He wasn’t just going to prison. He was going to hell in a hand basket. Well, a laundry cart, at least.
“I’m coming.”
But he wouldn’t be, not in the way he wanted to. Nope, there was going to be no coming around Kinley Kohl at all. He pushed the cart again and swore to all of the mystical beings of the universe that he wasn’t going to molest their prisoner. No way. He was keeping his hands to himself. The only way he’d be coming in the near future was by the power of his own fist or with a properly paid for hooker. And he wasn’t above either method.
The elevator door was open at the end of the hall, not the pretty one the guests used, but the hefty, industrial-sized one meant to keep the workers out of sight of the hotel’s posh clientele.
On his left, he caught sight of one of the CCTV cameras that dotted the hallways. He kept his head down. All anyone watching the feeds would see was a tall man with dark hair pushing a laundry cart along the hallway. There would be nothing to distinguish him.
Just a few more steps and then they would be safely in the elevator.
“Hey!”
To his horror, the canvas started to move and a perfectly manicured hand appeared.
Law rushed across the hall, his feet making not a single sound against the carpet.
“Hafta getta way.” Kinley was trying to haul herself out of the laundry cart. One fist came up. “Won’t let you. Won’t.”
Riley peered down at her. How did she make that look so fucking adorable? She was a mess of white tulle, and all he could think about was wrapping himself around her.
“Baby, it’s all right.” Law reached for her hand, his voice softer than Riley could ever remember hearing it. Law was rough and tumble, but he got so tender around this one bit of blonde fluff. “What the hell. I thought I emptied the fucking syringe in her arm. We need the chloroform, Riley.”
Yes, it was their last resort. It wouldn’t keep Kinley out for very long, but they had to keep her out long enough to escape this damn hotel.
“Don’t want to get married. Want the beach. Happy there.” They weren’t taking her to the beach, but at least Law seemed to be calming her down. Then she turned those kick-him-in-the-gonads brown eyes his way. “So pretty. Wanna get married?”
Just then, he almost did because she was so sweet with her ridiculously sensual bow of a mouth and honey blonde hair. In that moment, he could picture her at the center of their world. It was perverse. He fucking knew it, but he couldn’t shake the image of the three of them loving her—their queen, their beating heart—as she loved them in return.
He had to stop indulging in ridiculous fantasy. Sure, she was soft right now, but she wouldn’t be when the drugs wore off. Besides, they couldn’t abduct her on her wedding day, then imagine she’d be receptive to romance with him…and Law…and Dominic. The pretty blonde would likely cut them cold for trying to steal so much as a kiss. If they were dumb enough to bring up marriage to all three of them, she’d probably laugh her ass off. If she was crazy enough to try it and stay, she’d end up leaving.
Even so, he couldn’t bring himself to say anything beyond, “Sure, honey.”
“Really?” A brilliant, if loopy smile crossed her face. God, she was gorgeous. His freaking heart nearly stopped. “You’ll be good to me?”
She asked as if it was the gravest of concerns. Maybe she knew her fiancé better than he thought.
“Every single day.” He grabbed the rag from his pants pocket and held it up. She didn’t even flinch, just kept smiling at him as he placed the cloth over her mouth. His heart sank a little as the light left her eyes and she slid back down into the laundry bin.
Law caught her, helping to ease her down. He smoothed back her hair. For just a moment, a primal growl started in Riley’s throat. He craved the chance to soothe her. It was stupid. When she came to, she’d want nothing to do with them, yet he couldn’t stop imagining how nice it would be to put his arms around her and hold her while she slept off the drugs they’d just fed her. Then making love to her when she awoke.
Yeah, he was going to do well in prison.
After Law settled her, his head came up. Right into the line of the cameras.
“Dude, look down. Now!” What the hell was his brother thinking? Law never fucked up an op. Law was the be-all, end-all of operatives. He was ice cold, but it looked like Kinley Kohl was getting his brother too hot to think. Damn!
Law jerked his head down. “Shit! Sorry. Let’s get her out of here. Dominic is probably freaking out by now.”
He jogged down the hall and pushed the elevator button again. Luckily, it hadn’t gone anywhere. Riley started pushing the cart in, his thoughts racing.
Okay, maybe Law hadn’t fucked up all that badly. Maybe the cameras hadn’t been pointed in their direction. Or maybe no one was watching them. In that case, they’d be gone before anyone noticed Kinley was missing. And with any luck, the cameras hadn’t been recording. No one would know anything about her disappearance then, at least until Dominic had the proof he needed. What they’d do with her when it came time to release her and how they’d keep her from running to the police… Well, none of them had figured that out yet.
“Hey, hold up!”
Fuck. As fast as he could shove the cart in, a man in a badly tailored suit was right behind him, crowding into the elevator.
“Sir, the guest elevator is down the hall.” Law’s voice was perfectly steady as he held the door open for the man to exit.
Not just any man. Fuck times two. Vincent Dargo, Greg Jansen’s heavy. There was no way to mistake the man. He looked like something a pit bull had chewed up and spit out before someone decided to shove him into a suit.
“Nah, I hate those fucking snooty elevators. I hate places like this in general. Will this get me to the ballroom floor?”
Riley wondered if there was any chloroform left. Law shook his head slightly and removed his arm from the doorway. The doors closed with a little thud, and Law hit the buttons for the ballroom floor and the street level.
“Of course, sir. We’ll get you there,” Riley forced himself to say.
This was a man who, by all accounts, did Greg Jansen’s dirty work—and had for years. Being this close to the asshole who probably had more than a thing or two to do with Carrie’s murder made Riley want to strangle him.
“You two working this fucking sham of a wedding?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw his brother tense slightly, but Law’s eyes stayed on the doors as the elevator descended. “Nah. We’re dropping this set off for cleaning, then we’re done for the day.”
Vincent frowned. “I thought you had maids to cart that shit around. You two aren’t dressed for laundry.”
It was Riley’s turn. He’d had a lot of experience with being friendly and non-threatening. He’d spent much of his life making up for the fact that Law acted like a Rottweiler on steroids. “Normally, we wouldn’t have anything to do with the laundry, man, but there’s this girl…”
Vincent nodded and sent him a knowing wink. “Hey, you gotta give a little to get some. Well, some of us do.”
“She’s a cute little thing. I don’t know that she’ll last long in the job, though. She’s skittish about some of the nasty stuff we have to send out for cleaning.” Riley shrugged. “When you work in a hotel for as long as I have, you see just about everything.”
“Doesn’t the hotel have its own laundry?” Dargo scowled.
“Sure, but some couple got freaky on one of our thousand thread count sheets. Can’t just throw those out. You know how it is. Some stains are harder to remove and need a professional.”
Vincent Dargo was a stain that Riley would dearly love to remove, but Dargo’s boss was more important. “Well, you won’t have that problem in the bridal suite tonight. God, I’ll be surprised if they fuck at all. That girl is so bangable, but she’s cold. Society women. You think you have a rough job. Try having a boss who tells you to go out and find him a wife with society connections and a fat ass. Oh, but she has to be pretty. Lucky me, I found one, but it was hard. I had to find a go between, if you know what I mean.”
Riley didn’t. Thankfully, the door dinged and opened to the ballroom level because Riley could practically see his brother vibrating with the need for violence.
Down the long hall, Riley caught sight of Jansen in his immaculate tuxedo. For all that Dargo looked like a thug, Jansen fit into society perfectly, a shark masked by designer wear.
He spoke to a man Riley recognized as a senator from Georgia. They were having an intense conversation. Chamber music flooded the halls. It sounded like the wedding was getting ready to start. Someone would start looking for Kinley soon.
“Gotta go.” Dargo rushed out to meet his boss.
Riley reached out and very calmly pressed the button to close the doors.
“I’m going to kill him,” Law said under his breath.
“I’m sure that would make you feel better.” Sometimes he thought snuffing the breath out of lowlifes like Dargo was one of Law’s ways to relax. Today, Riley understood. “When the time comes, make him suffer.”
“What do you think he meant?”
Riley had already reviewed the conversation in his head. He was pretty sure he knew what was bugging his brother. “You mean, why was he concerned with her ass?” He’d seen her pictures. Kinley Kohl had a luscious backside that she tried to camouflage with her clothing. He shrugged. “Maybe he’s an ass man.”
“His other girlfriends have all been model types, very thin. So thin that I’ve wanted to feed them a cheeseburger,” Law muttered. “Even Carrie was that way.”
Carrie Anthony had been beautiful, but neither Riley nor Law had ever been tempted by her. She’d been like their little sister, too. Beyond that, she hadn’t been anywhere close to their type. Sometimes Riley wished they didn’t have a type, but it was true.
Over time, he’d fallen into sharing women with his brother and Dominic. It was just the way he preferred things. Oh, it wasn’t that he couldn’t have sex on his own. He could totally do that, enjoy it even, but he didn’t picture picket fences and forever without backup.
Life in a trailer park, watching his mom pay for their food by whoring herself out, had taught him to always have a contingency, other resources. But finding someone who wanted to be involved with him and his backup had been next to impossible.
So if Jansen wasn’t attracted to juicy asses, why had he insisted on one?
The doors opened, and suddenly that was a problem for another day. It was time to get a move on. Workers rushed around them as they strode down the hallway toward the loading docks.
“About time,” Dominic said. He was dressed in coveralls emblazoned with the name of a local specialty cleaner. “Is that everything we need?”
He was holding a clipboard that likely contained a crossword puzzle and nothing else. It was all just a part of the ruse.
“This should do it.” Riley pushed the cart into the back of the truck.
Just before he was about to close it, Law jumped in. “I’ll ride back here, make sure the merchandise doesn’t get damaged in transit.”
He slammed the door shut.
“Don’t be a pervert.”
Now that they were about to escape the hotel, the worry that Law’s face had been captured by that hallway camera returned. Riley was right back to wondering how he would look in an orange jumpsuit. His guess? Not so great.
But some part of him was more fixated on the moment, was the tiniest bit jealous that Law had Kinley all to himself. He would very likely pick her up because it wouldn’t be nice to leave her in a laundry cart. He would cradle her to make sure she was safe. He would have that very fine ass sitting right on his lap.
Maybe Law wasn’t the only pervert.
“Can we go now?” Dominic asked. “Or do you want to ride in the back, too?”
His longtime best friend was so obviously not amused. “I’m good to go.”
He jogged around the truck and hopped in.
As they lost themselves in the Manhattan traffic, Riley’s thoughts stuck on the woman in the back of the truck.
Dominic couldn’t quite take his eyes off the woman reclining in the seat of the private jet he’d chartered to take them to the James’s landing strip in River Run, Alaska. They’d been in the air for over an hour and she hadn’t moved yet.
She didn’t look anything like Carrie. He’d known it from the pictures he’d studied, but somehow he’d thought that when he got into the same space as Kinley Kohl, he’d see something that reminded him of his sister.
After all, they had both fallen for the same man—a cold-blooded killer who had offed Carrie and intended to do the same to Kinley.
Riley sank into the seat next to him. “Law says we’ll be flying all night.”
