Love's Last Kiss, page 5
“Who the fuck is this other man?”
“I cannot say.”
Kade stood. A surge of heat blew through his veins, and he pressed his fists against his thighs. “How am I supposed to protect her when I don’t know who is after her?”
“’Tis a quandary.”
“You know what, Leonato? Fuck you.”
Leonato didn’t comment, blink, or show any emotion whatsoever. Yet his stillness felt more deadly than any fighting stance Kade had ever encountered. And he’d encountered a lot.
At that moment, Kade didn’t care if the Prince considered Kade’s attitude as an act of war. He was sick of the Fianna games. And the irony wasn’t lost on him that he wasn’t even a warrior yet.
He swallowed and considered his options. If he could keep his temper in check and do this job, maybe he’d win his freedom after all.
After a few deep breaths, he narrowed his gaze on the warrior. “Does this box have anything to do with the money Deke promised Rose?”
“Deke was to give her this package so she could deliver it to another. After which, she’d be paid.”
Kade crossed his arms over his chest. “Rose is a courier for a box that the Prince, and another man, are looking for?”
“Aye. She was to be paid, by a third party, upon a successful delivery.”
So three people wanted this box. Awesome. “How much?”
“Forty thousand. Yet the box has been misplaced.”
No wonder she was desperate to find Deke. “If I find this box and give it to the Prince, will the Prince pay Rose instead?”
Leonato shook his head.
“Why?”
“I do not know.”
“And if I can’t find this box?”
“The Prince will require you to end her life, and you will join the brotherhood two days hence.”
The cathedral bells rang out, signaling the early morning hour. For the first time since Kade had left Leavenworth, he wished he’d made a different choice.
Leonato continued, “If you find the box and offer it to Lady Tempest Rose instead of the Prince—”
“I know.” Kade closed his eyes. The Prince would order him to kill Rose. If he refused, the Prince would kill both of them without a single thought, a single regret, or a single shred of remorse.
“If you speak about any of this with Lady Rose, both your lives will be forfeit.”
Kade’s throat went dry, and by the time he opened his eyes, Leonato had disappeared.
Kade wanted to go after the fucker and drive a fist through his shiny whites. Then tell the Prince to fuck off. In the years since Kade’s release, he’d put up with a ton of Fianna bullshit. Their strange, formal speech. Sudden appearances and disappearances. Ridiculous demands.
But the fact remained, Kade had made a deal with the Prince. Release from Leavenworth in exchange for refereeing fights and passing intel back to the Prince, and eventually—after three years—becoming a full-fledged warrior.
Although Kade hated lying to Rose about what they’d seen in the hospital six weeks earlier, he’d stayed silent to keep her safe. The less she knew about things like Fianna warriors, Princes, and illegal fight clubs, the better.
As he unlocked his apartment, he thought through his next move. How to help Rose find this box, while keeping her safe and without telling her the truth, so that he could hand it over to the Prince and finally be free.
Yet the only thing he could focus on was the fact that Rose—the beautiful woman with fiery red hair and sexy honeysuckle scent—was named Tempest. And how he wasn’t at all surprised.
CHAPTER 4
Early the next morning at Screamin’ Perks, Rose said goodbye to the handyman who’d fixed the front door and returned to the bar to take orders.
It didn’t take long to clear her line. As she wiped counters, Samantha entered the café wearing a white ruffled skirt and a black lace camisole. Her strawberry-blonde hair was tied up into a messy bun.
“Hey.” Samantha usually wore a wide smile, but today her frown could cover the state of Georgia. “I talked to Pete, who spoke with Kade.”
Rose groaned, annoyed at Kade for telling everyone her problems. “I’m fine.”
“Don’t be mad at Kade. He’s trying to help you.”
“I’m sure he is.”
Samantha grabbed Rose’s arm—with a surprisingly strong grip—and pulled her into the back room. They kept the door partially open, and Samantha spoke in a harsh whisper. “Antoine, Deke’s buddy, attacked you last night? And you’re bitching about Kade caring?”
Rose closed her eyes because that somehow made the previous night’s events easier to handle. It wasn’t that what had happened wasn’t a big deal. It was that compared to everything else going on, Antoine’s attack seemed minor. “I asked Antoine about finding Deke. Instead of giving me information, Antoine got…fresh.”
“Fresh?” Samantha dropped Rose’s arm. “What does that mean?”
Rose opened her eyes. “Rough. Before I could handle it, Kade appeared and took care of the situation.”
Samantha waved a hand toward the front door with blue tape on the new glass panels. “A situation that broke glass? And you have this under control?”
“You know what I agreed to do for that money. Even if Deke is in hiding, I know he has the box. He would never walk away from the kind of money we are supposed to receive once I deliver it to the right person.”
Now Samantha closed her eyes. “I have to tell you something, but you can’t tell anyone. Ever.”
Rose glanced into the shop, and when she didn’t see any new customers, she closed the door. “What?”
Samantha opened her eyes and paced the room. “Deke is never coming back to Savannah.”
Rose tilted her head. “Why?”
“I can’t tell you.” Samantha didn’t even blink. “Stop looking for him, Rose. I mean it. Forget about the money he promised you for delivering that package he never gave you.”
As much as Rose disliked Deke, this wasn’t good news. “If I can find the package and deliver it, maybe the people I need to give the box to will pay me.”
Samantha put her fists on her hips. “Rose—”
She held up a hand. She’d had enough lectures. “Do you have any idea where Deke might’ve hidden the box he was supposed to give me?”
“Probably at the club. That dump was his life.” Samantha lowered her voice. “Only bad things will happen if you get involved with what Deke was doing. And with whom he was doing it.”
Rose peeked out the door and noticed a customer. “I have to go back to work.”
Samantha touched Rose’s shoulder. “You’re going to let the whole Deke-box-delivery-money thing go?”
Rose smiled tightly. “Sure.”
Samantha chewed her bottom lip. “Could you ask Harry for extra money?”
“I’ve thought about it. I just hate asking him for money.” Harry was generous, but also sporadic with his checks. Sometimes she’d get small amounts throughout a month, then she’d hear nothing from him for almost a year. “I’m not even sure why he sends us checks. It’s not like we’re his kids. He was just my dad’s roommate at Yale.”
“Maybe he’s lonely.” Samantha kissed Rose’s cheek and they returned to the main shop. “Oh, I also heard there may be an opening for a waitress at NOG. It’s closer to your house.”
Rose exhaled. Nectar of Gods was the newest coffee shop that specialized in cocoa and coffee concoctions. While waitressing didn’t bring in enough money, maybe the tips would be higher in a trendier café. “Thanks. I’ll stop by on my way home later today.”
Once Samantha left the shop, Rose made two iced lattes and warmed up scones. Yet all she could think about was what Samantha had said about the club being Deke’s life.
And she knew what she had to do next.
Six hours later, after finishing her shift at the coffee shop, changing her clothes, and checking on her brother, Rose slipped beneath the yellow police tape guarding Rage of Angels club.
During the day, tourists avoided this edge of the river walk littered with empty warehouses and abandoned homes. The recent murder of one of the club’s strippers hadn’t improved the area’s reputation.
She ran through the side alley and opened the back entrance’s metal door. Apparently, no one had bothered to lock up after the police left.
Once inside, she took the flashlight she’d borrowed from the coffee shop out of her backpack and dropped the bag on the floor. The club had a few windows, and she didn’t want to turn on the lights.
No one could know what she was doing.
She swung the light down the dark hallway. Where would Deke hide valuables?
She stopped in front of the women’s locker room and shined the beam around a room that looked like someone had driven a tank through it. Some lockers had been knocked over, others had dented doors. Bowls on the dressing table had been shattered, covering the floor with broken glass, hairpins, and silver-packaged condoms. Sparkly boas decorated a dressing chair that lay on its back, legs up. Glitter powder left a sheen on the floor.
Samantha had told Rose there’d been an incident with Deke and a security guard the night of the murder, but Rose had left early. From the destruction in the locker room, the incident had been a brawl.
Although she really missed the money she’d once made here, she was relieved to be done with this sleazy club.
Thirty minutes later, after checking out the main club rooms, the VIP room, and the storage areas, she paused near the security office. It had an encrypted keypad, and she didn’t know the code.
What would Deke, a narcissistic, sadistic, misogynist asshole who hated the world, choose as his passcode?
Having no idea, she closed her eyes and leaned against the door. A moment later, the unlocked door swung open, and she fell into the room, landing on her backside.
Once she got up, she hit the light switch and shut the door. Fluorescents flooded the windowless room, and she sneezed from the moldy stench. Folding tables edged one wall. A couch covered in a plaid blanket stood against the opposite wall. An unplugged microwave sat on the floor, and a chair lay on its side. The water cooler had emptied, staining the cheap wood floor. It didn’t take her long to search the room and find nothing.
Defeated, she sank onto the couch and held her head in her hands. Deke’s box wasn’t—
She heard a sound and raised her head. She stood just as a man entered the room, holding her pink backpack and a gun.
Kade.
Kade raised one finger to his lips in a shushing motion and kept the door partially open.
When he’d gotten the call from the security company that the club’s alarm had been tripped, he’d figured it’d been a false alarm. Or one of the local heroin addicts had found a way inside. Or the electrical system had shorted. He’d not considered that Rose had tripped the alarm. But he should have.
He shoved the weapon into his jacket pocket when he heard Nate call out from the VIP room down the hallway, “Hey, Kade? Find anything yet?”
“No.” Kade dropped Rose’s backpack onto a table and stepped into the hallway so his voice would carry to Nate as well as to Pete, who was checking out the women’s locker room. “Why don’t you both head to the front, and I’ll recon the kitchen?”
“Good idea,” Pete said. “The sooner we do this, the sooner we can get back to the gym.”
“Yeah.” Nate was now in the hallway, near the VIP room door. “Vane has been bitching all day about us not being around for his refresher self-defense classes.”
Pete came out of the women’s locker room and pointed at Nate. “I’m not the one he’s worried about.”
When both men disappeared in the direction of the main part of the club, Kade went back into the security room and shut the door. “What are you doing here?”
She sat on the couch again, and his heart contracted at the deep circles beneath her hazel eyes. She’d braided her hair and twisted it into a knot at the base of her neck. Still, rogue red strands framed her pale face. “I can’t find it.”
He knelt in front of her and took her hands. He inhaled her honeysuckle scent, and his lower half woke up. He wasn’t thrilled with his reaction. But there wasn’t anything to be done about it at the moment. “Can’t find what? Deke?”
She shook her head until more strands of red hair fell around her face. “A box Deke was supposed to give me.”
So Leonato had been right about the box. Kade had hoped, with this morning’s light, that his meeting with Leonato had been a figment of an overactive imagination. “Drugs?”
“No.” She pulled her hands out of his, stood, and pushed by him to pace. “I told Deke I wouldn’t touch drugs.”
“Money, then?”
“I don’t know,” she said as she moved around the small room, waving her arms. “Maybe. Eventually.”
He stood and had to admit he enjoyed watching her move. In her denim shorts and fitted black T-shirt, there was no doubt she had a rockin’ body. A great ass. And a waist he could span with his hands.
He stared at the buckled floor. His reaction to her was so much more than that. It wasn’t just how her hair shone with a million shades of red, or the grace with which she moved. It was how passionately she fought to protect those she loved.
When she passed him, he took her arm to stop her. “What does ‘maybe eventually’ mean?”
“I was supposed to deliver a box for Deke. In return, the recipient was going to give me money.”
Nate’s conversation with Pete sounded from the hallway, and Kade whispered, “You were going to be Deke’s courier?”
Although he already knew that, he acted surprised.
She nodded. “Deke was supposed to give me a box. After I received a message about where to deliver it, I was going to receive two hundred thousand dollars.”
Holy. Fuck.
Kade sank onto the couch and rubbed his eyes with his fists. Had Leonato been lying about the payout? Or had the warrior not known how much money was at stake? Kade leaned forward, hands clasped, and studied Rose’s cheeks, which seemed paler in stark contrast to her red hair.
No wonder Leonato had tasked Kade with helping her. If Deke told anyone else about the box, and that Rose was supposed to deliver it, every lowlife in the city could potentially come after her.
He exhaled hard, surprised to find he’d been holding his breath. As was usual with Fianna requests, this task was so much more than a treasure hunt. He’d love to know more about the box. But the fact that the Prince wanted it told Kade it had to be bad or important or priceless. Or all three. Adding to this growing disaster of a mission was the fact he had no idea about the details surrounding the box. And working blind was a situation that, in a combat zone, was to be avoided at all costs.
Rose wiped her face with her fingers.
“Rose? Are you sure about the two hundred thousand dollars?”
“Yes.” She sat next to him but refused to meet his gaze. “Except Deke has disappeared. I’ve no idea where he hid the box. And even if I could find it, I don’t know who to deliver it to or how to go about delivering it.”
Her voice sounded strained, but he had a more immediate problem. Her scent was wreaking havoc with his libido. His erection pressed against his zipper, and the air in the tiny room felt hot and clammy. He shifted in his seat, but that just brought his body closer to hers. It was as if his body had a plan of its own, regardless of the danger they were facing.
Although they weren’t touching, he could feel the coolness of her skin. Needing to get his shit together before he threw her down and covered her body with his own, he studied her defeated posture. She’d tucked her hands between her knees and stared at the water-stained floor.
“Rose?” He desperately wanted to touch her shoulder, but he didn’t dare move. He didn’t have that much self-control. “What else do you know about this box?”
“I was told it would be in a black drawstring bag and be small enough to carry.”
“And you searched the entire club?”
“Yes. There’s no place else to look.” She raised her head and looked at him. “What are you doing here?”
“You tripped a silent alarm. I was working at Iron Rack’s when I got a call on my cell phone from the security company. Apparently, I’m on their contact list. I told them the place was closed but that I’d check it out. When I told Nate and Pete what I was doing, they wanted to come along. I couldn’t say no.”
She threw herself against the back of the couch and closed her eyes. “Are you going to tell the security company? Or have me arrested for trespassing?”
“No.” Kade pulled out his burner cell phone and sent a text to the alarm company telling them all was well. Then he paused, not sure if he should voice his idea. But her body language screamed dejection and sorrow. “Have you checked Deke’s apartment?”
It took a moment for her to meet his gaze. Another moment for her to sit upright. A third moment for her to say, “I don’t know where it is.”
“I do.” Kade checked his watch and stood. He still had a few hours before meeting Vane and heading for Doom. “I’ll take you. But you have to stay hidden here for a while. I’ll get Nate and Pete back to the gym, make up an excuse to leave work, and return to get you. Deke’s apartment isn’t far from here.”
Kade held out his hand, and she placed her much smaller fingers into his. Her hand felt so cold and shaky. He closed his warmer fingers around hers and held on tight.
“You’re going to help me?” she whispered. “You have a plan?”
“Yes.”
She licked her lips. “Why?”
Since he couldn’t tell her the truth—that he was an agent for a mysterious Prince and his fucking Fianna warriors—he improvised. “Whatever Deke was doing, it was probably dangerous and reckless as hell.”
She nodded in agreement, but a smile edged up the corners of her red lips. “Probably.”
