“Train”—3DoorsDown
“You two have some explaining to do,” Venom demanded.
“I’m not explaining shit. You don’t know a damn thing about me,” I snarked.
Ghost face-palmed next to me, and I heard him whisper, “Aw fuck.”
Voodoo snickered, and I’m pretty sure Venom had steam coming out of his ears, but I didn’t care.
“Considering you dragged my fucking club into your issues, and one of my brothers into your shit, I’d say it’s damn well my business. Otherwise, pack your shit,” the man who had introduced himself as Venom instructed in a deceptively calm tone.
“I told you, it’s his ol’ lady,” the guy named Voodoo mumbled, and Venom shot him a glare. Voodoo simply shrugged. I had no idea what that meant exactly, but I assumed it meant I was Lucian’s—Ghost’s—old girlfriend.
“Fine. I was looking for a client’s sister who went missing while she was in the Bahamas. She told her brother that her new boyfriend was taking her on a romantic trip. Two days in, she didn’t call and wouldn’t answer her phone. Her brother called the boyfriend, and he kept saying she was busy—massages, napping, excuse after excuse before he quit answering too. It was really a fluke that her receipts and credit card led me from one minuscule trail to another until it connected to the bank accounts of some bogus shell corporation. Accessing the accounts allowed me to backdoor into a computer system. There was a bunch of shit that didn’t make sense to me, so I copied the files to go through them. I gave him what I’d found except for the files, because I didn’t know if they would help at all. There was the possibility there was no connection, so I didn’t want to get the guy’s hopes up—especially if he didn’t know what he was looking at either,” I said with a sigh as I rested my forehead on the heel of my hand.
The men sitting around the table were scary as hell. A few I recognized as the ones I crossed paths with briefly in Des Moines. A totally tatted-up one I remembered being the one I talked to at a shop when I first got to town. If I remembered correctly, he went by Chains. Holy shit, if I’d taken a position there, I might’ve run into Lucian earlier. My head was spinning.
“Here’s the thing, Scarlett, um, I mean Laila,” the guy who introduced himself as Facet said. I frowned as I tipped my head and studied him. “They know you got in. They discovered the breach but couldn’t figure out how it happened or who you were. The Khatri organization hired us to find you, but it turns out they hired someone else too.”
“How did you know I was Scarlett?” I asked him with narrowed eyes, momentarily disregarding the fact that he said someone else was looking for me.
He had the nerve to look sheepish. His dark hair was shaggy and obscured his eyes, so it was difficult to determine the color. “Uh, well, because I’m Juggernaut.”
My shoulders sagged as I closed my eyes, remembering I’d asked him to look into Lucian. “Of course you are.”
“Crazy enough, you inadvertently led us to someone we’ve been trying to find. The thought that we were so close to them and had no clue makes me nauseous,” Facet said. Knowing how good he was at what he did, I could imagine how frustrated he must be that he couldn’t find something that I did. Though I had no idea what it was.
“So now what?” I asked as I searched the faces of the men at the table.
“Now we have some things to discuss and plans to make,” the man called Venom said as he smoothed his short-cropped salt-and-pepper beard. He’d introduced himself as the president.
“What about me? Can I leave?” I asked. Lucian tensed where he’d been silently brooding next to me.
“You want to leave? Just like that?” Outrage colored his tone, and I inwardly cringed. Hell, no, I didn’t want to leave him, but how could I stay?
“I’m sorry, but it wouldn’t be safe for you to go,” Venom said apologetically.
“But this is what I do. I’m a pro at disappearing,” I rationalized. It wasn’t something I enjoyed, but it was my way of life.
I was torn between wanting to be close to Lucian and wanting to beat him over the head with something. I’d spent the last ten years intentionally avoiding looking him up, but now that I was in his orbit again, it was difficult to break free of his gravitational pull.
It was as if the past eleven years apart didn’t exist.
“This is un-fucking-believable,” Lucian said as he stood, shoving his chair back in the process.
“Ghost! Sit down!” Raptor demanded, but Lucian was already slamming through the heavy wooden doors. Raptor stood to go after him, but Venom shook his head and grabbed his arm.
“Let him go.”
“I need to notify my case agent to let him know I’m okay,” I said as I fought the need to go after Lucian. They had taken my phone the second they ushered me out of the room they brought Lucian to after he’d been shot.
“Until we figure out who the people are that found you, I think you should go radio silent. They offered us a bonus if we found you and brought you to them. It’s likely they offered the same deal to the others,” Facet said as he nervously drummed his fingers on the table.
“I agree,” Venom said.
“But he knows about Lucian. He wanted me to leave. I need to let him know I’m okay, or he may start looking for me,” I weakly argued.
“I can help you with that,” Facet said.