she looked at Montana drove the message home loud and clear.
Tianna wasn’t over him.
Even though Montana was now with someone, I knew she still hungered for him. There was a time I would have done anything to have a woman look at me like that—like I was the best thing in their world, like I was the sexiest man alive.
But having my heart ripped out of my chest cured me of those dreams. Women were nothing but trouble. Besides, this was a favour to Montana. The last thing I should be doing was getting distracted by a pretty face, curves deeper than a mountain road and an ass I knew would feel magnificent in my palms.
We didn’t have much time. Whatever we were doing, we had to do it now and get the hell out of dodge.
While I waited for her, I slipped my phone’s chip out and pushed in the one we found at the hotel. The cell came on and opened up to the locked screen with a picture of Joseph and, who I assumed was Tianna. They were young—in their late teens. That was probably the last picture they took together where Tianna didn’t want to kick his ass to another dimension.
But other than the front screen, the chip was locked. Joseph hadn’t been smart enough to encrypt it. That meant, he either paid someone to do it, or the chip came that way and he’d gotten someone to hack it.
I called Hex and was told I had to bring it to her. The way it was set up, there was nothing she could do remotely.
“I thought you were a genius. What happened to that?”
“You know how you can’t really make a woman come unless you’re touching her?”
I quirked a brow. “Say what? You do know there’s other ways of…”
“Don’t lip me, Pan.”
I growled. She knew when she called me that it irritated me.
“Down boy.” She teased.
I grunted.
“In all seriousness.” She brought my mind back to the task at hand. “I need to put it into a special piece of equipment to work on it.”
“All right. Let me work on some stuff then I’ll bring me the chip a little later.”
She agreed and I hung up then replaced my chip and dropped Joseph’s into a second phone I had. I shoved it into my back pocket just as Tianna entered the room. Staring was rude—I had to remember that. But when my eyes were speaking with my brain, I rose and busied myself sharing her some food so we could sit down and talk.
“So, Joseph pissed off these Owls?” Tianna asked.
“Maybe.” I told her.
“Maybe?” She frowned. “Which is it?”
“The Owls make most of their money by hiring themselves out for jobs.”
“So, what you’re saying is, we can’t tell yet if they are the ones after me or if they’re working for someone else who’s after me?”
I nodded.
“Fan-fucking-tastic.”
“The two guys who attacked us at the condo are a part of the gang. The two in the car we ran from today are members as well.”
“Did they tell you what Joseph did?”
“Well, according to them,” I said. “They are looking for the chip we found at the hotel. They don’t know we have it. They’re hoping he told you and we would lead them to where it is or who has it. So, they were basically ordered to follow us until we do or until the boss gets impatient.”
“He can get as impatient as he wants.” Tianna told me. “He’s not getting that chip. He killed my brother over it and I’m going to use it to bury the son-of-a-bitch.”
Her anger turned me on.
Damn it!
“And no word of what’s on the chip?” “Tianna asked. “At least I’ll know what was so damn important to take a life and attack us.”
I shrugged. “He was about to tell me when you turned into Dominic Toretto and demanded I get in the car.”
All I received from her for my attempt at a joke was a cold, expressionless stare. “Did you try seeing what was on the chip?”
“When you were in the shower.”
“And?”
“It’s encrypted.”
“What?” She snapped. “What in the—how in the actual hell would he have known how to do that? This was the idiot who failed grades nine, ten and eleven math. You’re telling me, the guy who called me because he did know where the bold function was in Words, encrypted a chip? How would he learn how to—you know what? Whatever. I don’t care.”
“Tianna…”
“I don’t care.” Tianna offered a one