Dead Drop (The Guild #2)(33)
Huffing a sigh, I clicked through the pages until I found the data I’d specifically requested. Her home address.
“Iceland?” I murmured aloud. “I knew we were made for each other.” I clicked through the evidence and satellite images, committing everything there was to know about Danny’s home into my memory. She was unlikely to return there; Douglas’s notes told me the security had been recently breached.
“How’d you manage to hide this so fucking well, mon cœur?” I whispered the question aloud but found my answer a moment later. “Fucking Carlos.”
She trusted him far too fucking much. It was a complication that I didn’t appreciate. Would she be upset if she never saw him again? Would she cry?
I bet she was a vision with all that black mascara smudged down her face, but I’d rather it be from her eyes watering when I fucked her throat too hard. Not crying over some limp dick drug lord that I disposed of.
With a frustrated sigh, I fixed my clothes and shut down my computer. The whole unit automatically wiped clear on shutdown, so I had no worries of someone hacking my own device, with all my important files saving to an ultra-secure cloud server.
All of my staff eyed me cautiously as I stalked out of the office without a word. They were fairly used to working without me in the building and were always a bit jumpy when I popped in unannounced like this. Not that I gave two shits about their comfort, but I’d rather they focus on doing their work.
My phone buzzed with an incoming call as I made my way out of the building, and I paused to check it. My excitement quickly dashed when I saw it wasn’t my woman calling to say she missed me. Because I missed her. Like I’d cut out a vital piece of me and left it behind in that bloody hotel room a few nights ago.
The number that was calling was unexpected enough for me to answer anyway.
“Mr. Timber,” I greeted the caller with a smirk, walking slowly down the street to where I’d parked. “What trouble has your lovely wife gotten into this time?”
The man on the other end gave a harsh chuckle. “Nothing we can’t handle, thanks. But you might need our help for once.”
My brows rose and I stopped completely, ignoring the other pedestrians who needed to walk around me. “Oh? Do tell, Zayden.”
“Someone’s put out a hit on you, Leon. Ezekiel brought it to our attention when it was offered to his people first.” He sounded clipped and annoyed. “Seeing as we owe you for Lucas, I figured maybe you’d appreciate the heads-up.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. “Someone put a hit on me?” It was beyond laughable. “And thought someone outside the Guild could pull it off?”
Amused as hell, but also quietly furious, I fished in my coat pocket for my key fob. My car was still half a block away but close enough that the remote engine ignition would work.
“Trust me, the boss was equally amused. But she said we needed to let you know so it’s crystal clear we won’t be involved. Ezekiel knows, too.” Zed sounded cautious, like he was worried I might shoot the messenger. Ezekiel ran a black ops company that was small but skilled. If they were about twenty times the size they currently were, they’d be a rival to the Guild, so it was probably a good thing he was staying out of this little dispute. I knew it would benefit me to indebt the fearsome leader of the Timberwolves, because she held Ezekiel’s leash in an iron grip.
I clicked my key fob and didn’t flinch when my car exploded.
“Pathetic,” I muttered. “Sloppy, lazy work. We need better industry standards.”
Zed gave a laugh of agreement. “Car bomb?”
I grunted my response, then ended the call. We weren’t friends, so there was no need for pleasantries, and the Timber family would likely continue to owe me for a long time. Even though it’d been my debt to Layla that had seen me help them in the first place.
Layla. Fucking Layla. I needed to find whatever information she’d hidden away from the Guild. Whatever it was, it got her killed. And it was about to get Danny killed. That was utterly unacceptable, so I would retrace Layla’s steps, and somewhere along the way, I’d find whatever she’d hidden.
Starting with the visit she paid to a prisoner.
I continued down the street, totally ignoring the flaming ruins of my car and screaming, injured bystanders. I had more important business to deal with.
15
Despite what I’d told Kai, I hadn’t called Leon after shutting myself away in the bedroom. It’d been tempting, crazy tempting. But I’d never been the kind of girl who depended on anyone and certainly never on a man. The closest I’d ever come to a committed relationship was the year I’d spent dating Ricardo, Carlos’s younger brother. Then that went to shit spectacularly, and I’d been pretty settled in the idea of being alone.
Just me and Stanley, happily ever after.
So I’d talked myself out of calling Leon, because he’d been crystal clear in telling me not to trust him. Everyone in the Guild had ulterior motives, and he was no exception. That didn’t stop me wishing he would call me, though. I missed him.
Not in a I need his protection kind of way, either. I just missed him. All his crazy, unpredictable shit. It kept me on my toes, never sure whether he was thinking about fucking or fighting or fondue. It’d only been a couple of days since he’d left me well fucked and passed out cold, but it seemed like far too long.