Page 15 of Trick's Trap

She was getting away. Already she was halfway down the block. Trick started to run, dodging tourists and late-night partiers when Tahlia suddenly veered right, cutting across the street.

“Tahlia!” He turned at the sound of small feet pounding the pavement behind him. Maia had spotted her as well and was running after them.

The rest of his party had finally exited the hotel. Jason was alert, his hand on his weapon. Calen was trying to follow Maia, but the crowd on the busy Manhattan sidewalk had thickened and he couldn’t reach her.

“I’ve got this,” he yelled back to Maia, waving her back.

He sprinted in Tahlia’s direction. Her brown hair was visible, but she was far up the block on the other side of the street now, almost out of sight.

Male shouting and loud honking forced him to turn back around. Maia had ignored him. She followed them into the road, making a taxi swerve into the next lane—but the car that followed it wasn’t slowing down.

Trick pivoted, darting back to snatch Maia out of the path of the oncoming vehicle.

Everyone was shouting. Calen ran into the street after them. Wordlessly, Trick thrust Maia back at her husband before weaving through the traffic to cross the street and run down the block.

He rounded the corner, expecting to see Tahlia, but she was nowhere in sight. He’d lost her again.

Chapter 9

Trick continued to search for Tahlia like a maniac, but he was soon forced to accept he wasn’t going to find her. The crowd was too dense and easy to get lost in. And shehadrun away from him—fast.

When he returned to the Caislean NY, the area in front of the side entrance was empty. The doorman directed him inside, up to the family suite.

His brother-in-law Jason opened the door. “What the hell, man? Why did you take off like that? I thought you were going to get flattened by a truck.”

He shrugged. “I went after her. Didn’t you see her?”

Jason blinked at him. “You mean you saw Tahlia, too?”

“I knew it!” Maia was pointing at him triumphantly from the circle of Calen’s arm. She twisted to punch him in the arm. “I told you it was her.”

Liam and Maggie stepped into the foyer from the bar area. Their expressions were carefully blank, but Calen didn’t bother to disguise his feelings.

“I don’t care if it was the fucking Queen of England, you do not run into the middle of the street like a crazy woman!” he snapped. “And no, I’m not going to apologize for yelling earlier. You scared me half to death running in front of that car. If you’d been hit, two lives would’ve been lost.”

Silence. Trick glanced at his brother, who gave him a gloating I-told-you-so smirk.

Maia rolled her eyes and smacked him in the chest before yawning. “You know we’re not supposed to tell people yet. And that taxi stopped like an entire foot away from me.”

“But only about two inches from Trick,” Calen said from behind gritted teeth. “Because of you, he might have been hit.” He turned to Trick with a belligerent air.

“It’s not like it was really Tahlia, was it?” he asked, almost shouting.

Trick froze as all eyes turned to him. “Actually, I think it was. And I did run out there on my own in the first place. Sorry about that,” he said, the last directed more at his brother and sister than their friend.

Calen’s mouth parted. “What?”

Clearly, he hadn’t been expecting that answer.

Jason narrowed his eyes. “Are you sure, Trick? You’ve hardly slept, and there’s a lot of tall brunettes out there. Hell, there are two in this room,” he said, gesturing to Maggie and Peyton.

“I’m pretty sure,” he said, trying not to wince. He’d taken a nap, but for a moment, he’d doubted his own eyes.

“And she looked scared, didn’t she?” Maia interjected. She took hold of his shirtfront beseechingly. The dark circles under her eyes mirrored his own. “Did you see anyone chasing her?”

A corner of his mouth turned up, but it wasn’t a smile. “Just me. It seemed to startle her when I used her real name. As far as she’s concerned, I’m not supposed to know it, remember?”

He put his hand on Maia’s slight shoulders. “But this is good news. She’s alive and in one piece…You look as tired as I feel, and no wonder with a baby on the way. Why don’t you let Calen take you to your room and get some sleep while I talk to Jason and Ethan? We’ll get a search plan going. By the time you wake up, we’ll have it ready.”

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