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I start jogging for the parking lot, hoping to reach the main road before anybody knows I’m gone. Maybe I can flag down a cop.
It’s not until a black car skids to a stop in front of me that I realize I was never going to get away. I know even before the door opens and a man darts out to grab me and shove me inside that this was the way it was always going to end.
That it wouldn’t be Evan or Mason who killed me. That it would be Dimitri.
“Hello again,” he purrs once I’m inside, and his goon climbs in behind me. “Let’s catch up.”
9
MASON
“To the bathroom?”I look at Evan, who only scowls.
Mom shoots me a look. “What? You don’t think women use the bathroom? I thought you knew better.”
It’s not easy to laugh it off. I go to the door, looking up and down the hallway, but don’t see any sign of her. “I’ll see if she’s okay.” I hear Mom murmuring something to Evan about it being cute, the way I care so much about Frankie. If she only knew.
Rapping on the door, I mutter, “You in there, Frankie?” For the sake of anybody who might be passing by, I keep my voice light. Inside it’s another story. Inside I’m seething. I knew she’d pull something like this. I hoped she’d prove me wrong, though.
Finally, I turn to the front desk, where a cute little thing wears reindeer antlers on her head. “Excuse me, did a girl in a red sweater pass a minute or two ago?”
“Sure. She was in a hurry. I figured she left something in the car and would be right back since she wasn’t wearing a coat.”
She took the first opportunity and hauled ass.Dammit, Frankie. I go outside, searching, knowing I won’t see her. She must’ve taken off at a run.
“Hey, Mom.” I somehow manage to keep it together for her sake on returning to her room. “Frankie’s not feeling well. I think we need to take her home.” Evan doesn’t say anything, but he puts on his coat and picks up Frankie’s.
Mom’s face falls. “Oh, no. I really wanted to get to know her better.”
“We’ll be back soon.” I kiss her forehead and hope I didn’t tell her a lie. Not that I haven’t lied to her before, but this feels different. “I’m sorry to cut our visit short.” Mom murmurs something vague about lunch in the dining room and movies in the entertainment center, so I don’t think she’ll be lonely.
Once we’re outside, Evan blurts out what he’s been holding back. “Motherfucker.”
“I told you the tracker would come in handy.” One of the errands Frankie didn’t need to know about was picking up a tracking device that I then worked under the lining of her new sweater. She’s not going anywhere without me being able to follow on my phone. By the time we reach the car, I have the app pulled up and working.
She’s moving fast. Too fast to be on foot. “Where does she think she’s going?” We stop at a light, and I hold the phone out for Evan to see.
“She’s in a car. She got a ride.”
“Somebody doing a good deed on Christmas Day or something else?” It only takes another moment or two of watching the blue dot’s progress before I know exactly what happened. “He’s got her. It’s Dimitri. They’re going straight to his club.”
“How is that possible?”
“He followed us. I don’t know, but it doesn’t matter now.” The closer the blue dot gets to the seedy section of downtown, the more certain I am. “I’ll fucking kill him.”
“Not if I get to him first.” Evan hits the gas, rocketing the car down the freeway. Traffic’s heavier than it would be on a normal weekday afternoon, but the BMW slides in and out with ease. Every second she’s with him is one second closer to whatever Dimitri has planned. How much time passed between her running and us realizing she ran? A few minutes? Anything can happen in that stretch of time.
She’s mine. Ours. It doesn’t hit me until this moment how true it is. Even with only having spent a short amount of time together, I know she belongs to us. And we don’t take well to anybody fucking with what’s ours.
Surprisingly, Evan seems to feel the same since he is following her without question. We could just leave her with Dimitri and skip town. Instead, we’re heading straight to his club.
Evan parks a couple of blocks down from the place. We get out of the car, heads on a swivel, and go to the trunk. Under the liner, we’ve stashed a couple of guns. I check two of them, making sure they’re loaded before tucking both into my waistband. Evan does the same, then joins me as we head down the otherwise empty sidewalk. It’s like a ghost town at this time of day.
There’s no need to discuss a plan. We know what needs to be done.
Which is why we go through the alley and use the service entrance rather than knocking on the club's front door. He left it unlocked for us. Either he is that stupid, or he knew we’d come for her, and this is a trap. This is his way of killing two birds with one stone—getting Frankie out of the way and eliminating us for failing to complete the assignment.
Entering the kitchen, we find a pair of thick-neck thugs sitting at a prep table eating leftovers. They’re too busy having lunch to notice us. I immediately fire on the one closest to me, and he falls backward off his stool and takes the plate of food with him.
