Dead Drop (The Guild #2)(62)

“Easily done,” I agreed. “So why did Sam make it all sound so urgent that you needed to deal with it? Mo is your second in command, isn’t she?”

Kai’s hands tightened around the steering wheel, his knuckles paling somewhat, and his expression turned murderous. “Good fucking question, Siren. Something I intend to discuss with him directly.”

So long as I didn’t need to deal with Sam, I didn’t fucking care. He’d have been perfectly happy to kill me to satiate his own desire to punish someone. Anyone. Even despite the fact that I genuinely wasn’t to blame for his loved one dying.

Not that I could hold that against him—I’d killed people for less—but I sure as shit wouldn’t be making friends with him anytime soon.

“Your team has some hacking experience, don’t they?” I asked, changing the subject.

Kai shot me a puzzled look. “Some. Why?”

“I’ve been thinking about how you can help me with my little problem,” I said, giving him a hard glare. “Because as crazy as it might seem, multiple orgasms won’t clear my name with the Guild. In fact, I’d go so far as to say it’s distracting me from my objective.” Maybe I’d be better off alone so I could focus better.

Kai scowled at the road ahead like he was plotting murder and didn’t respond for a long moment. Then he shook his head. “Too bad, you’re not getting rid of me.”

I scoffed. “You think you can stop me? Don’t kid yourself.”

He licked his lips, like he was putting a huge effort into containing his out of control caveman tendencies. Like he was trying to temper his gut instinct to lock me in his castle dungeon like Belle.

“I’m going to be perfectly clear with you on this, Siren,” he said carefully, his voice threaded with tension. “But I will do whatever is necessary to ensure you never run from me again. There is nowhere you can hide that I won’t find you. Am I understood?”

The big dick energy was so thick I was gagging on it. In the best kind of way.

“It’s cute that you believe that, Big Man.” I grinned, then on an impulse I couldn’t explain even if I wanted to, I leaned over and smacked a kiss on his cheek.

His reflexes were quicker than I gave him credit for, snapping his hand up to grab my face and catching my lips with his own. He didn’t slow the car or even swerve as he kissed me for far longer than was safe, and it got me all kinds of hot and bothered.

Eventually I pulled out of his grip, though, because I valued my life and would be furious if I died in a stupid car crash instead of a high intensity gun fight.

“So, who is your friend that you called about a place to stay?” Kai asked, changing the subject and adjusting his pants.

I’d put in a call before we left the Hestia safe house, making sure there was a place for us to hide out in Shadow Grove. Luckily, an acquaintance of mine had recently completed his new house build—after his had been burned down a year and a half ago—and the place he’d been renting was vacant.

Vacant and decked out with some of the best security in town. After all, Leon had installed it all himself several years ago while I hung out with him on a contract that had zero use for my skills.

“Zayden De Rosa,” I told Kai. “Do you know him?”

He gave a small nod. “I do. He likes his assault rifles.”

I smirked. “That’s the guy.”

Kai gave me a curious glance, then returned his gaze to the road. “You have some very interesting acquaintances, beautiful.”

“I’ve been working as a mercenary for twenty years, Kai. You meet people along the way, and if you’re not a total moron, you recognize the ones who might become useful one day. And you cultivate those relationships with small favors and assistances.” Like Carlos.

Frowning at that thought, I pulled out my phone and sent him another text message. None of my previous ones had been read, though, which made me worry for his well-being. This didn’t feel like one of his normal disappearances.

“Twenty years?” Kai repeated, oblivious to where my mind had just wandered off to. “Since you were eight? That seems—”

“Did you forget the part where I was literally raised by the Guild?” I cut him off before he could say something stupid about how implausible it was for an eight-year-old to take mercenary jobs. “They have a hierarchy system in place, of sorts. That determines skill level and assigns contracts accordingly. Obviously, the highest paying work goes to alpha level.”

“I take it those are also the most dangerous?” he murmured, his brow creased with worry for past-me.

I shrugged. “No risk, no reward.”

He was silent for a long time, and I shifted my gaze out the window. It would take a few hours to get to Shadow Grove, but it wasn’t uncomfortable being in the car with Kai. Even after all his impassioned confessions in the shower, things weren’t awkward. Of course, part of that could be my flat refusal to acknowledge or discuss it. I was essentially just pretending he hadn’t said anything.

We stopped in Dogwood, and I picked out a new car to boost. A sleek black Chevy Corvette Stingray with less than five thousand miles on the clock. It was a whole lot nicer than the usual kind of car I would steal, but it also had a Death Squad bumper sticker, and Vega fucking owed me.

This time, I drove and Kai sat in the passenger seat like a little thundercloud, lost in his own thoughts while we got back onto the freeway.