“What now?” Baron asks after we head back up to ground level.
“Home,” I say, even though that’s a complete lie. But where I’m going next, Baron isn’t invited.
No one is.
She’s my secret. My guilty pleasure.
Mine.
Chapter Two
Hawk
I stand across the street, shoulder propped against a streetlamp, and pull my baseball cap low over my eyes. Early commuters dash by, paying no attention to me, their minds already entrenched in the stressful day ahead. The ability to fade into the background is another of my qualities that make me so fucking good at the job I do. Surprising, really, considering I’m six feet three, built like an NFL linebacker with dark mocha eyes, black hair, and a thick beard. Not to mention the tattoos covering a significant portion of my body. But for some reason, I’m the invisible man, and that suits my purposes, allowing me to watch, wait, and then pounce.
A sixth sense bites at me, and I straighten, my eyes going to the entrance of the building across from my vantage point as the door opens and Calla appears. She jogs away from her building, her dirty-blonde hair tied in a high ponytail. She’s wearing those adorable pink three-quarter-length athletic pants with a matching racerback top, despite the cooler temperatures this last week. My dick lengthens and thickens as it always does the second my eyes drink her in. I don’t know what it is about her that’s so different, but I’m drawn to her in a way none of the hundreds of women I’ve taken over the last decade have ever come close to.
Which is why she isn’t going to make it into The Elite program.
She’s mine.
I chose her, and I’m keeping her for myself.
I have it all planned out. When I take her, she’ll try to escape, and given that I don’t have the connections The Elite do, I can’t risk her getting away from me. Which is why I have a secure place high up in the mountains, far away from any Elite facility, where she can acclimatize and gradually come to realize I’ve saved her, not stolen her.
Fortunately for me, I haven’t received an order to snatch a girl meeting Calla’s description, so technically, I’m not breaking the rules by taking her for myself. I’m all too aware, though, that at any time, the order could come in, and if it did, I’d have no choice other than to hand her over to them. Which is why I need to move swiftly, just in case.
I’ve seen what happens to trackers who go against The Elite. It isn’t pretty.
I wait for another few minutes, then amble across the street and enter her building. She lives on the first floor in a one-room apartment. I’m intimately familiar with every inch, seeing as I’ve been inside several times since I first spotted her sitting in the window of a coffee shop a month ago. I’d cursed the timing, especially given I also had Red to track, but now that she’s been safely delivered in time for the next selection process, I can focus one hundred percent on Calla. I won’t have long before I receive my next order, which is why I need to tie up a few loose ends and then make my move.
Using the key I had made from when I stole Calla’s bunch from her purse before returning them, leaving her none the wiser, I unlock the door and go inside. It’s a small space, made worse by Calla’s clothes strewn everywhere. She’s the kind of girl who tries on a thousand outfits before choosing one she’s happy with. This works in my favor. She has so much stuff that I’ve found it easy to sneak a few items here and there. She’ll settle much faster if she has one or two familiar things around her.
After I have the things I came for, I reluctantly lock up and leave. I have a four-hour drive ahead of me to make sure everything is finalized, and I can’t afford any mistakes. As soon as I take her, there’s no turning back.
I’m halfway back to Denver when my cell phone buzzes. I wrestle it from my pocket. Baron. What the fuck does he want?
“Yeah?” I grind out. “What’s up?”
“Viper has been trying to contact you. They want us at the selection process tomorrow night.”
I check the recent calls screen on my phone. Nothing.
“I don’t have any missed calls from him.”
“Yeah, he said it kept going straight to voicemail and his texts bounced. Where are you, anyway? I’m at your place and it’s in darkness.”
Baron, I’ve decided, asks far too many fucking questions.
“Tell Viper I’ll be there.”
I cut the call before Baron can piss me off any more than he already has. At least now I have an excuse to call Viper and discuss the annoying fucking bastard. I want him off my back and off the team. What they do with him after that, I couldn’t give two shits about.
You know what they’ll do.
Yeah, well, too fucking bad. Not my problem.
I pull into my driveway and kill the engine, half expecting to find Baron with his ass parked on my stoop, ready with another twenty questions I won’t answer other than with a punch to the face. Lucky for him, he’s given up and gone home.
I enter my house, flick on the kitchen light, and throw my keys on the counter, then I put in a call to Viper.
“The wanderer returns,” he greets me with. “I almost sent out a search party.”
I laugh. I’ve known Viper long enough to recognize when he’s jesting, and while he’s a scary motherfucker, he doesn’t scare me. “Jesus, can’t a man take a piss without coming under the spotlight?”
“Long fucking piss,” he comes
