Kylie’s few clothes in Micah’s suite at the Ocean Resort didn’t even fill a carry-on roller suitcase.
Micah had been staying at the Ocean Resort for almost two weeks. His suits, hair supplies, and oversized shaving kit required a larger bag.
In the walk-in closet, Kylie clapped his suits together in their dry-cleaning bags, lifted the hangers off the rod, and rolled the rustling plastic around her arms as she dashed back to his suitcase on the luggage rack to stuff them in.
Packing everything else took a few more minutes as she scooped their toiletries off the bathroom counter and into his suitcase lying on the floor.
Kylie trotted out from the bedroom, dragging their luggage across the thick carpeting underfoot.
Micah was on the phone.
The goddamned phone.
Salvatore Grande’s goons would be there any minute to whack both of them, and Micah Shine was on the phone. They needed to leave.
Kylie demanded, “Are we ready?”
He lowered his phone and grinned that straight-gaze smile at her. “Let’s go.”
Grabbing the handle of the larger bag away from Kylie, he slung his computer bag over his other shoulder. Kylie held back while Micah opened the door and peered into the hallway.
“Come on,” he said.
At the elevator, the doors slid open as soon as he touched the button, and they hurried inside.
The elevator doors hesitated like they were waiting for someone else to get in.
Come on, come on, dammit. Kylie fidgeted with the handle of her suitcase.
The doors leaned out from the sides of the opening, drifting toward each other.
The stairwell door at the far end of the hallway slammed open.
Footsteps thundered, running behind their baggy-suited leader, Tony frickin’ Fava Bean.
Before Kylie could step back, Micah shoved her toward the elevator wall, out of sight.
The open space between the elevator doors narrowed.
Micah didn’t move out of the line of fire. His sinister grin at Salvatore Grande’s goons radiated kill me if you goddamn dare Mafia energy.
The idiot. He was going to get himself whacked.
Kylie stayed plastered to the wall, waiting for Micah’s head to explode.
The elevator’s door kissed closed, and the floor under their feet shifted, dropping.
“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, what’s the goddamn matter with you?” Kylie yelled at him and backhanded him on his thick biceps. She slapped his stupid butt and chest for good measure. “They were going to shoot you!”
Micah laughed out loud and curled his leg and arm while recoiling against the side of the elevator as if she’d tickled him. “But with any luck, they’ll forget you were in the elevator.”
She dropped her hands to her sides but kept her fists clenched. “That doesn’t matter! Were they drawing their guns?”
Micah straightened and brushed his hands at his suit jacket, smoothing creases. “Well, yeah, but the elevator doors were closing. It was fine.”
“It was not fine! You can’t go getting yourself killed, you cafone!”
Micah glanced down at her from the corners of his eyes. “That almost sounded like you care.”
She snarled at him, “You got me into this, Micah Shine, and you’re going to get me out of it. Don’t go getting yourself whacked before you do it, either.”
The elevator doors opened to the parking garage, and they walked out. Their suitcase wheels grated over the cement floor and echoed off the walls, and darkness rose from the ground as night overtook the city.
Micah was goddamn reckless. He was going to get himself killed and take her with him. Hanging around him was a dumbass move.
Kylie veered away from him, walking with long strides toward the exit to the sidewalk.
“What’s wrong now?” Micah called after her.
She turned around and yelled at him, “This is frickin’ insane! You’re a lunatic who’s trying to start a Mob war! Who even does that?”
“It’s for a good reason.”
That was it. She’d had enough. To hell with this guy.
Kylie pivoted and started walking away from him toward the staircase at the corner of the garage. “And you won’t tell me what that reason is.”
Micah called after her, “We have a contract for a month.”
She strutted away from him. “So frickin’ sue me.”
“Grande’s hit squad is doubtless running down the hotel stairwell as we speak and will barge through that very door you’re walking toward within minutes.”
Dammit.
Kylie made a U-turn and stalked past Micah toward his car, staring straight ahead with her nose in the air. “Fine. Have it your way.”
At the car, Micah tossed their suitcases in the trunk and then reversed out of the parking space. He didn’t slow down until they hit the expressway.
The whole time, Kylie stared straight ahead with her arms tightly crossed over her chest. The nerve of this guy. The frickin’ nerve.
When they’d been driving on the expressway for a few minutes, she tossed her black curls and said, “I don’t know where you think you’re going, California or whatever, but I can’t go with you. My little sister is out there somewhere, and Salvatore Grande threatened her because I was betraying him. I have to find her before he does.”
Micah shot a glance at her out of the corners of his eyes and kept driving. “She and your mother left four years ago, and you haven’t found them yet. What makes you think you’ll find them now?”
“Because I have to,” Kylie said, feeling her teeth grind together. “Because they’re my family, and family is everything.”