“Right,” she whispered.
Fool falling in love.
Part of me understands his caution when it comes to what you mean to him.
Damn it.
Fool falling in love.
“You okay that went down?” he asked.
“Outside of wishing I’d never met him, and that wasn’t the first time, just not for the reasons that he was a big jerkface, then yes. I’m fine.”
She heard humor when he repeated, “Jerkface?”
“Okay, fuckface.”
“Better,” he muttered, still amused.
“Did you call just to tease me?” she queried.
“No. I called to make sure my babe was all right. She is so I’m wiped, she spent the night watching people do dirty shit to each other so she’s probably more than all right, outside of needing me about now to eat her pussy. So I’ll let you try to get to sleep even though you’re thinking about my mouth on your pussy.”
His babe.
God.
And all the rest.
God.
“Not fair, Branch,” she whispered.
“Warm up your switch, baby, you think I’ve been bad.”
“That’s not fair either.”
“Then go to sleep, Angie. And I’ll talk to you later.”
“All right,” she grumbled, not wanting to let him go but needing to if he was doing something that required “focus” and he’d said he was wiped. “Talk to you later.”
“Sleep tight, Angie.”
“You too, honey.”
“’Night.”
“’Night, Branch.”
They hung up.
She put the phone on the nightstand and stared into the dark thinking she was a fool.
She was also thinking, with his call, and everything else that was Branch, Stellan was right.
She’d die to be a fool.
In love.
With Branch Dillinger.
twenty-one
Taking This Ride Until It’s Right
BRANCH
The next morning, sitting in a car in the parking lot of a convenience store, watching through the windows as Raines checked into a motel in Bumfuck, Nevada, Branch’s phone vibrated against his thigh.
He took it up and saw it had a Phoenix number, which could mean anything. But with the way he gave out his number (meaning he didn’t give it out unless there was a reason), it probably meant business, and he always needed business, so he took the call.
“Yo.”
“Dillinger.”
“Who’s calling?”
“Stellan Lange.”
Branch went more alert than he already was and asked, “Angie okay?”
“Angie?”
Shit.
“Evangeline.”
There was a pause before Lange replied, “As far as I know, she’s fine.”
Branch’s neck got tight. “As far as you know?”
“When we parted in the parking lot of the club last night, she’d had a good night and seemed relaxed, but tired, so yes. As it’s only been nine hours since that time, I’m sure she’s fine.”
The muscles in Branch’s neck loosened and he asked his next pertinent question.
“Right, then how did you get my number?”
“I asked Aryas for it. I told him I had some business you might wish to help me with.”
Raines and the guy in reception seemed to be having heated words, but Branch wasn’t surprised by this.
Since he’d flipped that fucker right out, appearing in crowds, there and gone. Standing at the counter of a crowded coffee shop long enough to catch Raines’s glance, only to disappear half a second later when someone crossed Raines’s sight line. Raines had left his cabin and hit the road.
Branch had followed him.
And he’d learned along the way that apparently not a lot of motels, no matter how bad they obviously needed the business, liked the idea of four Rottweilers checking in.
“Aryas didn’t tell me you’d asked for my number,” he told Lange.
“I suppose he trusts I’m someone you’d want to speak to,” Langue replied.
“Not his choice to make,” Branch pointed out.
“The deed is done, Dillinger,” Lange sighed.
It was for now. He’d be chatting with Aryas about this later, though.
“So this business you got to talk to me about,” Branch prompted.
“That was a lie. I don’t have any business for you. At least not right now. I wished to discuss Evangeline.”
Branch fought sitting up straighter in the beat-up sedan he’d picked up for a couple hundred bucks to switch out for his truck, to assist him with Raines not spotting his tail. Slouched, he could be seen, but barely, and you had to be looking hard. He didn’t need to be totally visible unless he wanted to be.
“You’ve wasted your time. Not talking about Evangeline.”
Lange ignored him.
“You do know, she has other people who care about her, not just you.”
Branch knew that so he didn’t feel it worth the energy to confirm.
Though he wasn’t real big on Lange calling him to inform him of that fact.
Lange didn’t need Branch to confirm. He kept talking.
“So you do know that, if she finds someone that makes her happy, and that discovery means the effort needs to be made, and I think we both can move right to it since you know exactly what I’m talking about, that someone wouldn’t be the only one who’d assure she’s safe. She has others in her life with a fair amount of means and influence who would help.”
His focus shifted off Raines to center on what Lange said.
And Lange kept giving it to him.
“To be clear about that, Aryas, for certain. And I would assume with your relationship he’d know this might be in the cards should you find somebody and already be positioning to assist. However, since it’s Evangeline, not only would Aryas see to it, so would I.”
“Thanks for the offer, but we’re good.”
“I’ve no doubt, with your reputation, or more accurately, your near-prevailing lack of one, that you are. It takes a good deal of skill to be known of but not known, a Phoenician ghost. Though I suspect if you care about her, care about her enough to demand she be taken from a Dom like Damian and delivered to you simply because you’re monitoring the halls of the Honey and don’t like her being with a man who’s tasted her, you’ll never really feel like you’re good. I’m simply sharing you have added insurance, whether you want that or not.”
“Appreciate the share, but just to say,” he focused on Raines again to see him stomping out of the reception area, “I’m in the middle of something so you said what you had to say, now we’re done.”
He moved his hand to the ignition, not wanting to fire up the car until Raines had pulled out because it was clear he hadn’t secured a room and Branch didn’t want engaging his car to capture Raines’s attention, when Lange continued.
“She wants you at the Honey.”
God damn it.
“Evangeline said you two were tight and for her, I gave you my time. But that’s none of your fuckin’ business,” Branch returned.
“Not to show off, she doesn’t enjoy that,” Lange said like Branch hadn’t spoken. “But after she enjoys other things, she’ll want to go direct to a playroom, direct to you.”
Raines pulled himself up into his big Cadillac SUV and Branch kept his eyes locked on him, his thoughts on that, and not the fact his balls were drawing up.
Angie turned on by what she could see at the Honey and being primed to walk right into a playroom to him?
Shit.
“I need relationship advice, Lange, I got your number now. I’ll call.”
“So you and Leenie are in a relationship.”
Fuck.
“We’re finished,” he bit out.
“She cares deeply for you.”
Fuck.
“Like I said, we’re finished.”
>
“I understand your need to protect her from you, Dillinger, but you’re underestimating our Evangeline. She knows what she wants. She always did. Good for her, or bad, she goes for it. Takes the risk. And accepts the consequences.” He paused but not long enough for Branch to say anything before he finished, “Make those consequences worth it this time.”
And with that, he hung up on Branch.
Branch growled, tossed his phone on the seat and started up the car when Raines had pulled out.
He gave it a beat. Two. Four.
Then he shoved the conversation with Lange to the back of his head and pulled out to follow Raines.
* * *
Ten minutes later, trailing Raines, he hit the number and hit speakerphone, then set the phone on his thigh.
“You got me,” Aryas said.
“Not feelin’ real good about you giving my number to Lange.”
“Shoulda bet someone five K you’d be making this call. I’d come out even,” Aryas muttered.
He had no clue what that meant.
Still, Branch clipped, “This isn’t a joke.”
“You’re still with her,” Aryas noted.
“Yes.”
“There’s a reason you’re still with her,” Aryas continued.
“Yes.”
“Stellan wants her to be happy,” Aryas told him. “I want you both to be happy. Stellan calls to say he’s in to help make sure you’re in a place to give her all she deserves and he wants to share that info with you, I’m not going to stand in his way. I’m going to give the man your number.”
So Lange hadn’t called Aryas about a job.
He’d given it to Aryas straight.
And Aryas had still given Lange his number.
“My trust ran deeper than that with you, Aryas,” Branch informed him.
“No, Branch, it ran just that deep because that’s as deep as it gets and you fuckin’ know it so don’t fuckin’ give me this shit because you can’t pull your head out of your ass. Pull your head out of your ass, son. You are not alone. Not anymore. You have people who give a shit about you and you have a woman who does it for you. Don’t fight it. Rejoice.”
The call dropped because Aryas dropped it.
“Fuck,” Branch hissed, took the phone from his thigh and threw it in the passenger seat.
Then he ignored what was happening in his chest, shoving the feel of it to the back of his head.
And he focused on Raines.
* * *
Almost an hour later, due to the fact there was nowhere to position in order to keep an eye in his car, Branch stood hidden behind a building, watching Raines checking into another motel, when his phone vibrated again.
He pulled it out of his pocket, checked it, saw it was a text, and he pulled it up even though he didn’t want to.
Evangeline needs this furry darling.
Amélie, and at the end of her text was a picture of a little dog that looked more like a stringy, dirty mop.
Jesus.
His thumb moved over the screen and he hit “Send” before his eyes went back to Raines.
Add a hundred pounds to that beast and we’d see.
He watched Raines leave reception and he watched Raines take his one bag and four dogs into a room with its door right to his parked car.
Another text came in and he looked down at it.
You’re being very picky, Branch.
His thumb moved over the screen.
Strap in, Leigh. We’re taking this ride until it’s right.
When he saw Raines close the curtains over his window, Branch bent, picked up the bag at his feet, moved out and went right to reception.
He was checking in when Amélie texted back, I wholeheartedly agree. We’ll keep looking!
“Christ,” he muttered.
“Sorry?” the clerk asked him.
He looked the man in the eye. “Room nineteen.”
“Uh … no problem.”
The clerk took way too long checking him in.
But he got his key and he’d already stashed his car so he took the long route behind the L shape of the building to hit his room.
He got in without being seen.
* * *
“You’re getting to the point you’re done playing, John, gonna need you to re-enable his GPS. He disabled it. It’ll make it easier for me to track him and make him blip back online for the team that’s tracking him, which again makes it easier for me to lead them to him,” Gerbil told him as Branch lay on his back in his motel room.
Raines’s room was in view from Branch’s motel window, the curtains on his window closed but with his knife he’d made a slit in them that gaped partially. However, it looked like something that motel might have, instead of looking like someone had jacked the curtain open so they could see out.
This made it so, even in his position, he’d see it when Raines took off but Raines might not clock he was being watched. And bonus, he couldn’t see Branch.
“I’ll let you know when I get to that point.”
“Gotta make it look like Raines’s work is faulty, brother,” Gerbil advised. “They’ll wonder why he slid back on the grid. They check, and if they’re like Rifle Team, they’ll check, so you’ve gotta make it look like Raines fucked up and the jimmy he did on his GPS somehow reconnected.”
“You’re not popping my cherry on this, Gerbil,” Branch reminded him.
Just like Gerbil, he easily slid right out of stealth-maneuvers-strategy mode and into giving-shit mode.
“Yeah, right, all your cherries been popped a while ago.”
Branch didn’t respond, just kept his head turned and his eyes out the window.
“Speaking of popping cherries—” Gerbil kept at him.
“I wasn’t,” Branch stated.
Gerbil ignored him. “You keeping in contact with your girl during this mission?”
Evangeline was miles away but she was also in his piece-of-shit car and his motel room.
Damn.
“Permission withdrawn to ride my ass about that, Gerbil.”
“You are,” Gerbil said low.
“Not sure we’re going to last but it isn’t over and I’m out of town. Evangeline and me have been together for a while now. I’m not gonna take off and not keep in touch,” Branch growled.
“Now you’re not sure you and Evangeline are going to last when before you communicated it was totally sure that this wasn’t going anywhere,” Gerbil remarked.
Branch looked to the ceiling then directly back to the window.
“It was my understanding that once Raines went down,” Gerbil kept at him, “you were off to parts unknown to live in a hut and cultivate your wardrobe of Hawaiian shirts and cutoffs.”
Christ.
“Just the cutoffs,” he muttered.
“No, now you’re going back to her, with Phoenix not yet in summer, but still hot, cutoffs optional.”
“Gerbil, for shit’s sake—”
“Let me enjoy it too, John, for as long as it lasts,” Gerbil said quietly.
Branch shut up and sighed.
“Just so you know, I’ve been keeping an eye on her and she’s good,” Gerbil told him.
“I know she’s good,” Branch replied, having had three texts from her that day saying nothing, but just hearing from her, knowing he was on her mind and she missed him, they meant a lot.
“Yeah, you do, since you’re keeping in touch.”
“I’m feelin’ we’re done talking,” Branch told him.
“For now. Though I’ll want you to share all about that sex club she belongs to.”
Branch closed his eyes.
“You meet her there?” Gerbil pushed.
“In a way,” Branch replied.
“Know you do work for the big man at that place. Know that man’s got his shit together since not one computer with anything juicy is networked even internally so no one can get dick on members. Only know she went because her car was parked there
. And am not surprised you went for that honey you saw at the Honey.”
Branch was done sharing so he kept silent.
“Fuck, you knew she went last night, right?” Gerbil asked.
Apparently, Branch wasn’t done sharing.
“She asked if it was cool she went, so yeah. She’s got no secrets. It’s just me who’s the motherfucker.”
Gerbil was surprisingly quiet.
Was he going to share this?
Shit.
“She didn’t partake, man. She’s mine. She’s got friends she hangs with there and she likes to watch.”
“She isn’t alone,” Gerbil murmured.
“So now, we’re done talking. And I want to be done with this Raines shit. It’s not as fun as it was when it started,” Branch told him.
Translation: He wanted to get back home to Evangeline.
He sighed again.
“Right, so I’ll expect you to give me that heads-up on the GPS,” Gerbil said.
“Yeah. Maybe tomorrow.”
“Cool. Good. Then I’ll see you at the rendezvous point on Monday.”
“Yeah,” Branch confirmed.
“It’s good this is gonna be done, John.”
“Yeah,” Branch repeated.
“Later, my brother.”
“Later.”
They disconnected and Branch knifed up from the bed to go sit by the window.
It took twenty minutes before Raines, his four dogs on leashes, left their motel room for a necessary evening walk.
It was too bad he couldn’t confiscate one or two of those beasts to give to Evangeline.
But he didn’t want anything to remind him of Raines or anything of Raines to touch Angie, so that wouldn’t be happening.
When the man turned the corner and went out of sight, Branch moved.
He was across the lot, picked the lock and was in Raines’s hotel room within three minutes.
He went direct to the bathroom, pulled on his nitrile gloves and stood on the toilet to disable the bathroom fan.
He moved to the sink. He pulled the slim bar of soap out of his pocket, wet it and lifted it to the mirror.
He wrote twelve words.
Then he pulled a bunch of tissues out of his pocket and traced over the words until the soap residue disappeared.
He ran a towel in the sink to wipe up the wet he’d put there and checked the space to make sure he hadn’t dropped a Kleenex or left anything else behind.