Page 14 of Song Bird Hearts

He looks like he wants to say more, but clamps his lips shut and leads me out of the coffee shop and into a black car waiting on the curb. It’s always black cars, I swear.

“Do I gotta lift thecochon, or—” Gilden blinks in surprise when Kevin jumps into the backseat with me. “Never mind.”

“He’s used to cars,” I tell him with a shrug. “He’s?—”

The sound of a gun goes off followed by the ping of a bullet against the top of the car. I shriek and duck, wrapping myself around Kevin to protect him. Gilden doesn’t bother getting in the front seat. He throws himself into the back seat with Kevin and me and slams the door shut.

“Fucking go!” he tells Knox before pushing down on my head. “Stay down,cher.” He pauses. “In different circumstances, I’d enjoy pushing your head down and?—”

“Not the fucking time!” Knox snarls as he drops the car in gear and guns it.

More gunshots follow. “Are we about to die?” I ask, treading real close to a panic attack. My heartbeat is so loud, it’s like thunder in my ears.

“Not today,” Gilden reassures me. “This car is bulletproof. Don’t worry,cher. We’ve got ya.” To Knox, he says, “Either lose ‘em or let me shoot ‘em.”

“It’d be quicker to shoot them,” Knox grunts, and I lift my head a little.

Gilden pushes me back down. “Stay down,cher.”

“I thought you said it was bulletproof?”

He grins down at me. “Maybe I just like the way you look up at me,la grande flamme.”

That shouldn’t be hot with bullets flying all around us, but I’m a sucker for a confident man. “That tongue ever get you into trouble?” I ask seriously, but I can’t help but grin up at him.

“All the time,” he says with a wink. “But you seem like trouble on two legs.”

He leaves the implication hanging in the air, that he wouldn’t mind getting into me.

God damn. I thought this was going to be nothing but anxiety and fear and here I am smiling through a shower of bullets.

“Stay down,” he purrs before pulling out a gun I never saw him have. “It ain’t so bulletproof when the window’s down,cher.”

And then he hangs out the window like this is a 007 movie and I’m the damsel in distress. And you know what?

Apparently, I’m into that. Who knew?

Chapter8

Valerie

“What the fuck is that?” I ask, staring at the small plane in front of us. And when I say small, I mean it looks like it can’t hold more than four people, if that. I’ve never been in anything smaller than a commercial airline. This thing? It looks barely capable of flight.

“That,cher, is your limo,” Gilden teases.

“You don’t have something. . . I don’t know, bigger?” I ask, staring at the plane.

Gilden opens his mouth to answer, but Knox smacks him on the head. “Don’t say it. Now ain’t the time for dick jokes.”

“It’s always the time for dick jokes,” Gilden grumbles, but he keeps the comment to himself.

“This is what we got,” Knox tells me. “Luckily, there’s enough room for the pig.”

“Kevin,” I correct him. “He has a name.”

“You’re lucky I’m lettin’ him come along,” Knox grumbles. “My assignment doesn’t include the pig.”

“That’s because you’re here. They assumed you already had one,” I fire back and then smile brightly at him when he shoots me a look of annoyance.

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