Page 45 of Captivated with Them

Chapter Nineteen

Ryan

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I HUNG UP THE PHONE.

“That has to be one of the strangest conversations of my life, and I’ve had a few weird ones in my time.”

Kodee frowned at me. “What happened?”

“Gordon Little down at the office wants me to come in right away. He says it’s an emergency.”

Kodee’s frown deepened. “An emergency? What kind of emergency can happen at a prosthetist’s office?”

I shrugged. “That’s what I thought. But he was pretty insistent.”

“Guess we better head down there, then.”

“You don’t have to come if you don’t want to,” I told him. “I’ll be all right.”

He was already on his feet. “I’m coming. I’m not going to let you go on your own if there’s something you might have to deal with.”

I grimaced. “You mean if he’s got bad news for me.”

Kodee came to a halt in front of me and dropped down to one knee so he was at my level. “I’m sure everything will be fine, but you don’t have to go through whatever it might be on your own.”

“Thanks.”

He leaned in and kissed me, his lips soft and dry against mine. His proximity stirred desire inside me, but I knew I had to deal with whatever it was Gordon wanted. Sex was always a good distraction from my problems, but it couldn’t distract me forever.

“You know we’re going to have our babysitters following us,” I told him, thinking of the men in the SUV who always seemed to be parked outside our building lately.

Kodee chuckled. “Good. They can give us a ride.”

Gordon hadn’t told me to bring anything in particular, so I just grabbed my wallet and keys, and Kodee did the same. I could go places on my own, but it was easier with him around. The chair was still difficult to negotiate, especially if I needed to catch a cab. I wondered if the call to come down to the office meant the new prosthetic limb had come in, or if it was something more ominous. I couldn’t wait to be back on two feet again. Even though it had only been a matter of days since I’d last worn my old one, the stump was already feeling better. The sores were no longer raw, and the swelling had gone down significantly. I was sure Gordon wouldn’t want me wearing the leg until it was fully healed, but any fears I’d had over getting an infection and needing a new amputation had faded. I hadn’t even suffered any night terrors, dreaming I was back in the war, fighting and being shot at. Now I was in a different kind of war, but one that in many ways was no less frightening.

We left the apartment, and Kodee flagged down a cab. On the other side of the street, one of the big black SUVs that I’d come to recognize as belonging to Capello’s men came to life.

A cab with its light on pulled over. Kodee helped me into the back seat and then folded down the chair to go in the trunk. The cab driver did nothing to help, and I pictured Kodee knocking half off any tip the driver might have otherwise gotten.

As expected, the SUV also pulled away from the curb. It did a U-turn to bring it around to our side of the street, and followed us, a couple of vehicles back, the whole way downtown, to where Gordon’s office was located. It was well after hours, and the parking lot, which was normally crammed full of cars, was almost empty. Most of the building appeared to be in darkness, too.

I frowned. “I hope he’s here. Looks quiet.”

“Yeah,” Kodee agreed. “You sure he said to come down tonight?”

“He said it was urgent, and he needed me to come down right away.”

Kodee pursed his lips. “Weird.”

“I guess we’ll find out what he wants soon enough.”

We paid the driver, and Kodee got out first and set my wheelchair back up then helped me into it. Fuck, I hated this thing with all my heart. I hoped Gordon was about to show me that my new limb had miraculously been made overnight and I would be able to walk out of here, but I doubted it. Those kinds of limbs took weeks or even months to be made, and besides, I knew Gordon would insist I still wasn’t healed enough to wear a prosthetic leg.

The cab pulled away, but lingering in the background was the SUV. It was impossible not to notice in the almost empty parking lot. The two people weren’t the same ones who’d driven us here before—if they were, I was sure they’d have either offered us a ride or would have struck up some kind of conversation by now. No, this was a different team. I guessed even gangsters and their employees needed to take shifts.

Ignoring them, we went to the front door. A light was on inside, and I could make out the deserted reception desk. The doors were the kind that sensed someone approaching and opened automatically, but it seemed now they were locked.

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