Fucking car rental company was going to fleece me for that.
“What—” Kai started, but I wasn’t paying attention to him.
I twisted in my seat, aiming for our attacker’s wheels and shooting them out with two clean shots before I even unbuckled my safety belt.
“Stay here,” I told Kai, climbing out of the car and walking casually over to where the motorcycle had just crashed into the ditch a hundred yards or so past us.
The dude who’d shot at us was scrambling to his feet, stumbling and tripping as he tried to escape the wreck of his bike. I let him get back up onto the road before shooting out his knee, because fuck if I wanted to go climbing down into a ditch tonight.
“Ah, fuck! You bitch!” he screamed, writhing on the road in agony as he clutched his mangled knee. “I’ll kill you! I’ll fucking kill you!”
I arched a brow as I drew closer, inspecting him for a gun and finding none. He’d probably dropped it when I popped his tires.
“You will, huh?” I replied with a smile. “How do you think you’ll manage that?”
Placing my boot on his chest, I aimed my gun at his forehead. He had a scruffy beard and sallow eyes, his gut showing a preference for beer. He also wore a Dogwood Death Squad patch.
“This is very bad news for your gang,” I murmured, tapping his patch with my toe. “What on earth possessed you?”
The guy was pale and sweating, pain and fear etched across his face as he glared up at me. “Three mil, bitch. That’s what.”
I squinted down at him, then wrinkled my nose. “Three million? Someone put a hit on me and only offered three million? Oh, honey, you got fucked. Hard. Where’s the hit listed?”
The man just sneered, so I sighed and shot him between the eyes. I didn’t need him to tell me… the Guild wouldn’t mess around with a joke of a contract price like that, nor would they shop it out to amateurs. This was something else entirely.
Blood pooled around the biker’s head, a small trickle dribbling from the entry wound and running down his temple. Fucking idiot.
Turning my back on the dead man, I nearly ran straight into Kai, who loomed just a few feet away with a close-guarded expression. Apparently, he didn’t follow my instructions to wait in the car.
“Get in touch with Vega,” I snapped at him. “Let him know that he needs to clean this up and that I don’t appreciate his guys taking a hit on me.”
Kai’s brows hitched, but he said nothing. Just followed me silently back to the car that sat in the middle of the road, doors wide open and windshield shattered. So much for having a heated ride.
“Wait!” he barked when I started to get back into my seat. I paused, then realized what he meant. Glass was scattered across the seat, and even though it was safety glass, it could still cut. I stepped aside as he swept his sweatshirt over his head.
My lips parted to offer a sassy quip about this not being the time or place for a strip show, but then he wrapped the clothing around his hand to brush the glass off my seat.
“What a gentleman,” I murmured, shooting him a smirk before sitting down.
He brushed off his own seat, then knocked out the rest of the shattered windshield. Before he started the car again, he pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed someone.
“Hold this,” he said, handing me the phone as it started ringing on speakerphone. He started the car, accelerating past the body of the Death Squad idiot and heading back toward our safe house. Without a windshield, the ride was noisy, so I cranked his speaker up to its loudest.
The call connected and a familiar, unwelcome voice answered.
“Sam,” Kai barked, and I resisted the urge to end the call simply to be petty. Kai glanced at me like he knew what I was thinking, but relayed the information for Vega anyway. Saved me tracking down the gang leader’s contact details or paying for a cleanup myself. The cleanup crews in this area charged a lot.
Kai finished his instructions to Sam, then nodded at me to end the call. The following silence was so thick it was suffocating, and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.
Eventually, I sighed. “If you have something to say—”
“I don’t,” he cut me off.
It made me shoot an accusing glare at him, but then he raised a hand to scratch the back of his neck, and I spaced out a little. Goddamn, he looked good with only a tight T-shirt on. His Royal Marines tattoo was closest to me, and I couldn’t stop my mind wandering to the time on the island when I traced those inked details with the tip of my tongue.
“Keep staring at me like that, Siren, and I can pull this car over right now.”
I almost accepted.
Gritting my teeth, I shifted my attention out of the window. “That idiot wasn’t hired by the Guild, but that doesn’t mean they’re not still hunting me. I need to clear my name sooner rather than later, or time will run out.” And by that, I meant my time on Earth. Because the longer I stayed at odds with the Circle, the more likely it was for someone to get a lucky shot on me.
“I won’t let that happen,” Kai growled, all possessive and dominant. Hot. Except I didn’t need him to protect me, I could do that all by myself.
“Uh-huh, cool. Anyway, I think I have an idea how to get to the Circle member who slapped a target on my back. And I think you can help.” I was still formulating my plan as I watched the scenery whip past my unbroken window. Kai was taking the roads back out to my mountain hideaway a whole lot faster than the speed limit. We would be back in no time at all—albeit with a touch of windburn from the freezing air buffeting our faces.
“Whatever you need, Siren,” Kai replied, his voice thick with promise, “whatever I can do to help, it’s yours.”
I shifted my gaze back around to give him a skeptical look. He’d literally just seen me shoot a man in cold blood, but it didn’t seem to have shaken his interest in me… not even slightly. What the fuck was up with that?
Rather than call him out on it, though, I just gave a thoughtful hum. “For starters, get your team working on finding out who else wants me dead. The bounty was only three mil, so it can’t be a major player, and I have enough on my plate without being distracted by an annoyance hit.”
Kai dipped his head in acknowledgement. “And the Circle?”
I pursed my lips, thinking. “I need a name of someone I can use as a stepping stone, someone who might know where Emmanuel Blanchet—the Circle member who wants me dead—is hiding out.”
“How will you get that?” Kai asked. “The Circle are supposed to be totally anonymous, aren’t they? Or do you want me to lean on our mole?”
There was a quiet confidence in that suggestion that had me squinting at him as he drove up the long winding road to the safe house.
“Does your mole know who all the Circle members are?” Because surely that would narrow down the options on who it was feeding them intel.
Kai gave a shrug. “I don’t know.”
“Not necessary, anyway. I’ve got it handled.” Because Leon would already know who I could lean on. If he hadn’t already gotten there before me.
Fishing out my own phone, I sent a message asking him to call me when he could. In other words, when he was secure enough that no one else in the Guild could trace my location. Sure, I could have asked him via text… but I wanted to hear his voice. I fucking missed the crazy son of a bitch.
Kai screeched our vehicle to a stop in front of the safe house, then in a flash, he was jerking me out of my seat and slamming me into the side of the car with a handful of my hair.
“Kai,” I snarled, “don’t make me hurt you. I’m not in the mood for games.”
“Neither am I,” he snapped back, then crushed his lips to mine in a hungry kiss that gave me no choice but to reciprocate. Especially when he tugged on my hair harder and nipped my lower lip with his teeth. The longer we kissed, the harder it became to remember why I was avoiding kissing him. His lips were pure sin and decadence, made for pleasure and worship, and his tongue…
He broke away from my mouth, pulling back just far enough to meet my eyes as his fingers stroked over my bruised jaw. “I hate the way you smile when you think about him, Siren. It makes me want to burn the whole fucking world down just to wipe him off the face of it. That smile is mine, and mine alone. It’s about fucking time you understood what that means.”
My breath caught in my throat, words failing me. Kai took advantage of my shock and tossed me over his shoulder, again, then strode up the steps to the house.
I should have been scared. I should have punched him in the kidney to make him drop me, then kick him in the balls for the audacity.
But I didn’t…
20