Page 7 of King of Pain

She nods, and taking a deep breath, I make the leap. On a normal day, it’s not that far, but the landing makes my teeth rattle, pain radiating through me.

Ignoring it, I turn back and gesture for her to jump. She does, landing in my arms.

It fucking hurts like hell, but also, she feels amazing pressed to my body like that. Her arms come around my neck, her breath fanning my face.

I lightly set her on her feet. With one arm still around my neck, she tugs on the flip flops with the other. And then, taking her hand, we’re off down the street. “You got a phone?”

“No,” she shakes her head. “Vincent took it.”

“Mine too,” I huff. No calling my family then. They’re going to notice I’m gone. Roman too. But I need to tell them what the Vendettis have planned.

And I need to tell them that I messed up the permits. They should have never given the job to me. I can’t be trusted with shit like that.

I nearly fucked this whole thing up and it’s my job to fix it. Which means telling them the permits have almost expired.

Only Roman knew and last I saw him, he wasn’t moving. Roman is ten times smarter than me. I should be on the ground, and he should be here.

Not that I even know where I am. And honestly, directions are not my thing.

But as we slip through the dark, the flip flops clopping along, I see a little Honda Fit parked on the street.

Reaching for the handle, I give it a pull and find that it’s unlocked. “Score.”

“Are we…” Kate sucks in a breath. “Stealing a car?”

“Think of it as borrowing,” I tell her.

“We can’t do that.”

“You want to keep walking? Vigo’s going to come after us when he finds Vincent and Gorilla.”

She nips at her lip, and it’s cute as shit, a second before she nods.

I get into the driver’s seat and pull out the wires, the car firing up as she slides into the passenger seat, closing the door and doing up her buckle.

A laugh ripples from my chest. “Safety first,” I rumble before I slam the car into gear and drive off.

She looks over at me, her mouth opening and closing. “You should put yours on too.”

“My shoulder is not up for buckling.” I could. But it’s not worth the pain.

“Oh,” she says softly before she unclicks her own and leans over me, her face close to mine again.

Damn, this woman smells so good. Her hair tickles my neck as she reaches in front of me and pulls on the belt, clicking it in place. Then she slides back in her seat and does her own. “Thankyou for not leaving me,” she says as we start driving through the dark.

“You’re welcome,” I grunt in return. And then I draw in a deep breath.

Because our night is just beginning, and we’ve got several things to discuss.

“You any good with directions?” They are like a bunch of things that when they get in my head, I swear they jumble all around. I couldn’t navigate for us even if I knew what town we were in. I know we drove for a solid half hour outside of Vegas.

“I’m all right with them but I’ve only been in Vegas like three days. I have no idea where anything is.”

In the rearview mirror I see the headlights of a car go speeding past a cross street, the outlines of a GT3 unmistakable.

“Fuck,” I mutter and kill the lights of the Fit, taking a left turn and then hitting the gas. “Good thing you did up those belts.”

“What? Why?” she asks, her hand coming to grip my arm.

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