Kiss Chase

by Scarlett Finn

  “Why would I do that?”

  “Because you want me to fix your baby.”

  Strike tilted his chin like he couldn’t deny that.

  “I don’t trust him,” Junker said, drawing her attention up.

  “Feeling’s mutual, Square,” Strike said, sliding down in the seat to prop his feet on the coffee table.

  “We have to go after her,” Junker said. “I’ll figure out where she is, just like we did before. We’ll have to follow her.”

  “If she can take Exile down…” she said, hating having to admit that her former lover was more capable than she and Junker put together. “And she’d let him get closer than either of us.”

  “I don’t know about that, Ro,” Strike said. “You’re her ex too.”

  Junker stumbled back a step. “You were with her?”

  “No,” she said, leaping off the couch to rush toward Junker. “No, it wasn’t like that…”

  “You seemed pretty cozy when I walked in on you two in bed together,” Strike muttered. “When she asked me to join you.”

  Rora squawked and marched over to him, using her shins to pressure his legs off the coffee table so she could stand in front of him. “What are you doing?”

  “Am I lying?” he asked.

  Gritting her teeth, she wanted to scream but couldn’t. Junker was there at the back of the couch again, shock and confusion all over his face, while Strike sat there like the cat who’d got the cream.

  “Why are you doing this?” she asked her ex.

  Any amusement left on Strike’s face faded. “Because this is serious now, and I don’t think we need the square. I came here to get you and my machine. That’s it.”

  It might be easy for Strike to categorize Junker as irrelevant, but he’d risked his life to save her.

  “Junker is not a square, he has supplies, skills, contacts… he’s my friend. I’ve always been nice to your friends, haven’t I?” she asked. “Except that one I bit…” Strike’s jaw worked, telling her she knew she was making progress with him, so it was the perfect time to hitch her chin and knee his knee. “Besides, I have control of your BFF. Don’t forget that.”

  Strike’s tongue slid to the corner of his mouth and he pushed it out just a fraction. “Proud of yourself, aren’t you, bad girl?”

  That was as close as she’d get to a concession from Strike. So leaving him, she rounded the couch to stand in front of Junker. “You know he has skills, and he knows the Jewel better than either of us… We need him.”

  Junker squeezed his lips together. “I don’t trust him. If we get this back, he might take it from us. How can you be sure he’ll do the right thing?”

  Given that she’d done nothing but tell Junker Exile wasn’t righteous or moveable, that was a difficult point to argue. “We can work on that,” she said. “This is the closest you’re going to get.” In the corner of her eye, she saw Strike lay his head on the back of the couch to peek back. Without looking, she drove her fingers through his hair to push his head forward again because she didn’t need any snarky comments from him. “Please.” Taking Junker’s hand, she gave him a squeeze. “Please.”

  “You should’ve told me you were with him,” Junker whispered, though there was no way Strike couldn’t hear. “I trusted you, Aurora. What else have you hidden from me?”

  Too much, but she couldn’t voice that thought. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I was embarrassed. I didn’t exactly come out on top when it ended.”

  “How did it end?” Junker asked. “He seems to think you’re still an item.”

  Strike turned his head, angling his ear to hear better, though she knew the show was meant for her. He had no trouble hearing. “It did end. It’s over. And he’s kidding himself.”

  Rora tightened her fingers in Strike’s hair when he tried to tip his head backward again.

  “Were you in love with him?” Junker asked, moving closer. “Are you still in love with him?”

  She inhaled and squeezed both of his hands. “We don’t have time to get into all the details now, Junker,” Rora said. “You’re right, we have to go after Jewel. She has a head start and we don’t know where she’s going. We have to get moving. Right now, we have a shared goal—we all want to find the Black Jewel. It’s better to have Exile working for us than against us, don’t you think?”

  Junker thought about it for a second. “Ok,” he exhaled. “But how are we gonna find her?”

  “That’s easy,” Strike said, drinking his beer, and proving that he’d been listening the whole time. “Rora knows where she’s headed.”

  “I do?” Rora asked and had a thought that chilled her. “She’s not going to—”

  “Wonderland? No,” he said, sitting forward to twist and look up at them. “We left that place in ashes… Jewel doesn’t know where she’s going exactly, she has to do her research and that could take a while depending on how smart Gallagher was.”

  “Benjamin?” Rora asked, turning to the couch, more confused than ever. “I don’t understand what you mean. He’s dead.”

  “His ex-wife isn’t,” he said, putting his beer on the table before twisting to make eye contact with her. “What’s the point? She thinks Leandra Gallagher is going to give her the answer.”

  “Oh my God,” Rora breathed out. “You didn’t tell her?” He shook his head. “And now the Jewel thinks… They divorced before Benjamin wrote it! Leandra has no idea… about any of this, but… she’ll kill her!”

  “Torture her first. I’d guess, pretty bad. Leandra can’t save herself if she doesn’t have the answer… So, Cupcake… where’s Leandra?”

  A new question and a new dilemma. Processing what would happen if Bella found Leandra, Rora stood dumb. It was almost unfathomable because Leandra was innocent and would never stand up to a woman like Bella.

  “Leandra knows nothing.”

  “No point in telling me, Cupcake. Jewel doesn’t believe that,” Strike said. “And since you won’t give her answers, she’s going a different route.”

  “She didn’t ask me,” Rora said.

  “When she held you captive—”

  “All she wanted to do was talk about you,” she said, staring at the screens displaying the streets. “Or Benjamin… or sex…” She was trying to process everything fast, and to play through different scenarios and possible outcomes. “She still needs you to fix it, I mean… isn’t that what Jewel thinks?”

  “One problem at a time with her,” Strike said.

  Rora pinned him with suspicion. “You don’t have some deal with her, do you? You’re not planning to follow us around for a while and then meet up with her after she’s tracked down Leandra?”

  “No,” he said. “Why would I have to do that?”

  The way he raised his brow made her suspicious for a different reason. They hadn’t confronted the fact that he didn’t have the Point yet. Rora still wasn’t even sure if he knew he had a dummy device.

  “With you I never know,” Rora said. “Do you have an arrangement with her?”

  “No,” he said. When her expression made it obvious that she didn’t believe him, he twisted further toward her. “No, Cupcake. Quit looking at me like that.”

  “It doesn’t make sense why she’d ditch you when she needs you. If you were unconscious, she could’ve taken you with her, even if it was against your will.”

  “She doesn’t have the resources to hold me, especially not on the move. She’s losing her grip and Jewel doesn’t like to be out of control. Besides, when her and I get… fractious… it’s best we take a break from each other.”

  “A break?” Junker asked. “Is that what you call this? Blood all over you, drugs, the Black Jewel stealing and running off? This is normal?”

  “For my life?” Strike asked. “Yeah. And I’m not talking to you.” Shifting her hand to the back of the couch, Rora dug her nails into Strike’s forearm. It was her intention to convey her displeasure, but he growled. “Starting something, baby? Want
to sink your teeth in? Go for it.” Picking his arm from under her hand, he held it up, offering it to her, but he glanced at Junker. “She has a thing for biting… Have you had the pleasure yet?”

  “I am not a biter,” she said, pushing his arm down. “And neither is Junker.”

  “Know that, do you?” Strike said.

  “If you ever want to touch your baby again, you’re going to stop being so snide,” she said. “This thing with the Jewel is serious… If she goes after Leandra…”

  “How well hidden is she?” Strike asked, all business.

  “Well enough that the last I checked, she was still where we put her, but… I don’t think anyone’s looked for her.”

  “You tell me where she is, and I’ll tell you how long it will take the Jewel to find her.”

  Grasping her forehead, Rora was getting overwhelmed. “Stop asking me… I don’t know if I want to tell you.”

  “Then give me my girl and I’ll find her myself.”

  If this had been just a few weeks ago, she’d have told Strike everything without pausing for breath. He might be saying the right things recently, but there was still so much that hadn’t been said. Rora was keeping secrets from everyone and she was losing track of her trust levels in each of the men in her life.

  “How do we know this isn’t a trick?” Junker asked, planting more doubts in Rora’s mind. “The Jewel wants to know where Leandra is, so Exile comes over here to sell you this fairytale, and then you just tell them what they want to know. Seems a bit convenient, doesn’t it?”

  It did. Both she and Junker turned to look down at Strike, who was scowling again. “Jewel and I are not in cahoots,” he stated.

  “How do we know that?” Junker asked. “You’d say that anyway.”

  Strike’s frustration edged into anger and that put her on alert because he could choose to vent that anger at any second. She didn’t fear for her physical safety, but she wasn’t so sure about Junker’s.

  “If we were, she wouldn’t have taken off without me, she’d be waiting in the parking lot. And she’s not a happy Jewel right now. In fact I’d say she’s about ready to kill me and probably will as soon as she gets what she wants.”

  “Why?” Rora asked. “She would never kill you. She loves you. You know she does.”

  But he shook his head and retrieved the beer. “Not anymore, least she hates me more than she loves me… And I’ll be watching your six damn close too.”

  “Why? What did you say to her? What did you do that upset her?”

  “I confirmed her accusation, the one she made when we were all in bed together in Wonderland,” he said, looking into her. They hadn’t been in bed together, but Rora knew what he meant. “I told her where my loyalty lies.”

  Rora remembered how Bella had reacted when she’d accused Strike of being in love, so she could believe Bella hadn’t had a great reaction if Strike confirmed it and told her his loyalty lay elsewhere. But even if he’d said those words to Bella, Rora couldn’t be sure they meant anything real; this could be another maneuver on his part.

  “Ok,” she said, but not to him.

  Strike thought she was talking to him and asked with hope, “Ok?”

  Rora turned to Junker. “Will you pack up all the tech? I’ll pack everything else.” Spinning, she looked to Strike. “St—fuck.”

  He smirked. “Not easy, is it, Kero?”

  “Get your pack, anything you need. This place is compromised. We’re moving out tonight.”

  Junker immediately jumped to action and went to start shutting all his equipment down to pack it away.

  “You’re hot when you give orders,” Strike said, raising his beer toward his mouth.

  Rora bent over the back of the couch to snag the bottle from him before he could drink anymore. “You already have drugs in your system and I might need you to drive later. Will you please lay off the alcohol?”

  “Blow me,” he said. She sneered at him, but his eyes widened. “I’m serious, blow me and I’ll do whatever you want… You remember how our exchanges work? Like our bargain when you had a particular metal box in those hungry little hands of yours and I asked you to hand it over. I believe you said, ‘I want something.’ Well, Cupcake, I want something.”

  She finished his beer and turned to toss the empty bottle across the room into the trash. Then with cool eyes, she put a hand on the back of the couch and bowed closer to him.

  “Keep dreaming, Exile,” she purred.

  There was no way that dealing with two such different men was going to be easy for her, but they weren’t going to ditch Junker. Rora had a feeling that her newest friend was going to have to act as conscience and chaperone for her and Strike.

  If she’d learned one thing since Strike had been back in her life in the last few days, it was that she wasn’t very good at resisting her attraction to her ex. Without Junker around, she couldn’t tell how this situation might turn out, or if she’d still be whole at the end of it. Not that she felt whole now.

  It might not be a fun job for Junker, but he was Benjamin’s friend. If Leandra was in trouble, he’d be as motivated to save the woman as Rora.

  Rora needed Junker’s guiding force or she’d be seduced by the darkness, and as Strike liked to remind her that never worked out well for anyone.

  TWELVE

  Leaving the hotel room as a threesome, Rora and Junker started toward his truck, but Strike went the other way. She slowed to a stop and called after him. “Where are you going?”

  “We’re not taking his truck,” Strike said.

  Junker had stopped a few paces ahead of her, so here she was, equal distance between the two defiant men.

  Huffing, she dropped her pack and went to Strike, getting up close to murmur. “You think it impedes your masculinity somehow to get in another guy’s truck?”

  “That what you think of me?” he asked.

  If this battle of wills kept up, they’d never achieve anything. Working as a team, they’d be formidable, but if they did nothing but butt heads, they’d be their own worst enemies.

  “Junker is not a bad guy,” she said, resting a hand on Strike’s upper arm. “You have to be reasonable about this. The truck is spacious, it carries everything we need it to.”

  “Then I’ll get you another truck.”

  She bit her lip because as logical as he thought it was, it wasn’t that simple. “Strike,” she whispered. “Junker’s not… he’s not a criminal. I don’t know how he’ll feel about getting in a stolen car.”

  Strike widened his stance. “He was fine with you stealing from me.”

  Time for another admission, and she was ashamed of this one too. “He didn’t really know I was going to do that until the last minute and then… I kinda didn’t give him a choice.”

  “Then we won’t give him a choice.”

  This time, Strike’s intention wasn’t to frustrate her. This was just about two men coming from different worlds. Strike saw an objective and did whatever he had to in order to achieve it. Junker was more process orientated. To him, the ends didn’t justify the means, but Strike just didn’t understand morals like that.

  “He has a sister,” she murmured.

  His mouth slanted. “Thank you, baby. Now I know where to squeeze,” he said and started to turn away.

  Rora grabbed his jacket in both hands to pull him back. “That’s not why I told you that. I don’t want you to squeeze. I don’t think he wants her to visit him in jail. He has a life. A family. He’s not like us. He has something to lose.”

  Strike moved nearer until their bodies came into such close contact that she had to tip her head back to meet his eye. “I have something to lose,” he whispered. “And she’s standing right in front of me.”

  It made sense he was all bravado in front of Junker. But he had to know things weren’t the same between them. This seemed simple to him too, and he was so damn calm, but her emotions and sanity were all churned up.

  “Why are y
ou doing this, Strike? I’m not yours anymore. You know I’m not yours,” she said. “And Junker doesn’t know we had sex the other night… I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell him.” It took every bit of confidence she had to lay her hands flat on his chest to put some distance between them. “And we can’t get in a stolen truck with Junker. It’s not fair to force your way of life onto him.”

  “I forced it onto you,” he said. “Getting in his truck has nothing to do with anyone’s masculinity. That vehicle is marked. It’s as compromised as your hotel room. Every player’s seen it and if Torres is in town, he knows who you’re with and the vehicle you came in. We need something clean and it’s too late to go to a dealership.”

  “Ok,” she said and bit her lip again. “But you do it, you drive, and if we get into trouble, you have to bail him out like you’d bail me out.”

  “Pretty tough without Opal,” he said.

  She smiled. “Good try,” Rora said and prodded a finger into his navel through his tee-shirt. “You’ll get her back… on my terms… when I forgive you… if I forgive you.”

  “I think I preferred it when you just marched into places and demanded an apology. It was much easier, and I got laid faster.”

  Since almost the day she’d met him, she’d wished to be with him when he let his playful side out. At most, she’d seen glimmers of a sense of humor, but he’d never relaxed with her enough to be himself unguarded. Seeing it now, having him this open with her and willing to push his own comfort level, it humbled her.

  Yet, every time she started to let herself believe that he was being sincere, she remembered how their relationship had ended.

  He could be playing her to get what he wanted. They had to talk about the Point. She had to find out why he wasn’t mad at her for lying and why he hadn’t confronted her about the bait and switch. If it was true that he didn’t know, that he hadn’t accessed the device because he’d chosen her, she had to know why he hadn’t declared it and tried to claim her back.

  “Strike…”