps. His shirt felt tight, the street seemed claustrophobic, and he couldn’t wait to get the hell out of this place and away from all the unwelcomeattention.
He caught one kid’s particularly loud whisper to a buddy, questioning whether he was a pirate. The dig should have been funny, and King shouldn’t have cared, just like he shouldn’t have looked back over his shoulder to glare at theoffender.
Suddenly, a soft form plowed into him, bounced off his chest, and out of reflex, King’s arm shot out, grabbing the petite woman before she hit thesidewalk.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I totally wasn’t looking where I was going. Are you okay?” A pair of inquisitive clear green eyes gazed at him underneath a mop of thick, golden red curls that flew about her shoulders in wild disarray. She was breathtaking and King stood there in stunned silence, staring down at LauraDawson.
“Me?”
She smiled, her full mouth stretching wide, and it was then he noticed the smattering of freckles across her nose. “I ran right into you. I got distracted by that dress in the Turquoise Turtle. Are youokay?”
Giving himself a mental shake, King nodded absentmindedly. She was asking if he was okay? He, who outweighed her by probably 150 pounds and was at least a foot taller. The idea that she could hurt him was laughable. And yet there was genuine concern on her face. For a reason he couldn’t even begin to fathom, he needed to put her at ease. “I’mfine.”
A twinkle lit in her eyes and he stared, fascinated at the mischievous light. “I guess I can let go of you nowthen.”
King glanced at his hands, still gripping her arms. He released her, but not before he took note of how soft her skin had been.Jesus, stop noticing her skin. She’s the sister of the man who blinded you.“Sorry.”
A tinkle of laughter spilled from her lips. “New totown?”
He nodded. Behind him, he caught the loud whispers of a couple of kids. “See him? You see that eyepatch?”
His friend replied in a similar high-pitched voice indicating a preteen youth. “Do you think he’s a pirate? Or maybe he escaped from prison!” The boys’ whispers rose above normal pitch on the lastword.
This time, a distinctive girl’s voice chimed in. “It’s so gross. Stop staring, he’s going to notice and come overhere.”
King managed to mask a flinch and tried to ignorethem.
The redhead, however, had no such qualms. Her eyes lit with anger. King watched in fascination as a deep blush stole to her cheeks. She leaned sideways, planted a fisted hand on her curvy hip and said, “Tyler, John, and Sarah, your mothers taught you better manners than that. And I’m going to make sure I tell them everything you said, so they’ll know how rude you just were to a complete stranger. You should be ashamed ofyourselves.”
King glanced over her shoulder to see the three children, all about the age of twelve, pale considerably. The tallest boy, who hadn’t grown into his long neck yet, gulped. “Sorry, Ms.Laura.”
“Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to…” Her words trailed off and she glanced up at him, a questioning look on herface.
“King.” Why had he given her his name? King drew in a deep breath, feeling like he’d just felt the first fresh breeze of spring inyears.
She turned her attention back to the three youths. “Apologize to Mr. King rightnow.”
Laura nodded for him to turn around and he followed her silent instructions like a puppy, just as awkwardly facing the kids as they faced him. Their gazes traveled from his knees all the way up to his face, forcing the three to tilt their heads back at a sharp angle. Three pairs of wide, frightened eyes stared at him. It was the tall boy who spoke again, the other two pulling up flank behind him. “Sorry,mister.”
Feeling Laura’s gaze on him, King gave them a sharp, single nod in acknowledgment. The trio spun on their heels and took off running down the sidewalk. Turning to face Laura again, King caught his reflection in the window. He didn’t spend much time looking at himself anymore. Just long enough to trim his beard when it got too shaggy and even then he never really looked at himself. With the thick black beard, long black hair, and eye patch, he did look like apirate.
Laura cleared her throat, drawing his attention from his hideous reflection down to her much sweeter face. He half expected pity, just like he’d gotten from his team right after the accident, but that’s not what he saw. What he saw was compassion and amusement, a combination that didn’t quite match and he found himself extremely curious as to what was going on in hermind.
“What?”
Her lips tilted up at the corners, reminding him of the Cheshire cat. “You do kind of look like a pirate with that eye patch. A hotpirate.”
