I let a breath out in a whoosh, goosebumps prickling my skin.
“I was free,” Jase says, and I can hear the hint of joy he must have felt all those years ago.“I did my best to stay out of trouble. I attended school as normal, telling no one of the body of the man left behind in the alley. Too scared to go to a shelter, I found a group of other homeless teens and runaways, and for a month or two, everything seemed like it might work out.
“Until my chemistry teacher told us we needed to bring in thirty dollars for an experiment. The school couldn’t afford all of the materials, and they needed us to pay half. I may have been bullied and ridiculed all my life, but one thing I excelled in was school. I was taking junior classes my sophomore year, and I couldn’t let myself fall behind.” Jase turns to look at me, and I see the determination in his face.
“I had a plan. Once I graduated and turned eighteen, when social services could no longer force me into a stranger’s home, I would finally go to a shelter. With an address, I could get a job, and I would work my way out of this situation. But that thirty dollars may as well have been three thousand. So that’s how I found myself standing outside a restaurant, looking for a target. I should have been more streetwise by then. I should have seen how the man walked, how he carried himself. Too desperate to listen to my intuition, I tried to steal the man’s wallet.”
I gasp, and he shoots me a grin over his shoulder.
“I’m lucky the man turned out to be Ryan. Instead of beating me or calling the police, he took me into that restaurant, glaring at the hostess when she turned her nose up at my clothes. There, I had my first real meal in years but was too afraid to trust the man sitting opposite me. Most of the time, kindness from strangers meant they wanted something from me. And with my father gone, I was no longer willing to give myself up for anything. We spent hours talking, and while I didn’t tell him everything at the time, I told him enough. Ryan promised he wanted nothing from me, but simply to give me an education. He made me promise to finish high school and college, which he would pay for.
“The only thing he asked was for me to consider working for his company once I graduated. I could help out around the office to earn spending money, learn the ropes, see if I was interested in a future with the company. And I was.”
“And you were,” I repeat, offering him a smile. “Do you enjoy your job as much as Kian likes blowing things up?” Kian laughs, taking his eyes off the road for a moment to wink at me in the rear-view mirror.
“Most of the time,” Jase answers thoughtfully. “I prefer being behind the screen than in the field, but for the most part, I like it. Kian and Ryan are my family, so I would never go anywhere else.”
Kian squeezes Jase’s hand, and we continue the rest of the journey in silence.
Chapter 18
Cruz
Thirteen Months Ago
Dawn’slightisjustbeginning to push back the night, tendrils of gold and pink streaking across the sky, the sound of birdsong echoing across the quiet morning.
Moving around the room silently, I pull on my jeans and shirt, then lace up my boots. I’m careful to not wake the beauty slumbering in the bed, her dark hair, the riotous colors of a river in spring, spread out across the pillow. The white sheet barely covers her, the tattoo on her back on full display, her breasts peeking out from under it.
A lump forms in my throat as I take a moment to watch her. I don’t want to go. But I have to.
The day she ran into the alley after me, I let her catch me. By then I had discovered who she was; Daniella Gianelli, aka Special Agent Dutch Buchanan. I played with her for a while, leading her all over New York and New Jersey before finally allowing her to ‘capture’ me.
Only to discover she didn’t want to bring me in, she wanted to help me escape.
She refused to tell me why, kept quiet when I questioned her. Wouldn’t tell me her story, or why she was willing to jeopardize her career to go against the FBI to help someone like me.
I understand why you do what you do,she had told me, her small hand on my cheek.The FBI and every law enforcement in the area will be after you. It won’t be long before they have a picture, and then you’ll be hunted. I see the killer inside you, Cruz, but I see the man as well. And I won’t see you hunted and jailed, or possibly killed. Please. Please let me help you.
So, against my better judgment, I accepted her help. Unbeknownst to her, my latest prey had fled for the West Coast, so I was planning on leaving anyway. She destroyed files, deleted information from the FBI’s mainframe. She even leaked a story about the governor, which the news stations had a field day with.
And as it always goes when there’s a new story, my name was moved back until it was merely a blip on their radar.
We spent weeks together, the electricity and desire thick in the air around us. Not once did we give in to temptation, until last night. I’m not a good man, this I know. But I feel even more of a monster this morning. We came together in a maelstrom of passion, each touch igniting a flame that I know will never die. I took her over and over again, never satisfied, desperate for more. And now I’m leaving, sneaking out like a thief in the night, without so much as a goodbye.
She’ll be angry, hurt even. But she is strong and will get past this.
Leaning over her, I breathe in her scent one last time.
“I will return for you,mi alma,” I whisper, then disappear as if I’d never been there at all.
Chapter 19
Dutch
Afterbreakfast,wemeetin a large conference room Ryan has designated for our use. Large bulletin boards surround the room, waiting patiently for information to be added. Vincenzo will have received our message by now with Carl’s and Andrea’s deaths—he’ll know we’re coming for him.
He’s not going to make it easy to find him. As nice as that would be, there’s a reason he’s still alive. He isn’t stupid. He owns property all over the country, and if I were him, I would bounce between them, never letting us get the upper hand.
