Page 25 of Matched into the Mob

“Not with eating.” I caught his eye and attempted to muffle a laugh, but it escaped. “My brother, Josh. I want to make sure he’s okay.”

“Oh, he’s yourbrother.”

I side-eyed my captor. “Who did you think he was? My boyfriend?”

He shrugged. “But I thought his name wasn’t Josh.”

My body betrayed my embarrassment by sending a flush creeping over my cheeks. Damn, I wasn’t very good at this secret-identity business. “Ummm, yeah.” I screwed up my face. “You’re not going to hurt him, are you?”

Ranger sat back, the spaghetti still wound around the fork. “Why would I do that?”

“Isn’t that what the mafia does? You know… rough up people?”

“No!” His one-word answer rang out around the room despite the bluster and fury of the storm outside. “You’ve got us all wrong.”

I snatched the fork from him and shoved the food in my mouth. “Excuse me. You’re mafia, mobsters, bad guys, a crime syndicate.” This pasta was so good. I ate another mouthful, my anger at Ranger and the mob he belonged to fueling my appetite.

He got up, pushing the stool back with such fury, it tipped. But his outstretched hand grabbed it, preventing it from toppling over. Not only did he bite people, but he had super-speedy reflexes.

“How’d you do that?”

“Do what?” He had his back turned and was washing his hands at the sink.

“That was impressive how you caught the stool. You must work out a lot.”

“Mmmm, that’s it. I do.” His voice had a faraway quality, and I reasoned his mind was no longer in the kitchen, though he did say the drain was partially clogged.

But once again, I’d gotten off track. “Josh, I told him to get out of town and stay with an old school friend.”

Ranger turned, leaning back against the sink, and folded his arms. “Why’d you tell him that?”

Shit, why couldn’t I recall where I’d met Hawk? Not that it mattered now.

Hmmm, was there any point in lying? “When we stumbled into your headquarters and Hawk recognized me and then you were in my face, I insisted Josh leave the city.”

“That was smart. Shame you didn’t follow your own advice.”

The spoon and fork fell from my grasp and clattered onto the marble island, Ranger making no move to pick them up with his supersonic reflexes.

“Yeah, silly me. If I’d flown the coop I wouldn’t be eating a delicious dinner with the guy who abducted me.”

Now it was Ranger’s turn to get red. But his cheeks weren’t kissed with a blush. Instead, a hot angry flush spread over his face.

“You agreed to come with me. People who are abducted are taken against their will.” He stamped his foot, and I expected him to say, “So there.”

I narrowed my eyes and mumbled under my breath, “If there was a dictionary at hand, I’d check the definition of abducted.”

“I’m sure there’s one in the study.”

I mentally added “an acute sense of hearing” to his traits.

“Or you could use your phone.”

Of course. I went to grab it but remembered we’d removed the chip.

“I can’t.”

“You can’t,” he parroted.

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