Reid - Maddie Wade Page 0,43

risked it all to help him but to do so would have risked Milla even more. He was backed into a wall, and like most dogs reacted when cornered, he’d come out fighting.

Now he had the fight of his life. To win, he’d need every ounce of cunning he had because Eidolon was the best of the best. But win he would, not because he had an interest in living beyond this but to keep his sister safe.

His thoughts turned to Lacey, and he wondered what might have been if things had been different. The spark between them had been real, and he desperately wanted to feel her own brand of sweet in his life. He was a fool to dream though, dreamers only ever ended up disappointed.

He felt Seamus at his back but ignored the Irishman. He didn’t need a babysitter. He’d do what needed to be done and then maybe he could be left in peace or better yet, die in peace.

“This way.” The Irish lilt was barely discernible as Gunner followed Seamus down an alley with a frown.

“What the fuck,” Gunner got out before he felt an explosion of pain in his head and everything went fuzzy as he fell to the ground. Polished shoes came into his peripheral vision before man crouched beside him.

“Let’s get you into the van before someone sees.”

Those were the last words he heard before he felt the pinch of a needle in his neck and then blissful nothing.

When Gunner woke a few hours later, he was in his digs, lying on his couch with a brutal headache but otherwise okay. He stood, taking an unsteady breath as he stumbled to the kitchen. Grabbing his spare gun, he made an effort to secure his property before he chugged down a cold glass of water to clear his head.

He had no clue what had happened or why, but he intended to find out and that bastard Seamus would be the first person he’d be visiting after he’d dealt with the other shit involving the model and Reid.

He was getting tired of watching his back, of not knowing who to trust. But he had nobody to blame but himself, he’d made the wrong choice and now he had to live with it or swallow a bullet, but that wasn’t an option while his sister was still at the hands of monsters.

Chapter Fifteen

The sound of the door opening interrupted Callie from the discussion she and her new friends were having about their lives or more importantly, the loves of their lives. To say these women were in love was an understatement. But unlike her mother, who lived to deliver her husband’s every whim, these women had careers and reading between the lines, pretty intense ones too.

She sighed inwardly at the sight of Reid in the doorway looking good enough to eat as he leaned a shoulder against the frame. He walked toward her, a cocky grin on his face as he removed his jacket and lay it across the back of the chair. Reid’s eyes held her immobile as he moved behind her, and she lost sight of him. Her belly went liquid at the gentle touch of his lips to her crown. It was sweet and tender and her feeling for him were so much more than sexual.

“Ladies,” he said in greeting.

They all responded with knowing smiles and greetings of their own. She caught the look Pax sent Evelyn and grimaced at being the centre of attention. Callie was used to people looking at her, at journalists poking into her life, but this felt different more intimate but not only that. This, whatever it was they were doing, meant something.

Callie was pulled from her thoughts when her phone rang on the coffee table in front of her. She tried to stifle the groan at seeing her agent’s name on the screen. Standing, she excused herself to take the call, catching an unreadable look on Reid’s face.

Moving into the hallway, she answered the call. “Hey, Sophia.”

“Don’t you ‘hey, Sophia’ me. I have a shit storm of epic proportions here, and you’re nowhere to be found. Mel is losing his mind because he can’t find you. You seem to be ghosting our calls, and now I have Claude threatening to pull out of the Gucci shoot next month unless I tell that fucking little diva where you are.”

Sophia took a breath and Callie tried not to sigh. “I know this is hard on you, Soph, but