Page 20 of Ruthless Enforcer

“For tonight,” Jake says. “Absolutely.”

Clara looks around the room and then back at me. “My uncle is going to think I’m missing.”

Yeah, that’s the next problem to deal with.

“That’s the part I don’t love.” Luke makes a face. “Because from where your uncle is sitting, a Reyes walked out of a gala with his niece, one of her guards ended up dead, and now nobody knows where she is.”

Mandy raises her hand. “What happened to the bodies?”

“I left them.” I shrug at the looks I get. “It was tactical. This way it’s defensible. They attacked, I protected. If I had it cleaned up, it’s a cover-up and makes me look guilty.”

Luke nods. “I’ve got to remember that logic.”

“I’ll tell my uncle I came willingly,” Clara says, pulling me back to attention.

“Anyone can say that under gunpoint,” Mandy points out.

Clara falls silent.

Then she looks at me. I can practically see the machinery turning behind those green eyes.

“No,” I say immediately, shaking my head. I don’t know what she’s got cooking, but I suspect it’s my ass.

Her eyebrows rise. “I haven’t said anything.”

“No, but whatever you're thinking isn’t good.”

“You don’t know what I’m thinking.”

“I know that look.”

She rolls her jewel eyes. “You’ve known me for three hours.”

“They’ve been eventful.”

She ignores that. “Turner needs my uncle to believe you took me against my will. So we change that.”

I point my beer bottle at her. “I think we just established calling James Whitlock and telling him you’re safe isn’t going to be enough.”

“If I call James, you forced me to make the call. If I go home, somebody may try to take me again. If I stay here, it looks like you’re holding me against my will. Because you do have me,” she continues, her voice gaining a strange, rhythmic certainty that weaves around me. “Everyone in Montana already knows Gabriel Reyes walked out of that gala with Clara Whitlock.”

“And that makes me a kidnapper.”

“Only if I’m a victim.”

I have a bad feeling about this. “What are you thinking, Clara?”

She smiles. “I think you should marry me.”

17

CLARA

Ijust proposed to Gabriel Reyes.

I’m not sure which one of us is more shocked.

This is strategy. Nothing more.