Page 26 of Sweet Revenge
When she unexpectedly turned into the office, he stopped in the doorway and watched her cross to the desk and remove a small personal safe from the bottom drawer. She unlocked it with a code, and he moved closer out of curiosity. His eyebrows winged up when she removed a stack of passports and licenses, shuffling through until she found the ones she wanted. There was so much about her he was dying to know.
Next she pulled out a 9mm handgun and a holster that was a smaller version of the one he wore at the small of his back. He watched her expertly clip it to the waistband of her jeans and slide the gun in, tugging her shirt down to cover it. Well, that was fucking sexy.
She flipped through several bundles of foreign currency before finding US dollars and pulling them out. Closing the lid on the safe, she set it into her now empty duffel bag and hoisted it onto her shoulder.
“What?” she asked when she turned and saw the look on his face.
“Who are you?”
She cocked her head. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
She had no idea. After locking the apartment door behind them, they exited the building and quickly walked the three blocks back to the chopper now that the morning rush crowd had thinned out.
“Actually,” she said as he climbed in. “There’s someone I need to meet.”
“I’ll go with you.”
“Declan, I don’t need a babysitter.”
He climbed out of the chopper. “Don’t think of me as a babysitter. Think of me as a tourist, and you’re my reluctant tour guide.”
Her expression remained neutral, but he could sense the annoyance underneath. “But you’re not a tourist. You’ve been here before.”
“That was a lifetime ago. It was a great birthday though,” he added, following her to the elevator. He cast her a sideways glance.
A smile ghosted her lips. “It was. Until you refused to ask for directions and we got stuck walking in the rain for six blocks.” She punched the elevator button for the lobby.
“I made that up to you if I remember correctly.” Her smile slowly fizzled out. “Why did you come here? After you left.” The fact that he’d asked the question surprised him, but he still wanted an answer.
“Because it reminded me of you,” she whispered.
He said nothing, and when they hit street level she took off out the door so fast he had to damn near jog to keep up. She went right, away from the direction of her apartment, and zig-zagged up two blocks, taking them down alleys and cutting through buildings. It took him a minute to realize she was avoiding surveillance cameras.
So she knew this route well and didn’t want to be seen taking it. She took a sharp right turn down an alley lined with fire escapes and discarded shopping bags. She finally stopped in front of a whitewashed brownstone that had, according to the sign painted on the window, been converted into an antique shop.
The street was quiet, and the neighborhood itself seemed to be in transition from residential to upscale business. Exactly the kind of neighborhood he might like investing in at home. He jogged up the steps behind her and stepped into the shop with the tinkle of a bell.
It wasn’t empty, as he expected it to be at this hour on a Friday, and Declan noticed an older man, maybe in his mid-fifties, recognize Evie and give her a quick nod before turning back to speak to a young couple who were admiring a table.
“In need of some trinkets before we head back?” Declan wondered, turning from his inspection of a glass unicorn.
She rolled her eyes, and when the couple finally left, the man crossed to the door and locked it, turning the sign from open to closed. Declan tensed. They were both strapped, but that didn’t mean he liked the idea of being locked in an unfamiliar space with this guy.
“You’re early,” the man said, his voice tinted with a posh British accent. “And you brought a guest.”
“William, this is Declan. Declan, William. Well?” Evie prompted when William merely eyed Declan with suspicion.
“Well, I wanted to do this without an audience, but…” William turned and motioned for Evie to follow him with a crook of his finger.
They wound through tables stacked with antique vases and cut glass bowls and into an office tucked in the back corner marked Staff. It was small, barely enough room for William to move around between the desk and the filing cabinets, let alone the three of them, so Declan leaned against the door frame instead.
“Interesting company you’re keeping these days.” William’s eyes drifted over Declan.
Evie didn’t even spare Declan a glance. “William, you insisted on meeting in person. What do you want?”
“You remember Peter?”
Evie shoved her hands in the back pockets of her jeans. Declan couldn’t see her face, but her voice was tense when she asked, “What about Peter?”
