Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 59146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Heavy footsteps echoed through the living room into the bedroom. Knuckles came through the door first, followed by Hawk and Tiny. They moved through the apartment carefully.
“Zero called me,” Knuckles said. “I was with the girls at Haven when he did. Juniper insisted on coming with me. Hannah tried to send Darby with us, but Juniper refused, afraid it would be too dangerous.”
“Did you find a tracker?” I asked.
Hawk shook his head. “Nothing on her car. I’ve got Hannah searching her bag, but it might be better if Juniper helps. Sometimes, women have hiding places in their purses. At least, that’s what Darby says.” Hawk shrugged.
“Yes,” Juniper agreed. “But Brett won’t know where those are, or even try that hard to find them.” Her brow creased as she thought about the problem. Then she straightened and gave Knuckles a hard look. “Tell them to look in my grandmother’s recipe box. Brett knows I treasure that above any other possession I have. He knows I’ll keep it close if I take it out of the bakery.” She turned to me with an angry look. “I had that box in my backpack when we left the bakery before our ride. If it’s in that recipe box, that’s how he found us.”
Knuckles took out his phone and texted before giving Juniper a nod. “Good thinking on that.”
Juniper stood in the doorway to her bedroom, her chin up defiantly. I’d expected fear, maybe even anger. But now, instead of the initial white-hot rage she held tightly under control when she’d first realized what Brett had done, her anger turned ice-cold and intense. That coldness in her scared me more than any tear ever could.
She took a breath before she turned to face me, her eyes were clear and dry and utterly calm. “I’m going to kill him, Inferno. I don’t think I have a choice.”
She didn’t try to soften her voice, so her statement seemed to echo off the walls inside her small apartment. I know people said that kind of thing when they were angry, and I kind of thought Juniper might be in shock. But when I held her gaze and studied what I found there, I decided her eyes looked pretty Goddamned clear to me.
Knuckles went still but said nothing. The other men pretended not to hear, but I knew they all had.
“You aren’t doing anything like that,” I said. But I met and held Knuckles’ gaze. The man raised an eyebrow but said nothing.
“Put me in a room alone with him and see if I don’t.” This time, her voice was softer, but no less steady or convincing.
Knuckles finally broke the conversation, giving me one more knowing look. “You’ve got five minutes to get anything you need, then we’re all going back to the compound.” He looked at me. “We’ll need to talk soon, brother. But get her home first.” Knuckles met Juniper’s gaze. “We’ll all decide what to do, Juniper. Together.” She didn’t answer, but she finally nodded her head, if reluctantly.
“He’ll get his, honey,” I said to Juniper. “Just give us time to form a plan.”
Again, she didn’t say anything, but in the place of my warm, passionate woman now stood a cold, calculating predator. And I’ll be Goddamned if that thought didn’t turn me the fuck on.
Chapter Fourteen
Juniper
We returned to the Kiss of Death compound not long after I’d decided I was going to kill Brett. I’d like to say it was a figure of speech, but I knew in my heart there was something wrong with the man. While I firmly believed everyone deserved a good defense, I also believed some people needed to die. I don’t know what had broken inside his head, but Brett was not all right. And I didn’t want him to fixate on someone else. Like that poor woman with him on my birthday at Throttle.
Now, I clutched the recipe box to my chest like it was the last life raft on a sinking ship. Brett had, indeed, put a tracking device inside my grandmother’s recipe box. It felt like he’d defiled her memory or something. The thought made my skin crawl.
Once they knew where to look, Hannah and Knight had located the tracker and removed it carefully from where Brett had glued the damned thing to the bottom of the tin.
“It’s still active,” Knight said. He pointed to a tiny blue light blinking on the edge of the disc. “Cheap, off-the-shelf hardware. Not hard to jailbreak.”
Inferno stood beside me, one hand on my lower back. His fingers were warm through my shirt. “So he was close,” he said. “When he got the photo.”
“Had to be.” Knight swiveled his chair, elbows on his knees. “This is good news, actually.”
I barked out a laugh that sounded raw. “How the fuck is this good news?”