Page 47 of Prodigal Son

“My assistant,” Raven said.

“Hmm.” Axelle dared a look up through her lashes and wanted to squirm when she saw the way the woman’s gaze was fixed on her. “Shame. Perfect bone structure.” Then, to Axelle’s utter shock, she produced a business card from seemingly nowhere and slid it across the desk. “If Raven won’t come to her senses and put you on the runway, you can get in touch with me. It’s always a shame to see beauty go to waste.”

~*~

“Okay, what the hell was that?” Axelle asked when they were back in the car. “Because I know I’m new to this whole espionage thing, but that seemed like a whole bunch of nothing.”

“Wrong,” Raven said, lifting a corrective pinky off the wheel as she steered them to the gate of the parking deck. “We gained valuable intelligence. For starters, we know that Ryan is definitely suspicious, which means she has something to hide.”

“Yeah. But isn’t this business crazy competitive? Why are you assuming she’s part of some secret government assassin school?”

Raven’s frown proved Axelle had scored a point for logic.

Raven sighed. “This sort of intel-gathering is a marathon, and not a sprint. My brothers like to kick in doors and bash heads, but that’s not how things work in my world.”

“Hmm.”

The gate attendant finally got around to approving Raven’s parking pass and lifted the arm. As they rolled out into the watery sunlight, Axelle peeked into the rearview mirror and spotted a black sedan behind them, its windows too tinted to see through.

Probably nothing. Didn’t all rich, fancy people drive sleek black cars?

Except…this one followed them. Through three turns.

“We have a tail,” Axelle said, shifting down in her seat a little and wishing she was behind the wheel.

“Are you–” Raven checked her own mirror. “Shit.” And then: “Oh,shit.”

Because two cut-wearing Lean Dogs on black Triumph bikes swooped in behind them out of nowhere, forcing the tail to back off.

“Fuck,” Raven said crisply. “Justfuck.”

Fourteen

“…I would ask how you could possibly be this stupid, but that in and of itself is a stupid question!”

Raven had been yelling for a while.

Axelle had long since tuned her out.

Beside her, Tommy stood with arms folded, shoulder braced against the Land Rover’s back window. “She’s scared,” he said, apropos of nothing.

Axelle hadn’t been paying attention to him at all. Raven was yelling at Albie, and, to her shame, she’d been taking note of the close fit of his t-shirt sleeves over the compact, but strong bundles of his biceps. The unimpressed line of his mouth. The worry burning in his gaze.

He was…not unattractive.

(She hated herself for thinking that.)

“What?” she asked, turning to his younger brother.

“Raven,” he said, nodding toward her. “She only loses her cool like this when she’s really fucking scared.”

“Fear makes asses of us all,” Axelle said.

“Yeah.”

Including her, she thought sourly; she was afraid, and she was maybe channeling that into useless attraction.

She shook her head to clear it.

---