My blood roars in my ears as Stacey holds on tight, asking me repeatedly through the Bluetooth what’s going on. I overtake cars, checking around me to see if we’re being followed. I know for a fact we will be. Archie isn’t about to walk away and leave me to it. Bernadette’s husband is a fucking wanker.
I check the mirrors as we slow at lights. Two of my cars are following close. Barry must’ve dealt with my fuck-up if he’s here already. I’m going to fucking lose it with him if he’s been tailing me all day and didn’t think to check me and Stacey weren’t being followed.
My team is surrounding us, boxing us in to protect us. A beep echoes in my helmet and Barry’s voice comes through. “Five cars, boss. I have all of them tracked.”
“Armed?”
“Yeah.”
I swear to myself and grip the throttle. “Didn’t think to tell me he was nearby?” I snap, venom lacing my tone. “He took a damn picture of her.”
“Apologies, sir. We only arrived as he left, and your phone is off. I found you because you used your bank card.”
The lights turn green, and we move again, the wind whipping Stacey’s hair everywhere.
“I suggest you drive faster. They have orders to kill her. We can distract them.”
Fuck.
Thankfully, Barry is only connected to my Bluetooth, so Stacey can’t hear what he’s saying. She does, however, tighten her hold on my midsection, and it annoys me how comforting the feeling is, despite our circumstances.
I take a sharp right. “Get us to the hotel and shut it down. I want everyone we have nearby ready.”
Three SUVs are tailing us, following Barry speeding through the busy streets. I can swerve through traffic, so Archie’s cars slowly fall into the distance. Each time I zoom through a red light, Stacey screams at me to be careful as cars sound their horns at us.
If she had any idea how much of a risk I’d be taking by letting them catch up to us, she’d tell me to go faster.
They have orders to kill her. Not fucking happening .
There are rules for me. I’m not allowed to fuck around without asking for permission. I’m not allowed to have a girlfriend. And I’m definitely not allowed to take pretty girls on motorbikes – on a borderline date.
But when I’m around Stacey, all common sense fucks off out the window – even my five rules are void. It shouldn’t be this way. When I woke up with her in my arms, I should have snuck out and got the hell away from her. I shouldn’t have called her when I was high, when I was covered in blood and so far from reality that I thought she was paying for my services.
I should have left her alone when I walked away from her two years ago. I should have kept my distance – cut her out of my life completely, but I had to watch her. I needed to watch her. The only things that held me together were the moments I’d see her true smile, hear her laugh when I tapped into the manor’s security system and she was with Luciella. Watch the way she’d move in the dance studio, unaware of my prying eyes.
When she goes home, my connection cuts off. There’s something about that place. I was never able to hack into it – still can’t. Even her phone is untouchable, and no matter how much Barry and I try, we can’t get into that either.
Barry thinks this obsession with my ex is unhealthy. I disagree. It’s the only thing keeping me sane in my world.
Watching her isn’t a problem. I’ll most likely still watch her when I get her the fuck out of this country. I just need to be more discreet.
I should never have picked her up from that house. Being so close to her, being in a hotel room with her, triggered something animalistic in me, and watching her from afar was no longer enough .
I shouldn’t have forced my way back into her life.
She’d be safe.
“Did you hear gunshots?” Stacey asks, her voice full of panic. “Kade, I think they have guns!”
“They do.”
“Oh my God,” she cries. Her fingers grip my top. “I don’t want to die.”
“You’re not going to die.”
Blackmailing me with my father was enough to make me agree to Bernadette’s terms, but if she finds out who Stacey is to me – or was – then I dread to think about the punishment. Coldness wreaks havoc inside me as I consider how much worse this can get.
Barry drives in front, another car trailing behind, and tells me that the hotel has been evacuated. We’ll drive in through the back, and we already have a team waiting for us. He also tells me that Archie already sent Bernadette the photo of Stacey and they’re conducting a search for her identity.
I fist the handlebars of the motorbike. “Fuck!”
Fucking Archie. One move and I’d be able to snap his neck without even blinking. But that would only piss off his wife and I’m not ready to attend the funerals of my loved ones anytime soon.
Fuming, I zip and zoom between vehicles to make sure they don’t catch up while two of my cars distract them. My blood boils as I realise Archie would have seen her before making himself known at the pier. He would’ve seen her body, heard her breathy moans and the way my name sounded on her tongue. The fucking predator probably got off on watching us, waiting for the perfect moment to announce himself .
Fuck. This is what I wanted to avoid. I thought by being in America, I’d have some privacy. I should have known keeping my phone off and accidentally using my main account would’ve sent signals to them. I was already in the shit for shooting one of Bernadette’s friends. A political leader, or whatever the fuck he was.
A bang sounds, and Stacey flinches around me.
I swerve as another gunshot misses us by an inch.
I tighten my thighs around the bike and lean back. “Sit in front of me,” I tell Stacey while one of my guys hangs out the window and fires back. I try to keep my voice steady as I say, “Swing your leg around and I’ll catch you.”
“What?”
“I need to shield you.”
When she doesn’t shift, and another bullet nears us, I grit my teeth. “Move, Stacey.”
I try not to freak the fuck out as a whistle passes my helmet. She shakes, but her nails release my top, and she slowly moves to my side, clinging to me for dear life.
I take her leg first and pull it around me while her arms wrap around my neck. Stacey climbs around me, and I help her as I control the bike.
Her voice trembles as her legs drape over my thighs. “Kade…”
“Don’t wrap your arms around me – hold my top at my front.” I narrowly miss a truck as I pull the throttle, bullets whizzing past me as I shield Stacey at the same time as dodging traffic.
Her body is so small against me, and it pisses me off that she always feels like home.
Now I have her in front of me, the bullets are aimed at my guards instead.
They won’t kill me. I bring in too much profit and am one of the best assassins; plus, Bernie seems to be obsessed with me. She’s possessive and controlling, and if it had been her who’d caught us, Stacey would be dead already.
My heart races as I repeatedly reassure Stacey that I’ll get her to the hotel, that I’ll get her out of the fucking country before they find out who she is.
She cries and holds me tighter, legs dangling over my own and tensing as I push right. I can hear her heavy breaths, the little squeaks she makes when I dodge cars left and right.