Page 49 of Matched into the Mob

I wouldn’t agree with Ranger that he’d earned a place in my heart just because I was scared of what tomorrow might bring. But I also couldn’t deny the emotions churning inside me.

“I do, ummm, like you… more than like you.” I couldn’t say the other L-word, though. “This is confusing.”

“For both of us, Matt.” He rested his brow on mine, and we stayed like that, not moving, while the room warmed.

“I don’t have all the answers regarding my career, past, present, and future…”

Ranger put a finger to my lips. “Neither do I, but the priority is to stop Dane.”

Hmmm, that expression had taken on a new meaning since meeting Ranger. Stopping Dane using mafia shifter methods was different to having the guy go to jail.

“I meant what I said. I want him arrested.” This particular mess was my doing, and we’d do it the human way. Except there was a huge-ass hole in my plan. Ding, ding, ding as Ranger would say.

Dane wasn’t human.

“Putting a shifter in jail requires a special maximum-security prison. It would be easier to?—”

Now it was my turn to use a kiss as a silencer. My lips brushed over his. I cupped his face, relishing the warmth of his skin under my palms while my tongue traced around his mouth,teasing his lips, daring him to part them. My heart rate sped up as I savored the taste of him.

This was the man who had captured my heart, or maybe I’d handed it over willingly, and the kiss blocked out and swept away everything else, just for a few seconds. With my tongue inside him, he moaned, and my body tingled, making me think maybe a future together was possible.

We pulled away, staring at one another.

“Perhaps we can wait a few more hours. He’s not going anywhere in this weather.” Ranger swooned. I swore he did, all gooey eyes, jelly limbs, and shoulder shimmies. He reminded me of a marionette.

“Nah, we can’t wait.” There was a knot of uneasiness in my belly, but we had to confront the Dane problem now. I refused to cower like a frightened rabbit waiting for my now former boss to make a move.

I—or make that “we” with the Durands—had to devise a plan to silence him. Eeek! Now I sounded like a bloodthirsty… maybe not a mobster but a criminal. But my aim was to get Dane to pay for his crimes without any bloodshed.

“Let’s do this.” I flung the blankets off, covering Ranger’s head, and bounded around the room. After all the reveals and confessions, I was energized, wanting to resolve the issue and get on with living.

“I’ll get my family.”

“No. First I need access to a computer.” I rubbed my hands, excited to have not a plan—I wasn’t a battle-hardened mafia shifter—but inspiration. “Wait, are you battle-hardened?”

He screwed up his mouth. He tilted his head then he licked a finger and held it up as if testing the wind. I harrumphed and tapped my foot on the floor.

“Don’t play games, Ranger.”

“I’m not, but I am thinking.” He put his hands in his pockets. “What does it matter?”

He studied his hands, the silvery lines on the back telling a story I couldn’t interpret when we met. Not that I had the details now, but those marks were his history, his timeline.

“My wolf has fought battles.”

“Okay, that’s enough. I designate you battle-hardened. Now the computer.”

Ranger opened a cupboard behind me to reveal a foldaway desk and laptop. Using his fingerprint, he turned it on and inserted a login code.

“What are you looking for?” He leaned over my shoulder and nuzzled my ear as I logged into my account on the cloud.

“Just checking what my favorite celebrities are up to?”

“Matt!”

“Joking, Ranger.” I tapped at the keyboard, searching for the emails and files I’d copied from Dane’s assistant’s phone. Some of them had been encrypted, but Baxter had decrypted them all last time we spoke.

There was an email from Baxter, sent just after he texted me when I was leaving the apartment. I skimmed it and paused before reading it again. Oh shit! I couldn’t believe he did that. Damn. I should never have trusted a hacker. Now I could be in a big pile of poo. F him.

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