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“My car would have to be in my stalker’s line of sight, so that narrows the field quite a bit,” I offered, tilting my head in the direction of Luke’s phone so Steele, whoever that was, could hear me. Unfortunately, that upward tilt of my face was too much like a plea for a kiss, so my cooled blood began to heat all over again. “In fact, if you put yourself in this jerk’s mind, you might think he’d want a clear view of my face as I’m rounding the driver’s side of my car, only to discover the gift he left me. So… what would that be? The west side of the parking lot and the lot next door to the restaurant, maybe?”
For a fraction of a second Luke tilted his head in that direction. “Yeah. Eden’s right. I’ll bet he’s—”
A shriek of tires peeling out drag race-style made me yelp before a dark pickup truck blasted out of the lot next door to the restaurant and bounced into Mag Mile traffic.
“Go, go, go.” Luke grabbed my wrist and ran to a low-slung BMW sedan and all but flung me into the passenger’s seat. “I’ve secured the protectee. Run this fucker to ground before he gets away.”
Chapter Six
Caveman Tactics
Luke
“At least we got crab legs and sushi out of it, so the day wasn’t a total loss.”
As there were only the two of us left in PSI’s conference room, I threw Steele a look that should have blasted the skin off his skeleton while he packed crab legs and lobster tails into the carry-out boxes they’d come in. “Fuck off, asshole. Then once you’re done with that, fuck off some more. Then, when you think you’ve finally reached your ultimate fuck-off limit, keep fucking all the way off until you hit the ocean.”
Steele whistled. “Damn, someone’s in a bad mood.”
“We could’ve had him,” I muttered for what had to be the fiftieth time. Which made sense; they were the only words I had in my brain. “If it hadn’t been for my dumbass twitch toward where that fucker was holed up, we could’ve blocked off all the parking lot exits and bottled him in. No muss, no fuss.”
“Yeah, well, we’ll get him next time.”
“There isn’t going to be a next time, Steele. Not like this.” I paced along the edge of the room, too keyed up to sit. “He now knows Eden’s got me on her side. That’s a plus for her safety, and that’s great. But it’s now going to be a million times harder trying to dig this guy out from whatever rock he’s hiding under.”
“Maybe he’ll get the message and just go away.”
“Considering his level of obsession, that’s pretty much impossible to believe.”
“So then we’ll keep her safe.”
“For how long? Her father’s the one with the mega money, not Eden. She can’t keep PSI on an open-ended retainer. We need to fix this—find this asshole ourselves before she goes bankrupt.”
Steele grimaced. “We’re private security, Luke, not detectives. If and when she runs out of money and we still haven’t gotten this guy, she’s going to have to go to the police.”
“She doesn’t want anything to reflect badly on her father’s life, to the point of putting her own at risk.”
“Well then, there’s your answer. Her old man’s fame put her in the spotlight, yeah? This is all on him. She should go to him and ask for the money to cover her security detail for the long-term. God knows he can afford it.”
“Not gonna happen.” Of that, I was absolutely sure. “She’s obviously determined to make sure Tru Steadfast doesn’t put any strings on her to bring her back into the fold, I doubt she’d ask him for the time of day.”
“So then he should just give her the money,” Steele muttered, a scowl pulling at the scars drawn across half his face. “You said Eden talked to him today, yeah? He now knows his kid’s in trouble. Sonofabitch should be happy to pony up the dough to keep her safe. I don’t care how old she is, that man is her father and she’s his little girl. He should be fucking honored for the chance to take care of his kid.”
I slowed my pacing to shoot him a grin. “It’s amazing how you measure a parent by your own insanely high standards, dude. You’re consistently Father-of-the-Year material for Tory and Maddox, because everything you do is for them and for that amazing wife of yours. But Truman Steadfast?” I scoffed, and even I could hear the disdain in it. “I’d be willing to bet that guy moves heaven and earthonlyfor Truman Steadfast. He’s not fit to breathe your air. Or Eden’s.”
“Or Eden’s, huh?” Resting a hip on the conference table, he watched me with narrowed eyes. “I take it you finally got a good read of Eden Steadfast?”
Talk about a loaded question. “I’m getting there.”
“Was that before or after you put your tongue down her throat? It’s not like you were wearing an invisibility cloak,” he added, spreading his arms wide while I tried to glare a hole through his head. “Hell, even Nix, Mr. Minding-My-Own-Business himself, had something to say about you making the moves on a protectee.”
“What the hell did he have to say? And for the record, Eden wasn’t officially a protectee at that moment.”
“Well, she’s a protectee now, and Nix said—and I’m quoting here—what the actual fuck is Keyes doing, frisking her with his tongue?I’ll admit I laughed, but the question is valid. What the hell were you thinking?”
“I was thinking she was fuckingscared, Steele. But it doesn’t come out as fear, because she’s one of those weird people whose wires are all fucked up.”
“What does that mean?”
