3. Jezebel

CHAPTER 3

JEZEBEL

I wasn’t too far from the Medical District, and there were always cabs near the hospitals. And a walk would give me time to think. Time to remind myself of the myriad of reasons tonight had been a bad idea and why I should never do it again. Ugly, boring assholes were the way to go, or perhaps I should take a leaf out of Spider’s book and venture out of state? She had a little black book filled with numbers from all over the world, and whenever she had an itch that needed scratching, she put on a fake flight attendant uniform and went on a “layover.”

My phone buzzed again.

Barbie

Was he hot?

Me

I sent a middle-finger emoji and headed for the front door. Then paused. This house was a puzzle piece that didn’t fit. There were too many personal items for it to be a rental, and a house exchange didn’t seem right either. Folks tidied their valuables away, and there was a Fender guitar hanging on the living room wall. That had to be worth something, right? There was a signature on it. I considered using the flashlight on my cell phone to take a better look, but I caught myself in time.

Get out of the damn house, Jez.

Maybe I should leave through the back? There was a security light above the front door, and Cole’s bedroom overlooked the street. If he was a light sleeper, he might notice me slinking out and run along the street after me or?—

No.

This was a one-night stand.

Men didn’t chase women down just because they’d had three orgasms and she swallowed.

I was halfway to the front door when the security light flashed on, and I froze. A cat? A bird? Raccoons rarely ventured into the city.

A human.

And the faint metallic scraping suggested they were trying to pick the lock, but not very successfully. Spider would have had the door open already. Hmm. Should I wait here to surprise them? Or flank the asshole and inform them of the error of their ways?

The second option would be best. If they made it inside, Cole was more likely to wake up, and I’d have some very awkward questions to answer about why I was dressed and creeping around in the middle of the night.

I turned for the back door, only to stop short when I heard more scraping. There was more than one of these fuckers? Well, shit.

Me

Might be a situation.

Barbie

Situation?

Me

Burglars.

Barbie

Three laughing emojis wasn’t quite the response I’d been hoping for, but it was the one I’d expected.

Barbie

Need a hand?

Me

Stand by.

I took the Ruger out of my purse and screwed on the suppressor, then stowed the switchblade in my bra for easy access and toed off my stilettos. Whoever was outside seemed to have given up on the picks, and now the sound of splintering wood reached my ears.

I tucked myself into the shadows by the stairs and waited. Whoever was there, they wouldn’t be getting near Cole; I’d make sure of that.

There were three of them, two from the back, one from the front, but they didn’t use flashlights. What did they want? What was in here that was worth stealing? When Player One crossed in front of the window, the light from outside fell on his masked face, only his eyes visible. And I also saw the silhouette of a gun.

These men weren’t here to steal.

They were here to threaten at best, kill at worst.

And maybe…maybe they weren’t here for Cole at all.

How many people had seen me at the Black Diamond? I kept a low profile in my work, but I’d fucked with enough people that I had enemies, and those enemies were exactly the type of people who would break into property carrying a suppressed pistol with the intention of putting a hole in my head.

At two o’clock in the morning, they thought I’d be asleep, or at the very least, distracted.

Guess again.

The sights on the Ruger were useless with the suppressor attached, but I’d been point shooting for long enough that I didn’t need them. I aimed on instinct. The gun jumped twice in my hand, and Player One crumpled, but not before he let out a garbled curse.

Nine shots left.

Player Two ran forward, too dumb or too inexperienced to realise what was going on. I dropped him with a double tap to the head as he left the kitchen, but Player Three came out firing.

Pew-pew-pew.

Pew-pew.

Thunk.

Great. Now tonight would be memorable for all the wrong reasons. I checked the pulse on the nearest body and found nothing, wiped the blood off my fingers on his shirt, then moved to the next.

The shadow flickered on the edge of my vision, but I knew what it meant.

A new player has entered the game.

Fuck.

I ran across the room as Player Four began firing, zigzagging as I went, and vaulted over a credenza. The wood would stop a .22 round, even if— Wait, where the fuck was the floor? I bent my knees for impact but instead found myself falling, falling, until I hit a flight of stairs awkwardly and tumbled the last few steps to the bottom.

Double fuck .

I didn’t have to be a doctor to know there was a problem with my ankle. I’d felt the pop, and the flash of pain was instantaneous. But there was no time to dwell on that, not with five rounds left and a gunman above me, so I pushed myself to my feet and backed up, stopping when I felt the wall of bottles digging into my spine. Was this…some kind of wine cellar?

The faint squeak of a rubber sole on tile came from above.

Player Four was moving forward, but cautiously.

He didn’t know what he was facing, but he’d probably seen at least one of the bodies, and he wasn’t going to make the mistake of rushing into a trap.

But I wasn’t going to stay down here like a fish in a barrel.

Slowly, slowly, I drew a bottle out of the rack, then hurled it into the void. As it smashed a moment later, I was already running up the stairs, and this time, I shot the enemy twice in the back. He fell into the pool of wine and shattered glass, and he didn’t get up again.

And I didn’t stop running.

My ankle screamed as I stooped to grab my purse, but I gritted my teeth and carried on, tearing off my dress as I hit the stairs. I made it just in time.

“Bella, you okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“You sure? I thought I heard a crash.”

“Oh, yeah. I’m so sorry. I wanted a drink, and a glass fell down.”

Cole appeared on the landing, buck naked and rubbing his eyes, and I frantically tried to unpick the jumble of thoughts flying around my brain. Why had those men been here? Home invasion? Hit job? And who had they been looking for? Me or Cole? True, I’d only just met him, but I’d seen enough to believe he wasn’t a monster. Although hadn’t I said the same about Bastian years ago?

Or could it have been a case of mistaken identity? Maybe the assassination squad had come to the wrong house, or had they been after its owner? Because I was fifty-fifty on whether this place belonged to Cole. If it did, when had he bought it?

So many questions, and absolutely no answers.

“Go back to bed, beautiful,” he said. “I’ll clean up the mess.”

Oh honey, no. We needed a team of professionals for that.

“We can do it in the morning.”

“I don’t mind—better than having water soak into the wood.”

“The glass was empty.” I took his hand and pulled him toward the bed. “Hold me?”

The smile softened his whole face, and I felt almost guilty as he tucked me close against him. But this was for the best. Cole didn’t belong in this dark world I lived in.

“What the?—”

He slapped at his thigh as I withdrew the syringe, but it was too late. The ketamine was already coursing through his bloodstream.

“Goodnight, Cole. It’s been an adventure.”