Page 15 of Tops
“If it pertains to anything from the video that I need to show you, then no. You will not be able to talk about that. I will communicate all that information via a secure e-mail server.”
“We’ve already set you up an e-mail address,” Colten said, sliding a piece of paper to me.
“Oh, how thoughtful,” I said irritably as I attempted to snatch the paper from under his fingertips. Instead of ripping the paper out, like the brat I apparently channeled for today, he slid the sheet to the side at the last possible second, causing me to miss. He retracted his hand, leaving me to awkwardly flop my hand to the side to snatch the page.
I watched Colten look at Tanner with a slight smile on his lips. This time, the smile reached all the way to his eyes. It was a dark look, full of wicked glee.
“No,” Tanner said sharply, his stare now fixed on the man he called his friend.
I watched a silent exchange as their bodies screamed out tension. This was just as exciting as linguistic copulation with Tanner. My eyes ping-ponged between the two men attempting to figure out what they were talking about.Is it twisted that I hoped they were talking about me?
I tried to shake my head and remind myself I was just there to get through the rest of my degree so I could go work for the Smithsonian. There really wasn’t room in my life for relationships. Really, I blame Hannah for whatever weird thing she did to me. She put the idea of banging my professor and her boss before I left New York into my head. The resulting flirting that happened today is all Hannah’s fault.
The exchange ended with the attorney glaring before looking away. I felt the heat of Tanner’s gaze as it shifted back to me. The rush of fear that washed over me was unlike the paralyzing fear of anxiety. Something was exciting about the fear Tanner made me feel. My heart racing inside me didn’t feel like it was trying to break out of my chest; instead, it was beating so fast I could grow wings and fly.
“Sign the damn papers, Nessa,” Tanner said again.
There is no way I could turn down the opportunity to see the face of the man that attacked Hannah. I could faintly hear Hannah’s voice in my mind, reminding me of her claim to make men work for it.You have to give them a little, but taint their win.I rolled my eyes, looking straight at Tanner, hoping to make him squirm. His eyes widened as I leaned toward him slowly. I watched his gaze travel down to my lips. I gave him just a moment to appreciate my boldness. A smirk crept across my face as I grabbed a pen from the table right in front of him. Sitting back down, I was ready to sign whatever I needed to see this video.
“Can you make it bigger? I can hardly tell what he looks like,” I asked, squinting at the slightly fuzzy image of a man with a gun pointed at the back of Hannah’s head.She didn’t tell me there was a gun involved.
“I didn’t ID him from his face. Just watch,” Tanner muttered before allowing the rest of the video to play out.
The man looked like he was wearing all black. Even a hood was pulled over his head to hide more of his face in the shadow than not. He was taller than Hannah in her heels, meaning he was well over six feet. He held a gun in his left hand and pointed it straight at the back of Hannah’s head. The video didn’t have sound. Not that we would have been able to make out much over the city’s noise. I took a deep breath to appreciate the simple quiet here in Tanner’s office.
Hannah reached into what I assume was her purse, throwing a wad of cash into the air. She ran as the money rained down on the gunman, who stood as still as a statue. He wasn’t trying to collect the money. The cash didn’t sit long before onlookers noticed it and ran to crowd around the man dressed in black. I didn’t see where the gun was anymore, and I couldn’t remember precisely when it disappeared. Once all the cash was gone, the man slipped away into the throng of people.
“So, you think you can tell who that is from this video?” I didn’t see anything revealing other than he was left-handed and, with the size of New York City, didn’t seem to narrow it down by much.
“I think he was at the club again that night. He sat a few stools down from you once you went back down to the bar,” Tanner said, clicking his mouse a few times as a new video was loaded. This video was in a much higher resolution.
In the video, my ass was center frame as I sat on a stool, leaning over my drink. It looked like I was having an intense moment of soul searching at the bottom of my glass, but in reality, I was trying not to look at all the naked bodies around me. I didn’t want to get accused of staring or anything rude.
“I think that is the same man that pulled the gun on Hannah,” Tanner said, pointing two seats down from me where a man dressed in all black sat. He was rudely staring at me, and as the video progressed, I felt the prickles of anxiety as I saw just how long he had watched me.I hadn’t even noticed.
Since he was inside the club, his hood was down, revealing his face to the 4K cameras inside. He had a patch of dirty blond hair tied into a ponytail on top of his head. The rest of his hair was shaved all the way around. His hands were massive as they made his drink look like a miniature. I’d make a guess of six foot, five inches. He almost looked like a modern Viking.
“Yeah, he looks unforgettable,” I muttered, trying to catch every detail until I knew I would recognize him if I ever saw him again.Didn’t do much good if I wasn’t observant enough to notice him staring at me in the first place.Hot prickles coated the back of my neck. The longer I looked, the more unsettled I felt.
“His name is Fynn Graves.” Tanner’s voice broke through the fog of my mind, seeming to clear a path. “I used to know him very well. He’s a hired hitman and seems to have you and Hannah in his sights for some reason.” Tanner sat back in his chair, steepling his fingers on the desk.
“Then we need to go to the police,” I said as a sudden bubble of anxiety inside me spilled forward. I started scrambling for my purse. This time, no one even questioned me about bringing along my phone. I needed to call the police because that’s what you should do, right?
I felt a hand wrap around my arm, gently but firmly. My hand instantly stilled as I looked up through a curtain of hair and right into Colten’s amber eyes. All the panic and fear inside me seemed forgotten the moment our gazes locked, and my head no longer felt like it was going to explode.
“Take a deep breath, Vanessa,” Colten said calmly. I mirrored his breathing. Deep, slow breaths in before breathing out through my nose. It took a few minutes in the calm bubble of controlled breathing before I finally reached the other side of my mini-panic attack.I should have brought my meds.
“Call me Nessa,” I breathed, giving Colten a smile.
He returned with a shy but heart-melting smile as he pushed his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. Suddenly, his earlier rudeness was forgotten. I got the feeling Colten had no idea just how attractive he was, but he knew he wasn’t bad looking either.
“Nessa then,” he smiled at me again before Tanner cleared his throat, reminding me we weren’t alone in the room.How the fuck did I forget Tanner was in the room?
Tanner’s tone was all serious. “Sorry to say this, but the truth is, the police are no match against Fynn. First off, they won’t be able to find him. And even if they do manage to accidentally run into him, he will kill them all without getting a scratch on him.”
I gasped. The thought that a trained killer, so dangerous the police were no match, was looking for me or Hannah, scared the shit out of me.
“I can find out why there’s a bounty on you or Hannah. From there, I may be able to pull a few favors and get Fynn to back off. In the meantime, I think you need to leave your apartment and come stay under my protection,” Tanner said, softer this time.
