A Captive Situation (Kings of New York)

“You want another coffee?” The server came back, eyeing me, but I saw the strain on her face.

I turned in my booth, my back to the whole posse that had formed outside. The ambulances. The fireman. The police. The paramedics.

I was on my third cup since everything happened. I nudged my mug toward her. “Thanks. Yeah.”

This was all new to me.

I was alive.

And sitting in a diner, after a shooting that happened in front of me, literally, I was getting a wake-up call. My life was officially fucked up. I needed to unfuck it up.

She let out a sigh and didn’t move away from the table. Her gaze was on the commotion outside, and I looked too. Jake was in front of the window, his arms crossed over his chest, so it pulled his shirt tight around him, accentuating his athletic build.

“How do you know him? Have you two been a thing for a while?”

I knew who she meant. “I just met him. He stole me from a police station.”

“I—what?” She had to blink a few times, slack-jawed.

I shrugged. “His cousin made him.”

“What?”

“She’s in rehab now.”

She continued to blink at me, her face blank.

The door opened then, the bell jingling. Seeing who was coming in, she dropped her gaze and scurried away.

She’d been flirty with Jake earlier. Then she saw him kill a guy and her attitude changed. I paused, my eyebrows pulling down. Should that have the same effect on me? I checked, eyeing Jake as he walked over to me. He ignored the others that remained in the diner. Most took off after they were questioned, but two older guys who looked as if they had no intention of shaving in this decade were perched at the counter, turned all the way around so they could see outside. Their elbows rested behind them.

They had a front-row seat to the scene happening outside.

Both grunted greetings to Jake, who half raised a hand to them. But his eyes went right back to me, trained on me as he approached.

The stirring was still inside of me.

Nope. That didn’t have the same effect on me that it had on the server.

He came to the end of the table, his gaze sliding over me, inspecting every inch. After a bit, his jaw clenched. He asked in a gruff voice, “Ready to go?”

I needed to go back to my hotel. I needed to figure out my steps for tomorrow. I still had my list. Things to do. Activities to cross off, but I opened my mouth and nothing.

I didn’t want to leave him.

The thought of going our separate ways made my stomach dip.

But then he said, “I got a hold of your cousin. He said I could bring you to his place.”

My mouth snapped shut. “What?”

He went back out the door. He didn’t answer me.

I was—what did he say? I scrambled after him. “I never told you my cousin’s name. How did you get a hold of him?”

He got to the door, eyeing me before he opened it, and because he did, my momentum brought me close. Real close. Lack-of-personal-space close. I could breathe in all the smells wafting from him. His cologne. The smell of gun—was there a smell for that? There were other traces of smells. I caught myself before slamming into him, but his hand fell to my hip, sinking in. He held me in place, keeping me.

I went still.

I could feel his heat.

As if transfixed, my eyes tracked up, taking in his chest, his throat, his Adam’s apple, his very prominent jawline, those lips . . . I gulped, pushing the beat of arousal down inside of me, and I finished the trek, coming to see his eyes, his eyes that had darkened. There was a slight smolder in them before he said, “I asked a friend for a favor. Your social media’s wide open. He got me a number within twenty minutes.”

Something shrank inside of me. “Oh. What—” I licked my lips.

He tracked the movement, his gaze piercing.

My brain fritzed for a second before I remembered. “What did my cousin say? I mean . . . How did he react when you told him about me?”

His eyes warmed before a wall slammed back down. They went dead and his tone was so flat. “He was surprised to hear about you, but I explained the situation, and he said I could bring you around there.”

“What did you all say?” Oh, god. Did my cousin know about everything? I wanted to give a good first impression when he saw me in person. My whole family-mending mission relied on that first impression. I didn’t want to scare him.

“I told him that you witnessed a shooting and you mentioned you were in town to maybe meet him.”

My focus sharpened. “That’s all you said?” My mouth parted in surprise.

His eyes flashed, but cooled right after. “That was it. Everything else is up to you.” He looked behind me for a moment. “You gave your statement. My cousin is in rehab. Our time together has come to an end. That means you and I are done.” He spun away from me, stepping outside. “You ready?”

I frowned, pursing my lips.noveldrama

We were done.

That made sense.

My mouth went sour.