Page 29 of Ruthless Loyalty

“Okay, there is one thing.” He took her hand and led her down the sidewalk. “It’s nearby.”

He brought her to a tattoo shop that he was familiar with. He’d gotten some of his other ink done here in the past. They weren’t busy on a weekday afternoon, so he was pretty sure he could get one done even though he didn’t have an appointment.

“What do you plan to get?” she asked.

“I’ve been wanting a skull with a dagger through it on my shoulder for a while. Might take a while.”

Lexi smiled. “Sounds sexy. I’ll watch.”

“Is that your girl?” the tattoo artist asked as Sam settled onto the chair. She was flipping through a portfolio of the man’s work on a couch nearby with a soft smile on her face.

“Yep,” Sam said, pride swelling inside of his chest.

She washis.

15

LEXI

It had beena couple of weeks and she felt like she was finally settling into her new life in Davinapolis. She had finally gained the respect she deserved at her job and she’d gotten the chance to explore the city a little. She had made a friend at the bookstore and, the most exciting of all, she had a boyfriend.

At least, she was pretty sure that was what Sam was to her. They hadn’t really talked about it, but she knew that the feelings between them were real.

She had to work later than usual tonight, so it was dark out when she pulled into the parking lot of her apartment building. As she stepped out of her car, she once again had that feeling of being watched, but this time, she quickly spotted the person staring at her.

It was a man leaning against a light pole at the edge of the parking lot. He was dressed in a collared shirt with a pair of slacks with his arms folded over his chest. Something about him made an uneasy shiver shoot down her spine, and that was before he even started to speak.

“Hello, Miss Cooper. Can I have a word?”

Something about the authoritative tone of his voice made her think that he wasn’t really asking. He straightened from the light pole and moved closer. He was a big guy, and she immediately felt intimidated.

“Uh…who are you?”

“Agent Calloway,” he said, pulling out his wallet and flashing a badge. “I need to talk to you about your association with Samhuil Gusev.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that…”

“It’s just a few questions,” he said, gesturing to his car. “If you’ll just come with me.”

“I don’t know about that,” she replied, taking a step toward the apartment building. He moved to block her path. “I just want to go to my apartment.”

“This won’t take long. At this point, it’s just an inquiry, but if you’re not willing to talk…well, that doesn’t look good for you.”

There was a darkness in his eyes that made her believe that he would shine a laser focus on her life if she didn’t comply. She was anxious as she considered her options, but in the end, it was the aggression she could sense coming off of him in waves that made her decision for her.

She got in the car.

She was nervous, and she took her phone out of her pocket, holding it in her hands as she sat in the back seat. At the first sign of some shady behavior, she’d call for help. But he took her straight to the police station.

She felt like some kind of criminal as she was led to an interrogation room. Calloway left for a while, causing her anxiety to spike with every passing minute. The room was small and windowless with gray walls and horrible fluorescent lighting. It was cold, and the metal chair made her butt hurt after just a couple of minutes, so she paced around the perimeter of the room. The place was obviously designed with discomfort in mind.

There was a camera hanging on the wall in the corner of the room with a red light, and she glared at it for a few minutes, hoping that Calloway would get the message if he were watching. She was losing patience for this.

When the door of the room opened, Calloway sauntered in with a folder in his hands. He gestured for her to sit, and she did so, folding her hands on the table in front of her. She agreed to come here, but she wasn’t planning to tell this man a damn thing.

“Sorry to have kept you waiting,” he started, not sounding sorry at all. “I was gathering some information about you.”

“I can’t imagine what that might be. I’ve never been in trouble with the law before.”

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