AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He still didn’t speak as she strolled away from him, glancing over her shoulder one last time and finding him watching her.The moment she met up with Jacey, her breathing became faster, and she grabbed the phone from her pocket and opened it with shakiness.
“Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Jacey asked, finally noticing her shaking. “You’re pale. Are you okay?”
Kiera merely shook her head, dialing the only number she could think to dial.
“Hello?” he answered, his voice just as gruff as usual.
“Vincent,” she whispered, “the man you’ve been looking for—Krill Laker—he’s here. In the store with me. And I think he’s following me.”
Jacey straightened at the words, whipping her head back toward where he stood and widening her eyes.
Vincent’s tone hardened. “Can you see him?”
Kiera opened her mouth to say yes, but as she glanced at the place where Krill had stood, she found it empty. “No. He—he was just there, though.”
“Don’t move from your spot. I’ll be there soon,” Vincent said. The phone call ended with a beep, and Kiera looked at her flashing screen, wishing he would have stayed on the phone with her until he arrived. Kiera was not easy to scare, and she certainly needed no man to protect her, but something about the situation didn’t sit well with her. Maybe it was a soul-deep instinct that told her of the danger she faced, and maybe it was nothing, but she couldn’t bring herself to ignore the feeling.
“What’s going on?” Jacey asked seriously. “Are we in danger?”
Kiera wanted to lie but spoke the pure, undiluted truth instead. “I don’t know, but I think we are.”
Through all the other shoppers, Kiera noticed a tall, broad man approaching them, staring directly into her eyes as he came. She took a step back, and Jacey followed her. Nobody would take her. Not when Vincent said he was on his way. She’dfight tooth and nail if she had to, but she would not let these people hurt her or Jacey.
Kiera moved from behind the cart and jumped in front of Jacey a mere second before the man reached them, his eyes hard as he looked down at her. She stood a little taller as she faced him.
“Rossi sent me to keep you safe, and he asked that we move to the frozen food section and stay there until he arrives,” the man said monotonously.
Kiera considered the location of the frozen food aisle. It rested in the back of the store, far from any entrances or exits. If the man truly wanted to take her, that would have been the last place he’d request she go. So she nodded and allowed him to lead, not trusting him behind her back. Jacey clutched her hands to her chest as she followed, uncertain what to do in the situation. Neither Jacey nor Kiera knew what was happening, but Kiera imagined that Jacey felt more out of the loop than even her.
Once they reached the aisle, Kiera turned to the tall, broad-shouldered man. He had a bald head and tattoos lining his arms. The tattoos likely extended across the rest of his body, too, but she didn’t dare ask or look closely.
“Have you been following us? Is that how you got here so quickly?”
He didn’t reply, sealing his lips in a way that told her that he wouldn’t divulge anything.
“If you don’t tell me, I’m leaving.” She stiffened her shoulders as if to make good on the promise, and his expression flashed frustration, uncertainty, then nothing.
“He assigned me to ensure your safety,” was all the man said.
Kiera didn’t know what happened to make Vincent believe she was in danger. She’d have to ask him when he arrived.If something was threatening her—threatening her friends—she deserved to know what it was.
And frankly, it frustrated her that he hadn’t told her already.
But by the time he arrived, a gun strapped at his waist and available for all to see, he looked ready to kill, not talk. He passed them by twice, scanning the store, and by the time he returned, she knew that she’d receive no answers from him. Not while he looked so prepared for war and pissed off.
Soon, she promised herself, as he escorted her to her car and saw her off, she’d learn why she needed a guard and why a customer she’d spoken to hundreds of times would be targeting her.
Soon.
8
Vincent couldn’t stop cursing himself as he considered the danger he’d brought down on Kiera. It sickened him to think what could have happened to her if a few variables had been different.
For that reason—with the new motivation to find and end Krill’s life before he could find her again—Vincent sat at his desk and stared at the phone before him. His need to go to Kiera tore at him, ravaging every shred of his self-control. She washis.He would slaughter across the city to keep her safe because nobody had any right to touch the things and the people he claimed for himself.
He’d kill Krill for what he’d done.
Luca's voice came through the phone line after a long moment of silence. “It looks like he used his card at the convenience store on the corner of North Hobart and Haverford,” he mumbled. The sound of a keyboard clacking persisted, and Vincent’s knuckles tightened. “I feel the impatience coming through the phone. Calm down.”
