Page 8 of Controlled Chaos

Chapter 5

“He hasmen at all the exits watching and waiting,” Dakota announced as her phone pinged. She turned the screen around to show me that her words were true. One of Carlos’s men was positioned at the rear entrance of the hotel, even if I were to somehow get out of this.

“I didn’t see him coming,” I growled. “I always see him coming.” I turned back to the woman. “You and your brother are going to get me killed. I’ve got to get away from both of you.”

“I can help you,” Dakota said.

“What’s the catch?” I asked, zipping up my suitcase.

“Tit for tat. Porter needs an escort, and I’m afraid you’re the only one that can help him. I’ll get you out of here, unscathed, and you help my brother.”

I chewed on my bottom lip as I moved to the window to look at the cars down below. Carlos was leaning against the hood of a black Jaguarwith windows so dark they couldn’t be street legal. He wassmoking a cigar and staring up at the room. He grinned and lifted the cigar in a way that said he was already celebrating his victory.

He knew I was here; he knew what room.

“Blackmail has never worked on me, sorry.”

“What about money?” Dakota asked. “There’s nothing I won’t do for my family. I can pay you.”

“You should leave before you get hurt. Carlos doesn’t take prisoners.”

“I can handle the thug. Tell me what it’s going to take for you to help my brother. George told me that you’d understand the need to protect family, and like you, I know the outcome of him doing this assignment alone and I can’t let that happen.”

“Then tell him to walk away,” I suggested with a quick glance at my watch. Time was ticking. I could make it. I had time to get downstairs. Leaving this way was my last option, but it was doable. I grabbed my suitcase and wheeled it out of the room with Dakota following me. I needed to hurry if I had any chance of catching my ride.

“Porter won’t walk away,” she said, taking the emergency exit stairs two steps behind me. “He needs you for reasons you don’t understand.”

“The weirdness doesn’t freak me out. You should know that. Hell, I am weird,” I said, bypassing the exit to the ground floor and going into the employee-only section.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

I dropped my suitcase to roll on the floor again without answering her. I smiled at the maids and hotel staff as I passed. No one questioned me, like the first time I’d been on this floor.

I stopped just around the corner of the underground parking and service entrance. I wasn’t late. I was right on time. “What does he need from me?”

Dakota was glancing around the area with skepticism in her eyes.

“You negate his womanly woo-woo.”

“His womanly what?” I asked.

“Porter, like my father, exudes a pheromone that attracts women to him. They fall at his feet.”

My temples throbbed from an oncoming headache. Maybe Walker was right. Maybe I should have just skipped the damn wedding and mailed the symbol.

“And I negate or dampen his pheromone?” I asked.

“We only guessed about it when you kissed him, but we weren’t positive until you told him no. So, yes, I’m certain that you negate his allure. When he was in the café with you, the other women weren’t even interested in him. But once you left they pounced.”

“So why not use that to his advantage? Doesn’t his bad guy have a girlfriend or a sister he could manipulate?”

“It’s unethical, and worse than that, the target is a major player who’s abusing power, but that’s all I can tell you for now.”

I spotted Henry dressed in his delivery uniform. He was pushing the laundry cart with fresh folded linens in my direction. He paused next to us. His gaze dropped to my suitcase. “You weren’t kidding. I’m guessing you need that lift you asked about?”

“It’s that time.” I grinned and pulled out a few hundred-dollar bills and handed them to him. He grabbed my suitcase and threw it into the bin and held out his hand, offering to help me inside.

I climbed into it as Henry unfolded the clean blankets to make it look like they were dirty. “You need to sit so I can get you out of here.”

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