6279: Sounds like wise advice. Watch your back, mon cœur, I’ll find you soon.
Once again, I couldn’t decide if it was a threat or a promise. Or both. Either way, it made me turn to mush, and my pulse galloped. He was certifiable, there was no debating this fact. But goddamn, there was just something about a man who killed for his woman without question…
That picture of Bryan’s severed fingers was one of the most romantic gestures I’d ever received. Right up there with the moment when Kai returned my silver watch to me, thinking it belonged to my fictional grandmother.
Of course, Kai had soured that memory by planting a tracking device of his own in the mechanism. Leon’s gesture was totally without ulterior motive, except to send a clear message that I was his, and he wouldn’t tolerate anyone hurting me. Damn butterflies.
Once my jet landed, I hired a nondescript rental car using one of my many aliases and drove for the rest of the day. Ensuring no one had tailed me required a whole lot of zig-zagging, backtracking, and generally driving in circles. At least the patches of snow still visible off the road hadn’t turned to ice. That was something. But eventually I arrived at the remote mountain cabin I’d booked using a dark website specifically offering safe houses to anyone with the money to pay, no questions asked.
The access protocols were extreme, starting from an armed gate a solid mile before the house. Hestia Safe Houses didn’t fuck around when hiding criminals and shady characters, that was for sure. It was exactly what I needed, so I wasn’t complaining.
I took my time getting settled and checking, then double-checking, all of the security that Hestia put in place on their properties. It was better than anything Carlos’s houses had—and with the added benefit of totally untraceable, anonymous bookings. If I wasn’t safe here, I wasn’t safe anywhere.
“Home sweet home,” I whispered to the silent house when I was done. I was fully armed, too paranoid to put my weapons down or relax. Especially since sending Moana the address of our meeting point.
In an attempt to distract myself, I opened my group text thread with Sabine and Jude. But then Leon’s warning popped into my head, and I closed it again. Damn it. I needed to get this shit with Blanchet ironed out soon, or I was going to go crazy. I couldn’t just start over in a normal life somewhere. Asking me to walk away from my career—my identity—and hide out amongst civilians would be worse than death. I’d rather go down fighting, thanks.
I wished Stanley was here.
Full of nervous energy, I left my safe house early and headed for the rendezvous point I had arranged with Mo. The rental was hidden deep in the hills a half-hour drive from a town called Echo Creek. Or that was what it was called when it had been inhabited. Now it was totally abandoned, as it had been for a number of years.
My meeting point with Mo was the old library, but I headed across the road to the church instead. From the little bell tower, I had a clear view of the street in both directions. I’d know if she brought the rest of her team along to ambush me.
Unstrapping my backpack, I set about putting together my rifle and checking that I had an unobstructed view of our meeting point and the road into town. I was on the fence whether I thought Mo would come alone or not, but if Sam showed his ugly fucking face, I was prepared to shoot. Fucking oath, I would shoot him so damn fast he wouldn’t know what’d happened until he woke up in Hell.
I didn’t have to wait all too long before movement in the distance made me tense up. She was early. Suspicious? Or punctual? Fuck, who was I kidding, everything was suspicious, but she was only about ten minutes early.
Peering through my binoculars, I watched the car approaching the main street of abandoned Echo Creek. Everything was an eerie green with the night vision, but I was used to it and could make out the details clearly. She was driving a Ford Mustang, the kind of generic one rental companies offered, and seemed to be alone. So far. No other cars followed her, but I’d learned the hard way that anything could be used as a Trojan Horse these days.
So to err on the side of caution, I kept my binoculars on her car right up until she parked a short distance away from the library.
Moana stepped out of the driver’s seat, making me breathe a sigh of relief. It was actually her. Thank fuck.
And yet, why was I swallowing back a lump of disappointment?
I waited a few more minutes, watching as she headed to our meeting point. Waiting to see if there was any further movement from her car. Someone else inside, maybe… or in the trunk. Anything was possible. Yet nothing happened. Minutes ticked by. Still, I exercised patience even as Mo checked her phone, seeming irritated.
She’d actually come alone. Maybe she could be trusted after all.
11
She was even more beautiful than I remembered, my siren. Everything about her was so familiar, but so very different all at the same time. Her starlight hair pulled back in a ponytail triggered memories of holding it wrapped around my fist, and her hips swayed in that exact same way that she’d walked around my house. But she was also a stranger. Her eyes were sharp with suspicion and intelligence, not even a hint of the soft, vulnerable woman I’d known. Her perfectly pouted lips were crimson and set in a hard line, offering none of the shy smiles she’d used to snare my heart.
When I’d seen where she wanted to meet my sister, I could hardly believe my luck. We had been meeting with one of our repeat customers in Shadow Grove, only a two-hour drive from the abandoned town of Echo Creek. I had plenty of time to arrive in town before her and lie in wait.
She headed for the church, her stride confident and her various weapons glinting under the clear moonlight. This was the real Danny DeLuna. Not the fragile creature who’d cowered from Sam and constantly sobbed.
Every inch of my body rippled with tension, and I barely breathed as I silently followed, maintaining enough distance and moving slowly so as not to catch her attention. She was already out of my line of sight, but if it were me, I would go to the bell tower. That was the best vantage point to assess the surrounding streets, and she would want to make sure Mo was arriving alone.
There was no rush. No need to alert her to my presence yet, not while she was likely still paranoid and on edge. Nope, I could wait it out. Let her relax and think the coast was clear.
It took longer than anticipated. Much longer than I would have liked, but it was a good test of my own self-control. Forcing myself to stay hidden, lurking in the shadows and simply watching her. It went against every instinct I had, not immediately putting my hands on her. The need to touch her skin was totally consuming me, until it almost seemed like I’d snap in half from the tension.
The way she assembled and handled her Ruger Precision Rifle made my dick hard. It also made me wonder who the fuck she was buying her weapons from, because it wasn’t me. Fucking Guild must have set contracts with one of my competitors. Another reason to hate them.
The hum of a car engine broke through the oppressive silence of the bell tower, and I watched Danny shift her position. She was on her belly, sniper rifle aimed and ready to shoot if anyone other than my sister stepped out of the car. Would she have shot me if I’d turned up to the meeting instead of Moana?
I liked to think no, but that could be my ego taking over my logic. This woman wasn’t the woman I’d thought had fallen in love with me back on my island. She had been a total fabrication. So I had no clue how the real Danny DeLuna would react. But I was about to find out.
“Thank fuck,” she muttered on a long exhale, her posture softening slightly. She must have decided Mo was alone after all. And she was, much to her own stupidity.
Still, Danny made no move to rush down there and speak with my sister. She just waited… which I had to admit was smart. Who knew whether someone was lurking just out of sight, right?
Mo must have been calling, because a moment later Danny shifted to pull her lit phone from the pocket of her black pants. She was all in black, the darkness making her skin and hair stand out in stark contrast.
“I’m here.” My sister’s voice cut through the night from across the street and echoed quietly from Danny’s phone. “And I’m sure you can see by now that I’m alone. Are you satisfied?”
Before Danny could respond, I stupidly shifted my weight, and a board creaked.
We both moved equally as fast, our guns pointed at one another before I even stepped out of the shadows, and Danny gave a furious snarl.