The Beautiful Thief (Stolen Hearts #2)(48)

Melody leaned forward to see who she was talking to and the notebook fell out of her hand when she saw Adam walk in with Scott. It was her turn to jump up as Adam’s eyes found hers. Before she could get sucked into the ice-blue, the red on his arm got her attention. “Oh my God, what happened?”

“You ditched me and I found trouble.”

“Come on.” Scott walked straight back to the bathroom area. “I have a first-aid kit.” He held up the black briefcase-sized box. Obviously it wasn’t just some Band-Aids and antibiotic ointment.

“A first-aid kit! He needs to go to the hospital.”

“I don’t need to go to the hospital.” Adam winced immediately after as Scott poured something over the gaping wound on his arm.

Toni went pale as the blood and alcohol mixed in the sink. “What the hell happened?”

“Forbes found Smith, and I found them both.”

“Bastard is traveling with bodyguards,” muttered Adam as Scott twisted his arm around. Adam jerked his arm free and drops of blood spilled on the counter. “I got this,” he snapped. “Go empty the mini bar or something.”

“The mini bar?” asked Toni. “Where exactly did you find him?”

“The bigger bar,” said Scott dryly as he backed up to let Adam take over. “What did I miss?”

“A failed brainstorm session about how to kill Forbes. Which is even harder now that he knows what you look like. Which makes exactly zero people he doesn’t know about who are here. You were off ruining our one chance of surprising this guy and you’re supposed to be the one who is so good at all this strategy stuff. So, yeah, that about sums up what you missed.”

Adam scoffed. “Didn’t realize I was stepping in the middle of something.”

“You’re not even supposed to be here,” said Melody. It sounded harsh, but here he was, bleeding all over the place while Scott and Toni bickered and she just wasn’t at a spot she could handle this.

Adam motioned with his head to Scott. “He thought I could help. Some people think I’m useful.”

“What name is this room under?” asked Scott, ignoring Adam.

“I got into the computers first thing,” said Toni. “As far as they know, this room is rented by long-term tenants. If they’re looking for Melody, they’d only look for short-term stays.”

“I think you’re going to need to get another room. It’s feeling a little crowded.”

“Easy. I just need to get into the lobby to access the employee Wi-Fi. Their router is shit.”

“Good. Let’s go. We can strategize. As it happens, I do have ideas.”

“Ideas I need to know too,” pointed out Melody.

“Don’t worry. I’m sure Toni will be the first person to tell me if I have any stupid ones. We’ll be back in a few.”

Toni started to collect her laptop.

“Wait!” called Melody as they reached the door

They both stopped and looked at her. “Why?” asked Toni.

Melody’s mouth opened and closed. “Never mind,” she murmured. “Just go.”

The door shut behind them and Melody stared wistfully at her buffers as she was left alone with Adam.

“Finally,” he said. “Maybe if they screw, it will keep your sister from killing me.”

That snapped Melody out of it. “What?” she snapped as she turned around to where he had started to stitch himself together. Wow, that was fast. How many wounds had he stitched up in his time?

“That was the infamous Toni and she didn’t stab me, shoot me, or scold me. I’m the last person to pick up on emotional subtleties, but trust me, those two want to bone.”

“People don’t use the word ‘bone’ anymore.”

Adam put another stitch in his arm. “Sorry I’m not much for conversation at the moment. I’m trying not to bleed out.”

“It’s not bleeding that much.”

“You’re really coming up short on the sympathy today, aren’t you?”

“I told you to leave. If you had gotten out of town when I told you to—”

“Don’t,” warned Adam as he put in the last stitch. He used his free hand to cut the needle end of the string off.

Melody might not be trained to treat a field injury, but she knew the next step in giving stitches was easier with two hands.

“Hold on.” The string was slick with blood but Melody forced herself to not think about what she was doing. Only the end result of what needed to get done. “You need to go to a doctor.”

“I’ve had worse.”

“Doesn’t mean you don’t need to see a doctor.”

He let out a bitter laugh. “You see, when you say things like that, it almost makes me think you care.”

Melody looked up at him through her lashes. “Don’t do this, Adam.”

“That’s right. You wanted to just send me back to the swamp, didn’t you? You got everything you could out of me and now that your sister and rent-a-cop are here, I can wander back into the darkness.”

“It’s easy to think that, isn’t it?”

“Think it? It’s exactly what happened. I was there. I lived it.”