“What next?”
“I turned and ran.”
“Good. What did he do?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t look back. I just kept running.”
I nodded, frowning to myself.
So Tony was a gangster for real, and Piper had walked in on a drug deal gone wrong. She saw Tony and his associates murder some men, and if I knew one thing about the mob, it was that they fucking hated when people saw them murder people.
Which was why it was smart that Piper ran. If she hadn’t, she’d probably be dead.
“I’m glad you called me,” I said.
“I’m so scared,” she whispered. “I took all my money out. Checking and savings. I didn’t know what else to do.”
I nodded. “That’s good. Cash is good. They can’t track cash.”
“I didn’t know who to call. I knew the police would never believe me, and as soon as Tony knew where I was I’d be dead.”
“That was smart. The cops might even be bought by his people.”
“His people? What do you mean?”
“He’s a mobster. I mean, I assume he is.” I shrugged. “Makes sense.”
“Oh my god,” she said softly. “A mobster. I never saw it.”
“Of course not. Men like him are good at hiding what they really are. Fucking snakes.”
“I lived with him.”
“You’re safe now,” I said. “He doesn’t know me. We’ll be safe.”
“Yeah. You’re right.” She began to sob again, breaking down into tears.
I put my hand on her leg to comfort her as I drove, but my mind was moving in a million different directions.
I couldn’t help myself. This was a tactical situation, and it was the sort of thing that I was trained for. Maybe not this situation exactly, but situations just like it. We had a hostile enemy, a larger, stronger enemy, chasing after us. We had to evade that enemy until it moved past us, or until we destroyed it.
I was already planning what we were going to do. Planning and war and death. That was who I was.
And that was exactly who she needed me to be.
Maybe in normal civilian life, my skills as a SEAL weren’t desirable. Maybe they got in the way when I was trying to live as a normal person. But this wasn’t normal.
This was far from normal.
I needed more information, but I knew better than to press at this point. She needed a second to grieve for whatever it is she just lost. Whether she lost her life or something else, I couldn’t be sure, but she just went through a trauma.
I was there for her. I wasn’t going to let this mafia fucking shit prick hurt her.
I had a mission, and I always completed my missions.
Chapter 11
Piper
I felt like the world had opened up beneath me as I sat in Gates’s apartment. He was in the kitchen making me tea, and normally I would find that really amusing, but I couldn’t stop seeing those men lying bleeding on the floor.
My phone buzzing grabbed my attention. I looked down and saw another text from Tony.
“Come on, babe. I’m sorry if I scared you. We need to talk.”
He called me ten times since Gates picked me up and sent as many texts, but I was ignoring them. Gates knew about the messages but hadn’t said anything about them yet.
I sat there staring at Gates as he moved around the kitchen. I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but it didn’t matter. I was in this, deep in this, and Gates was willing to help me.
That thought sent a wave of relief washing over me.
Gates was trained for this sort of thing. Well, maybe not this specific situation, but something like it. He was trained to fight and survive difficult tasks, and there was no better person for me to have in my corner right now.
Still, for all of that, I barely knew the man. I didn’t know why he wanted to get involved in something that was clearly incredibly dangerous. He owed me nothing and had every right to walk away.
The only thing I could think of was that he felt the same pull that I felt. Maybe that was true, or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe I just wanted that to be true. Either way, I kept staring at his body and felt the tug toward him, that deep yearning that wanted me to get up and throw myself at him.
“Here you go.”
I looked down at the cup in front of me.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Chamomile.”
“Excuse me?”
“Chamomile tea.” He leaned up against the counter across from me and crossed his arms. “Drink.”
“Okay.” I picked it up and blew on it then took a sip. It was vaguely sweet and tasted like watery apples. “I like it.”
“You’ve never had chamomile before?”
I shrugged. “Not much of a tea drinker, I guess.”