And I’m not pining away for you either, just so we’re clear.”
“Glad to hear it.” He scratched his beard and tried not to grimace. “You’re also welcome back at the clubhouse.”
“Really?” she asked.
“Yeah. You’re saving our president’s life by giving him your bone marrow, I’m pretty sure that makes you some kind of extended family.”
She beamed up at him. “Thank you.”
He gave her a nod and turned back to Zed. “Have you seen my woman around here? She said she had some errands to run, but she’s not picking up her phone.”
“No, brother, haven’t seen her.”
“Isn’t she doing the stem cell thing today?” Nadia asked.
Torch frowned and looked back at her. “I thought she said that was tomorrow.”
“Maybe it is then. She didn’t say anything, but we started getting our shots the same day so I just assumed.”
Goddamn it, she probably had gone to Denver to do it without telling him. Why? To avoid taking attention away from Buddha? To assert her fucking independence like always? Or maybe…
Fuck.
What if she was planning on confronting her old man and didn’t want an audience? What if she did something fucking stupid in public and got thrown back in jail?
Not happening.
Remembering that she’d taken her car that morning, he pulled out his phone and texted Biff to get her GPS location. A few seconds later, his fears were confirmed. She was eighty-five miles away at the kids hospital.
“Shit,” he murmured. “I gotta go.”
“You need me?” Zed asked.
Torch thought about it and nodded. “Yeah, I could use you,” he replied.
“Alright.” Zed looked over at Nadia and asked, “You good?”
“I’m fine, go help Liv.”
: 28 :
| LIVIA |
I sat in my car, jamming away to one of my favorite rock songs and keeping an eye out for Silas, when he pulled up next to me. I tossed my purse into the back seat as the passenger door opened and he plopped inside.
“Interesting place for a meet,” he muttered. “A hospital?”
“I have some business to take care of,” I replied. “We need to make this quick, I’m running a little late. Do you have another job?”
“Yes. Well, more of an extension of the last one.”
I bit down on my lip to keep from smiling. “Did you take care of the blackmailer?”
“Yes, that’s been handled. Unfortunately, they discovered a problem after the man in question… disappeared, if you will.”
“Let me guess, the problem is a few of the drones have disappeared too?”
His head whipped around. “How do you know about that?”
“I’m surprised it took them a week and a half to find out,” I smirked.
“Styx, what are you hiding? Did you create backdoor access and see something on the cameras?”
“Come on, Silas,” I groaned. “You don’t think I have better things to do than spy on clients after a job’s done?”
“I don’t know, do you?” he asked.
I reached into the center console, pulled out a small piece of paper, and handed it to him. “GPS coordinates. The five drones are inside a shed.”
He scowled and narrowed his eyes. “You know this how?”
“I put them there. Sorry, you know how it is with tech girls and their toys, I couldn’t help myself and figured there was no harm in borrowing them as long as they got back in one piece. Excellent engineering, by the way. They work great.”
“Styx,” he hissed, “what the hell were you thinking? And why did I have to get in touch with you to find this out?”
“Like I said, I wanted to play, there’s not a whole lot to do in a small town. And I tried to call but you have that ridiculous policy of tossing your burner the minute a job’s done. You really should make yourself more readily available.”
He glared at me, not amused. “And how do you suggest I explain finding five stolen drones hidden in a shed in the middle of nowhere?”
“Ninjas?” I quipped. “I don’t know, lie. You’re good at it.”
He turned in his seat so his back rested against the door and he could look directly at me. “Do you honestly think I’ll hire you again after pulling a stunt like this? I don’t appreciate having to clean up other people’s messes.”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Oh, come on, you clean up other peoples’ messes for a living.”
“Yes. But the difference is they pay me.”
“Okay, your loss,” I conceded with a shrug.
His brow furrowed. “Just like that?”
“You’re the one saying you’ll never hire me again. I apologized, what else do you want?”