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I stepped back and admired my paperwork.
I was officially Crimson Osborn.
I snapped a photo with my phone and sent it to the man that’d fucked me so hard last night I had trouble walking this morning.
Then I turned it on silent and went to work.
I didn’t look at it again for another half a day.
And wished I had.
CHAPTER 15
I’m always here if you ever need a shoulder to put your legs on.
-Winston to Crimson
WINSTON
“Answer your goddamn phone,” I growled.
She didn’t, of course.
For the fourteenth time, it went to voicemail.
I looked at the tracker that LaDerrick was able to get inserted into an app on Idabell Lancaster’s phone.
She was only minutes away from her daughter, and I was half a goddamn world away.
I cursed and called the sisters, one by one, all over again.
And got nothing.
Son of a bitch!
I tried Keene’s phone again as well, and still got nothing.
After another three failed attempts to get ahold of one of them, I called LaDerrick back.
“You and Jareth get to the circus and pick her and her mother up,” I said. “I have another hour or two here, dealing with business. Then I’ll get on the first plane back. House them in my condo until I get back. I want twenty-four-seven surveillance on the both of them. Don’t let the mother out of your sight, though. And don’t let her snoop around my home.”
LaDerrick, who knew how to fuckin’ answer his phone, agreed with a clipped ‘yes, sir’ and hung up.
I spent the next two hours wondering what in the hell I was doing, bringing them both to my condo. To my sanctuary. The one place that was never touched by anyone but me.
I didn’t want the mother there, but it was the easiest way to get her where I wanted her without setting off a ton of red flags. Plus, it was my every intention to get her to talk the easy way—via Crimson. If I had to wade in, it wasn’t going to be nice, and it wasn’t going to be easy.
I went back to my meeting, the surveillance app open on my phone while I worked, and kept an eye on my apartment.
It took them over three hours to arrive. But arrive they did.
• • •
After shaking hands with a few investors, ones that weren’t interested in my legitimate business, but my making sure there are less creeps in the world business, I finally turned on the audio and backpedaled to when Crimson, her mother, LaDerrick, and Jareth got to my apartment.
Neither Jareth nor LaDerrick had been to my apartment, either. Meaning it was a new thing for them all.
The one least affected by their new surroundings was Crimson.
“When do you think you’ll tell me what’s going on?” Crimson asked over the video.
Cool and collected.
That was my girl.
“Boss says that you need to be here, you need to be here.” He shrugged. “I didn’t ask questions.”
“And her?” Crimson asked, staring at her mother who was looking on with a mutinous expression on her face.
Crimson’s lips twitched, so I knew she thought it was funny.
“He wants her secured and in a place he can surveil until he gets back from his overseas trip.”
“And when will that be?” Idabell hissed. “I’m not staying here forever.”
I thought ‘you will if I want you to’ just as Jareth parroted my thoughts.
“You’ll stay here as long as Winston wants you to stay here,” Jareth growled. “And you’ll shut your fuckin’ mouth, keep your ducks in a row, and not bother us at fucking all.”
God, I loved Jareth.
He was six foot-four, two hundred and eighty pounds, and a former Marine.
There was no soft bone in his body.
He looked like he could blow you over with his breath alone, and people found him intimidating, just the way I liked it. But also, he was as soft as a baby’s butt.
He had seven kids with his wife, Melisandre. With another one on the way. He loved those kids unconditionally, treated his wife like gold, and thought every woman in this world should be protected.
He’d been in Somalia with me, him in his military career and me on a black ops mission, when we’d first met. I’d liked the way he handled himself, loved the way he became so protective of the children, and remembered him for years because of a story he told about his wife, Melisandre, who’d been abducted at the age of sixteen.
That story had stuck with me for a long time until I finally got to a point where I could start doing clandestine missions on my own, and needed a security chief at home who could have my back whenever and however I needed it.
He’d readily accepted, as long as it didn’t take him out of the city, and he could be with his kids every night.
