“You obviously have thoughts on this,” Lovell added.
Her gaze swept the room; nine pairs of eyes watched her. “If you leave, you’ll be on your own, with no one to watch your back, and in territory that’s either new or less familiar to you. And ifthey took a shot at you in public, do you think they’d be above using someone here as leverage to get you back? Not likely one of you,” she said, gesturing to the men. “But someone like Amber or Dottie or even Juliana or Helia. Or Kendall,” she said. Callie and Lina, Viper’s partner, were nearly as well-trained as the club members, so wouldn’t make good targets. But Dottie, their house mom; Stone’s fiancée, Juliana; and Helia and Kendall, Monk’s girlfriend and half-sister, weren’t.
She turned to Scipio. “I assume, based on your name, that you’re the top strategist of the group.” He hesitated, then nodded. “You know I’m right.”
Intense blue eyes stared back at her, but she saw the wheels turning. “She has a point,” he said.
She turned to Lovell. Had he ground his teeth loud enough for her to hear?
“What do you propose then?” he asked.
She tilted her head. “It’s funny, your words sound reasonable, but your tone makes you sound like a condescending dick. Oh, and you might not want to grind your teeth so much. Bad for the enamel. Not to mention the headaches.”
Gabe wasn’t the only one to snicker or hide a laugh.
The look Lovell leveled on her would fell a small forest, but she’d learned a few survival skills from growing up with the parents she had, then working in the industry she did. Sure, some supermodels were bitchy, but most of them were just labeled that way because they’d gained enough power to stop taking shit from people. And she’d stopped taking shit over a decade ago; she had lots of practice.
Lovell’s nostrils flared as he took a deep breath, then another. She gave him props for reaching for his calm.
“What would you suggest?” he asked again, his tone softer.
“Stay in Mystery Lake where you have the advantage of knowing the land, of knowing the rhythms of the town and thepeople. You need to make yourselfalmostreachable. You need to make them think that if the time is right, they’ll have a chance to do the job they were sent to do.”
“Keep them here, where we can have eyes on them, but lead them on a merry chase,” Gabe said.
She nodded. “And while they focus on hunting you, you use the time to do whatever you need to, whatever HICC can, to figure out who they are and how to stop them.”
When she stopped talking, her eyes held his. His were green, but sitting this close to him, his attention on her, she noticed they weren’tjustgreen. They were soft, almost hazy, swirled with touches of brown. The thought of giving one of her characters the same color flitted through her head, but she immediately dismissed the idea, knowing she’d never really be able to capture it in words.
Mantis cleared his throat. Both she and Lovell jerked their attention back to the room. He shifted beside her, the jeans he’d changed into sliding over the surface of the chair.
“It’s not a bad idea,” Lovell conceded. “There’s only one problem.”
This situation was a whole slew of problems, but she appreciated his minimization attempts. “What’s that?”
“You.”
“Me?”
“They saw the car you drive, and if they are any good, they will have noted your license plate. They may not know your name, not yet, but they will.”
“That’s not a unique problem. They probably know everyone in the Falcons’ orbit,” she replied.
“But you’re the lone wolf,” Gabe answered. She turned to face him. “The club is secure; Dottie and Amber will be fine if they stay here or, if they need to leave, take one of us. Helia isn’t in town this week, and every single one of us will surround Kendall,if needed. As for Juliana, when she isn’t working, she’s either here or with Stone, or occasionally on a girls’ night out, but Lina and Callie are there, too.”
Callie had taken a few days off to spend with her while she was in town, but her caseload didn’t allow for the full three weeks Daphne had planned. And Gabe needed to work as well. Leaving her unprotected during the day once Callie went back to work.
It sounded dire, and if those were the only facts she had, she’d be concerned, too. But there was more to the story.
She hated giving voice to the words she’d say next—they made her sound either self-important or paranoid. But the problem Gabe had called out wasn’t really a problem, and she needed to take it off the table.
Bracing herself, she ripped the Band-Aid off. “I learned long ago never to rent a car or a house under my real name. They can look all they want, but they won’t ever find me.”
CHAPTER FOUR
Lovell kept his expression neutral; he even unclenched his jaw, but questions pinged inside his brain at warp speed. What had happened to teach her that lesson? Was it because of her former career and the paparazzi? Or had there been a personal, more sinister, situation inspiring that level of caution? And then there were the more prosaic questions: Did her license match the name on the rental agreement, and would there be an issue with her insurance if the fraud was discovered?
Christ, that woman could pack a punch with a few words.
