Page 5 of Chasing the Fall

He’s not even trying to hide his identity. I guess he figures we all know his face so well, there’d be no purpose in it. Thurston smiles and flattens a palm against the glass, making eye contact with me.

“Such a smart little girl. Already figured everything out, haven’t you?” His voice is muffled by the glass, but I hear him clear enough.

“Why are you here, Thurston?” If I can keep him talking long enough, maybe Jack can get here in time. Maybe we can get this guy, put him behind bars where he belongs.

He cants his head to the side. “Why do you think?”

Without warning, he draws his fist back and slams it dead center in the lower pane of glass. It cracks, and I scream and leap back.

Fuck. Motherfuck, fuck a duck, he’s going to get in before Jack gets here—

Even as the thought crosses my mind, sirens sound in the distance. Thurston looks from me to his hand, dripping blood,and shrugs. “I’ll be seeing you, Tallulah Gentry. Round one to you, but the game is just beginning. Shiloh got away from me, spoiled all the fun…” He pauses and takes a step back. “...her friends won’t be as lucky.”

With a salute of his bloodied hand, he melts into the darkness and the woods behind my apartment just as a cruiser comes screaming into the driveway.

Two hours later, Istand in my kitchen with my arms crossed over my chest, glaring at Jack over the cell phone on the counter between us.

“That is not going to happen,” I say—loudly, just to make sure Brodie hears me. “No way, no how, you’ve lost your damn mind.”

“Then you need to get your ass to Philly where Kael can keep an eye on you,” Brodie argues. An intercom system bleats a flight cancellation announcement through the line, signifying his location.

“See what you started?” I hiss at Jack. He called Brodie as soon as he cleared the premises and made sure Thurston was gone.

He shrugs. “You need someone watching out, Twiggy. I can’t be here twenty-four-seven to play watchdog. I need to be hunting this guy.”

“Philly is not an option.” I shake my head, then realize Brodie can’t see it. “I’m not letting that psycho scare me from my home.”

His heavy sigh tells me it doesn’t matter. My opposition is coming through loud and clear, but one thing I’ve learned through the years is that you can argue with the mob all you want…in the end, they’re going to do what they’re going to do. “Then Kael is sending someone. End of. You’re too valuable to him and the Irish for him to consider anything otherwise.”

A growl escapes before I rein it in. I’m not unaware of my position within Kael’s organization. He uses my skills too frequently to ignore any kind of threat to me. Brodie has the ace, and he knows it. “I’m hanging up now, Brodie.”

“Either Kael or I will be in touch.”

I grind my back teeth together, super hard, to keep from responding, and hang up.

“Thanks a lot,” I tell Jack.

A grin ghosts across his usually stern face before disappearing. “Don’t mention it. Why are you so against Kael sending someone to keep an eye out?”

“Because I happen to value my personal space, and if I have some asshole underfoot all the time, I lose that.” Trying not to stomp like a petulant three-year-old, I cross the floor and fling myself onto the sofa.

“It won’t be forever,” he responds mildly. “You’ll live…which is the whole point.”

“Yeah, yeah. What’s going to happen tonight?” I’m suddenly exhausted, but I don’t know that I’ll sleep even if I do go to bed.

“I’ll be in the cruiser. And I have a deputy coming in the morning. You won’t be alone.” Jack crosses to the door and opens it. “Get some rest, Twiggy.”

“Jack?” I stop him just before the door closes behind him, and he pokes his head back inside. “I’m not afraid.”

His gaze softens. “Of course not.”

“Thank you for getting here so fast.”

He tips his chin. “Goodnight.”

And then he’s gone, and I’m alone. I pull my feet onto the couch and hug my knees to my chest, staring at the pool of lamplight on the floor. I should turn it off and go to bed, but God help me…I’m a damn liar.

Iamafraid, and that light is staying on.

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