Hannah and the Hitman

Chapter 22

22

JACK

After I walked Hannah back to her car in the library parking lot, I kissed the hell out of her. Right there in public, although the lot was empty since it was after hours. Fuck, I needed her mouth. Her sweetness. To feel that she was as needy for me as I was for her.

There was no question she doubted me. I’d been called away both times we were together, and both over dinner.

So I kissed her until she was clinging and sagging against me, her hands curled around the lapels of my suit jacket. I wanted to get under her skirt again. Hell, I wanted to rip the skirt right off and fuck the hell out of her over the hood of her car. But she needed gentle, not caveman, I reminded myself. She’d had a fucking brain tumor. I needed to control myself.

Instead of giving in to what we both wanted, I told her I’d text her my address as she got in her car. It wasn’t what I wanted, but I knew her panties were wet from her earlier orgasm. The one I gave her.

In my rush to get back to Denver, I broke most state and federal traffic laws. “Call Dax,” I said to my car’s computer, which was synced to my cell.

“Did Jimmy earn his pinky finger?” he asked when he picked up, wondering if the text I sent had worked with Hannah.

“Sal Reggiano’s a problem,” I said, instead of telling him she blocked me. I was practically vibrating with fury. I’d been hired to do a job for him. I didn’t actually work for him. I was a fucking contractor. I said when, not him.

But the bastard hadn’t gotten that memo.

“What’s going on?” All playfulness slipped from his tone.

I quickly glanced in the rearview mirror, then switched lanes around a slow-ass semi as I barreled down the mountain.

“He’s having me followed.”

“What? Right now?”

Another glance and all that was back there was a Subaru with a kayak on top. Probably not one of Sal’s men. “Not right this second, although maybe. I’m on my way back to the city.”

I couldn’t pick out a tail on the steep and twisty highway, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t one.

“Why?”

“He texted me when I was with Hannah.”

“Do I need to tell you being with this chick is bad?”

“You just did, asshole. Sal texted and asked why I was in Coal Springs. That’s bad. ”

There was a pause. “Yeah, that’s bad. Is Hannah with you?”

I wanted her to be. It was the only place I could keep her safe. Except, I was what was a danger to her. She’d been living her librarian life, trying to keep herself alive, before I came along and brought the mafia with me.

If Sal wasn’t happy with me or my work ethic, it wasn’t like he was going to write me a one-star review. He was going to kill everyone I cared about to make his point. That meant Dax, but he could take care of myself. That also now meant Hannah, and she really didn’t want to die. But she couldn’t take care of herself. In a normal person way, yes, but not in a dating-the-hitman-I’ve-got-bad-guys-after-me way.

“No. She’s still in Coal Springs.”

“I doubt Reggiano took a vacation to the Colorado Rockies for a chainsaw bear statue.” Meaning Sal wasn’t in Coal Springs watching me eat pizza with the town librarian. Dax was trying to be reassuring, but it wasn’t helping.

“Either he sent men or pulled in Paul’s goons to tail me.” Using his son’s men made sense.

“I bet neither and he had a tracker put on your car.”

“Fuck!” I gripped the wheel, swerved into the right lane and took the fast-approaching exit.

The Subaru honked and I ignored it, pulling over on the dirt shoulder, halfway down the ramp. This was a no service exit with the steep slope of a mountain right at the edge. There was nothing in this area but pine trees, sheer rock and bighorn sheep. The sun had long set behind the peaks, and it was getting dark .

I climbed out, the call with Dax switching back to my cell.

“Why the fuck does he want to track me? My day involves picking up my dry cleaning, going to the gym and other boring shit.” I bent at the waist and looked under the wheel well by the driver’s door. Nothing.

“Until Hannah,” Dax said, meaning I’d been to Coal Springs twice in two days, not offing Turkleman like I was supposed to. “It sounds like he doesn’t like you stalling on the project you’ve been assigned.” He wasn’t going to say anything incriminating like murder on the phone. “Why haven’t you finished that project yet? Oh yeah, Hannah.”

I was already around the hood and looking under the wheel wells on the other side. And found the tracker on the back one. “Fuck. Found it.”

I tugged the small tracker free, went back to the driver’s side, climbed in and threw the device on the passenger seat. I wanted to smash it with my heel, but then they’d know I’d found it. It was better for them to follow me back to Denver and away from any connection to Hannah. In the distance, traffic whizzed by on the highway. When I shut the door, the road noise dropped off.

“Thank fuck I didn’t take Hannah home.” I ran a hand over my face, relieved. I’d wanted to be a gentleman, follow her home from the library, make sure she got in safe, but I’d needed to get back to Denver. Also, that would have meant I kissed her at her front door and that would have meant I’d have fucked her in her bed. I knew what she looked like when she came and I wanted to see it again, this time when she was riding my dick. Not much of a gentleman. But she wanted both sides of me, and I’d give them to her, but not when a mafia boss was pulling shit.

“Hannah’s safer away from me until I figure shit out.” I literally hadn’t led Sal to her door, thank fuck.

“Kill the turkey and don’t take any more jobs with the mob boss.”

Captain Obvious.

“That’s top of my list,” I replied. “Plus keep my girl safe. For tonight, she’s better off away from me, but I’ve got to stop running out during meals with her.”

I didn’t want her to doubt me. Or what I felt for her. She took priority and leaving her like I had was making her one. From her perspective, though, it probably didn’t seem like it. But I had to deal with Sal and get that behind me. There was no way we could be together otherwise. It was too dangerous.

Maybe I was too dangerous for her. My job? Dangerous. Being with me? A risk.

But after her pussy clenched around my fingers and she bit my fucking shoulder…there was no going back.

My job had never been an issue before. Not once. I’d been taught to not have deep feelings for anyone. That it was dangerous. That it could hurt.

Sitting in my car off the side of the highway, I understood what Big Mike meant. I was frantic for Hannah. I wanted to make that brain tumor never happen. But I couldn’t and that made me feel helpless. Probably like how Big Mike felt when his wife had been killed. Helpless.

Until he went vigilante and finished the guy who hit her with his pickup. I could go vigilante on Sal. On her parents. On her ex. With anyone who did her wrong. Unlike Big Mike, I could keep Hannah alive.

I also saw what my life was like, empty and cold. I saw what I wanted. I wanted peace. Quiet. The simple life where bad guys didn’t exist, or at least weren’t my problem. I never expected to find that with a Coal Springs librarian. Maybe it was time to figure out what to be when I grew up.

“She’s going to think you have the shits or something,” Dax said, cutting into my thoughts.

I winced, because he was probably right. That would be more believable than me telling her the truth.

“She’s offered to come down to see me tomorrow night.”

“Is that wise?”

My dick said yes. My heart–shit, did I have one?–said yes.

“She’ll need to stay with me. Ensure she’s safe in my apartment until I know Sal’s out of the picture.”

“I’ll come over,” he ordered. “We’ll figure out your plan to wrap up that project together.”

He might think I’m stupid for wanting Hannah, but he was helping me keep her anyway.