Chapter Nine – Laina #3
This time, when I struggled with that arm, there was some leeway.
The armrest of the chair moved with my writhing, and I put all of my muscle behind it, using strength I didn’t even know I had.
It was my left hand in question, and though I burned the shit out of my skin around my wrist, the fall must’ve cracked the wood that connected the armrest to the seat of the chair—also the part of the chair that Jason had tied the rope around to anchor me down.
I was able to jerk my hand forward and bust the rest of the broken wood support, pulling my hand, rope and all, off the armrest.
Thank God.
Though the skin on my wrist burned with annoyance, with my left hand free I was able to work on loosening the knot tying down my right. Soon enough I was working on my ankles after getting the rope off my left wrist.
Now, I was no master at knots, but I liked to think I undid myself pretty damn well, all things considered.
Free from the chair, I lunged for the coffee table and grabbed my gauntlets, both of them.
I thought about fiddling with my claws to get them on in case Jason returned, but I decided against it, figuring it’d waste too much time.
My main goal needed to be to get the hell out of here as quickly as possible—and if I ran into him, I could still use the gauntlet as a weapon, even if I wasn’t wearing it.
Now on my own two feet, I pushed past the headache throbbing inside my skull and raced to find the door I assumed would get me out of here.
It looked like a front door rather than a door to an apartment, which led me to think this was a house.
I set my face against the door and tried to listen, to see if I could hear anything just outside.
Jason, for instance, waiting to see if I’d escape. I wouldn’t put it past him that this whole thing was some twisted test.
The door had no peep hole, no windows in it, and no windows in the walls surrounding it, so I had to go with my gut and take a peek to see.
I held both my gauntlets against my side with my left hand while I used my right to open the door.
A few inches was all I needed to look outside and see that Jason was nowhere in sight.
He was gone, and it was freaking dawn. As in, the sun was coming up. Shit. I lost so many hours.
I launched myself from the house, whipping my head back and forth as I followed the stone pathway to the sidewalk. It would seem I emerged from a rather small house in a newer neighborhood—AKA not a district of the city you’d think someone would be held and kidnapped in.
I didn’t see Jason anywhere as I continued to survey the area.
I didn’t see anybody lingering in an idling vehicle nearby, no one stalking me from the shadows.
That paranoid feeling I had so many times before was gone, and I assumed that was because Jason wasn’t here.
He really did leave, for whatever reason.
His mistake.
This city was huge, so I didn’t quite know where I was. I needed to find someone, ask to use their phone. Or, hell, find a cop and see if they knew Lola or Sylvester. Most of the police in this town did; so many were dirty. But in this case, a dirty cop was exactly who I needed.
What else could I do besides start walking?
I couldn’t say how long I walked, but after a good long while, I came across a bus stop—and what would you know, this bus stop had a little map on the side of the overhang that protected those sitting on the bench from the weather.
I was able to figure out just where I was and where I needed to go to get to downtown.
Downtown would be where I’d find an officer, probably.
I was so used to being driven everywhere that I forgot how long it took when you were walking to actually get somewhere.
And this city? It was pretty damn big. The biggest city my dad and I had ever lived in, that’s for sure. If I lived here my whole life, I might’ve known better where to go.
The sun was up in the horizon, warming up the chilly air, by the time I made it to the outer rim of downtown.
The skyscrapers weren’t huge yet—those ones were mainly centered in the city—but it was a start.
The sidewalks got busier the deeper into the city I went, and it was only a matter of time until I stumbled across someone who’d be able to help me, with any luck.
Of course, with my shitty luck, if I stumbled upon a cop, it’d be the one clean cop in this whole damn place. I’d have to say who I was regardless and hope that was enough to get them to do what I wanted.
I happened across a small coffee shop on the corner of a block and found a police car parallel-parked in front of it. The officer, a woman, was sitting inside it, eating what looked to be a breakfast sandwich of some kind.
I went up to the passenger window, did my best to keep my gauntlets out of view, and bent over so I could see the officer inside. I waved to get her attention, and after a while, she rolled down the window somewhat.
“Morning,” she said, sounding both suspicious and on alert. “Is there something I can help you with?”
“Yeah,” I said as I gave her my best million-dollar smile.
“Do you happen to know a Lola Harding or a Sylvester Luciano? I need to get in contact with them. Lost my phone.” I could tell she was about to ask me just what I wanted with those two, so I told her the only other thing I could: “I’m Laina Hawkins, by the way. The mayor’s daughter.”
The woman’s eyes widened then squinted as she set down her sandwich and studied me.
“Hair dye and contacts,” I answered her unspoken question. “Now, uh, I really am kind of strapped for time. Could you please get in touch with either Lola or Sylvester? I need to talk to them.”
Eventually, she nodded and muttered, “Yeah, sure. Let me see what I can do.”
An hour later, I was sitting in the Luciano’s living room, surrounded by Lola and her guys, telling them what happened as we waited for Mike to arrive.
Lola’s hair was messy, as was Maddox’s. I could tell they were in the middle of something and had to press pause on it thanks to me.
Viper was sipping a coffee, while Sylvester was all dressed up in a suit-and-tie combo that he pretty much always seemed to wear.
I didn’t think I’d ever seen the blond mafia prince wear anything besides dress clothes.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, the man looked good. Lola had some good taste.
“So Tessa’s allegedly pregnant and already trying to get you out of the picture,” Lola spoke, her blue eyes vibrant.
“Again. Somehow I’m not surprised. Figured that bitch wouldn’t risk coming back with just the pregnancy card.
” She was leaning against Maddox’s chest, and the heavily tattooed man had an arm around her.
“Who is this guy?” Sylvester asked. “What’s he look like?”
“All I know is his name is Jason, and he’s been watching me for a while.
He’s good at what he does. He’s covered in tattoos, like you—” I gestured to Maddox.
“—but he’s got a blackout tattoo on his neck and his left arm.
Gray hair. He’s probably in his forties.
Maybe early fifties, I don’t know.” I paused before I muttered, “He’s hot. ”
Lola chuckled. “Girly, you do seem to have a type.”
While his girlfriend found me amusing, Sylvester, on the other hand, came at it from an analytical perspective.
“I’ve never heard of anyone like that. Whoever he is, he must’ve kept a low profile when he got here.
Still, I’ll have my men keep their eyes open for a gray-haired man with a blackout tattoo. ”
“If he was doing all of this for Tessa, I don’t understand why he wouldn’t just kill you,” Lola said with a shrug.
“I know, I don’t get it, either. I asked him, and all he said was that he wanted to see the whole picture.
He knows Tessa isn’t telling him everything.
He wants to see it all for himself so he can decide what to do.
” I ran my hand through my hair. Lola had helped me put on my metal fingers, the ones without the blades. I was whole once again.
“What kind of hitman needs the whole picture?” Maddox grunted out. “If he was hired to do a job, shouldn’t he just do it?”
That was something I’d thought about, too. I opened my mouth to respond, but right then another presence appeared in the room—a rather tall, mountainous one, one who rushed straight for me and swept me off the couch and into his arms, earning us both a giggle and a clap from Lola.
“You get her, big guy,” she teased Mike as he hugged me so tightly I thought he might crack a rib.
“I’m okay,” I told him, and only after I said it a second time did he finally let me go.
“What the fuck happened?” he asked, hazel gaze earnest as he sat on the edge of the couch and pulled me down with him, keeping me on his lap—a very PDA move on his part. He’d never been a huge fan of that sort of thing.
So then I had to explain it all over again, something I’d have to do at least one more time, maybe even twice, to Kieran and Fang.
The latter was ready to see me now, it was where Mike and I would go after this, but Kieran hadn’t answered his phone, so I had to leave a voicemail from Lola’s number once I got here.
My phone, with any luck, would be sitting in my room at my place.
And Kelly? Well, I’d have to check on her later. Right now I wanted to focus on me, for obvious reasons.
“Oh,” I deadpanned, “you know me, always getting kidnapped. At least this time I escaped on my own, so I like to think I’m getting better at it.”
He let out the world’s most earth-shattering groan.
“And, bonus for you this time,” Lola finished the story for me. “Her kidnapper was a sexy gray fox with tons of tattoos. I think our girl here has a teeny crush on this Jason guy.”
If looks could kill, well, I would’ve been a goner a long time ago. Still, the expression Mike sent me right then was one that made me squirm, and since I was on his lap, my squirming had an effect. He had to grab me by the hips and stop me from moving.
“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” Mike muttered the first part under his breath, “but we should get going to Fang’s. If Tessa’s behind this, we need to be on the same page… Kieran included.”
“He didn’t answer his phone,” I whispered.
It was Sylvester who said, “For once, not my fault. I don’t have him on anything today.”
Hmm. That was weird, then. Very weird. If he wasn’t working, what the hell was he doing that he couldn’t answer the damn phone?
Lola waved us off. “Go, go. You probably want to do a full-body inspection on your girl to make sure she’s okay.” She sent a dramatic wink Mike’s way, which caused the man to frown deeply.
On a more serious note, Sylvester said, “If we hear anything about this guy, I’ll let you know the moment I do. He made his first move, so I don’t think he’ll be sticking to the shadows any longer.”
“Yeah,” she said. “We’ll get him, one way or another.
The question is… what do you want to do with him once we have him?
” She bit her lower lip and leaned on Maddox’s shoulder.
Viper, who stood off to the side of the couch, still sipping his coffee, was unimpressed by the whole thing, as if stuff like this happened all the time.
And to them, it probably did.
Mike groaned, grabbed my hand, and said, “Come on.” He got up and pulled me out of the room, adjusting himself once we were safely in the hall. It was only when we were in his car, on the road, that he asked me, “You sure you’re all right? You don’t have to pretend around me.”
“I’m fine, really. It was more annoying than anything.
” I got quiet for a few moments as I relived the whole ordeal.
Considering everything, I guessed I was pretty calm.
Weirdly calm, some might’ve said. “This time, it was different, and I don’t just mean it was different because I’m used to getting kidnapped. ”
He glanced at me, waiting for me to continue.
“He was… he was different. He wasn’t some lowlife grunt doing it for the money.
” How the heck could I explain this to Mike without sounding crazy, like I had a crush on him?
Hmm. Maybe sounding like I didn’t have a crush on him would be impossible, because I kind of did.
“He was calm. He acted like he really did want to see the whole picture.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” Mike muttered. “We need to find out who this guy is and where he came from.”
“He’s good. He’s not the kind of person we’re used to dealing with.”
“He can’t be that good if you got away.”
Yeah, about that… the more I thought about it, the more I wondered if he wanted me to get out. I mean, the guy used rope. He left my gauntlets right there. He didn’t secure me that well. “Unless he knew I’d escape, and he wanted me to.”
“Why?”
That, I really didn’t know, so I just shrugged.
This Jason guy might’ve been shrouded in an air of mystery right now, but sooner or later we’d find out more about him. I hated the thought of killing him, but if he worked for Tessa as a problem-solver, he needed to be taken out of the picture entirely. We couldn’t wait until he struck again.
As much as I wanted to say I didn’t think about the strange man during the drive, I’d be lying if I claimed that. Jason and his intensity—not to mention those very lick-able tattoos—held my thoughts in a chokehold even though he was nowhere nearby.
Oh, shit. I really was in trouble, wasn’t I?