said I had to go there. He only does business face-to-face.”
His lips thin. “You should’ve told us you were going to call him, Dakota. We could’ve done it together.”
I shrug. “I’m the one who made the deal with him, so I thought I’d just get it done.”
He pulls me in. “Okay. It’s fine. We’ll deal with this.”
The doorbell rings, and Lucas and I freeze. Wyatt comes out of his room, sticking the gun in the back of his jeans. He looks like an outlaw cowboy. “That’s them.”
“Seriously?”
“They’re watching us, Tits,” Wyatt says. “They would’ve been close by.”
We walk to the front door, and Wyatt yanks it open. No one’s standing outside, but there’s a running, nondescript black car in the driveway.
Lucas pulls me back when I start to follow Wyatt. He cups my cheeks, his warm brown eyes a beacon in the haywire my brain is right now. “Be careful,” he pleads. He runs his hands through my hair. “Wyatt won’t let anything happen to you, just be safe.”
“I will,” I tell him, not knowing if I’m going to keep that promise or not. The last time we met with Cole, it didn’t go so well.
Lucas leans over and presses a soft kiss to my lips. “I’ll see you when you get back. Wyatt will keep us updated.”
I nod and head toward Wyatt who is standing by the back door of the car. He opens it for me, following me in and pulling the door closed behind him. The two guys in the front don’t speak all the way to a small airfield. They don’t speak when they lead us onto a small plane, which I almost freak out over. And they don’t speak when we get into another car and drive through another city until we’re outside a tall, gorgeous building.
We drive into an underground parking garage where the guys finally get out. Wyatt and I haven’t uttered a word all trip, only holding hands as the plane took off. He squeezed me tight, his thumb working circles into my skin. When we hit turbulence, Wyatt turned me toward him, making me focus on him instead of the feeling like we were all going to die.
The evening turned into pitch darkness. I’m so tired my eyelids keep threatening to shut. I didn’t realize Cole was going to be so far away, but honestly, I don’t know what I expected. It’s not like he can drop everything to terrorize us.
The two black-dressed guards lead us to an elevator. It zooms up a few floors, my stomach bottoming out when it glides to a stop. This is just a day of firsts for me, and I think I liked the elevator the least. When the door opens, I’m the first to walk out into an immaculate hallway. We’re stopped by another set of guys who are dressed just like the two who brought us here.
“This is where you have to wait,” one of our new friends tells Wyatt. “Dakota is going through that door there, but you’re not allowed.”
Wyatt takes my hand, and I turn to him. “Remember what I told you?”
I nod.
His jaw hardens. I can tell he wants to kiss me, but he’s all business right now, gaze sliding over everything. I’ve never seen him like this, but he makes me feel well-protected. If I did have a problem in there, I bet Wyatt would make it through. Or die trying.
“Just stop one moment,” one of the new guys says, stopping me. He pulls out a metal wand and runs it up and down in front of me. He stops at my back pocket when it beeps. “What’s that?”
I pull out my phone, and he nods, moving to the side to let me walk past.
The two original guys lead me toward the door on the right. They knock once, and Cole himself opens it. He smiles. “Welcome.”
He steps aside, and no matter how much I want to peer over my shoulder at Wyatt, I don’t. He looks so out-of-place here. His cowboy hat-wearing self is surrounded by modern finishes, but none are more modern than what’s in this room.
Cole closes the door behind us, telling the two people who accompanied us here that they can hang back. “This is where you live?” I ask.
Cole laughs. “For now. This is the base of the now-dissipated Heights Crew. A very bad man used to live here, but it’s Dragon territory now. I’m only staying here while I arrange things. Acquiring new