Chapter 32
Chapter thirty-two
Barrett
“It’s decided then. Fain, you take out the bank manager, and the east side shelter.
Barrett, the environmental accountant and the west side shelter.
And I’ve got the animal rescue manager and the north side shelter.
” Rafe sighs, leaning back on his couch, trying to peel me apart.
The entire morning, his gaze has drifted back to me since I barged into his house demanding we move things along.
“Good. When?”
“It’s not like you to be sloppy.”
“Asking when isn’t sloppy.”
“We need to take them all out on the same night and to do that we need to do some reconnaissance.”
“Fine.” He’s right. Charging forward without lining everything up is sloppy. This eagerness to finish a job is new. I’ve never had a target that threatened someone I…
Someone important to me. It’s been a long time since I had someone important to me. Rafe and Fain don’t count. They can take care of themselves. And in every other aspect of her life, so can Sage. But this type of threat is different. And it’s one I can handle.
“Spill.” Fain kicks my knee, knocking my elbows off and sending me forward before straightening in my seat.
“The woman I used to get into the gala.” I meet their gazes. “She’s mine.”
“She’s the woman that showed up at your club.” Rafe raises a brow. I’m not surprised he recognized her and hadn’t said anything when I showed up at the gala with her on my arm.
“She attempted to blackmail me to kill her brother-in-law. I played along, then made her work her debt off. When she came to me yesterday, scared of Campbell, I told her the debt is paid.”
“And …” Fain circles his hand in the air.
“That she belongs to me,” I mumble.
“Figured with the way she tried to leave this morning without any luck.” Fain lives in the closest house to the gate, but both of them would have been alerted to her car approaching the gate and then again when I opened it to let her through.
“One week.” Rafe leans forward. “If any of us doesn’t have enough intel to execute in one week, we’ll extend, but for now, the plan is one week.”
“Great.” Fain slaps his thighs and stands. “Since I’ll be spending my night on the streets, I’m going to go home to my kitten.” His kitten being Paisley, the collateral he took due to lack of payment on a job—and decided to keep. He slaps me on the shoulder as he passes and walks out the door.
I pull my phone out, staring at the blank screen, impatient to hear from Sage.
“Why is she scared of Campbell?” Rafe’s eyes darken.
“I don’t know. He’s being persistent and her instincts told her to run.”
“To you.”
“To me.” I nod.
“She works for Morrison, doesn’t she? That’s why you used her to get into the gala. An easy ticket.”
I nod.
“And you let her out of the gate this morning?”
I send him a look that says something about glass houses and throwing stones. He may not have claimed Hannah in the same way, but we know he wants her, despite being her figurative guardian.
Standing, I leave without saying anything more. As I’m walking back to my house, I call Sage.
“Hello? This is Sage.” Her professional tone, a higher, sweet sound, greets me. I’m surprised she answered while working, which raises the hairs on the back of my neck.
“Hello, pet. Everything okay?”
There’s a moment of hesitation, just enough for her to pull in a breath before answering. “Yes, but I have to call you back. I’m in the middle of an appointment at the moment.”
“Sage?” But she already hung up. “Fuck.” I heard people talking in the background and wind through the speaker. She’s likely at a viewing. All I can do is wait, hoping she shows up at the gate rather than attempting to go home alone.
I breathe a full breath when the alarm for the front gate echoes from my phone a few hours later. I put in the code to open the gate and wait for Sage at the open front door.
I enjoy watching her. Watching the way her body moves, her mannerisms. Like how she holds her shoulders up as if carrying several bags, but it’s really the weight of her responsibilities.
Her long hair blows across her face in the breeze and she struggles to pull her bag over her shoulder and get her car door shut without jamming anything.
I’ve seen her graceful, bashful, bold, and now flustered.
When she reaches me, I slip my hand around to the back of her neck, brushing her hair out of the way as I do, and kiss her.
I lick at her lips, savouring her taste before diving into her mouth to reignite all the heat simmering from last night.
The warm coals fire instantly. Sage leans her weight against me and wraps an arm around my waist.
The need for air forces me to pull away and let her into the house. Once she has her shoes off and has set her bag down, I lift her chin.
“What happened today?” If I hadn’t been studying her eyes, I might have missed the sudden dilation of her pupils and her quickness to blink away the reaction.
“Nothing.” Sage leans back, attempting to lose my grip, but it doesn’t work.
“Don’t lie to me, pet.” I’m on edge enough that I can’t control the dark warning laced through those words.
She swallows. “Nothing happened. I was at a viewing when you called.”
I nod, fake acceptance of her words. If this is how she wants to play it, then we’ll play. “Lying gets you in trouble. But if you don’t want to tell Daddy what happened today, then we’ll do something else. Strip.”
Sage reaches behind her with no hesitation, pulling at the zipper of her dress.
She’s ready to escape and forget, believing I’ll help her do that.
Her dress is navy blue, fitted, with wide straps on her shoulders, and pockets in front of her hips.
She looks delectably professional in every way except the sheen in her eyes.
“Leave your clothes on the table again.”
“Is this all I come here for then?”
“That’s up to you, pet. Want to tell me what happened today?”
Her gaze drops to the floor and she peels her dress from her body. Disappointment prickles my insides.
When she sets her folded clothes on the table, I take her chin in my palm. “This isn’t the only reason you come here. There’s more to this relationship than sex.”
“Relationship?” She says it with a harsh laugh and backs out of my touch.
“You don’t think that’s what we have, pet?”
“We barely know each other.”
“I know lots about you.”
“Well, I know nothing about you other than you’re an assassin. This isn’t a relationship, what we’re doing, what we did. It’s…” She’s trembling as she backs away from me, closer to the living room where I have some things ready for her.
“Every relationship has its own dynamic. Ours just happens to be unique.” I stalk toward her. This may not be the conversation I wanted to have with her, but at least I have her talking. The information I want will come.
“A relationship, a dynamic, has to have some foundation. I don’t know enough about you. Your favourite food, favourite type of movies, what family you have, how old you are.” The backs of her legs hit the arm of the couch and she windmills her arms to keep her balance.
“The foundation and dynamic are built on personality, not likes and dislikes.” I reach her, running the backs of my knuckles along her jaw. “Now, do you want to continue to argue?”
Her intake of breath is shaky.
“Good girl. Get on the couch on your knees with your elbows on the back.”
Sadness pulls at her face, but she puts herself into position.
Now I need to force her mind to stop thinking.