Chapter Three
Arianna
––––––––
I WENT SPRAWLING TO the ground, and I was ready to get to my feet and chew this guy out for getting in my way – but when I lifted my head, and saw a gun lying between us, I thought better of it.
Shit. I had no idea who this guy was, but he was armed, and I had no doubt just pissed him off in a serious way. I wasn’t going to risk getting hurt because his ego had taken a hit along with his ass. I scrambled forward, grabbed the gun, and levelled it at him before he had a chance to say a word.
He raised his hands above his head, springing to his feet, and locked eyes with me. Damn, okay, so this guy was cute as well as armed. He had short, dark hair, which was cropped close to his head, a strong jaw, and deep brown eyes against olive skin. He was wearing a tee that showed off his muscular arms, and I paused for a moment to check him out before I returned my attention to the task at hand.
“Who the hell are you?” I demanded. He shook his head and stole a glance over his shoulder.
“You have to give that to me,” he hissed, holding out his hand for the gun. “I’m in a lot of trouble right now, and I—”
“All the more reason to tell me why you’re at a hotel armed to the teeth,” I replied. I heard what sounded like a gunshot from around the corner and jumped. My heart was thudding in my chest, but there was a smile on my face. Damn, nothing did it for me like the thrill of danger. Especially coming after a major score like the one I’d just pulled off.
“Because there are some seriously bad guys after me,” he shot back urgently. He was clearly expecting this to be enough to scare me into giving his gun back, but it just piqued my curiosity. It wasn’t like I hadn’t spent most of my adult life dealing with bad guys, after all.
“Like who?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow. “Maybe I know them.”
“Why the hell would you know them?” he fired back, sounding more and more irritated. I grinned.
“What, you think a girl can’t know bad people?” I asked. “That’s a little sexist, don’t you think?”
“Now isn’t the time to debate gender politics!” he snapped at me. “Give me the gun, I’ve got to get out of here.”
I paused for a moment. He seemed genuinely freaked, but that just had me more interested than ever. He was seriously hot, and the adrenaline rushing through my system told me that I wasn’t done with him yet.
“Get behind that ice cream machine,” I ordered him, pointing the gun to a large food vending machine next to him. “
What the hell are you—”
“Do it!” I ordered him, as I heard footsteps rushing my way. He glared at me, but did as he was told, jumping behind the machine as I pushed the gun into my bag to hide it. I feigned a look of terror as two men rounded the corner. These had to be the guys he was talking about – their heads were shaved, their suits were sleek, and they matched like they’d come in a set.
“You!” One of them yelled at me. I pretended to jump in fear, clutching a hand to my chest.
“Please don’t hurt me!” I begged them, doing my best to keep the small smile off of my face. I needed to sell them on this, convince them I was terrified at the thought of what they might do, even though I was sure I had dealt with far worse than them in my time.
“Did you see a man come through here?” he barked, and I nodded, lifting a theatrically shaking finger to point down a corridor that led back towards the hotel, far away from me.
After a few moments, I reached back into my purse to grab the gun, and the man re-emerged.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he hissed, shooting a look over his shoulder to make sure the men were gone.
“I’m keeping you safe,” I replied. “So a thank-you would be nice.”
“You need to forget any of this happened,” he warned me. “You don’t know what you’re dealing with.”
“You can tell me on the ride to the airport,” I replied cheerfully.
“On the way to the what?” he exploded. He sounded as though he was going to lose it if I came out with one more sentence, but I had him right where I wanted him. This hot guy was going to come with me, and I’d get him out of trouble. This was me doing my good deed after I’d just robbed the hell out of Jacob upstairs, wasn’t it?
“The airport, come on,” I replied, and I shoved the gun away and grabbed his hand. I didn’t have a car in the parking lot, but there were plenty there, and I would take anything I could get.
I scanned the parking lot once we had escaped from the small enclave we’d been hiding in, and picked out a target – a beat-up old van on the far side, probably belonging to a worker who had a few hours on their shift before they left.
“Where are we going?” he asked, and I shook my head. I didn’t have time to talk about it right now, I could tell him while we were on the road. Or once we made it to the airport. I had taken a liking to this guy, maybe because he had the nerve to talk back to me, maybe because he was clearly in a whole lot of trouble right now, or maybe because I could tell he had the cutest dimples when he smiled. I hadn’t decided which one of the above it was yet, but I would figure it out as I went.