by Katie Reus
Ellis cut her a sideways glance, looking almost sheepish. “Yeah, I didn’t want to tell you about this.”
“How do you have cameras outside my house? And… Oh, this is from when you were stalking me!” Sighing, she sat back in the chair next to him.
He slightly shifted the laptop so she could get a better view. “Yeah, guilty as charged.”
“I can’t believe I didn’t see the cameras.”
“They’re microcameras and impossible to see even for someone who knows they’re there. You would have had to stumble on them accidentally.”
“Is this why you didn’t tell me what we were going to be doing tonight?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Figured you already hated me for so much, so I wasn’t going to pile on even more reasons.”
“I don’t hate you. I think what you did was really messed up, but I don’t hate you. And you’re the one running for your life. I can only imagine what I would do in that situation.” She had a feeling she’d cross a whole lot of lines to get her life back if it had been taken from her.
“I’m so sorry for what I did,” he said quietly, looking away from her, his jaw tight. “And I will take responsibility for it.”
The man was so heartbreakingly sexy she found it hard not to watch him instead of the laptop. “You can stop apologizing. So, what are we looking for?” She reached for a bag of chips he’d set on the table. Freaking Fritos. Who the heck ate Fritos without dip or chili? But she was hungry, so apparently she did.
“Vitaly is going to want to confirm that you’ve been taken. I mean yeah, he’s got the proof, but he’s going to start checking all the bank accounts and send someone to your house to confirm.”
“Okay, so then what?”
“First I want to see who comes by your house. I want to see if it’s just men who work for him, or someone else.”
“You mean like…your former boss or something?”
He nodded. “Yeah. And I’m recording your house for the future.”
“That’s good at least.”
He nodded, his gaze straying back to the laptop.
She snuck a peek at him out of the corner of her eye, then inwardly cursed herself. She found herself looking at him more and more. Those pale blue eyes were etched into her mind. Especially the way he occasionally watched her with a barely concealed longing.
He was wrong about her hating him—she definitely didn’t hate him. In fact, she was far too attracted to him for her own comfort. This entire situation was insane, and sex or anything in that realm should not be on her mind. But…she couldn’t seem to get it out of her mind. It wouldn’t be a relationship or anything like that. No, it would be temporary and maybe that was a good thing. With Ellis she was herself because there was no pretending around this man. And she trusted him. Which, again, was so strange. So she was attracted to him and trusted him. Maybe, just maybe, a one- or two-night fling would be kind of amazing. Or crazy. She couldn’t decide.
“So what’s up with the Fritos?” She kept her gaze on the camera feed, watching absolutely nothing but her front porch. Her little snowman on the top step was still in place and the all-season planter swayed slightly in the breeze.
“What about them?”
“Do you actually eat them without dip?”
“They’re good.” His tone was slightly defensive.
She snorted. “I’m feeling edgy so I’m eating, but eating lone Fritos is kinda weird.”
“You sound like my sister,” he muttered. “You would definitely like her.”
Arianna wondered if she’d ever get to meet his family but shoved that thought away. Right now she was forcing herself to take things one step at a time.
“I’ve got more snacks downstairs,” he continued before she could respond. Then he straightened as two figures moved onto the screen. “Damn, that didn’t take long,” he murmured as he leaned forward slightly.
Tossing the Fritos onto the desk, she watched alongside him, not recognizing the two men who strode up to her front door and knocked.
Ellis typed in a few commands on-screen, changing the angle, and she got a clear view of both their faces. She nearly jerked back in surprise at what a close-up shot it was. The camera had to be somewhere on her door frame.
He let out a low, savage curse.
“What?” she asked.
“I recognize both these guys. One works for your stepfather and the other is a DEA agent. I haven’t worked with him in years, but I know him. So that’s at least two agents on Vitaly’s payroll,” he muttered and she got the feeling the last part was more to himself than her.
Reaching out, she gently squeezed his knee. “I’m sorry.” It had to be hard on him to know that people he should be able to trust had turned out to be traitors. She herself didn’t have much faith in law enforcement but it was clear that he did and this had to be even harder for him. He was on the run and in hiding because of corrupt assholes. She wanted to help him more than ever.
He placed his hand over hers, wrapped his callused fingers around hers and squeezed.
And God help her, she felt that squeeze all the way to places she should not be feeling it. Good God, what was wrong with her? She wanted to tell herself that it was because she hadn’t had sex in so long that she was experiencing such a strong pull to Ellis, but that would be a lie. It was because of this man, Ellis Bishop. A man who was also wanted for murder and on the run for his life.
Every second she spent with him now, she found herself more and more attracted to him. And how stupid was that? Nothing could come of her attraction. Nothing good anyway.
As if he read her mind, he abruptly dropped her hand and cleared his throat, subtly shifting his body away from her.
Either he was repulsed by her—which she didn’t think he was—or he knew that getting involved with her at all was stupid. He was right too. There would be no sidelong looks or kissing or anything.
Still, she couldn’t help fantasizing what it would be like to kiss him. Maybe more than kiss him.
Her anxiety ratcheted up even higher as she wrapped her arms around herself. Just because she was scared of the future and completely off-balance didn’t mean kissing this man senseless was a good thing. “So what now? What can I do to help?”
“We’ve had a long day. After seeing this I’ve got to make a couple phone calls, but you need to get some sleep.”
“I want to help.”
“You have helped. You went above and beyond anything you needed to do. What you did today was really brave.” He looked her in the face then, those pale blue eyes of his mesmerizing. “Thank you. I don’t deserve what you did.”
“I don’t know about that,” she whispered. “I’m guessing you risked your life every day for a really long time. You didn’t deserve to have the people who were supposed to have your back turn on you.”
Instead of responding, he dropped his gaze to her mouth for what felt like the tenth time. Whenever his gaze strayed there, he looked at her as if all he could think about was plundering her mouth. And she would let him.
Even with her Frito breath, she still wanted to kiss him. But he looked away, focusing on the screen as the two men broke into her house.
She should have been focusing on that as well. Clearing her throat, she tried to get her stupid hormones under control. Ellis was being smart now, and she needed to take a page out of his playbook.
Pushing her chair back, she decided she didn’t want to see some strangers traipsing through her house anyway. If Ellis didn’t need her now, she figured it was much smarter for both of them if she put some distance between them. “I’m going to take a quick shower.”
He nodded, not looking in her direction.
Feeling oddly bereft, she hurried from the room. She needed to take a very cold shower. Or she just needed to masturbate and get whatever this thing was out of her system.
Chapter 13
Kyle Bird stepped into the dimly lit diner, pushing back his annoyance. N
o, his rage. He should be home in bed, not at the beck and call of Vitaly Rodin.
A dark-haired young man in his mid-twenties wearing jeans and a hoodie that most definitely concealed a pistol stepped out from behind the countertop. No one was in here at three o’clock in the morning so it was a good place to meet. But he didn’t like being called out of bed without being told why.
“This way.” The man motioned toward the swinging door that led into the kitchen.
Vitaly owned this place and used it as a front for some of his dirty deeds. Under normal circumstances Kyle wouldn’t have met with the criminal in the middle of the night. But he had something on Vitaly—proof of murder. Kyle was untouchable right now and he planned to stay that way.
“What am I doing here?” he growled as he stepped into the nearly empty kitchen.
Vitaly stood next to a clean stainless-steel countertop. The diner had closed hours ago, and despite this place being in a low-rent part of town with questionable customers, the kitchen itself was immaculate.
Vitaly still didn’t touch anything as he stood there in his three-piece, custom-made, thousand-dollar suit as if he was too good to meet with Kyle or be here at all. Please, the man was a criminal in nice clothes, but it didn’t hide what he was.
Kyle’s jaw tightened. “Well?”
The other man’s ice-blue eyes narrowed slightly. “My stepdaughter has been taken.” Usually his accent was barely discernible but tonight it was thicker.
He blinked, his anger fading into surprise. “What? When? How?”
The other man watched him carefully. “You don’t know of this?”
“No. Who took her, and what do they want?” Kyle stepped farther into the kitchen and leaned against one of the countertops before pulling out a cigarette. It was impossible to smoke anywhere anymore but Vitaly didn’t say anything as he lit up. Probably because the other man smoked as well.
“I don’t know who took her. But one of my biggest accounts in the Caymans under her name was closed as well.” A muscle ticked in his jaw, his eyes filled with rage.
He blinked as he took a drag on his cigarette. “Holy shit. Someone closed the account? Or they transferred funds?”
“Closed it in person. I have a video from the bank.” Another tightening of his jaw. “It appears to be my stepdaughter.”
Kyle didn’t know what to say to that. As far as he knew, Arianna Stavish had no idea about her stepfather’s business. Yet she’d closed an account Vitaly had set up in her name? He took another drag, waiting for the man to continue.
Vitaly finally spoke again. “I received a text message from a burner phone with her picture and a simple note telling me that she has been taken and that someone has my money. One of my guys has managed to get security feeds from inside the bank, outside it, and at a private airport, and she was definitely forced to close the account.”
Kyle let out a low whistle. This was…not good. Vitaly’s stepdaughter had been kidnapped and forced to close accounts she hadn’t even known existed. Considering Kyle had helped the other man cover his tracks, he didn’t like any of this. The only way he continued to get paid was if Vitaly had income moving in, and as long as he stayed alive and out of prison. And since Kyle had two divorces under his belt and owed a shitload of alimony and child support, he didn’t mind helping Vitaly in the least.
This was a young man’s game and he was ready to get out and retire. Just as soon as he got his final payday. “What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to use your resources and find out who took her,” Vitaly growled, his eyes shards of ice now.
Kyle knew the other man didn’t care about his stepdaughter, not truly. The only thing that mattered to Vitaly was money. He’d cared about his son, and maybe his dead wife, but Arianna was nothing to him as far as Kyle knew. She wasn’t his blood, and blood was the only thing that seemed to matter to him. “I’ll look into it. You sure she’s not involved somehow?”
Vitaly snorted as if the thought was ridiculous. “Arianna? No. She’s a naïve little fool.” He shrugged. “But no one takes what’s mine. I want my money back.”
There it was. Vitaly’s greed. Kyle nodded even though he hated taking orders from Vitaly. But that was just the way the world worked. Five years ago, Kyle had been deep in debt and close to losing his house to foreclosure when Vitaly had approached him with a deal. So Kyle looked the other way sometimes and Vitaly had started climbing the ladder in his criminal organization.
It had been a win-win for both of them. Kyle had given Vitaly good intel so that he avoided arrest and made Vitaly’s boss, Leonid Berezin, look inept. It had started sowing the seeds so that Berezin would eventually fall—and Vitaly wanted to take his place when he did.
Over the last five years Vitaly had slowly been shifting people around to suit his need, making allies, and now he was set to take over the East Coast organization and start distributing a new type of drug into Florida. If all went well, he planned to take over certain channels on the eastern coast completely and make himself into a king.
Which meant Kyle was going to get paid handsomely. And then he was going to retire and disappear because he had no doubt that one day Vitaly was going to come for him as well, for knowing too much. He didn’t like that Kyle had evidence of him murdering an undercover federal agent. Too bad for Vitaly. It was his safety net. And Vitaly never should have killed Carter in the first place. That had never been supposed to happen. But it had, so Kyle had made the best of a bad situation.
Kyle put out his cigarette under his foot, leaving the ash and butt on the floor. “I need those videos.” He could get them with his resources, but he didn’t want to use official channels for this. Not yet anyway, and not unless it was necessary. But he wanted to see if he could figure out who had taken Arianna—if it had been Ellis Bishop.
“I’ll send them. But the man’s face is hidden the entire time. I don’t know if it’s a crew or just one man.”
“Noted. I’ll check out her house too.”
“No need. I’ve already sent people over there. She’s definitely been taken but I don’t want this reported. I want to keep it quiet. No one will know that someone took her. I cannot afford any distractions right now.”
Meaning Vitaly couldn’t afford to look weak, not when he was gearing up to take out Berezin.
“I’ll be in touch.”
Vitaly simply nodded, his expression a carefully controlled mask as Kyle left. Kyle hadn’t asked, but he was curious who Vitaly had sent over to the girl’s house. He knew Vitaly had other agents on his payroll but he didn’t know who all of them were.
And that was the kind of information he could use. Maybe he would stop by the girl’s house anyway. But first he needed to look at those videos and put out feelers—to see who would be stupid enough to cross Vitaly Rodin.
Chapter 14
Ellis sat back in his chair as he heard the guest bedroom door across the hall quietly shut. He couldn’t believe he was so stupid. Unfortunately, he couldn’t keep his distance from Arianna. Not now. And not just because they were staying under the same roof.
Because he wanted her with the desperation of a starving man.
Rubbing both hands over his face, he groaned at his own stupidity. He was just sleep deprived, that was all. He had to stop this growing obsession he had with her.
But he couldn’t. Because if this had been any other circumstance, he would have already asked her out on a date. Hell, they’d have probably already been in bed together. And he knew himself well enough that once they slept together, he wasn’t letting her go. She was a diamond and he wanted to keep her, to hide her away from the shitty world and keep her safe. It stunned him that no one had scooped her up yet. Miami’s loss was going to be his gain.
No. He had to stop thinking like that. Because they had no future. He was on the run for his life, and getting his life back was the only thing he should be focused on—not the stepdaughter of the man who’d killed his best frien
d.
Pulling out one of his burners, he called Lizzy.
She picked up on the third ring. “Living the nerd life,” she said cheerfully.
He blinked at her odd greeting. “Is that how you answer the phone now?” he asked dryly.
She snorted. “I wasn’t sure who was calling. How are you?”
“Still alive.” And that was something.
“Well I’ve been digging into your former boss, and Bird definitely has some accounts tucked away. Tucked away deep. I technically can’t link them to him, that’s how good these accounts are. But they’re his and I’m sure with more work I’ll be able to somehow link him to the accounts. I just don’t know what kind of traps he might have set up and I don’t want him getting an alert that someone is looking into him.”
“Thank you.” It was a whole lot more than he’d had yesterday. He’d known that his former boss was dirty but he hadn’t been able to find anything concrete on him.
Bird had worked undercover for a decade before taking a more senior role in the office and the man was sharp. Unlucky in love, considering his divorces—and his alimony was probably part of the reason he’d turned traitor—but he was good at getting the job done. Regardless of the reason Bird had turned, Ellis was going to make sure that traitor paid. That man had been a friend to both Ellis and Carter. There was a special place in hell for people who could turn on their friends like that.
“Oh, there’s more. I have a treasure trove for you. Nothing we can take to the Feds yet, but it looks as if one of Bird’s burner phones has been seeing a lot of action lately. He’s been communicating a lot with one of Vitaly’s underlings. It’s not proof of anything—and I came by the information of his burner illegally—but I find it interesting. And he just got a call barely an hour ago.”
