Текст книги "Wicked for You"

Автор книги: Shayla Black

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Текущая страница: 9 (всего у книги 23 страниц)

“I’ll do it,” he told Stone finally. “But I can’t promise she’ll have any interest. If you hurt her, I’ll beat the shit out of you.”

“I’ve been duly warned. I want to see her this week.”

“I can make it happen tomorrow.”

“Even better.” Satisfaction rang from Stone’s voice. “What do you want me to find out?”

“Mystery Mullins is staying at the Hotel Crescent Court in Dallas. I want her room number.”

Stone didn’t sound surprised—or as if he even cared. “Give me a few. I’ll have it. Any chance she’s staying there under an assumed name?”

“Yeah. She probably checked in yesterday. That’s all I’ve got.”

“It should be enough,” Stone said.

Axel breathed a sigh of relief. “I’ll call you in fifteen.”

“I’ll have an answer even sooner, but whatever floats your boat.”

Before he could say anything else, Stone hung up. Axel debated the wisdom of introducing the brash man to shy little Misty, but she should branch out. She needed a man who made her feel something other than safe. Axel knew it wasn’t him.

Starting and revving his bike, he tore out of the driveway and headed into the night. He could think himself to death about why Mystery had hidden her identity to trick him into bed. It either had a lot to do with a bottle of tequila, a ghost town, and his rejection . . . or she’d wanted to see how the trailer half fucked.

As soon as he arrived, he parked his motorcycle. If he had his way, he’d be staying far longer than ten minutes.

Inside the lobby, he pulled out his phone. Again, Stone answered almost immediately.

“What do you have for me?” Axel asked.

“You’ll like this. She’s registered as Elise Rattlebottom. I searched the name. She’s the lead character in Mystery’s series of novels.”

Axel remembered reading when she’d signed her first publishing deal four years ago. At least he understood the name she’d given him at the bar now. “Rattlebottom?”

“Yeah. She’s a vegan cat burglar from London who hates her name. She steals precious items from their current keepers and returns them to the rightful owner. You know, rare dogs, paintings stolen from Jews by the Nazis—that kind of stuff. The character is known by the alias Robin Plunder.”

Despite his annoyance, he grinned at that. “Room number?”

Stone rattled it off, then didn’t wait a second before barking a question back at him. “What time tomorrow?”

“Plan on six at Club Dominion. I’ll let you know if there’s a change.”

Axel hung up before the man could comment or protest, then stepped into the elevator.

Time to unravel his Mystery.

Chapter Eight

SHAKING from head to toe, Mystery snatched up her phone to call Heath. She shouldn’t be alone now, not after someone had just sneaked into her room. He would handle hotel security and the police. She would try to calm her father and keep her fears in check.

Because it looked as if her past was coming back to haunt her. Once upon a time, whoever had paid for her abduction had wanted her for something terrible, maybe even deadly. God forbid if they wanted her again, this time to finish what they’d started.

Mystery punched in her security code to unlock the phone, then flipped through her recent calls. She’d just spotted Heath’s number when someone began pounding on her door.

With a shriek, she dropped the phone and lurched back against the wall. “Who is it?”

She cursed her trembling voice, her racing thoughts. Maybe room service had merely arrived. Maybe the hotel management intended to check on her after the incident in the lobby. Or maybe someone lethal had come to finish her off.

“Open the damn door,” a man growled on the other side.

Yeah, after some psycho had forced his way into her room and left her a threatening photo, she wasn’t inclined to comply. “Go away.”

“Like hell. Open up.”

“I’m calling the police,” she shouted.

“Damn it, I need to talk to you, Mystery.”

Something about his voice cut through her panic and sparked her memory. It was familiar, evoked safety. It wasn’t Heath, but . . .

Axel?

With relief flooding through her veins, she darted to the door and peeked through the peephole. Sure enough, there stood the mountain of a man who’d once rescued her. The man she’d seduced earlier. He would understand the threat she’d just received.

With shaking hands, she pressed down on the lever and opened the door. The sight of him in her portal, a huge sentry keeping out all the bad, rushed over her.

It was probably stupid, but she didn’t care. Mystery threw herself into his arms. “Thank God you’re here.”

Axel propelled her back into the room. The door slammed behind them. He reared back, wearing a thunderously furious expression.

“What the fuck kind of games are you playing with me, princess? You disguise yourself to seduce me, tell me a bunch of lies, then the bed is barely cold before you’re gone—”

She wrenched free and ran to the desk, retrieving the picture. “This just happened.”

When she thrust it at him, he grabbed it but didn’t look, just scowled. She trembled. As he studied her, his anger melted into concern. “You’re afraid. Of me?”

“No,” she assured. “Look at the picture, front and back.”

He gritted his teeth at her, then jerked his gaze down to the photo in his hand. After a long stare, he flipped it over. His glower of epic proportions turned to absolute ice.

“Tell me how you got this,” he demanded.

She drew in a shaking breath, the voice in her head screaming that she needed to keep herself together. “I left your house and came back here. Once in my room, I hopped in the shower. When I got out, I found this.”

“You’re sure it wasn’t here before then? That someone didn’t bring it in while you were out of the room?”

“P-positive,” she assured. “My phone was on that desk, so I texted my father before the shower to tell him I was all right and to sleep well. When I came out, I’d planned to send Heath a text—”

“Who is that? The man I saw on TMZ holding your hand in the lobby?”

Mystery recoiled. Anger seethed from him when he asked the question.

She swallowed. “Yeah. He’s my driver and bodyguard. My father hired him shortly after we moved to London. He’s been with me since.”

“Does he have a key to your room?”

“No. We don’t have . . . I mean, he’s not, like, my lover or boyfriend or anything. He has no reason—”

“If I were your bodyguard, I would have a key to your room, regardless of our relationship—which we’re going to discuss eventually. Right now, we need to be clear that whoever left you this picture knows about your abduction. Maybe he was even in on it.”

“Or responsible for it. I’d already thought of that.”

“Have you swept the room?”

“What?” Mystery didn’t understand, not with her heart racing, her fear spiking. “Searched it, you mean?”

Axel nodded. “Did you?”

“No.” Stupidly, she’d assumed that whoever had left her the picture had simply dropped it off and stolen out again, not wanting to be seen. In retrospect, if someone plotted to leave her a death threat, they were likely serious about killing her and might have hung around to do the job.

His head snapped up. He looked around the room. “Sit in that chair.” He pointed to the elegant piece with curved legs, upholstered in white damask, until she followed directions. “Phone in hand. Dial 9-1-1 and keep your finger hovered over the call button. If you hear or see anything out of the ordinary, hit it. I’ll be nearby.”

Mystery did as he demanded. Her finger shook as she stabbed at the buttons on her screen and waited. She followed him with her stare, feeling so much safer with him near. Axel alone understood where she’d been held, the harrowing ordeal of her kidnapping and rescue. She hadn’t had to explain why that photograph had terrified her or what it meant. He knew.

Around her, he opened the closet, checked behind the drapes before he pulled each one closed. Then he searched under every stick of furniture, including the bed—anywhere a person might lie in wait.

Finally, he emerged from the bathroom, its mirror still steamy from her shower. “The coast is clear.” He sat on the edge of the bed and dragged her chair closer to him. “Did you ever find out who paid for your abduction and why?”

“No.” She swallowed hard. “When we moved to London, I focused on putting it all behind me. My father swore that was the best course of action. I refused the tell-all book and movie deals. A lot of conspiracy theorists and crackpots wrote my dad and I about why they thought it had happened. I read the first few, but . . . I know I wasn’t abducted by aliens or the mafia or a super-secret sect of the government.”

“Of course not,” he agreed, looking around. “You didn’t know this Heath guy before your move to the UK?”

“No. He’s former MI5. He’s a good guy. His wife died. Um, I think he considers himself an unofficial uncle, if I had to guess. If you’re thinking he would ever hurt me, then no.”

Axel sat back. “I’m going to have you involve Heath in what happens next only because if I don’t, I suspect your father will freak out and hop on the next plane here.”

He’d figured her father out quickly. Despite the grim situation, she gave him a faint smile. “To say the least.”

“Call Heath, then. I’m going to reach out to some people myself. We’re going to figure this out. And once we do, you’re going to answer a whole lot of questions about why you lied, why you fucked me, and why you left without a word.”

*   *   *

RAKING a palm over the top of his shorn hair, Axel paced the room, watching Mystery have a trembling conversation with Heath. He’d check this guy out himself shortly because anyone who could look at Mystery and feel like her uncle had to be dead below the waist—or lying like a motherfucker.

Despite the danger, Axel’s desire to wrap his hand in her dark hair and watch her hazel eyes widen just before he captured her parting lips rode him hard. The need to have a long talk with her about the whys of her seduction today and all the reasons he found her deceit unacceptable needled him, too. But he’d handle those items once she’d calmed and he’d ensured her safety.

Cursing, he pulled his own phone from his belt, trying to decide who could best help with this situation. He needed Stone’s hacking ability again. But that would only get him so far. To keep Mystery safe, he needed to figure out who had abducted her years ago and why. He could count on one hand the number of men he thought capable of hunting down a ghost from someone’s past—but at least he knew that many. One in particular jumped out at him.

He hit the contact button and connected the call.

“Axel?” said the man on the other end with obvious surprise.

Yeah, they hadn’t exactly started off as the best of friends—accusing the guy of abduction and rape tended to make one unpopular with a new acquaintance—but they’d come to an understanding.

“Joaquin. Hey.” He winced. “I’d, um . . . start with some small talk and ask how you and Bailey are doing in Lafayette and how the wedding plans are coming—”

“But you need something.”

“Badly. You were able to solve Bailey’s past and get to the bottom of the threat that hung over her for years. I’m protecting a woman who needs the same.”

“She’s in danger?”

“Imminent.”

“I’ll do what I can.”

Axel breathed a sigh of relief. “I owe you.”

Joaquin snorted. “Hunter and Logan will probably send you a bill. They’re beasts on the shooting range and in the weight room. But holy shit, they are meticulous about billable hours.”

If the situation weren’t so dire, Axel might have laughed. He’d bet that taking over his retired stepfather’s security firm with his new stepbrothers, both former Navy SEALs, had been interesting.

“Whatever it takes,” he found himself saying.

Axel didn’t know why Mystery and her safety were so important to him. He could tell himself that he’d worked hard to rescue her once and refused to see her die now. He could say that she’d been through enough and didn’t need to endure more. He might even bullshit himself and claim he was only helping her because he didn’t like the idea of any woman in peril.

But Axel knew it was because of this sense of possession brewing deep in his gut. Right now, she was his. He wasn’t done with her—not by a long shot.

“What do you need?” Joaquin asked.

Axel filled the man in on today’s incidents. “Can you peek into Mystery Mullins’s past? See if you can find anyone who might have wanted to harm her then or now. I don’t have a lot to go on.”

“Fair enough,” Joaquin shot back. “I’ll start digging. You involving the police?”

“I don’t think there’s a way around it, but they won’t investigate the reason behind tonight’s incident. They’ll treat it as a simple B and E and move on.”

“Yep. I’ll let you know when I’ve got something.”

“Thanks a bunch. I’m, um . . . sorry I accused you of hurting Bailey when we met.”

“I was an asshole and probably deserved it.”

They laughed, and Axel hung up.

He had one more person to phone, but Mystery’s driver/bodyguard wrapped her in his arms. Axel watched, not at all happy. She might believe Heath saw her as his sweet surrogate niece. Axel snorted. No chance in hell.

She introduced them, and they sized one another up with a wary handshake.

Finally, Heath turned to Mystery. “You’re not hurt?”

“No,” she assured. “Scared, but whoever it was had come and gone before I even knew they’d been here.”

“When did you arrive on the scene?” Heath grilled him, his proper British accent unmistakable.

Axel didn’t like the man’s intimation. “If you’re asking whether I left this photo in her room to upset her enough to send her into my arms, the answer is no. I rescued her from that abduction years ago. Until earlier today, I hadn’t seen her since then. But didn’t you drive her here from my house? Haven’t you been just down the hall all this time? You have a key to her room, I’ll bet.”

Heath bristled. “Yes, I drove her here and I’ve been down the hall. And I do have a key. It’s my job to watch over her. Why would I try to frighten her this way?”

Axel shrugged. “Job security. As long as she thinks you’re necessary, Mr. Mullins will keep signing your paychecks.”

Or more likely the stiff Brit just wanted to fuck her. He understood that need completely.

“Axel . . .” She sighed, then turned to the other man. “Heath. This is silly. I refuse to believe either of you had anything to do with this.”

“I’m merely pointing out that he had opportunity and motive.” Axel stared at the other man.

Heath crossed his arms over his chest. “I suspect you had opportunity as well, since you ‘happened’ to arrive just after she found this photo in her room. I don’t know your motive yet. Maybe you were angry that she left your house quite suddenly today?”

“Stop it, both of you,” Mystery insisted. “Honestly, wouldn’t it be more productive to look for the real perpetrator instead of you two circling one another like rabid dogs?”

As much as Axel’s temper didn’t like it, his head knew she had a point. “All right. Since her kidnapping is unsolved, we’ll have to work that angle separately. For now, we need to contact the hotel’s security and see if they can find the video surveillance from the stairwells, elevators, and hallways leading to Mystery’s door.”

“Agreed. I’d like them to tell us whose key card was used to access the room.”

“Absolutely.” Axel nodded and turned to Mystery. “If you’re ever in a hotel room alone again . . .” Not that she would be for the foreseeable future. “Always throw the dead bolt home. You never know how good a hotel’s security is or the character of the people on their staff who have a master key to all the rooms.”

Heath cupped her shoulder. “He’s right. You must be careful, sweetheart.”

The sight of him touching her, even casually, rubbed Axel the wrong way. It took everything he had not to be a fidiot caveman and threaten to rip the man’s hands off.

“I know,” she murmured. “I forgot. I was . . . distracted. I feel so stupid now.”

“Never.” Heath sent her a searching smile. “Why don’t you sit again? I’ll call hotel security.”

“Do you think if I wait until morning to call my father—”

“He’ll hear about it before then,” Heath told her.

She sighed again. “Right. I’ll handle it.”

The other two both made their respective calls. Axel watched Heath warily. He didn’t trust the guy. Or maybe he just didn’t like the idea that another grown, heterosexual man got to spend so much time alone with Mystery. Axel doubted they’d slept together. But maybe that ugly truth just pissed Heath off.

Axel also wondered why it mattered so much. This morning, Mystery hadn’t been on his radar. Well . . . much. Now, he didn’t want any other man’s hands on her.

Filing that truth away as something to explore later, he made his way to a quiet corner of the room and scrolled through the recent calls on his phone again and hit Stone’s number once more.

“Twice in one day?” Stone asked. “Can’t get enough of me?”

“Maybe you should give up hacking and go into stand-up if you’re so fucking funny.”

Stone laughed. “No, I’d suck at it. But you give as good as you get. I like that. What’s up?”

“I need more information.”

“Since I’ve already got a date to meet the girl I’m interested in, I’m not sure what more you can offer me.”

Axel didn’t hesitate. “I’m her protector. She doesn’t say shit to anyone without my permission. If you want conversation, I suggest you help me.”

“You’re a sly bastard,” Stone groused.

“What’s it going to be?”

Stone cursed. “Tell me what you need.”

Axel smiled into the phone. “The hotel we discussed earlier? I need to see if you can hack into their security systems. I need camera footage of the top floor, leading to the room number you gave me. I also need to see if you can give me a list of everyone whose key card accessed the door to her room. We’re asking hotel security for these same records, but if someone on staff is involved, they could easily tamper with the evidence.”

“No sweat. Give me a few hours. It may not take that long. But I’ll give you some answers.”

“Thanks.”

“Hopefully, Sweet Pea will thank me on your behalf,” Stone said suggestively.

Axel rolled his eyes, and he realized that he didn’t mind another man touching the woman he’d shared scenes and sex with for the last two years. Across the room, Heath had his arm around Mystery, the woman he’d taken to bed exactly once, and Axel felt murderous.

He needed to get a fucking grip.

“Don’t hold your breath. Trust doesn’t come easy for Sweet Pea. She’s a kind soul and she’ll be polite as hell. I wouldn’t expect more than that for now.”

“You control who fucks her, too?”

Axel didn’t think Misty had been to bed with anyone else since they’d settled into their arrangement, but he could be wrong. And it wouldn’t bother him. As long as she found someone good to her, he was cool. “I’m not her pimp, asshole. I look out for her.”

“I don’t think that’s all you do to her, but I’ll put a lid on it, get you an answer, and call back soon.” Stone hung up.

Prick.

Axel watched across the room as Heath caressed Mystery’s back. She’d grown tense as she talked into the phone. She winced, shook her head, and looked like she fought back tears. Axel approached the two.

“Daddy, no. I’m fine,” she assured. “Between Axel and Heath, I’m perfectly safe. We’ll figure this out. I need to see Aunt Gail. I keep promising her I’ll come get some of these things Mom left for me, and I . . . just haven’t wanted to deal with it. She’s going on a mission trip in a few days, so it’s now or never. Besides, none of us ever knows how long we have left, and it’s been too many years since I spent time with her. I’ll be home soon.”

That perked Axel up. He remembered from Mystery’s bio information that her mother’s sister, Gail, was a spinster who lived in rural Kansas. Was that the reason Mystery had come to the States in the first place? If so, why had she stopped to spend a night or two in Dallas?

Heath gave her one more comforting pat, then sauntered his way. “I talked to the hotel’s security director. He said he’ll have the video feed and key card records for us by morning.”

“Morning? I was thinking more like an hour or two.”

“I was, as well,” Heath admitted. “Unfortunately, he says all those records are kept at a facility off-site, and they’re closed until tomorrow.”

Well, Stone would have answers much faster. Maybe he’d tell Heath that later. But until he trusted the guy, Axel refused to divulge much.

“So we’ll work around it for now. Did you call the police?”

“Hotel security said they would. They have a protocol for these things.” Heath clearly didn’t like the bureaucracy.

Axel seconded that. “We don’t need the red tape.”

“Exactly. But I suspect it’s a dead end, anyway. The police won’t know who left her that picture, and even if they could figure out the perpetrator’s identity, I’m sure it would be a greedy maid or a hired thug.”

Maybe. But someone far more nefarious had given the intruder that picture.

Axel paced. Joaquin couldn’t get to the bottom of Mystery’s past soon enough. He had to start figuring out who wanted to hurt her and why.

“You know, whoever left this picture for her tonight . . . what’s the motive? Why remind her of her abduction after all these years? Why now? What set this person off?” Heath asked.

Good question. “Well, judging from the message on the back, this person doesn’t want her on U.S. soil. She’s supposedly safer back in the UK. Has she encountered any threat there?”

“No.” Then Heath reconsidered. “Well, someone broke into their London flat not long after they moved in, probably five years ago. It was trashed. Some of Mystery’s jewelry was taken. But I think we were dealing with a petty thief, not the sort of animal who would threaten the life of a young woman.”

He didn’t have enough facts to say for certain. Axel filed that incident away and moved forward. “Who knew she intended to fly to the States, besides you and her father?”

Heath rolled his eyes. “Everyone who reads her Twitter feed. I’ve advised her to deactivate it, but she insists it’s one of the ways she keeps in touch with fans and friends.”

“She put on her Twitter that she was coming to Dallas?”

“Not precisely. Look.” Heath pulled out his phone and launched Twitter. “This is her feed for the last week. Four days ago, she posted a picture of her suitcase.”

Axel read the caption that said she was excited she’d be visiting her aunt soon. “Shit.”

Heath scrolled and came to another picture of a plate of Mexican food posted two days ago. The accompanying verbiage indicated she was so happy to be getting some of the cheesy-gooey goodness, which was hard to find in London. The picture seemed harmless enough, but the menu with the restaurant’s name and location stood up on the table in the background.

He looked up at the other man with accusing eyes. “Why aren’t you preventing her from posting this?”

“I’ve tried.” Heath winced. “I can suggest all the reasons it’s a terrible idea, but I’m not her father, and he hasn’t seen fit to forbid her to use social media. He claims it’s good for her career, that she needs to be visible.”

“Not if it’s going to get her killed,” Axel grumbled.

“That’s where I come in. I’m simply supposed to be more vigilant, you see,” he said wryly. “Perhaps after this incident, he’ll grasp the scope of the danger.”

Heath scrolled again, revealing the next post. No picture, just one hundred forty characters or less explaining that she was curled up in her hotel room and looking forward to receiving some new personal effects of her mother’s.

When he would have scrolled again, Axel grabbed Heath’s wrist. “Wait. Read that again.”

The other man did and shrugged.

“Does she often post things about her mother?” Axel asked.

“No . . . but, of course, it tends to cross her mind more as we approach May twelfth.”

The anniversary of her mother’s death. Less than a week away. “That’s natural. I’m wondering if that has anything to do with the reason Mystery has been targeted. After all, it’s an unsolved case.”

“I’ve looked into it extensively. Personally, I think Julia Mullins was intentionally pushed off that mountain. Perhaps I’m wrong, but—”

“I don’t think so. I’ve thought it, too,” Axel said. “Just like I’ve considered that Mystery’s kidnapping might have something to do with her mother’s murder. I might be wrong, and proving it would be a long shot, but no other violence has befallen the family. I know Mullins believes the abduction had something to do with his celebrity, but why didn’t someone send him a ransom demand when Mystery was held captive?”

“Or flash this picture to the world to show off what they’d done if they were so bloody proud of their ‘accomplishment’?”

Axel nodded. “Whoever took her prisoner has been damn quiet these last six and a half years.”

“Precisely.”

“So why would this douche suddenly start making noise again? What else is on her Twitter feed?”

“Very little.” Heath scrolled and paused over another picture, this one of the Dallas skyline, probably from her hotel room. She’d posted it this morning. “Bloody hell. I hadn’t seen this yet.”

“She might as well draw everyone a fucking map and tell them how to find her.” Axel shook his head.

“If I weren’t a gentleman, the things I would say and do . . .”

Yep. She needed a damn good spanking, and when she wasn’t so upset and scared, Axel intended to give it to her and make it clear that, until they’d solved this shit, her social media was off limits.

“Assuming the police will find nothing about who broke into her room—which is what I’m anticipating—what are our next steps?” Heath asked.

Axel didn’t really like his attention to Mystery, but he also couldn’t disagree with the way the man thought. “She can’t stay here tonight.”

“Of course not. Everyone knows where to find her.”

“I’ll bet you haven’t seen all the shit on TMZ yet, either.”

Heath just closed his eyes and shook his head. “Well, pardon my French, but what a fucking debacle. And if I can’t keep her safe, her father will have my balls.”

“Mullins is intense, for sure, especially where his daughter is concerned. I know where we can hide Mystery for a few days while we figure out what’s going on and how to stop it.”

“But Aunt Gail is expecting me tomorrow,” Mystery cut in, clearly finished talking to her father. “She’s leaving on that mission trip to Indonesia on Saturday. I can’t miss seeing her. I’d like that stuff my mom left for me, and I don’t know when I’ll be back in the country.”

“I don’t think a jaunt to Kansas wise,” Heath began. “You can visit her when she returns from Indonesia. But go home now.”

Axel snorted. “He’s being polite. At this point, you’ve told everyone—including the people coming after you—that you’re planning to visit her. Go the fuck back to London.”

“You’re assuming these people read my Twitter feed,” she protested. “I only have fifty thousand followers. Maybe whoever is threatening me found out some other—”

“That’s fifty thousand potential whack-jobs you’re telling what you’re doing and where you’re going. Have you put this information anywhere else?”

“Everything I post to Twitter loads to Facebook. I also have an Instagram account. I don’t use it much.”

“Shuttle them all,” Axel demanded.

Instantly, she balked. “I have a book releasing in six weeks. I use my social media accounts to promote—”

“You won’t be doing that if you’re not alive to use them, Mystery.”

“Wait. Perhaps we shouldn’t change her patterns so abruptly,” Heath suggested. “If she suddenly closes everything down, not only do we alert this bastard that we’re onto him, but we also lose our means of communicating any message that might help us.”

Axel opened his mouth to argue, then shut it. “You’re right. We should be using the accounts to misdirect this asshole and take the heat off her.”

“Precisely.” Heath nodded.

“I like that idea,” Axel admitted. “Post now that you’ve had a change of plans and you’ll be returning to London tomorrow.”

“But my aunt—”

“You can call her and tell her privately that you’re still coming.” He held up a hand to ward off her protest. “But to the rest of the world, you’ve had a great if short visit, but you need to get home.”

Heath shook his head. “People will see her at the airport tomorrow if she boards a flight not heading to London. And it’s not as if she’s going to New York or Chicago, where she might be catching a flight to the UK from there.”

“Good point. Can you cancel her Kansas City flight?” Axel asked the other man.

“On it.” He took his phone back from Axel’s grip.

Mystery put a hand on her hip. “So how are we getting to Aunt Gail’s?”

“Normally, I’d say we could drive, but it’s not as if you can stop at McDonald’s for a restroom break and lunch without potentially being spotted,” Axel pointed out.

Heath muted his phone. “Private charter.”

Axel pointed at the Brit. “That’s the ticket.”

“I’ll find one for the two of us as soon as I finish with the airline,” her bodyguard supplied.

“I know who can arrange one.” Thorpe could get anything handled. And as far as Axel was concerned, the smaller the paper trail that led back to Mystery, the better. “And all three of us are going.”

“No.” Heath looked decidedly pissed off at that suggestion.

Too fucking bad.

Axel crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ve evaded this son of a bitch before. I know more about how he thinks. If we play this right, I might even be able to figure out what he wants. So I should stay with her.”

Heath hesitated, then looked at Mystery. “Sweetheart?”

She bit her lip, indecision all over her face. Likely, she was weighing her sense of personal safety when she had him nearby versus the tongue-lashing he intended to give her as soon as they were alone.

As she strolled into the nearby bathroom, she flipped on a light, then reached for a little elastic band. She gathered her damp hair over her shoulder and returned, braiding the mass. Axel watched in fascination as her nimble fingers worked at the tresses covering her neck, falling softly over her breast, hanging around her waist. He imagined that sleek, soft mass all around him, caressing his skin, as she straddled him and rode his cock. Or him gathering all those strands in his fist as he took her from behind, her ass deliciously pink from the slap of his bare palm over and over . . .