Sam sucked in an audible breath.
Then he was silent for three seconds (I counted).
Then he said with very scary, very quiet menace, a tone that, even knowing him and how he really was, sent chills up my spine, “Anything ever happens to her, ever, I will find you, I will hurt you and in the end you will beg me to kill you.”
I pressed closer to Sam.
The man held Sam’s eyes but, cold-blooded killer for hire in a golf shirt or not, his face had paled.
Then he nodded.
“Get out,” Sam ordered.
He nodded again.
Then he asked, “Can I have my gun?”
Sam didn’t speak and I wasn’t in a position to see his face but whatever look he gave the man, it worked. Instantly, the man got to his feet, turned and moved quickly out the door.
Sam turned and looked down at me.
“Grab the phone. Foot of the bed, on your ass on the floor. Dial nine, one, one but do not hit go. You hear anything, feel anything you don’t like, you hit go. Yeah?”
I nodded, moved to the phone and grabbed it. Then I moved to the foot of the bed and dropped to my ass on the floor. Then I hit the buttons and cuddled Memphis to me.
Sam took me in then took off.
I sat there listening hard and breathing harder.
Memphis stayed still, close and silent.
It took seven years then Sam came back.
He came direct to me, dropped both guns to the bed, bent down and pulled me up by my wrist. Then he stalked to his nightstand, tagged his cell, flipped it open, hit some buttons and put it to his ear. I turned his landline off.
Seconds later, he growled into the phone, “Yeah, I f**kin’ know what time it is but what you don’t know is I got a f**kin’ bullet hole in the floor of my bedroom because Kia and I just got paid a visit by her hit man and he didn’t take me seriously, tried to turn the safety off on his gun and I had to make a point. Now, Cal, what I wanna know is, how the f**k did he breach your security?”
Okay, I’d seen Sam annoyed, pissed and downright angry. Even really downright angry.
But it was safe to say he was right now enraged.
I cuddled Memphis closer.
“Yeah, that’d be good, you come in person to check it out,” Sam kept growling then continued growling when he stated, “Yeah, he said he’d stand down. And I feel good about it because he knows I missed on purpose but still tore a hole through his f**kin’ khaki f**kin’ pants in the dark with my warning shot. I still wanna know how he breached your goddamned system. I have two men on dayshift, no nightshift ‘cause it’s supposed to be impenetrable. I thought we were unsafe, Aziz or Deaver would have neutralized him and my woman would not be shakin’ like a f**kin’ leaf right about now.”
He’d torn a hole through that man’s khaki’s with his warning shot?
Uh.
Wow.
Obviously they didn’t mess around in Ranger school.
“Yeah,” Sam’s voice was now quieter and a whole lot less ticked off, “I know you got three girls under your roof and you get me. I also want my question answered, Cal.” He listened, sucked in breath through his nose then, “Right.” Then clearly the unknown Cal broke through because his lips twitched and he muttered, “Yeah, khakis.” Then a pause before he went on muttering with a, “Fuck me.”
Then he chuckled.
I wasn’t finding one, single thing amusing.
He must have caught my vibe because his eyes cut to me then he said into his phone, “Kia’s about to have a shit fit or a breakdown. I gotta be available for either one. Let me know your plans.” A pause then, “Right, later.”
Then he flipped his phone shut.
The instant he did, I remarked, “I find it immensely disturbing that a hit man wears a golf shirt.”
Sam’s lips twitched then he ordered gently, “Baby, come here.”
“But I think it’s good to know that Memphis won’t be friendly to unwelcome intruders.”
“Kia, honey, come here.”
“And we must make a mental note to patch that bullet hole in your floor before your Mom gets here,” I informed him.
Sam gave up on his order and told me quietly, “He wasn’t here to hurt you. I hired the best. He was running scared. He wanted assurances.”
“I got that.”
“Now he’s got his assurances and you’re good.”
“What does he mean by Lee and his whack jobs?” I asked.
Sam hesitated, studying me. Then, carefully, he answered, “Lee owns a private investigations agency but he dips his toe in a lotta shit. His crew has a variety of skills. They are known to be very good at what they do and not to f**k around. You’re smart; you don’t get on their bad side. He wasn’t smart. He took a job to kill an innocent woman. That was strike one. And that job he took was to kill a woman who’d been abused. That was strike two. For Lee and his crew, you don’t get a strike two.”
Great.
In normal circumstances, I would find that admirable.
Now, not so much.
“Will they step in, piss him off and make him forget about his promise to stand down?”
Understanding hit Sam’s face and he kept talking quietly when he replied, “They step in, he won’t get the chance to forget his promise.”
“You’re sure of that?” I pushed.
“Sure as I’m standin’ here.”
“You were sure that Cal guy’s security system was impenetrable too.”
It was a mean thing to say but, in my defense, I was freaking out. A hit man in a golf shirt made it to Sam’s bedroom.
Sam was clearly done with distance and I knew this because he moved to me and when he got close enough to lunge, he did so, grabbing my hand, pulling me around the bed and into his arms.
Then he tipped his chin down and told me, “That bitch didn’t hock a bunch of shit. She hocked a bunch of heirlooms. She also didn’t take out a small second mortgage, she took out one on all the equity they had in their place, which was a lot.” His arms gave me a squeeze. “What I’m sayin’ is, I paid for the best to cover you. She found the best she could find to do his job. I was aware this man was a man to take seriously. That guy was a ghost so we had no idea of his skills. We only knew he had them considering his price tag. Now we know one of his skills. He came up here, safety on, knowin’ who I was and that I also have skills. He was wavin’ the white flag. I felt like bein’ safe and in any uncertain situation, you gain the upper hand. That’s why I took him to his knees. He gets me. He understands what I can do. He didn’t come here to harm you. He came here to make sure his headaches were done. He’s cautious and he’s thorough. Neither are a surprise but both are a pain in the ass. But it no longer matters. He’s history. That said, I got some calls to make for peace of mind and I need to make them now. You okay for ten minutes while I do that? Then we’ll keep talkin’.”