Somebody wants me dead.
Pulling into Juanita’s parking lot, Dane Boudreau cut the engine in his pickup, his gaze scanning the busy Tex-Mex restaurant’s entrance. He’d told Destiny Smith he’d meet her here. How could he not, after her cryptic phone call? Finding out somebody’s put a hit on your life wasn’t something he heard every day, and hopefully, Ridge’s pet hacker would be able to provide more details. Maybe a who, what, or why.
Like I don’t already know why. This day has been coming for a long time.
Spotting the pretty dark-haired pixie pacing back and forth by the restaurant’s front doors had him smiling. From what little he’d seen and heard about the gamine beauty; she was a stick of dynamite contained in a petite package. Ridge bragged about her skills with a computer, and Dane wondered how she harnessed all that vitality long enough to sit in front of a monitor.
She spotted him before he got halfway across the parking lot, and he watched her sigh. Yeah, she definitely appeared frazzled, though the look of relief that crossed her face confused him. Destiny barely knew him; he was little more than a stranger she might pass on the street. So why the concern for his safety?
“Sorry I had to pull you from your family get-together, but I didn’t think this could wait.”
“I got that impression from your call.” Dane reached past Destiny’s shoulder and pulled open Juanita’s front door, motioning for her to precede him. “Let’s grab a table, and you can tell me all about what you’ve uncovered.”
Destiny shot him a glare, which might have a lesser man cringing, and Dane winced under her disapproval. Right, he needed to dial back his sarcasm. She hadn’t done anything wrong, per se. Keeping an eye out for his family was a good thing, he reminded himself.
They didn’t speak again until they’d been led to a table, and seated, and given their drink orders to the friendly waitress. Dane watched her run a hand across her face, noting the dark circles beneath her eyes. While she still vibrated with tension, it was obvious she hadn’t been getting a lot of sleep. Somehow, the idea of her tossing and turning throughout a sleepless night disturbed him on a deep level.
“You dropped your bombshell and hung up before I could ask any questions.” Dane leaned against the padded back of the booth and crossed his arms over his chest. “Care to give me a few more details?”
Destiny stared down at her hands, twining her fingers over and over. All that nervous energy needed to go someplace. Dane had the feeling she wasn’t one to sit idly. It was almost like she wanted—no, needed—to be working a keyboard rather than sitting here. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a social meeting where he could simply let her off the hook and send her on her way. No, the information she’d uncovered might make the difference in his investigation. One nobody, especially his family, knew anything about. And he planned to keep it that way.
This is personal.
“Like I said, I like Ridge. He’s a decent boss and lets me do my job on my terms. He told me a little about his past, how he ended up a Boudreau. Talked about your family and how much you all mean to him. So, I kind of keep my eyes open whenever I see the Boudreau name pop up online. Thank goodness you don’t spell your last name like the Louisiana Boudreauxs. Having that X on the end really skews the results.”
“From what I understand, generations ago our family spelled it with the X on the end. I have no idea when it changed, but…”
He stopped talking as Destiny huffed out a breath, and it ruffled the bangs across her forehead in a cute way. Most of the time he loved long hair on women, something he never questioned. It just was. But Destiny’s shorter hair, feathered in spiky layers around her face, and highlighted her high cheekbones and made her eyes seem huge.
“I set up a few alerts so any time one of your names’ popped up, from anybody doing any type of inquiry, from a casual search to a credit check, I get notified. Ninety-nine percent of the time it’s nothing. Almost everybody who’s on the internet has tons of stuff moving through various sites and they never know about it. Usually, they’re simple surface inquiries. Like when somebody looks up Camilla, because of her books. Things like that I discard without a second glance. Ms. Patti’s real estate business? Douglas’ construction company? Tons of hits but nothing that would raise any red flags.”
“But something about my name did?”
She nodded, nibbling on her lower lip. Dane fisted his hands to keep from reaching across the table and touching her lip, to pull it free. He didn’t understand why he reacted to Destiny like this. Ever since he’d seen her in the Big House’s kitchen with Tina, saw the colorful tattoo above her breast, he couldn’t stop thinking about her. And that was a problem. Until he’d settled all the issues with his own life, he couldn’t even think about dealing with anything or anybody else.
“How much do you know about the internet?”
Dane barely refrained from rolling his eyes at Destiny’s abrupt change of topic. While he wasn’t a complete noob, he had more than a passing knowledge of the ins and outs of the World Wide Web. Not as much as Destiny, obviously, but still…
“I get by.”
“There is the internet, the general websites, where everyone does their daily business. Whenever you do any kind of search, that’s where you’re looking. But there is a deeper layer called the Dark Web. That’s where a lot of your more…questionable…searches and requests happen.”
Dane nodded, following her meaning. “I’ve heard of the Dark Web. That’s where you found my name?”
“Yeah. At first, I thought it was a mistake. That happens sometimes. Some idiot types in a wrong URL and gets steered to a place where they’d never really go, and usually gets redirected pretty quick.”
Destiny stopped talking when their server brought their drinks, along with chips, salsa, and queso. Dane tapped the corner of the menu, and she shook her head, choosing instead to grab a tortilla chip, and scoop up a mound of queso and pop it into her mouth. A smile curved upward at the look of total bliss on her face. Well, that answered one question. The woman liked Mexican food. He wondered what else might put that look on her face, and immediately vetoed that train of thought. He didn’t have time to get involved with a woman—especially one who worked for his brother.
“Let’s cut to the chase, Destiny. You got an alert with my name. Found somebody ordered a hit on me. What else do you have? A time? A place? A name? Give me something.”
Her intense perusal made him feel like a bug under a microscope. She didn’t say a word, simply studied him with such ferocity he wanted to do something. Anything. Mostly he wanted to bolt from the restaurant, pretend he’d never heard about somebody wanting him dead. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. He’d managed to stay hidden from the rest of the world, the people who’d been looking for him for most of his life. Living with the Boudreaus, being adopted at an early age, and changing his name had helped keep his pursuers off his trail for almost two decades.
But, if they had this name, the Boudreau connection, it meant they’d found him. And that changed everything.
Destiny kept her head lowered and shoved another queso-loaded chip into her mouth. Maybe if she kept shoving food in her face, he wouldn’t notice how nervous she was. While most people didn’t intimidate or frighten her, Dane Boudreau was the exception. All the fear bundled deep inside had nothing to do with thinking he would physically hurt her. Just the opposite. The man fascinated her to the point of obsession. And she was afraid that obsession, looking and digging to find out more about the enigmatic man who occupied her thoughts during the day and her dreams at night, had triggered something online and brought all kinds of unwanted attention down on his head. If this turned out to be her fault, she’d never forgive herself.
“Destiny?” Fingers snapped in front of her face, and she blinked, realizing she’d zoned out. In front of Dane Boudreau. What an idiot! Heat spread across her cheeks, and she brushed her hands against her jean-clad thighs, trying to wick away all the sweat on her palms. Sheesh, she was acting like this was a first date and she was a teenager in junior high school with a crush on the captain of the football team.
“Sorry. Yeah, it was buried deep on a site used by mercenaries. Not the wannabe, magazine-loving soldier of fortune geeks who think being macho means carrying around an AK-47 deep in the woods and taking selfies makes them all manly. No, this was a legitimate site, authentic with real hired killers. And a post with a significant bounty on your head.”
Grabbing her margarita, she took a big swallow, choking at the strong alcohol taste. Dane’s lips curved into a smile, and he lifted his beer in salute.
Good grief, can I embarrass myself any more in front of him?
“How much?” Dane threw the question out, his tone casual. From his slouched posture and nonchalant attitude, she could almost believe they were talking about something innocuous, like the weather. Not discussing the fact somebody wanted him dead. Like a bullet between the eyes, cold as a kipper on a cracker, dead.
“What?”
“How much is somebody willing to pay to see me six feet under?”
Destiny closed her eyes and counted to five, because the urge to wrap her hands around his neck and squeeze was overwhelming. Did the man never take anything seriously? Or was this his default position when threatened? Too bad she didn’t know him well enough to tell if sarcasm was his normal default mode when confronted.
“Two hundred?”
He chuckled. “They’re only willing to pay two hundred dollars to have me bumped off?”
“Dane, will you take this seriously? Not two hundred dollars. Two hundred thousand dollars. Definitely not chump change. Somebody has a real hankering to see you die. Want to tell me why?”
“How would I know?”
Destiny’s eyes narrowed at his flippant response. From his carefully blank expression, she knew he was hiding something. He might be good at hiding his feelings, but she was an expert at assessing bull hockey, and he was full of it up to his eyeballs. Nothing added up, and the itch between her shoulder blades told her he knew exactly why somebody wanted him six feet under. Not that she had any intention of letting anybody get close enough to take a pot shot at Dane Boudreau.
“Dane, you don’t know me well, so I’ll be upfront about my intentions. You’re not taking my warning seriously, which makes me suspicious you know more than you’re letting on. It’s almost as if—no, tell me you didn’t already know about—son of a gun, you did!”
Dane picked at the edge of the label on his beer, refusing to meet her gaze, and she knew she was right. What a jerk! He’d left her spinning in the wind, trying to make heads or tails of the purported death threat, and he already knew somebody was after him.
“I didn’t know.” He held up a hand when she started to interrupt. “Let’s just say I’ve been anticipating it happening most of my life.” He pointed at her, his steely-eyed stare boring into her. “You cannot tell anybody. Not Ridge, none of my family. Especially Momma and Dad. I’ll take care of the problem, and they never have to know.”
Her head spun, a plethora of possibilities racing through her brain. Why wouldn’t he want his family to know? They’d help him, of that she had not a single doubt. She’d heard enough about Ms. Patti to know if there was a threat to any of her kids, she’d circle the wagons like they’d done in the Wild West, and have so much protection around them, nobody could get close enough to touch one of her babies. Yet Dane refused his family’s assistance and support.
“Why?”
“It’s too dangerous. I’m not dragging anybody into a situation that could put them at risk. I’ve been waiting over twenty years for this threat to appear, and I’ll take care of it. My family doesn’t need to get involved.”
Twenty years? He’d been anticipating somebody trying to kill him for twenty years! No way I’m walking away without knowing why…and what I can do to thwart their plans.
“I’m already involved, you can’t shut me out. Or shut me up for that matter.” Destiny crossed her arms over her chest and shot him a smug look.
“Wanna bet?”
“Sure. You seem to forget, Mr. Boudreau, I don’t work for you. You have no control over me financially or otherwise. You cannot, as my niece would say, tell me what to do. If I want to go to your brother with this information, there is nothing to stop me. I can simply say I found it as part of my daily work and bring it to his attention. Same with your mom and dad. They won’t care how I came across the information, but I know darn good and well they’ll act on it. You’ll find yourself hogtied and wrapped in cotton wool so fast you won’t know what hit you.”
“You wouldn’t.”
Destiny allowed a slow smile to cross her lips and tried to keep her satisfaction out of her voice. “Your choice. You can tell me who’s after you and we can come up with a game plan to thwart the hired gun, or…” She let her words trail off, the implication clear.
Gotcha.
Dane rubbed a hand over his face, and Destiny knew she had him. The suspense was driving her nuts, because she’d tried to dig into who’d placed the ad for the hit, but so far all she’d found were rabbit trails. Somebody had buried the information good and deep, but they’d never be able to bury it deep enough. She had programs running right now at her apartment, computer searches digging into each rerouting of the signal, digging through each dummy corporation and brick wall. Somebody had a good IT guy working for them—but she was better. And she never gave up on solving a puzzle.
Dane sighed and plunked his beer bottle down on the table in front of him. “I want your word. Nothing I tell you or show you goes beyond us. I repeat—nobody finds out. Not Ridge, not my brothers. Especially not my parents.”
She almost winced at the edge in his voice when he mentioned his parents. For the briefest moment, she hesitated, because what he was asking was big. Destiny didn’t give a promise lightly. Too many times in the past she’d been burned by people making and breaking their pledges, so once she committed to something, she stayed the course to the end. Finally, she held out her hand, and found it swallowed within his callus-roughened one.
“I promise.”
Dane grabbed his beer bottle and tipped it back, draining it in a long swallow. He pointed to her glass. “Finish up and let’s go.”
“Where?”
“The ranch. Specifically, the foreman’s house where I live. I’ve got to show you something.”
Destiny gulped the remnants of her margarita and stood pulling her keys from her jeans pocket. Tilting her brow, she taunted him.
“What are we waiting for? Let’s go.”