Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Jared leaned in. “Give me the package and let me make the drop.”
It wasn’t that he didn’t like the guy. It was that sometimes trouble followed him. Like always. And then there was the fact that Jared was easily distractible. One shiny thing and he would forget where he was stashing the very important blackmail payment. But he wasn’t going to hurt Jared. “I can’t. It has to be me and me alone or the deal is blown.”
“You need to bring the bodyguards into this,” Jared said, his voice tight. “They’re trained for this kind of work. They can protect you.”
“I don’t need to be protected,” he shot back. “Do you honestly think she wants to kill me? And have all that money dry up?”
Jared stopped and Josh realized he’d made a horrible mistake. “She?”
“Or he.” Why had he fucking said that? He was careful. Always careful.
Jared pointed his way. “But you said she. You know who this is.”
“No,” he replied. “But I did catch a glimpse of her once. Just a second, and I only saw her back. She had long dark hair. She picked up the package and she was gone before I could follow her. She’s not alone, though. She’s got muscle behind her and they’re very attentive. That same night I got the shit kicked out of me because they knew I had stayed behind to watch. He came out of nowhere. I was at a gas station and he pulled me into the shadows and beat me like I’ve never been beaten before. I thought for sure I was a dead man.”
And that was saying something. His life had been about beatings at one point before he’d broken.
“When the hell did that happen?”
“Five years ago. It was the second time I paid.” The memory was crisp in his head, the way a breeze had come off the ocean, the feel of his body being not his own. Again. The smell of blood and fear and failure.
He wasn’t going there again. And he wasn’t exposing Kayla to that side of his life. Or Jared, for that matter. They were shiny and happy and they would stay that way if he had anything at all to do with it.
“All right.” It was obvious from the slump of Jared’s shoulders that he wasn’t happy about giving in. “But be careful. I worry about you, man.”
It was good to have someone who worried and someone who watched his back. He wished he could trust that it would last. “You know you can do something for me.”
Jared’s eyes lit up. “What’s that?”
“Find out everything you can on Riley Blade. Something about him makes me nervous.” Or maybe he should get Declan and Shane on that.
“There’s no need to. If you tell the others you want him gone, they’ll find someone else,” Jared assured him. “You’re important to this club. Hell, you’re the reason we have a place of our own at all.”
“You paid for part of it,” he pointed out.
“Only because you called me. I didn’t know we were in trouble. I was shooting in Vancouver. If it hadn’t been for you buying this property, we would likely have broken up and found other clubs. If you don’t like Riley, he’s gone.”
“I’m probably being paranoid.” He didn’t want to cost a guy his job if there was nothing there. “The other guys seem to like the hell out of him.”
“I’ll keep my eyes open,” Jared replied.
Maybe it would help distract Jared while Josh did what he had to do.
He looked over to the hallway and Kayla walked in, arm in arm with another sub. She was talking and laughing and generally making all the people around her smile. Infectious. She was utterly infectious, and he was doing the right thing.
Yes, Kayla was smart and deadly, but the truth was she needed someone to care about her, to protect her, to want her safety and satisfaction more than his own.
He couldn’t take his eyes off her as she turned and found him. She was dressed for play, but he was caught on her eyes. Shit. He was caught period.
He was falling for a woman for the first time in his life and he was going to make it work.
And that meant keeping her as far from his past as possible.
Chapter Ten
Two hours and one fairly hardcore scene that had her ass aching later, Kayla stared at the computer in front of her, the email she was writing open and half finished. She felt a little half finished. Oh, the scene had gone all right. There had been bondage and spanking and pinching and rubbing, finished off with a giant Hollywood cock giving her an orgasm, but it had been different. Josh hadn’t been with her. Not fully. Something was distracting her Master and she had no idea what it was because Levi wasn’t returning her calls and she hadn’t had a chance to talk to Riley. She’d meant to, but she’d found Josh’s eyes on her every time she tried to get away for a few moments.