“I want her back, Travis,” he barks out, cutting to the chase.
“If you would've known how to treat her from the get-go, you might have never been put in this predicament,” I taunt.
“Somehow, I doubt that, Travis.” He hesitates for moment, the silence deadly between us before he asks, “What do you want?”
I shake my head even though he can't see me as smug arrogance lines my voice. “I already have what I want, Nick.”
“You bastard!” If Nick could breathe fire, my ear would be singed right now. He’s that pissed.
“I’ve been called much worse,” I calmly state.
“You're not going to keep her. I’m all over your ass, Travis, and I’d quit while I’m ahead if I were you. Turn her over, and I might spare you,” he warns.
“I don’t need sparing, and I believe since I've already got her, the finders keepers and all that shit applies.”
He chuckles menacingly into the phone. “Why are you really calling, Travis? Did I stir up your little love nest? Are you upset you got blindsided by my men? I'm one up on you, and I plan to keep it that way.”
“Nope, not upset at all. Give me your best shot, Nick,” I say nonchalantly. “Oh, wait, you already did, and you failed.” I then think of Jules and how she almost got shot down. “By the way, just so you know, tell your dipshit men to aim at me next time, and not Jules.”
“What? Was she shot?” he asks with sudden panic.
“Near misses, Nick,” I spit out angrily. “Of course the men you sent couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn.” I know the bastard isn’t going to tell me how he found us, so I don’t even ask. At minimum, however, I want to take a jab at him, get under his skin, and let him know more than just his mission failed. “You know, a real man would’ve come after his woman, but instead you sent a team of dysfunctional dumbasses. What does that say about you, Nick?”
“You have to know your days are numbered, Travis,” he hisses.
“Everyone's days are numbered, Nick. Some have larger numbers than others. Since your men fight like pussies, I’ll live to be a ripe old age.”
I hear a string of curses come through the receiver. He is so pissed off on a rant that I hold the phone away from my ear and his voice fills the room. Quinn shakes his head at me in amusement while he starts to chuckle.
“Travis! Travis! Do you hear me?!” Nick bellows. “I want her back, dammit!” I hear the desperation growing thick in his voice as he adds, “Name your price.”
A grin forms across my lips as I taunt Nick again. “Mmmm…you can’t put a price on her pussy. It tastes too sweet to give back or sell. Not to mention, her pussy has been molded to fit my dick perfectly now, just like a glove.” Then I hang up on him abruptly, happy I was the one to get in the last word. He would’ve only had a string of curse words for me after that anyway.
The sardonic smile dissolves from my lips as I look at Quinn in all seriousness. “Well, I stirred up the hive for us. We’ll be drawing them out now, ‘cause he’s madder than a nest of wet hornets, and after that, I have a feeling he is going to unleash every last resource he has on us.”
Quinn leans back in his chair and runs his fingers through his hair, and then interlocks his fingers, holding his hands at the back of his head. I can tell he’s formulating something in his brain as he stares at the ceiling. Since I’ve pissed Nick off, I feel a little better now and can think clearer.
Quinn speaks toward the ceiling as he tells me, “We need to get back to my house.”
I shake my head at him. “Negatory, man. It’s not safe to go to your place just yet. We have to find out how they found us first. Otherwise, it will be like leading a kid to candy again.” Quinn’s house is north of Raleigh, a little ways outside of the city limits. He lives on a few acres of land in a rural area, with a shitload of armory. Plus, he has more electronic resources there than the government. “I say we head into the city first, stay in plain sight. We need to be around a mass number of people and try to mingle in until we can figure out how he’s tracking us.”
Quinn drops his gaze from the ceiling to mine, and then wrinkles his forehead in thought. “Yeah, let me make some phone calls and get some backup in place. I know a hotel we can hunker down in for a day or two until we get this figured out.”