Page 79 of The Shadows We Keep

“Please, sit.” He motions again. This time I follow his suggestion. I perch at the edge of the couch ready to bound up if the need arises. Could I take this man? It’s possible, weirder things have happened.

Yeah, like being kidnapped and held hostage.

He looks older than me but still young enough to be handsome. His dark hair looks thick, peppered with gray at his temples, only distinguishing his sharp features. He sits against the front of his desk, legs outstretched in finely tailored suit pants. He crosses his feet at the ankles, the shiny leather loafers laying neatly on top of each other.

If this situation wasn’t completely fucked up and my heart didn’t already beat for another, I could see myself trying to flirt my way out of this. But his haunted eyes make me nervous enough to keep those thoughts locked down.

“Can I get you something to drink?” he asks, finally breaking the silence.

I shake my head. I’m not interested in hydrating at the moment. But he pushes away from the desk walking over to the drink cart in the corner. He quickly fills two glasses bring one over to me and dropping it into my hand. I take a drink, anyway, sucking down its contents quickly. The water clears my throat of the grime, removing that nasty bile taste coating my tongue. I keep hold of the bottom-heavy glass, if nothing else, it’s a decent weapon. A hard hit to the side of the temple should have someone crumpling to the floor.

“You’ve been a hard woman to track down, Keira.” He finally speaks, pausing on my name. Almost as if he’s savoring it on his lips.

“Why were you looking for me? Who are you? Why am I here?”

“Well, that’s a long and interesting story,mio cuore.”

THIRTY-THREE

HARKIN

Find You – The Phantoms

The elevator numbers light up red as the floors pass by. I check my watch again, three o’clock in the fucking morning. We’d only been asleep a couple of hours, exhausted from a night of worshipping Kiera before my phone started buzzing nonstop on the nightstand. I’d angrily swiped it, about to give whoever was waking me a little lesson is common decency when I read the texts.

Harkin wake up

I’m in town. We need to meet.

Harkin. Now not later!

Answer the damn phone

They went on and on,mixing with the three missed calls I had from him. Pulling my exhausted body from the warm bed with a serene and snoring Keira was physically painful. Anyone else would have been silenced and discarded. But here I am, because apparently when you get a cryptic as hell message from your father in the early hours of the morning you drive across the city to meet him at his hotel.

The elevator dings and a yawn rips from sleep deprived body as I walk the hall to his suite. I knock quietly, not wanting to be the asshole that wakes anyone else unnecessarily at this hour. He quickly pulls the door open, ushering me inside, before peeking his head out the door and peering down the hall left and right.

“I came alone,” I say, taking in his disheveled appearance.

A rare occurrence for him.

“I was making sure you weren’t followed,” he tells me.

“I wasn’t followed either,” I assure him, knowing it’s true. My body might be half dead on its feet, but my brain was alert the moment I stepped out of the door, after locking up and setting the alarm. I’d texted James to head over and watch the place, but I didn’t have the time to wait the fifteen minutes it would take him to get there.

“Coffee?” he asks, stepping into the full-scale kitchen that looks like you’d find it in a condo, not a hotel room.

“Please. So, are you going to tell me why you’re here in New York?” He doesn’t pause as he bustles around the kitchen quickly getting the coffee machine up and running.

“I think it’s best we have a seat for this conversation.”

I huff a sigh of irritation. I just want to get this over with, head back home and climb into bed before Keira realizes I ever left. He hands me the cup of espresso and we move into the small seating area.

“I’m here for work, nothing exciting. But I received a call from a business associate here in the city that I’ve worked with for a long time. Well, his family, at least. He asked if I knew where you were.”

I suck in a deep breath.

Jesus Christ.

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