Authors: Kat Martin

Into the Whirlwind (35 page)

BOOK: Into the Whirlwind

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“I needed to talkâ”

“Did you hear what I said? I'm hanging on by a thread here, Emma.”

Luke was really mad. She wondered if she should be frightened, though her image of him didn't see him as an abuser of women.

Luke turned the corner and the car slowed a little. She figured that was a good sign.

“What did you think was going to happen when you went in there tonight?” Luke asked, though she had a hunch he didn't really expect an answer.

“Actually I was doing pretty well until I pulled out the money. I didn't handle that right. I'm pretty new at this. I should have made the offer in private. I should haveâ”

“Stop right there.” Luke pulled the car over to the curb and shoved it into park. “There were a dozen things you should have done, Emma, starting with staying away from the Polo Club and forgetting about Felix Biggs.”

“He was supposed to be there tonight. You helped me get the name. What did you think I was going to do?”

“I was hoping you weren't crazy enough to go after him alone.”

She frowned. “Wait a minute. What were you doing there?”

“Biggs has information I need.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Oh my God. You weren't helping me question Digby the other night. You were getting information for yourself!”

“What, you thought I was just being Mr. Nice Guy? I've got a job to do. I do what it takes to get it done.”

Emma felt like crying. She had idolized Luke Brodie since the first story she'd heard about him. How could she have been so wrong?

Then she thought about the way he'd looked standing in the parking lot, like an avenging angel come to her rescue. “You saved me tonight. You could have just gone your own way and left me there.”

Those amazing blue eyes zeroed in on her face. “I might not be the man you thought I was, darlin', but I'd never leave a woman to deal with that kind of scum by herself.”

She felt better. She wasn't wrong about Luke. He was the best of the best. He'd saved her butt tonight. She owed him and she wouldn't forget it.

She thought of Biggs and her lost opportunity. Disappointment slid through her and her lips curled down in a pout. “I didn't even get to talk to him.”

Luke slammed a hand down on the steering wheel. “No, and you aren't going to. Whatever skip you're chasing isn't worth being raped or killed. You get me?”

Emma sighed. “I get you.” But she needed to talk to Biggs. She and Lila had kind of hit it off. With the right persuasion, she had a feeling the woman would help her.

“My purse is in my car. I left it unlocked in case I needed to make a quick getaway.”

Those blue eyes sliced her way again.

“The thing is my weapons are in there. You think those guys will steal them?”

“No. They think you're mine. They won't touch your stuff.”

“Yours? As in your girlfriend?”

“I don't have girlfriends.”

“What then? Your night's entertainment?”

He pulled the Bronco back out into traffic. “I guess so.”

Emma rolled her eyes and leaned back in the seat. They thought she was spending the night with Luke. Having hot sex with manwhore Luke Brodie. For all the money in Vegas she wouldn't admit to the little zing that zipped the length of her body.

“Where are we going now?”

Luke slowed and pulled a U-turn, started back toward the bar.

“We're going back to the Polo Club?”

“You need to get your car, right?”

“Seriously? You want to butt heads with those guys again?”

His mouth edged up. He had the sexiest mouth she had ever seen. God, she wished she hadn't noticed.

“We aren't going in. We're going to surveil the place, see if we can spot Biggsâsomething you should have done instead of going inside without backup.”

“We? You're going to help me again?”

“No. I just don't want to have to drive you home, then drive all the way back. You're here. You can just sit tight until I finish what I came here to do.”

“Talk to Biggs.”

“Not tonight. Not after your little episode in the bar. If I see him, I'll track him to wherever he's roosting at the moment.”

“Good idea.” Emma leaned back in the seat.

Luke pulled up at a stoplight and his attention swung back to her. “Let's get something straight: I did you a favor tonight. That's it. We're done. I'm tracking a skip and you aren't involved.”

“Who is it?”

He hesitated. “I guess it doesn't matter. I've got the contract. I'm looking for Rudy Vance. He's aâ”

“I know who he is,” she said, unable to keep the edge out of her voice.

The light turned green. Luke started driving. He rounded the block two times before finding a place to park where he could watch the bar without being spotted.

He turned off the engine and reached behind his seat, pulled a pair of binoculars out of a satchel, and looped the strap around his neck. He tossed her a radio. “You know how to use this?”

She nodded. “Booth showed me.”

“Booth Childers?”

“Booth's been helping me. He's kind of my mentor. Or at least he was.”

“Yeah, I heard. Too bad about that.”

“He's doing better.”

“Booth's a good guy. If you're serious about the business, you do what he tells you.”

She just nodded.

“Watch the front door. I presume you know what Biggs looks like.”

“Of course.”

“Fine, you see Biggs, you give me a heads-up on the radio. Whatever you do, do not get out of the car.”

He was gone before she could reply. Emma watched him as he walked away. He was wearing jeans again, tucked into the same knee-high moccasins he'd had on before, each of his footsteps carefully placed. Wide shoulders filled out the dark green Henley stretched over his hard-muscled frame. There was enough moonlight to notice the sun streaks in his short, brown hair.

Emma forced herself to concentrate on the front door of the Polo Club. With any luck, Biggs would eventually show up. They would wait him out and follow him to wherever he lived and she would get the answers to her questions.

Emma smiled. Bounty hunting was a whole lot easier when you were working with Luke Brodie.

About the Author

Kat Martin is the
New York Times
bestselling author of sixty-five books across multiple genres. Sixteen million copies are in print and she has been published in twenty-one foreign countries, including Japan, France, Argentina, Greece, China, and Spain. Her books have been nominated for the prestigious RITA award and won both the Lifetime Achievement and Reviewer's Choice Awards from
RT Book Reviews
magazine.

A resident of Missoula, Montana, Kat is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she majored in anthropology and also studied history. She and her author husband, L. J. Martin, spend their winters in Ventura, California. She is currently writing her next romantic suspense. Visit Kat at
www.katmartin.com
. Or join her Facebook page. (
www.facebook.com/KatMartinAuthor
)

Also by Kat Martin:

INTO THE FURY

Available now!

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ISBN-13: 978-1-4201-3902-0
ISBN-10: 1-4201-3902-9

ISBN: 978-1-4201-3902-0

BOOK: Into the Whirlwind

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