Don’t need anything right now, but later? Maybe :-)
My mouth curves into a smile as I read her words, my body heating at the memories of lying in her bed with her last night. Women turn me on; that’s just a fact. A flirty text from this woman is all it takes to have me ready and willing to turn right around and head back for that college campus.
The fact that she’s flirting with me and it’s making me feel, is brand-fucking-new. The only question I have has to do with what I feel. It’s so foreign to me I can’t figure it out.
I unlock my condo door and stride into the foyer, sliding the deadbolt behind me. Walking into the living room that opens up into the kitchen, I drop my keys on the small, granite-topped island.
True to form, my uncle ignores the barstools and sits right on the island counter. He’s never been the kind of guy who does what’s expected, who follows the rules. A slightly older version of me, we’re a lot alike that way.
Physically, we’re both tall, broad-shouldered, and tan-skinned. Where my sandy hair is long, his is almost buzzed. He doesn’t crack a smile as he watches me approach him, but the relief on his face doesn’t slip past my notice.
“Sorry I worried you.”
He slips off the counter and opens his arms and I walk into them, savoring the hard slap his hands make on my back as he hugs me.
“I’m just glad you’re all right. When I walked in this morning and you weren’t here…” He frowns. “Where were you?”
I step away from him, heading for the sliding glass door at the other end of the living room leading to the terrace. It overlooks the football stadium, and even though my condo is tiny, it’s my piece of Charlotte and I love it.
“I needed to go check in on Naima.”
“Naima?” The confusion in Carson’s voice is clear without me having to turn and look at him.
“The woman I was with when everything went down at the ring the other night. It’s my fault she’s caught up in all this. I just wanted to see that she was safe.”
Now I hear the doubt and frustration in his tone. “And that took how long exactly? The entire night?”
Changing the subject completely, I turn to face him. “I’m going to call Kevin Taylor. You know, my buddy who helps me out with technology at the G-Ring. I want him to look into the Suit’s background…see what we can find out about him. What’s where we need to start. I’m going to see if I can meet him at his place as soon as I shower and get ready, since he runs his graphic design company from home.”
Carson nods slowly. “That’s a start. I’ll text you the names of the three loan sharks that I know of so you can see if they have any connections to him.”
“Thanks, Cason.”
Carson turns to head for the door. “Watch your back, nephew. I love you.”
“Same to you, uncle.”
An hour later, I’m showered, dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt. I’ve just parked the Harley in the garage beside Kevin’s condominium building a few streets over from mine. Phone in hand, I’m smirking at a selfie Naima sent me. In it, she’s wearing a light pink t-shirt with sorority letters on it and a string of pearls. Her makeup is light, her hair pulled back into a high ponytail. She looks completely different than she looked either time I’ve seen her before. The caption reads:
Recognize this girl? I don’t. This is my camouflage for my sorority sisters, my parents, and anyone else who doesn’t really know me.
I’m so damn sucked in by her words that the first clue something’s not right hits me right before it’s too late.
Fifteen
ACE
The SUV approaches slowly, so slowly I can almost imagine the driver moves in slow motion. Windows dark, an illegal level of tint only used by those up to no good. Moving toward me, where I’m sitting like a tool on my bike, out in the open, reading a text on my phone with a stupid grin on my face.
It takes two heartbeats. Two squeezes of the muscle inside my chest, two rapid thumps against my ribs before I move. Sliding my leg over the bike, I toss my helmet down and sprint.
Running toward the stairwell, which is about thirty feet away in the corner of the garage.
Too far.
Did they follow me from my condo? My brain was caught up, twisted in thinking about Naima and her safety that I hadn’t even remembered to worry about mine. I drove all the way from my house to this block without checking over my shoulder or in my mirrors for a tail.
Stupid.
Stupid.
Stupid.
Beyond idiotic.
But I run now, thanking God for the fact that I’m athletic. I played football growing up; doing sprints isn’t new to me. But the stairwell is so far away when you could be running for your life.
I don’t look behind me, but the sounds are amplified in my ears. The acoustics of the parking garage boosting every sound until it feels like my eardrums will explode from the noise. A car horn blares on a floor below me; a door closing somewhere in the garage ripping the air like a gunshot. Wait…or was that an actual gunshot?
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
I push my feet to move faster. My boots slam against the pavement and the errant thought that I wish I were wearing track cleats crosses my mind.
I don’t glance behind me, only press on toward the large gray metal door with the white block letters scrawled across the front of it.
Stairwell B
It doesn’t seem to be getting any closer, but it can’t have been more than a few seconds since I started running.
The engine behind me growls as the SUV charges forward, and suddenly the white block letters loom in front of me. I reach out, my
