Chapter Nineteen
T ori didn’t like the idea of the other couple sticking their neck out for her. She hated knowing Jeter nearly died, thanks to her. She didn’t think she could live with herself if anything happened to one of them. “Why can’t we just use your car, and you guys drive mine until we return?”
Enzo raised a brow. His eyes darted to Jeter’s. “Is she worried about our safety?”
“Yeah. Isn’t she cute?” Jeter asked.
She lifted her middle fingers on both hands, giving them the bird. “I have something cute for both of you.”
“I knew I liked her,” Sophie exclaimed. Her hand slapped the table as she laughed.
Enzo tugged her around to face him. “You would. Now hush and kiss me. We leave in five minutes.”
Tori got up from the table, gathered up the trash, and turned to toss it in the garbage. Jeter grabbed her arm before she could walk away. “You okay?”
She swallowed. “Yeah. I just want to get going. Get away from here. You know?”
His thumb smoothed over her forearm, making her flesh pebble from his touch. “If I had a magic wand, I’d make it all disappear.”
She licked her lips and nodded. “All except you.”
“Damn right. No way I’d erase you and me.” He let her go, watching as she moved toward the trash can. He eyed her ass as she walked toward the bathroom. Her sexy, swaying walk captivated him as surely as if she were a magician.
“You got it bad, brother,” Enzo said in a deep voice as she entered the bathroom.
Tori shut the wooden door and leaned against it. She let out the air she’d been holding as she walked away from Jeter, then sucked in another lung full. Holy shit. She feared she’d pass out.
“Nothing can happen to any of them,” she whispered.
She hurriedly went to the bathroom, washed up, and ensured they hadn’t left anything inside. With her back straight, she pulled the door open. Jeter stood outside, leaning against the wall with one foot propped up like he’d been waiting for a while. Only she knew he hadn’t been there long since she wasn’t inside for over five minutes or so. “What’re you doing?” she questioned him.
“Waiting on you.”
She wanted to roll her eyes at his absurd statement. “Thank you, Captain Obvious. I mean, why are you standing out here waiting for me?”
He dropped his leg and stood to his full height. “Let’s see. My woman looked upset and went to the bathroom, so I came to check on her. Doesn’t that sound reasonable?”
“I didn’t look that upset, did I?” she asked. Her face felt hot at the thought of the other two seeing her look like a fool.
Jeter pulled her hands away from her cheeks. “I could tell because I pay attention, Vita Mia. Honestly, I think if you stubbed your toe across a crowded room, I would probably know it and swoop in to fix you. You’ve imprinted on my DNA, or so it seems.”
She let out a laugh. “That sounds like one of those Twilight movies.”
He narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips.
“You know, the werewolf and vampire saga movies? Oh, come on, everyone was either Team Jacob or Team Edward. Well, I was Team Threesome, but that’s basically the same thing.” She tried to look serious.
His fingers danced along her ribs, making her squirm and giggle. “Team threesome, huh?” he asked.
“Only kidding,” she wheezed. Her hands tried to stop his as he continued to tickle her. When she knew she was no match for him, she hopped up, wrapping her legs around his waist. Knowing he wouldn’t let her fall, she locked her ankles around his back with her arms secured at his nape. His hands gripped her ass.
“You don’t play fair, Vita Mia. Fucking werewolves and vampires, my ass.” He stroked his thumbs over her curves, humming a song she couldn’t decipher.
“Hey, you two ain’t got time for a quickie. Let’s roll,” Enzo yelled from down the hall.
Tori buried her face in Jeter’s throat and snorted a laugh. “Oh, my fucking god. I thought they left.”
“Nope. However, I’m down for a quickie if you are.” He rubbed her against his thickening shaft to let her know he was serious.
She tugged his head up by the back of his hair. “Rain check.”
After unlocking her ankles, she dropped to the floor with Jeter’s assistance. They walked down the hall together, holding hands toward Enzo and a smiling Sophie.
“I moved my seat up for you, Tori.”
The other woman held a set of keys in her hand with what appeared to be a set of plastic knuckles as the keyring. “Ah, thank you.”
Sophie shrugged. She and Enzo led the way back out of the warehouse. She winced as the sun blinded her as they stepped outside, realizing they’d been in the tiny suite-like apartment with no windows for quite a while. How people lived in cave-like homes puzzled her. Tori couldn’t imagine living in one for an extended amount of time.
They came to a sporty, four-door vehicle with tinted windows and chrome wheels. The idea of anyone thinking that the high-end Benz could blend into her neighborhood was laughable. Of course, she saw several Teslas and other expensive cars driving around. Not that her Bronco had been chump change. She was being ridiculous.
JETER PULLED A BEANIE over his head as they drove through Chicago. As they’d prepared to leave, Enzo had gotten a text and needed to stay at the clubhouse because of an emergency. Now, it was just him and Tori heading to her apartment. For the first time that he could remember, he was nervous. Shit, if having an ole’ lady stressed a man out after a day, he could understand why King stomped around and carried Ayesha off every night. Fuck that. He would chain Tori to his side so there would be no surprises or issues.
“Penny for them?” Tori interrupted his thoughts. She looked at him from the corner of her eye and easily maneuvered the sporty Benz through traffic.
“A what?” he asked.
She tapped her finger against his head. “Your thoughts.”
He grabbed her hand, placing it on his thigh. “That’s cute. I’m afraid I’d owe you some change, babe.”
Her fingers spread, entwining hers with his. He stared at her smooth skin compared to his rough, tatted-up one. “You’re cute, too. We should get matching tattoos when this is over.”
He looked over to see if she was being serious or fucking with him. Her eyes were staring straight ahead. Every line in her body was tense. Yet he couldn’t tell if she was bullshitting him or what. “What do you have in mind?”
They stopped at a red light, and she looked over at him. “Something meaningful,” she said.
Jeter nodded. He pulled out his phone and typed a message to Keys, letting him know they were on their way to Tori’s apartment.
‘How much time before you get there?’
“Keys wants to know our eta?” he asked Tori. He held his thumb over the keyboard, ready to text his reply.
“Approximately fifteen minutes.” Tori rocked her hand back and forth.
‘Fifteen minutes, give or take. You got any updates for me?’
His phone rang with Keys name appearing on the screen. “Hey, brother. You’re on speakerphone with Tori and me.” He ensured his friend knew she was listening unless Keys wanted to talk to him without her overhearing. The club had rules he wouldn’t break, ever.
“Good to hear, Jeter. From what I've seen, there’s been no motion. I pulled the live camera feeds from several places around her apartment. There’s a gas station around the corner, an ATM on the opposite corner, and every red light has one at each intersection. The issue I ran into is that there’s a shitton of assholes out and about at that time of the night. You’d think people would stay their asses at home when it’s cold out, but nope, damn, Chicago peeps just keep on trucking. No worries, though. I have a program narrowing down a few leads.” He sounded excited.
“I’ll let you know when we pull up. We’re in Enzo’s ole’ lady’s car.” Jeter gave him the description. Since he didn’t know the license plate number, he searched for the VIN number in the glove box, finding it on the insurance paper. Keys said he didn’t need anything else for now and hung up.
“That’s kind of scary to think he can track people through camera feeds like that,” she mumbled. Turning to look at him and biting her lip.
“Thank fuck he’s on our side,” he agreed.
A few minutes later, she circled an apartment complex. He looked around the area, noting the different vehicles, and checked the license plates. “Do you see anything that stands out as strange?”
She turned the signal on to show they were turning right. He didn’t like seeing her shoulders hunched as she sat too close to the steering wheel. She kept looking back and forth as if lost. “I don’t know. When I go out, I usually get in my car and just drive off. I’ve never been one to walk around the neighborhood and chat with old Miss Thompson down the street.”
He reached for her hand, needing to offer her reassurance that everything would be fine.
“Here we go,” she said, as it was their turn to go at the intersection.
Jeter felt like a prisoner in a cage. He did his best to act calm until shattering glass echoed in the air. Tori screamed as he tried to cover her head with his arm. “Go, baby. Drive, drive, drive,” yelled.
The gunshot came from behind them, but he didn’t know if it was from a person in another vehicle or not.
He hit the speed dial for his brother. “We’ve got trouble. Someone is shooting at us.”
“Where the fuck are you?” Kendrick demanded.
Jeter looked at the streets, trying to see a sign. Tori had tears streaming down her cheeks. Fucking hell. When he saw the next cross street up ahead, he rattled the name off to his brother.
“We’re two blocks away and closing in. Can you get her to pull over and let you drive?”
He opened his mouth to respond, but a yell escaped. The truck driving in the opposite direction revved its engine, and then he slammed into the side of the Benz. Their car did a hard jerk to the right and then to the left as Tori tried to correct them. Tires squealed. Metal crunched.
“We’ve been hit. It’s an ambush, Kendrick. Fuck, I’m going to kill the motherfucker.” He pulled the gun out of his back holster, took the safety off, and looked around them.
Tori was still pushing the pedal on the car, getting them away from the wreckage as much as possible. The poor vehicle couldn’t take much more damage.
A big black SUV turned in front of them, heading in their direction. He aimed the gun at the windshield.
His phone rang. “What?” he yelled.
“Don’t shoot.” Kendrick’s voice was icy. The big vehicle came to a rocking top next to theirs, followed by another, blocking Jeter and Tori’s car from view. A huge man, Jeter recognized as his brother’s second, climbed out, holding a black umbrella. Andre moved to the driver’s door and waited.
He got out, walked around the car, and nodded to Andre.
Bending down, he knocked on Tori’s window. “Come on, Vita Mia. Let’s go.”
She tried to open the door, fear making her pale face ashen.
Andre handed Jeter the bulletproof umbrella. “I got this,” he growled. His hand gripped the parts of the door that gave him leverage, and he pulled.
The metal door protested with a loud screech and finally opened when he gave a hard pull. Jeter returned the umbrella to Andre, swooped down, unbuckled Tori, and lifted her into his arms.
“I got you,” he murmured low enough that only she could hear.
He slid her inside the first SUV, meeting Kendrick’s hard gaze. “We need to end this.”
“On that, we agree. This was a complication I didn’t see coming, brother.” He looked at Tori wrapped in Jeter’s arms.
She sat up, seeming to snap out of the shock gripping her.
“Can someone please explain to me what the fuck is going on?” she screamed.