The house was as big and character-free from the inside as it was from the outside. The finishes seemed nice, but it lacked heart or soul. A set of stairs led to an upper level right in front of the entry door. The stairs had the same light hardwood as the rest of the house and a fresh white painted handrail that also served as a balcony railing above. The light floors and white molding and detailing seemed too... innocent.
The footsteps sounded on the balcony and suddenly three guys looked over the railing. It was only when she saw the three guys that she realized how in over her head she really was. Three guys, each a different level of badass.
It was hard to tell exact heights because they were so far up, but each seemed to have a good six inches on her and a hell of a lot of muscle.
“Uhh... hi,” she said awkwardly as she tried to keep the fear from showing in her face.
The guy from Sterling’s office turned the locks in the door, signaling to Toni just how cut off she now was from the world. “I’m Slade,” he said. “Those are your new coworkers.”
She swallowed. “A lot of testosterone in here,” she deadpanned.
“Not a lot of women work in our line,” he said, without missing a beat.
That was something she knew to be true. Before she could embarrass herself by saying something else awkward, he went on with introductions. “This is Tristan, Hunter, and Gage.”
She assumed he was introducing the guys by order of where they were standing. Tristan was tall, sleek, and handsome. His thick black hair was slicked back, and even though he was wearing a plain black sweater, he still looked as if he could walk into any high society function and be right at ease.
Hunter looked like, well, a hunter. He was shorter than Tristan but not by much, and his shoulders were broad and appeared even bigger thanks to the considerable size of his chest. The dude could probably bench-press her if he wanted to, which, at the moment, wasn’t a very comforting thought.
The other man, Gage, wasn’t as muscle bound, but that by no means meant he was weak. He had light-brown, dirty-blonde hair and what looked like a week’s worth of unshaven beard, which did nothing to hide killer cheekbones. Dude could probably be a model if he didn’t already have frown lines, made all the more evident by the way he scowled down at her.
The weight of all of their attention was starting to get to her, and she turned back to Slade. She was way too awkward at the moment, so she went to her default setting and turned into her normal smartass self. “Slade? That can’t be your real name, right? Like, people don’t look at their adorable newborn and think ‘let’s name him Slade!’” He didn’t look amused, and instead of shutting up like she should, she went on. “But the question is, did you think it up yourself? Or did someone give it to you? I always thought people who give themselves nicknames are kind of trying too hard.” He narrowed his eyes at her. “But you don’t look like you try too hard. You make it look effortless, actually.” She finally remembered how to stop talking, and she clenched her fists as she tried to get some control over herself.
“Follow me.” He walked past her and down one of the hallways. He led her into an office-like room. Office-like, because it seemed particularly unlived in. There were built-in bookshelves on two opposite walls, but the shelves were almost completely empty, save a phone book and what looked like gun accessories. There was a desk with an ancient-looking desktop computer that was particularly depressing and a few mismatched computer chairs and a lounge.
Slade rolled a chair closer to her and signaled her to sit down. She would really rather stand but figured at the moment it would be better to be accommodating. Luckily, he sat down on a chair across from her so at least they were on a similar level. Then he handed her a manila folder. For a second, there was just silence.
She wasn’t sure whether he was waiting for her to read the folder or not, so she ran her fingers along the edge and waited for some sort of social cue to give her an idea of what to do.
Finally, Slade started to talk. “What are you doing here?”
“Umm....” Of the thousands of different scenarios she’d run through her mind of how this meeting would go, that wasn’t one of the questions. “You know. You were in the same office I was.”
He nodded skeptically. “Listen, I’m not stupid. And neither is Sterling. If you are going to try anything, I will have to kill you. That’s what I do for a living. And I’m good at what I do.”
Toni took another nervous gulp. “If I wanted to try something, it would be kind of stupid for me to walk right into Sterling’s office and announce my presence,” she said, recognizing the irony of the statement completely.
“I live with stupid every day,” said Slade. “I’m going to give you a one-time pass. If you want, you can walk out that front door. I’ll say you never showed and the guys will back me up.”
Toni frowned. “They’re more loyal to you than Sterling?”
Slade sighed and she could tell he was upset that she hadn’t immediately jumped on his offer to get the hell out of Dodge. “Depends on the situation and the day. Do you have any idea what’s going to happen now?”
“No. I must’ve missed my orientation email.”
He tilted his head in annoyance and she bit the inside of her cheek. She wasn’t used to having a boss at all, let alone one who had full permission to kill her if she got out of hand.
“You’re going to be tested first. At some point in the next forty-eight hours, we will be given an assignment that you will need to carry out without question. If you refuse, you’re out. If you fail, you’re out. Those are the terms and they’re nonnegotiable.”
No wonder he didn’t have a sense of humor. Human resources was no joke here. “I’m not going to refuse and I’m not going to fail. Do you know what I’m capable of?”
“You’re into computers, right? Gage is our resident tech guy, so you’re going to have some competition. Careful with him.”
She raised a brow at that. Careful as in he was touchy? Or careful as in if she was worse than him, she would be “out”?
Before she could ask anything else, Slade continued. “This is our temporary housing provided by Sterling. You do not leave here without permission. You will be provided a room with a private bathroom because you’re the only woman here. None of the guys are going to touch you. If one makes a pass at you, you will let me know and I will handle them. If you want one of them to touch you, tough shit. No distractions while on the job, and as long as you are here, assignment or not, consider yourself on the job. Is that clear?”
“Keep it in my pants. Got it.” She drummed her fingers along her leg. “Is there liquor here? Because I think I’m going to need a drink.”
“No drinks. At any given moment, we are on call and ready to go. You are to be rested. You will train with the rest of us. We will work as a unit together, and as of right now, you are part of that unit.”
“You’re telling me everyone in this house is sober?”
“No. I’m telling you that you’re going to be sober. I know how the guys do under the influence. I know jack shit about you.”
And if she had her way, it was going to stay like that. “You’re just a pocket full of sunshine, aren’t you?”
Unsurprisingly, Slade didn’t appreciate the comment. “You and the guys are allowed to be friends. You’re allowed to joke and allowed to get along. I don’t have that benefit. I’m not your friend. I’m not your ally. I’m here to facilitate and make sure the gears are spinning like they need to be. Depending on your behavior, I can be your ally or I can be your enemy. That is up to you.”
She was not going to be his favorite person. She could tell already. Considering she wasn’t about to agree blindly to all of his terms and conditions, she changed the subject. Leaning forward and resting her elbows on her knees, she looked Slade in the eye. “Was it you who killed Jadon Belli?”
If he was surprised by the question, he didn’t show it. “That doesn’t matter.”
; It really did. Because she knew whoever killed Jadon Belli was no friend to Sterling. An enemy of my enemy and all.... She couldn’t have Willa tell her whether one of these four guys was the one responsible for the assassination, so she would have to figure it out herself. “Well, I happen to have a particularly bad relationship with the man, so if you were the one who killed him, I wanted to say thanks.”
Before he could say anything, the doorbell rang. The loud noise was so unexpected that Toni jumped in her seat and looked behind her even though the door was closed. Slade stood, pulled out a handgun from his side holster, and walked out of the office. Toni was trying to figure out the odds of someone wandering up to the door all the way out here until she realized the odds were damn good it had something to do with her.
And the only possible person who would follow her out here was....
She ran to the entryway right as Slade pulled open the door. And there, like a scene from her worst nightmares, was Scott Hart, standing on the porch as though he didn’t have a damn care in the world. “No...” she breathed.
Instead of looking terrified like he damn well should, he looked Slade right in the face. “I’m here for the girl.”
Toni heard the other guys coming down the stairs, but she couldn’t turn around. She couldn’t manage to look away from Scott, expecting a bullet hole to magically appear in his forehead at any given moment.
Any hope that Slade wouldn’t know who he was vanished in seconds when the man said, “Hart, you’ve got some balls showing up here.”
He raised his brows and seemed as if he was considering that thought. “Maybe. But not as big as hers.” He pointed at Toni.
Toni took a step back and her mouth fell open. She liked to think she was smart and quick on her feet, but she was at a total loss. These guys were going to kill him and there was nothing she could do....
“I figured this would be a win-win,” said Scott, as though he wasn’t about to die.
“How the hell is it a win-win?” asked one of the guys behind Toni.
Scott pointed to her. “Sterling needs her because she’s basically magic when it comes to computers. And he wants me to leave him the hell alone. So if I’m here, you can make sure Toni does what you want and you can keep tabs on me so I don’t fuck up your boss’s shit.”
Toni risked a glance behind her to see Tristan smiling as if the whole thing was hilarious; Hunter and Gage looked suspicious.
Slade had a blank face as he considered Scott. “Why would you come out here though?”
“Well, I thought it was obvious.” He walked into the house and over to Toni. When he put an arm around her waist and pulled her closer, she was too stunned to react. “I’m here because we’re in love.”
Toni went ash-white at his declaration, and Scott prayed like hell that she wouldn’t make this any harder than it already was.
“I think you need to be clearer,” said the big guy by the door, his gun still at his side but obviously ready to go if needed.
“I’m not about to let my girlfriend get herself killed to protect me,” he said, giving Toni another squeeze. “Now you call your boss, tell him I’m here of my own free will, I’m unarmed and I’m not here to get in anyone’s way.”
The guy motioned to the three other thugs in the room. One of them grabbed Scott’s arm and led him down a hall. He was forced to let go of Toni, but she followed them until they were put into a small, empty room. There was a window, so it wasn’t as if the room was a prison. But Scott knew from scouting the building that there was more surveillance here than most museums. It was why he’d walked right up to the front door. Even if he had access to any of his former resources or weapons, he wasn’t going to be able to sneak in to talk sense into Toni or watch over her.
So he had to use the logic she was working on. If he understood correctly, one of the terms of her working with Sterling was that Sterling drop the charges against Scott. Why else would she be so sure that he could go hide in Arizona without being caught? So now Sterling would have to live with Scott being close by. Sterling would like it because he could keep tabs on him and, more than likely, kill him when he got what he wanted from Toni and decided having him around wasn’t worth the trouble.
He was firmly in the if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em mentality. He couldn’t get Toni to change her mind about this. He couldn’t pull her out, and if he was honest with himself, on some level he supported this—doing anything necessary, no matter what, to get closer to Sterling.
And here, in the middle of Sterling’s guys, they were sadly closer than they’d been ever since Scott had started his hunt for the son of a bitch who had ordered Catherine’s death. And even more rage inducing was the thought that any one of these guys could be the one who actually killed her.
But there was no time for his rage at the moment. The second the door closed, locking him and Toni together, her own rage took over and she aimed her fist right for his face.
He narrowly ducked away, and when she aimed a second blow, he easily caught her wrist and held her back. “Hey,” he warned.
“Hey? Hey? You show up here out of the blue and you’re going to ‘hey’ me?”
“It’s frustrating when someone keeps on putting their life on the line, isn’t it?” He glared down at her.
She yanked her wrist free from his grip and started to pace away from him. “You’re going to get me killed.”
“You’re going to get yourself killed,” he shot back. “Don’t get pissed at me because I’m doing the exact same thing you’re doing.”
“Great. Now we can be morons together.” She paused and he could tell she was raking her mind for more things to yell at him about. “And what was that bullshit about love?”
Scott glanced around them, hoping she was picking up his unspoken body language that there might be bugs in the room. So he walked closer to her, and when he set his hands at the curve of her hips, she stiffened as if she could be electrocuted at any minute. If they were going to sell this whole couple thing, she was really going to have to get better at pretending to like him.
Instead of staring at him like an adoring girlfriend, she stared straight ahead, right at his throat. Probably thinking of all the ways she wanted to kill him herself, he thought.
“I know I haven’t said it out loud, but when I walked out of the hotel today and thought of you doing this... I couldn’t handle the thought of you getting hurt. So no matter what happens, the important thing is that we do it together from now on.”
Toni pulled away from him and he wanted to shake her. He knew she didn’t like him, but they needed to at least pretend to be a couple to make this work. She held up her hands and shook her head. “I can’t. I just... Scott, you’re making this a lot harder on me.”
“How do you think I felt when you refused to let me help today?”
“I think you felt alive. Which is more than I can say for us now.”
“Well, there’s nothing you can do about it now, is there?”
She twisted around and held up her hands as though she wanted to strangle him. “Your goddamn hero complex gets tiresome, you know? I don’t need a hero! People like you—” She broke off, shaking her head and looking away.
“People like me what?” he asked, not willing to let her go that easily.
“People like you just get in the way.”
Before he could respond, the door opened and the big guy from the entry was there. “You two, follow me,” he ordered.
Scott started out, but Toni pushed past him and took the lead. He rolled his eyes and took up the rear. The other guys were gone, which he took as a good sign. He liked to think that if Sterling wanted him dead, he’d send more than one guy.
“The boss is intrigued by you two. He doesn’t trust you worth a damn, but since it’s not his life on the line right now, he’s going to see how it plays out,” said the guy.
“Slade, you have to believe I didn’t know Scott was going to just show up.”
Slade stopped next to the door, not opening it for them. “This is your room. The window doesn’t lock but don’t try to get out. You’re being watched. Where is your luggage?”
“In my car,” said Toni.
“I’m wearing it,” said Scott.
Slade ignored Scott and focused on Toni. “Give me your keys and I’ll bring up the luggage.”
She fished the keys out of her back pocket and handed them over. “Because you’re trying to be polite and not because you’re going to search every square inch or anything, right?”
Slade looked between the two of them dispassionately and then turned his attention on Scott. “I already talked to your girl here, so let me make something clear to you. My men and I here are a team. A team you were not invited to. I don’t care what problems you have with the boss man, but that shit will not get in my way. If it does get in my way, it’s a problem. I remove problems from my life. This room is yours to do whatever you want, but out of it, you two are asexual employees of mine. I might have to tolerate you, but I don’t have to like it and I sure as fuck don’t have to be nice about it.”
“But you could be nice about it,” said Toni, earning her an annoyed look from Slade. “You know, if you wanted to. Just an option.”
Without another word, Slade turned and walked away.
Toni stared after him for a second. “I think he likes me,” she said wistfully.
“Yeah, he’s probably going outside right now to pick you wildflowers,” deadpanned Scott as he opened the door to his new temporary home. The room, like the rest of the house, was rather simple. The one window probably wouldn’t let in a lot of light, even in the daytime. He flipped on the light to illuminate the room, but Toni flipped it off just as quickly.
The Reluctant Thief (The Stolen Hearts #4) Page 4
