PRIZE: A Bad Boy Hitman Romance

by Sophia Gray

  Again I considered the drugs. If Trenton and Sage were running—not from us but from drug dealers—they might very well be trying to disappear. If we never found them, what then? Victoria would never give up on finding her daughter, and I wouldn’t want to give up either.

  We would have to find them. One way or another.

  Figuring enough time had passed by now that a trip to the bar would hopefully prove worthwhile, I said goodbye to my boys and instructed them to keep on searching. It might take all of us to find them.

  It didn’t take me long to ride back to Cowboy’s Lasso. It was a dark little place, a little out of the way, tucked into a corner. I could see the appeal to it. The place had been really busy last night, which was some of the reason why I had to go back now to get more intel.

  Before she had gone to bed last night, Victoria had texted me a pic of Sage and Trenton, and I showed that around to everyone who walked into the place. The first few people I asked hadn’t heard anything, but I struck gold when I asked the guys sitting at the bar—the regular drunks who I wished hadn’t recognized Trenton.

  “Oh yeah. Them. Yeah, we know them, don’t we, Bob?” a guy who had a stain on his shirt said.

  Bob, who was missing one of his front teeth, squinted at the pic, then nodded. “Sure do.”

  “Let me see.” The third guy, whose pants had some questionable holes in them, leaned over. Man, did he need a bath. Smelled like he hadn’t showed in years. “Yep. Trevor, right?”

  “No. Trenton.” Stained-Shirt stared at me. “Right? That there is Trenton.”

  “Yes,” I said. What were the chances these guys knew anything worthwhile? Still, I had to try to follow up every lead. “Trenton and his girlfriend, Sage. I got a call that Sage was here last night.”

  Smelly stared at Bob and Stained-Shirt. “I didn’t see her.”

  “And you always notice her when she comes in,” Bob hooted.

  “She ain’t ever gonna let you buy her a drink.” Stained-Shirt grinned.

  Smelly’s nostrils flared. “One day she will. She’ll dump that ass of a…She’ll want a real man.”

  And Smelly was a real man?

  “So I gather she wasn’t here last night, then,” I cut in.

  “Nope.”

  “When was the last time you tried buying her a drink?” I tried to smile at Smelly. I tried. I failed.

  “About a month ago.” He shook his head. “Can’t try to buy her one when dipshit is around, and she don’t come here alone too often. Pretty little thing. Doubt she’s legal. Such perfect ripe tits that—”

  “Right on,” I said to shut him up.

  The man had to be old enough to be her father. Hell, maybe even her grandfather. While I respected the desire to want a younger woman, there was a line. Sage was legal, but I had a feeling this guy liked them as young as he could get them.

  So much for that question working out for me. I’d figured from what his friends said that he asked to get a drink every time she came in, but that obviously wasn’t the case.

  “When was the last time she came in with her boyfriend?” I asked.

  Smelly glowered at me.

  “With her dipshit of a boyfriend,” I amended for him.

  “Asshole.”

  Now I was the one to glower at him.

  “Not you,” he muttered, holding up his hands. “Hey.” He slapped his hand onto the counter. “Grab ’im one. On me.”

  The bartender looked over, nodded, and a few minutes later handed me an ice cold beer.

  Little early for drinking. Then again, these guys were already drinking, and it wasn’t like I was short on reasons for drinking anyhow.

  I took several long swallows. “As you were saying,” I growled.

  Smelly nodded. “The two of them were here a week ago.”

  Bob nodded, too. “A week ago is right.”

  “Yeah, the game was on.”

  Smelly smiled widely. “That’s right. My team scored, and she walked on in, and I thought I might score, but then he came in right behind her. He probably just wanted to stare at her tight ass.” He drained the last of his beer.

  I took a sip of mine. “A week, huh? That typical? Or do they come by more often than that usually?”

  “More like two to three times a week usually.”

  “Can always tell when they stop by.” Stained-Shirt jerked his thumb in Smelly’s direction. “The amount of beer he drinks a night is insane.”

  “Insane in the membrane,” Bob muttered.

  Smelly slapped him upside the head.

  The bartender cast them a glare.

  Smelly straightened for a second before hunching back over his glass. He cradled the empty glass in his hands. “I keep hoping she’ll turn up.”

  “Yeah. He’s been missing time at work for it.” Bob shook his head. “Got it bad. If he’s not careful, he’ll get himself another restraining order.”

  I snapped him a long stare. He seemed obsessed, yes, but would he have the drive to do anything about it? Had he taken Sage as his own and offed Trenton?

  Smelly hiccupped. “Whatever. I don’t need that job anyhow. My boss’s an asshole—”

  “You think everyone’s an asshole,” Stained-Shirt said.

  “That’s because they are.”

  I cleared my throat. I definitely planned on finding out more about him. “What’s your name again?” I asked.

  Smelly grimaced and didn’t answer.

  I flagged down the bartender and held up two fingers.

  Only after we got our beers did Smelly start talking. “Paul. Paul Jonstone.” He gave me a side glance. “Who are you, and why are you asking so many questions about Sage?”

  “She’s a friend of mine,” I said. No way did I want him to start thinking I was a cop. Cops made people nervous, which actually could work in my favor because nervous people tended to talk too much and give things away, but it could also work against me because nervous people tended to shoot first and ask questions later, and I did not want to get shot.

  “A friend?” Paul grimaced. He wasn’t the kind of guy to want competition. Not that he was competition. Trenton had nothing to worry about from him. I was going to keep an eye on him, but I doubted he had anything to do with the disappearances.

  “Just a friend,” I assured him. “Been trying to call her and she won’t answer.” I drank some of my beer. “All right. Fine. She owes me. She wanted to buy a really expensive dress to impress her…dipshit. I’m talking really expensive.” I shook my head. “Women and their clothes. Anyhow, I need to collect. My girl’s starting to be suspicious about the missing money, and what kind of bird is gonna believe I’d loan that kind of money to a friend?” I shrugged. “Help a brother out, man. Got any idea where she is?”

  Paul nodded. “Yeah, actually. I was walking to the bathroom to take a piss—”

  “He wanted to try to sniff her hair,” Stained-Shirt cut in.

  “I do not do that!” Paul shouted, but I wouldn’t put it past him. “They were talking, the two of them. Kinda hushed tones, but you can only talk her so softly if you wanna be heard. Loud place at night here. Ton of good people, good food, good music, good—”

  “Everything’s good,” I interrupted, hoping he would get to the point soon, and that the point would turn into a reliable lead. “Did you hear what they were saying?”

  “You bet I did. They were talking about leaving town.”

  Hope grew in my chest, hot and warm. Or maybe that was my stomach and the beer. Could it be that the two were just lovebirds? That they just wanted to get away and make a break from their own lives, start over anew with a clean slate?

  Doubtful. There wasn’t a reason for Sage to want to duck out of town without contacting her mom. And that didn’t explain the drugs.

  That was what had me worried. The drugs. What the hell was Trenton messing around with? What had he gotten himself—and Sage—into?

  “Leave town, huh. Typical. Wants to skip out on
me.” I gave him more side-eye. “Any idea where?”

  “Some town. One hundred miles north. Can’t remember the name of it. Sorry, man. I doubt you’re getting your money back.”

  I drained my beer. “Yeah, well. This broad wants a fair amount of money herself. Maybe I should just be done with both of them. Find someone else. Always more fish in the sea, right?”

  “Always.” Bob laughed. “Would be great to find one that didn’t smell like fish down there.”

  “Like you ever go down on your wife.” Stained-Shirt laughed.

  I refrained from recoiling. Bob with the missing tooth had a wife?

  “I do if I want her to give me head,” he grumbled. “And trust me, my wife gives good head. Worth it even if I have to hold my breath.”

  I joined in the laughter, but I needed more specifics than just some town one hundred miles north. Seemed to me that they were fleeing.

  The drugs. Had to be because of the drugs. Trenton wasn’t the romantic type. He wouldn’t pick up Sage and ride into the sunset. While it didn’t seem like Victoria approved of her daughter dating him, she hadn’t disallowed it either. They didn’t need to run away to be together.

  So, they’d left because of the drugs.

  If I thought time had been important before, it was even more important now. Who knew if Trenton and Sage would still be alive when we did find them? Because it was when we found them, not if we found them.

  I turned to Paul. “Do you think you might remember—”

  The activity in the bar racketed up a notch, suddenly so much louder that I had to stop and glance around. What was going on? A fistfight?

  There were so many people crowding around the bar, trying to get the bartenders’ attention to get more beer or liquor that I had to stand to see.

  And what did I see?

  Victoria.

  In the back.

  With two shady-as-hell-looking guys.

  And it looked like she might be the one to be lifting up fists.

  Chapter 6

  Grant

  That she showed up here had my blood boiling. I had sent her a few texts earlier, and she knew I was here, and she had agreed to not come. She understood that I wanted to keep her safe. That this was dirty work. That I could handle it.

  She’d lied. And she obviously couldn’t handle it.

  I tossed some money onto the counter, said a quick goodbye to the guys, and had to fight my way toward her. The crowd wasn’t forgiving, and I knocked into more than a few shoulders, but finally I pushed through the group and made my way to the back.

  Two tall men accosted her, and from the shouts, loud talking, music, and cheers, I couldn’t hear what they were saying to her, but she looked both angry and frightened.

  I pushed through the middle of them to reach her and threw an arm across her shoulders. “What’s going on here?” I asked conversationally, but there was a slight edgy undercurrent to my tone. That plus my glower had the guy on the right retreating half a step.

  The guy on the right had a moustache and he wasn’t as easily intimidated. “We don’t want her here.”

  “Why not?” I asked smoothly.

  “She’s bothering us.”

  I refrained from glancing down at her. “How—”

  “You can’t refuse me service without a good reason,” Victoria demanded.

  “Actually, yes, we can.”

  Victoria jerked forward, and I had to restrain her. I actually had to hold her back. I wasn’t sure what she had been about to do, and who knew if she even knew. From experience, I’d learned adrenaline could make you do crazy things. I’d been in a few fistfights myself before. Hadn’t always won, and two against one weren’t great odds, but I would take them both on if I had to.

  “You want her to leave,” I said smoothly, “she’ll leave. Right?”

  She pushed herself away from me. “Really?”

  “Come on.” I waved to the guys and followed her as she whipped around and marched out the back exit.

  She paced up and down the sidewalk. Her car wasn’t in sight.

  “What were you thinking?” I fumed.

  “I was thinking …” She glanced up and down the street. “Let’s not talk out here.”

  “How did you get here?”

  “Took a cab,” she muttered. She rubbed her arms. She was trembling. Her nerves had to be shot.

  My eyebrows rose. “A cab? Why didn’t you drive yourself?”

  “I…My hands were shaking too much.” She essentially hugged herself. “I’ll call one and go back to my place. I won’t—”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re going back to mine.”

  “I will not!”

  “What happened back there?” I asked quietly. “It didn’t look good.”

  She hesitated.

  “I will take care of you. I promise you we’ll find them. It’s gonna take time.”

  “Time is the one thing we don’t have!” She stepped toward me, arm raised, her fingers in a fist. But she lowered her arm without hitting me. “Fine.”

  I walked her over to my bike. “Willing to ride?”

  I hadn’t wanted her first ride to be under this kind of a circumstance, but I didn’t have a choice in the matter.

  “Guess so,” she mumbled.

  I only had one helmet, so I gave it to her. Once she put it on, I mounted my bike. After a moment, she climbed on behind me.

  “Hold on tight,” I warned her.

  I rode away. I went slow and took my time. The last thing I wanted to do was scare her. As it was, she clung to me so tight whenever I had to make a turn. She was a quick learner, though, and she moved her body to the correct side when I turned without me having to tell her first. Normally I told new riders what to expect, what to do. Guess she wasn’t the only one to be unnerved about everything. I was definitely on edge. The beers I’d had didn’t help to settle me any. The thought of her getting hurt made me so angry, but I was also pissed at her for endangering herself unnecessarily. What the hell had she been thinking? What the hell had she said or done that had set the guys off in the first place?

  What bothered me more—that she had lied to me, or that she had gotten herself in danger? Both bothered me, and honestly, I wasn’t sure which hurt me more.

  Me. Hurt. Over a woman. What was happening to me? I was going soft.

  Lies. Betrayal. Two things I couldn’t abide. Yet here I was, trying my best to find Trenton even though the drugs at his place showed he had been lying to me, might even have been betraying me.

  And now Victoria lied to me. She had promised to leave the bar to me. She promised to trust me.

  Obviously, that was another lie. She didn’t trust me. I had trusted her, but now I didn’t want to.

  But I still did, and that was just as frustrating at anything else. Because she was a worried mother, trying to find her daughter. Of course, it would be hard for her to trust someone else to find her, especially when she knew about a lead that needed to be double checked.

  When we arrived, I killed my bike and waited for Victoria to climb off first. She was still squeezing me tight, and I had to tap her hands and pry them apart for her to let go.

  “Ready?” I asked.

  “For what?” she murmured as she finally climbed off. She unhooked the helmet, and I stashed it away.

  I didn’t bother to answer her, just took her by the elbow and marched her inside. Every ounce of me wanted to read her the riot act, to yell at her, to rage, to punch something, but I refrained.

  Barely.

  I was pacing right by the door—after I slammed it shut and locked it—but when I turned toward her and saw that she was trembling, my anger just vanished.

  Without thinking, I crossed over to her and enveloped her into my arms. “Do you want to talk about it?” I asked. She smelled like my shampoo. She felt so fragile, so small.

  She pulled away slightly and looked up at me. She might seem fragile, but there was strength in her eyes.
There was determination, too. She was determined to go to war if she had to.

  And she just might.

  “I broke into the back entrance,” she said.