Mason: The Sinner Saints #4 (18 page)

Her eyes locked with his. Her tongue flicked out to wet her full bottom lip.

“I’m—”

Her bright blue eyes darted away from his, focusing sharply on something just behind him and shattering the moment. All the color drained from her face as she ducked her head.

“There’s another twenty in it for you if you put your arm around me right now,” she blurted out.

He swiveled around to see what had spooked her, just in time to see his man, Jake, breaking through the crowd. Rhys wasn’t far behind.

Carter couldn’t blame the woman for her reaction. There probably wasn’t a more intimidating pair on the planet. Of course, that was only half the reason he kept them on the payroll. They might be damned useful, but, after everything they’d been through together, these men were his family.

“Are those the guys that are after you?” he said, tilting his head in their direction.

“Yeah.” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“I thought you said they were scary.” Carter turned toward Jake and Rhys. “Is there a problem, gentlemen?”

Jake stopped short at Carter’s impersonal greeting and high-handed tone. His brows pulled down into a deep V above his eyes.

“Yeah, there is,” Jake said slowly. “That woman is—”

“Is not a problem,” Carter finished for him.

Rhys gave him a long look, his ice blue eyes narrowing. “You sure about that, because she—”

“Isn’t on the list? I know. The lady is with me, boys.”

“
Boys
?” Jake said. His jaw tightened as he took a step forward. Carter knew Jake wasn’t used to being talked down to and, by the looks of it, he didn’t like it one bit. Not by his boss. Maybe,
especially
, by his boss.

Rhys put his hand on Jake’s shoulder, stilling him. Jake turned his head. He caught Rhys’ pointed look and his stance relaxed a little…a very little.

“Sorry about the misunderstanding, sir,” Rhys said. “It looks like you have this situation under control.”

“I do,” Carter said.

“Yeah, our
deepest
apologies,” Jake said, giving Carter a belligerent smile as Rhys slowly pulled him back into the crowd. “
Sir
.”

Carter turned around to find his mystery woman staring at him with narrowed eyes. The left side of her mouth was quirked up at an angle that said that she didn’t quite believe what had just happened…and not in the good way.

“You chased them off?” she asked, her voice dripping with skepticism.

“I guess I did.”

“Just by telling them that I was with you?”

“Like you said, I’m not the kind of person people want to mess with.”

“Yeah,” she said, drawing out the word. She swept him up and down with a critical gaze, as if she was completely re-examining him.

So, maybe he’d laid it on a little too thick. But that was all right. He could recover. It couldn’t be too hard to regain her trust.

“Where were we?” Carter cocked his shoulder against the wall and gave her his best bedroom smile, the one that had slipped more than a couple of secrets from the lips of beautiful women around the globe. He lazily raised his hand to tuck a stray hair that had come loose behind her ear. “That’s right. You were about to tell me your name.”

She handed him her empty glass. “I really should be going.”

Okay. Maybe it was going to take a little more damage control than he first thought.

“Why would you want to do that?” he whispered.

She looked over his shoulder again. Her eyes went wide. “Because your friends are coming back.”

Carter spun around. He scanned the crowd for Jake and Rhys, but they weren’t there.

His shoulders fell as he heard the soft sound of the metal door that led to the back stairwell clicking closed behind him.

He turned around and looked at the empty space by the wall.

She was gone.

She’d bolted. Just like he’d known that she would.

Correction—she’d played him and then she’d bolted. Just like she’d done to Rhys and Jake. Not a good night for Macmillan Security.

Though somehow, Carter felt a wave of admiration toward the woman who’d given him the slip. It was a rare creature that could elude one ex-Special Forces operative, let alone three. Of course, that only made him more determined to find her and figure out exactly who she was and what she was up to.

Continue Reading Carter Now!

About The Author

Adrienne Bell has lived her entire life in Northern California. She now resides on the far edge of the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and kids. You can follow the minutia of her life on
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