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I pulled the curtains across the glass opening.

“You get your shit together,” I called over my shoulder. “I’m leaving for about ninety minutes. Don’t leave the apartment—not even to take Odin out. Don’t hang out around the windows. Don’t open the curtains. And don’t open the fucking door. Got it?”

Our eyes met, and I could see how close she was to losing it. I moved up to her quickly, holstered my Beretta, and pulled her against me.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered against her hair. “I just need to keep you safe, okay? Right now, it’s not safe here. I was being followed on the way back here. I took care of him, but there may be others I missed. I need to get you out of here and to someplace where I know you’re okay.”

She cringed at my words and looked away from me. I wanted to apologize for a couple other things as well, like not warning her there was a contract out for her death and maybe for kissing another woman while she fondled my cock, but I didn’t. I couldn’t imagine that it would help the situation at all and had a very real possibility of making it worse.

I kissed Lia softly on the forehead, then tilted her head up and placed another kiss on her lips. She sighed and leaned against me for a moment before she pushed back with her hands on my chest.

“I don’t like this,” she said. She sounded defeated, and I didn’t like it.

“I know, baby. But I’m close, or at least a lot closer. I have some good information, and if it pans out, we could be out of here in a couple of weeks—a month, tops.”

“Where are you going?”

“Back to my apartment,” I told her. “I need to get a few things.”

“Should I go with you?”

I brought my hand up to her cheek.

“I’d rather keep you close, but the chances of my apartment being watched are about one hundred percent. I don’t want you seen.”

“Why not?”

I let out an exasperated breath.

“Please, I can’t explain now. Just listen, okay?”

She pursed her lips but nodded her head. I kissed her once more before checking my Beretta and heading back out the door.

“Remember—don’t answer the door. Not for fucking anybody, all right?”

“I won’t.”

“Good.”

I didn’t want to waste time, so I took a slightly shorter route back to my apartment. I went up north first, so I would at least be coming in from another direction but still arrived in good time. I approached the door to the apartment quietly, listened a moment, and then went inside.

Nothing looked out of place, and maybe my paranoia was kicking in again and maybe it wasn’t, but I did have the distinct feeling someone had been there. There wasn’t anyone there now, though, so I starting to collect what I had come for.

Mainly money.

I had a lot of it stashed away, and though the cops had confiscated about eighty grand in cash lying in the back of my closet, there was still plenty hidden much more discreetly. I had that much in the open just for such an occurrence. If they had found only a few hundred dollars, they would have looked a lot harder to find the rest. They hadn’t even found the bit I had taped to the underside of the dresser, so it was likely they hadn’t found any of my other stashes.

There was a lot more.

In the kitchen underneath the refrigerator’s drip pan was ten grand. There was twenty more sealed in plastic inside the toilet bowl and fifty thousand inside the air ducts. I collected cash from a few other sites and ended up with a hundred and ten when I was done.

More than enough to get us going quickly if that was what we needed to do.

Inside my front closet, I selected one of my duffel bags from the never-ending supply and started to load it with the cash. I’d already been gone an hour, and I wanted to be back as soon as possible. I’d left Lia a little freaked out and wanted to be there with her to keep her calm. I still wasn’t sure if I should tell her about the price on her head or not. Maybe she should know—the situation was just too unfamiliar for me, and I didn’t know what I should do. Every time I thought about telling her, I’d play it over in my mind. Her reaction was never a good one.

r /> “You buggin’ out?”

My gun was in my hand and pointed at the front door less than a second later.

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