Well, that’s something, I guess.

“You’re staying at my place,” he goes on.

No fucking way am I doing this again.

“The hell we are. We’re staying at a damn hotel, where we don’t put you in danger, too.” I push past him, Raylin barely keeping up, heading to our green car. “See how it turned out for Rook.”

“But sending me to the Chinese mafia isn’t dangerous? What’s the matter with you?” Hawk grabs me before I reach the car and spins me—and Raylin who’s holding my hand—around. “You think I’m scared, asshole?”

“Maybe you should be, for a change.” I shake myself free, my pulse thumping inside my skull. “Because it’s all falling apart. Because Rook’s in the hospital, and someone’s after me and what if it has to do with what I told you all those years ago—”

“Shut it.” Hawk’s light eyes dart from me to Raylin and back. “She doesn’t know.”

“I’m gonna tell her my secret, man. Not yours. So it’s none of your business.”

“You said you didn’t know who might be after you,” she hisses. “And now you do?”

Damn. “No, I still don’t. Ray…”

“And how would your secret have to do with any of this?” Hawk waves his hands in the air like racing flags. “You’re not even sure about what you remember—”

“Hell, Hawk,” I grind out from between clenched teeth. “I don’t fucking know. But what else is there? A random hotel, that’s where we’re checking in, and pray to God nobody will follow us.”

He shakes his head, disgusted.

He’s definitely unhappy with me. Hey, he should take a number. The line of people unhappy with me is growing long—though ‘unhappy’ might be too mild a term.

“Fine,” he spits out the word and pulls two things from the pockets of his jacket—a handgun and a prepaid card phone, which he hands to me. “Have it your way. Meanwhile, I’ll see what I can do about the triad. She only owes the money, right? That’s all.”

Oh fuck. He doesn’t know the new development. Raylin shivers at my side, and I tug her closer, as if that way I can protect her.

“As a matter of fact, something else came up. Listen…”

***

Ten minutes later Hawk is cursing under his breath, his face red, and not in a flattering way. I mean, I like it when Raylin blushes—holy shit, just the thought of it gets me hard and aching—but on Hawk it only tells me one thing: he’s two seconds from either self-combusting or punching me in the face.

Or maybe both.

Probably both.

“She did what?” he finally manages, and dammit, we’re still on the sidewalk, in plain view of everyone.

Raylin moans low in her throat, and I pull her all the way into my arms. “You heard me. Can you do something about it?”

“The fuck, Storm. This isn’t a card game. If she killed one of theirs…”

“Be quiet, goddammit.” My heart is slamming against my ribs. This has to work. “Can you, or can’t you? I thought nothing was beyond you.”

“Yeah, well, that was before you dropped this bomb on me.”

Our driver is standing next to the car in the alley, pretending not to look at us. The bodyguards are standing between us and their car. My skin crawls. There’s an itch on the back of my head, as if I can feel the red dot of a rifle aimed at me.

There’s nobody else here, dammit. We’re in a narrow alley with a smell of cat piss where hospital staff come out to smoke and make phone calls. We’ll be safe for another two minutes.

“Can you do it or not?” I’m not staying out in the open a second longer. “Tell me now, and I’ll see what to do.”

“You can’t do this without me.” He’s waving his hands again. Hawk rarely gets nervous, and this is one of those rare times. “You know it.”

“Are you in, Hawk?” Because he’s right. He’s the only person I know—and trust—with connections with the triads.

“Fuck you.” He glares at me, makes me wait. Then he sighs. “Yeah, goddammit, I’m in. Need to save your fucking ass—again. Like I have a choice.”

“We all have choices,” I remind him as I open the car door and gently push Raylin inside.

Playing my last card and hoping Hawk won’t let me down.

“And I choose to make sure you and your little girlfriend keep breathing. But you know what, man. That’s not a fucking choice at all. Like I’d choose anything else.”

With that he, well, storms away, leaving me light-headed with hope and fear, and Christ, I really hope I haven’t just signed the death sentence of yet another brother, my other best friend. I have so few real friends I really should be more fucking careful.

But despite what I told Hawk, it’s not like I have a choice, either. How can I leave Raylin in the hands of the triad?

I can’t, and that’s a fact.

RAYLIN

Everything’s a whirlwind right now, moving too fast for me to keep up. To think that I considered traveling all over the country as I ran from my pursuers, reaching as far south as Florida, to be a wild ride. Breaking into a mansion, seeing the ocean, watching a handsome man jog down the beach…

And now here I am, in Baltimore, with a bad-boy millionaire and his demented friends, trying to figure out a way to get the triad off my back and wondering what his secrets might be. The secrets that may or may not be the reason behind the attempts on his life.

Attempts everyone else sees as accidents. Attempts not even his best friends regard as such. But I believe him. I’m done doubting. And this secret he says he’s about to tell me… If my jangled nerves are any indication, it’s going to be a big one, an important one.

One that might change the whole picture. Not because I’m smarter than he is, or better at solving riddles. No, I’m just more suspicious, made wary by life. Plus, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. We’ll weather this together.

I’m staying with him, and I’ll do my best to protect him, until he sends me away. And even then… even then, I know it, my heart will stay with him.

Chapter Seventeen

STORM

I have the driver drop us off at the first decent hotel I lay eyes on and tell him to drive back without us. I also tell him not to give our location to anyone. Hell, his pay is so good I have to hope he’ll do as I say, but experience tells me I shouldn’t hold my breath.

Trust no one, that’s what my uncle taught me, and I hate to admit it, but he was right.

Except when it comes to Raylin. Everything changes when it comes to her. The laws of physics and the universe go out the window.

I’m that fucked. No wonder both Rook and Hawk seemed uneasy with my actions. It’s not every day I vanish into thin air for months, then return with an unknown girl who also just happens to be a ticking bomb for a triad.

Yeah. No wonder my friends are pissed as all hell with me.

Sucks to be them right now, stuck with a friend like me, but I can’t find any trace of regret in me. Especially when she looks up at me as we walk up to the front desk of the hotel, her warm gaze grounding me.

I consider whether I should give a false name, but when the receptionist gives me a broad smile and says “Welcome, Mr. Jordan,” I guess the question is moot.

I don’t think I’ve stayed in this hotel before. Not that it matters.

Raylin’s wide eyes jump from the man to me and back. She hasn’t really grasped it yet, though she will eventually: everyone knows my face. Probably how we were found back in Boca Raton. The gardener or a passerby saw me, recognized me and ran to sell the story to the newspapers.

Happens all the time. When I ran, three years back, I grew a beard and wore a hoodie or a baseball cap—or both—to hide who I was. Then I realized a good disguise is ninety percent attitude, so I changed the way I talked, and the way I walked, and suddenly I was someone else.

Storm. Definitely not Troy.

The hotel manager appears through a glass door, rubbing his hands together in glee. “Mr. Jordan, what an honor,” he gushes. “You will of course have the white suite.”