Street Game (GhostWalkers, #8)(11)

He winked. “None now that I’m here. We’ll just stay away from the windows. You do have an escape route up here, right?” He couldn’t imagine a planner like Jaimie not incorporating a secret escape or two.

She nodded curtly. “Don’t be cute with me, Javier.” She narrowed her eyes and looked at him closer. “Come here.”

He took a step back, wary of that expression on her face. He’d seen it before on a woman and it never boded well. “I’m just hanging out with you, Jaimie.”

“Really? Then why is there blood on your sleeve?” She wrinkled her nose. “I smell fresh blood.”

The woman had always had sharp eyes. And an even keener sense of smell. Javier shrugged. “All in the line of duty. You had a couple of rats sniffing around your back door, babe. I just took care of them for you, is all.”

She shook her head, jumped from the counter and turned her back on him to busy herself with the coffee. He noted her hands shook. “I’m not doing this again, Javier. You can’t let Mack drag me back in.” She didn’t add cream or sugar, handing the aromatic liquid to him just the way he liked it. “I can’t go back to that life. This is my home now. I’ve established myself in business here and I have a chance to succeed.”

“Mack would want you to succeed,” Javier pointed out, going straight to the heart of the matter. “He’d never do anything to jeopardize you.”

She looked away from him again, her mouth trembling before she managed to bite down hard. He was good at details, better than most, and although Jaimie was adept at covering her emotions, he knew her too well. He took a sip of coffee and savored the great taste.

“Mack and I don’t work together,” she said. “You’re my brother, Javier. It ought to matter that I don’t want to see him.”

“He’s my brother too, and you’re killing him with this separation, Jaimie.”

“He walked out on us. None of you seem to understand that.”

“I understand I haven’t seen you in two years.” He couldn’t help the accusation in his voice. She’d been the closest thing he had to a sister.

Jaimie ducked her head. “I know. I’m sorry. That wasn’t fair of me. I couldn’t have broken away from him unless I made a clean break from all of you.”

“We had to mean something to you.”

She did look up at him then. Quick. Startled. Shocked. “Of course you do. You’re my family. I know I should have kept in touch with all of you. I missed you terribly, every single day. I had no one and I guess I consoled myself with the fact that you all had each other.”

“I saw Mack after you disappeared. He was insane.”

“He didn’t come after me.”

Javier took another swallow of coffee. No, Mack hadn’t followed her and brought her back, and Javier couldn’t explain that one. No one understood Mack, except maybe Kane, and he wasn’t prone to talking much about Mack. They’d all tried to talk to him, but Jaimie became a taboo subject and they learned fast not to mention her.

“I’m not over him,” Jaimie admitted. “I saw him and I just crumbled inside. I can’t go through all that again, Javier.”

“I don’t know what’s going on, Jaimie, but I’m not leaving here until I know you’re safe. That warehouse may or may not be stocked with weapons. We’ll get inside and find out. We’re ghosts, that’s what we do. But not now, not tonight. Tonight your safety is the priority. We’ll have to figure out what’s going on.”

“He’s going to stay, isn’t he?”

Javier cursed inwardly. “Yeah, babe, he’s going to stay. He’d never take a chance with your life either.”

She sighed and shook her head. “You hungry?” Her head came up suddenly and she half turned toward the stairway.

Javier followed her gaze, keeping his voice as casual as ever. “I’m always hungry. You know that.”

You have a couple of rats poking around your back door, Mack’s voice whispered in Javier’s mind. I’m working my way up behind them.

Javier set down his coffee cup, caught Jaimie’s arm, and tugged even as she was moving away from the refrigerator, her eyes wide in understanding. Escape route?

She didn’t ask questions. Jaimie wouldn’t. She was a professional all the way—there’d never been a doubt about that. And she had known about the same time as Mack had spotted them. She always knew. She led the way across to the corner on the water side. Moving a small table, he could see the door in the wall.

Down a chute. I have a boat waiting.

He gave her the signal to stay put right there and drew out a gun to hand her. Jaimie shook her head. He gave her his sternest scowl. It did no good.

Jaimie refuses a weapon, Mack.

Damn it.

The cold, grim tone made him hesitate. Mack wasn’t going to help his cause by getting angry. The last time Jaimie had a gun in her possession, things hadn’t ended up going very well.

Jaimie, damn it, don’t give me trouble, Mack snapped, shoving the words into Jaimie’s mind. We’re in a world of hurt right now. Take the damn gun and use it if you need to. You know how to shoot.

She didn’t argue. She took the gun from Javier and laid it in her lap. She kept her face averted. Javier felt as if he’d slapped her. Tattling wasn’t fun.