too, and as soon as he killed Farrel, he would lay his enemy’s body at his master’s feet.
And then he would kill his master, the heartless bastard who had made him and left him alone in the world to suffer his pain.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Maggie.
The name had frozen Scout solid. Maggie.
Hell, she’d actually seen the girl, so why was it so awful knowing her name?
Because Jack should have forgotten it.
Screw having him stick around. She needed him gone, the farther away the better.
Maggie.
Geez, that ticked her off—a blond bimbo in Key Largo? That was the kind of girl he liked?
For four years, she’d been running around with her heart on her sleeve for Jack Traeger. A girl really needed to be smarter than that.
And where was Con?
All sorts of warning bells were going off inside her, and if it had been up to her, they’d have been long gone. This town was no good for them. Something was wrong here, terribly wrong.
“We need to get the hell out of here, Jack. This place …” She couldn’t even find the right word for the kind of dread she felt. “It’s a … a bad place.”
Right, Jack silently agreed, watching Scout pace their room at the Armstrong. This was a terrible place, one of the classiest old hotels he’d ever been in, but he was stuck here with the woman of his dreams, and she’d been getting busy with some other guy.
He should have seen that coming. He should have headed that off at the pass a long time ago.
Dammit. He was such a coward. He could face guys with Uzis all day long, but every time he’d thought about coming home and facing her, he’d tripped over himself and gone the other way.
They had the television on and turned to the local news, just like Con had ordered, but they hadn’t seen anything about Rock Howe and King Banner.
“Where is Con?” she asked, still pacing.
That was the real problem here, not the hotel, and if Jack had known where Con was, trust him, he’d have been there by now, and they’d be making their getaway.
“Are you hungry?” he asked. He could use a meal, that was for damn sure.
“You’re going to eat? Now?” She looked dumbfounded by the concept. She also looked stressed out, out of sorts, and like she could sizzle and fuss herself into going ballistic any second. “You could eat with all this going on?”
“Yes”—he tried to use his calmest tone of voice—“I’ve eaten hanging upside down off a bridge in a snowstorm. I’ve eaten in the dark, jammed sideways in a ventilation shaft for six hours. Hell, I’ve eaten street food in Bangladesh and rattlesnake in the Sonoran Desert. Trust me, I can eat room service in a four-star hotel.”
“Very funny, Jack. You make me so … so damn …”
Words seemed to fail her, but Jack had a few, starting with furious, as in “you make me so damn furious.” It seemed to be his specialty. And for him, he would have picked horny, as in “you make me so damn horny.” Because she did, flat out.
Or maybe it was this damn room. It was made for decadence. Geezus. The ceiling was twelve feet high, and all the walls were covered in baby blue wallpaper with a lot of ornate stuff everywhere. The bed was huge and piled high with brocade pillows, and the whole thing looked about as silky, sexy, and soft as she did.
Who had skin like hers, he wondered, besides her? Not most girls, he knew that much. Scout’s skin was so smooth and creamy. He figured she must taste delicious—like he was ever going to find out.
“Steak,” he said, heading past her for the phone. “I’m ordering one.” And under any other circumstances, he would have added a bottle of Patrón. “If you want to stay mission-ready, Pansy, I suggest you order—”
“What did you call me?” she cut him off in midsentence, her voice sharp.
“Pansy,” he said, daring all and damn the torpedoes. “Pansy Louise Leesom, baby, that’s you.”
“Nobody calls me Pansy.”
“Well, I’m starting,” he said, on the move again, heading toward the phone and his steak. It was time to set a few things straight between them, and Pansy was one of those things.
But the girl was quick. She grabbed hold of his arm as he passed and held him where he stood—and he let her.
She opened her mouth to say something smart-ass and probably mean, then changed her mind and came out with