should’ve been tired after the night they’d had. He wasn’t. Not even a little. Adrenaline hummed through his body, and all he wanted to do was run after Chloe. What was up with that?
His body felt too heated. Like it was in overdrive. A cold shower would cool him off.
Before he could hit the shower, a knock sounded at his door.
She was back. He spun for the door. Yanked it open.
Chloe wasn’t there.
Instead, he found himself staring at a man in a three-piece suit, a fellow with close-cropped, blond hair. A guy who seemed to reek money as his cold gaze swept over Joel’s body. After a moment, the stranger’s mouth quirked. “Expecting someone else? Or maybe, hoping for someone else?”
“Fuck off,” Joel snarled back. He’d caught the faint British accent in the man’s voice. An accent that was too similar to Chloe’s.
The man laughed, not seeming to take any offense to Joel’s response. But then his laughter faded. “You spent the night with my sister.”
Sister? Joel’s eyes narrowed. “Leave.” He started to slam the door shut—
“According to my sources, you risked your life to save her. Not once, but at least two times since you met her in the bank. Three if you count the incident in the street outside of the strip club.”
Joel’s fingers tightened around the doorknob. “Who are your sources?”
A faint smile. Then… “I’ve read your background file.”
What the hell? Since when did he have a background file?
“An up and coming young surgeon. You were drugged and taken from your hospital. You were tortured for hours. Then buried alive.”
Joel’s breath hissed in and out from between his clenched teeth. “Get your facts straight, jackass. I wasn’t taken from the hospital. I was tortured inside the hospital.” He’d only been hauled out when the killer thought he was dead. The intent hadn’t been to bury him alive. It had just been to bury him.
“My mistake.” An incline of the jerk’s blond head. “You dug yourself out of the grave. The man who’d tortured you was close by. His mistake. You beat him to death.”
Such cold, calm words.
The bastard had fallen asleep in his car after he’d buried Joel. The sonofabitch had still been there. Joel had attacked—
Don’t go there. Don’t. “There a reason you’re talking about my past right now?”
“You never returned to your work as a doctor. Instead, you started taking self-defense classes. Every class that you could find. You learned about weaponry. You learned about knives. Guns. You learned everything that was necessary in order to survive in a world gone mad.”
“The world isn’t mad,” Joel fired back. “Just certain people are.”
“True.” Another smile. Joel didn’t like the guy’s smiles. They never reached the fellow’s eyes. “That’s why I need you.” He lifted the briefcase in his hand. “Do you mind if I come in?”
“Yeah, I do mind. I’ve had a long-ass night. I’m tired, and I’m not in the mood for a guest.”
The blond’s smile faded. “I can pay you well.”
“Money doesn’t matter to me.”
“What does?”
If he’d been asked the question yesterday morning, before he’d gone into that bank, Joel’s response probably would have been…Not much. But this time, that wasn’t his response. Instead, he had a sudden flash of Chloe’s face.
“My sister is in danger,” the stranger at his door continued, voice turning a bit ragged. “Chloe thinks she can handle any threat out there, but she’s wrong. No one is invulnerable. She has a killer hunting her.”
“I heard about that.” He let go of the doorknob and rubbed the back of his neck. Tension had pooled there.
“I want to hire someone to stay close to my sister. Someone to look out for her. Someone to stand between her and danger.” His lips pursed as his gaze assessed Joel once more. “Seems like you already are in the habit of doing that, after not even twenty-four hours.”
“In case you missed it, your sister just left me.” Though how the guy could’ve missed seeing her, Joel had no clue. “I doubt I’ll ever see her again. I doubt—”
“I can change your life right now, Joel Landry. I can change her life. You just have to let me do it.”
He felt as if he were being offered a deal from the devil. “Forget it. I’m not buying whatever you’re selling.”
“Okay. Let’s try something different.” His throat cleared. “She sent me.”
“What?”
Once more, the blond lifted up his briefcase. “I have a contract for you to sign. A deal to make you. Chloe is outside of the