Page 43 of Regret

“Scarlet?”

“It was you, wasn’t it? You led them to the club, to my apartment. And now here.”

“No.” He placed his hands on his waist. “Well, yes. But just the club. Not here.” Then it occurred to him.

He scanned his apartment and found Scarlet’s duffel bag next to the couch.

“You son of a bitch,” Scarlet called after him as he reached for the bag. “I thought you said I could trust you, that you wanted to help?”

Hunter opened the bag while Scarlet was busy spewing every cuss word imaginable. He rummaged through her bag when he felt something hard and cold. Something that felt a hell of a lot like…

“A gun?” He held up the weapon and stared at her with what he knew was hiswhat-the-fucklook.

She crossed her arms in front of her chest. “A girl has to protect herself.”

“From what, Scarlet? What the fuck do you need protection from?”

“I told you!”

“And I don’t fucking buy it,” he yelled back at her. Silence dropped over them, heavy and thick, sucking all the air out of the room. It was not the time to continue this conversation, but God help him, he would get answers…soon.

He placed the gun at his back and continued to search through her bag.

“What the hell are you looking for anyway?” Scarlet peeked over his shoulder.

“This.” He held up a small tracking device that he pulled out of her bag. “This is how they found us.”

“Well, shit.”

“The fuckers tracked you.” Hunter tossed the tracker device to the ground and stomped on it, crushing it in to tiny pieces.

Scarlet paled before looking up at him. “For all I know, you fucking put that thing there.”

“Oh my God. Would you listen to yourself? Why the fuck would I plant a damn tracker in your bag if I have you right here with me? That makes no sense.”

“But how—”

“I don’t know. But my guess is the guy who tried to grab you off the bike back at your apartment, he must have slipped it in your bag.”

“Goddammit,” she cursed, and placed her fist in front of her mouth. “But if they had the tracker, why wait almost an entire day to get here? They could have followed us straight here last night.”

“I have signal blockers set up.”

“Then how did he find us now?”

“It’s signal blockers, Scarlet. Not the damn Pentagon security system. Even though it’s a bitch to crack, you can still get a signal through the blockers if you know what you’re doing. It’ll just take a while.”

Hunter rushed to the window, looked down, and saw four more men cross the street, heading toward the entrance of the building.

“Come on, we need to leave. Now.” He grabbed her wrist, but she remained unmoved. “Scarlet, we need to leave. Those SUV fuckers are on their way up right now.”

While she stood there biting her lower lip, he could almost hear the wheels turning inside her head. She was trying to figure out what her options were, but just like him she knew all too well that he was her only option. He was it. She could either trust him or get her ass hauled back to wherever the fuck this Wolfe guy wanted her.

Finally, she started to pull on her pants and her boots. He let out a sigh of relief and then on instinct—or whatever—he tried to grab her hand to lead her out, but she jerked away from him. For some stupid fucking reason, he didn’t like that she pulled away from him. But there was no time for shit like that.

Hunter grabbed his keys, and just as Scarlet reached for the doorknob he rushed toward her, slamming his hand against the door. With his arm over her shoulder he leaned down closer to her ear. “Let me go first.”

Scarlet stepped to the side, and Hunter pulled out the gun, keeping it at the ready as he slowly opened the door. Glancing down the hallway, he made sure the coast was clear before nodding toward Scarlet, and both of them rushed out the door.

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