Page 230 of Sweet Temptation

I shoved my phone away and hurried to catch up with Maddox.

He’d shadowed Sanchuk all the way to the next street over, and was now hiding out behind a parked truck. I slid in next to him, trying to be as non-obvious about it as possible. There were people around, but it was dark and it was Halloween; there were stranger things to look at tonight than us.

“You’ve got the van tonight?” I’d seen one of the Triple X Security vans parked on the next block when we’d arrived.

“Yup,” Maddox said. “By the way, you might wanna kill the ears.”

I ripped off the bunny ears. Totally forgot I was wearing them.

Then I leaned out a bit, following his line of sight, and saw Sanchuk darting across the street and getting into a battered old SUV that was parked at the curb.

“Get the van,” I told Maddox. “Fast. I’ll call you.”

He took off, just as Sanchuk pulled the SUV away from the curb.

I tailed him along the sidewalk. Traffic was backed up and he couldn’t get anywhere all that fast. I managed to get his license plate.

Wasn’t the same one he’d been using before he disappeared.

I tore off my bunny bowtie, which I’d also forgotten about. Then I fell back a bit, and stepped into the street to flag down a taxi.

Chapter Thirty

Ronan

I called Maddox from the cab.

I tipped the driver, generously, to follow Sanchuk’s SUV at a discrete distance. The streets of downtown were busy tonight, especially here in the West End, and it was slow moving. Within a matter of blocks, Maddox had caught up to us. And while Sanchuk was stopped at a red light, I got out of the cab, walked back to the van, and got in.

From the higher vantage point in the van, we could hang back a little farther.

Meanwhile, my phone was blowing up with messages as people in the club tried to reach me—including Summer. Apparently, she’d noticed my sudden, dramatic disappearance.

All I texted her back was: Stay with Andre.

Brody messaged, too. Seemed he’d sent a couple of guys after me, but by the time they coordinated their search with the bouncers who’d seen us leave… we were gone.

I could just picture that scene unfolding… Everyone was probably worried.

And Brody was probably pissed.

I would be if I were him, and one of my guys took off like that.

I messaged him back briefly, to let him know where Maddox and I were—more or less—and that I’d update him soon.

He could ream me out later.

Maybe I could’ve used the backup, but I didn’t want it. A confrontation in an alley really wasn’t the way to go. I wanted Sanchuk off the street. I wanted to know where he’d been hiding out.

And most of all, I wanted him alone.

We tailed him all the way across downtown, over the Georgia Viaduct and right past the street where he’d rented that slum apartment. About two minutes later, he pulled off the road into the lot of a shady motel.

We pulled up across the street, watching him drive through the small lot and park in front of one of the dismal two-story buildings.

It wasn’t a great neighborhood, but it wasn’t terrible. The surrounding streets were lined with modest family homes, while this one was lined with commercial buildings, a few apartments. It also claimed a few oddly-placed motels, relics from back in the days when this was a terrible neighborhood.

I didn’t exactly drive this route every day, but it was maybe five minutes from the offices of Sentinel Security Group.

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