She stopped immediately. When was this nightmare ever going to end? “I’ve put you all in so much danger.” She had. It was the last thing she wanted to do.
Savage made a sound under his breath that sounded a lot like “Bullshit.” Worse, it sounded like he, what? Laughed? She couldn’t imagine Savage laughing.
“Adrik,” Absinthe greeted. “You’re a long way from home.”
Adrik nodded, but his gaze was on Scarlet. Something dark and uneasy crawled down her spine. Adrik was unpredictable. He had explosions of temper that could be horrifying. It was impossible to know what he might do in any given moment or circumstance. She had no idea how he would react or why he was there. His dark eyes seemed to be drinking her in, swallowing her whole, and she didn’t like what she saw there.
“A man contacted me a couple months back. Said some bitch killed his son and he wanted her picked up and brought to him quietly. Didn’t want anyone to know. Said I was recommended to him. Gave a name.”
Another chill went down her spine. Scarlet knew whoever had given Adrik’s name to Holden Sr.—and she was certain the man who had contacted Adrik had been Holden—was already dead. Adrik would never have stood for anyone recommending him as a hit man.
“I don’t do that kind of work anymore. I live quietly. Imagine my surprise, Scarlet, when your name came up. I knew you were in trouble, so I came to bring you home. You can’t stay here or sooner or later you’re going to get killed.” He looked around at the Torpedo Ink members spread out around him, boxing him in. “For all I know, these men have taken the contract to turn you over to him. It was a big one.”
Her heart slammed hard in her chest and then began to pound. Adrik lied easily. He might very well have taken the contract with Holden and was saying what he thought would get Torpedo Ink to turn her over to him. She just didn’t know. It sounded like Holden to contact someone out of the country first in order to try to acquire her and when that didn’t work, turn to his local biker clubs. Holden didn’t want to risk the publicity.
“She’s safe with us, Adrik,” Absinthe said. “It was nice you came all this way to try to protect her, but we’ve got this.”
Adrik began shaking his head before Absinthe even finished speaking. “That doesn’t work for me. I can see you’re already gone on her. She’s like that. She crawls inside you and takes you apart. She’ll use you until she uses you up and then she moves on, leaving you an empty shell. You can’t eat or sleep. You just think about her. It isn’t worth it, Absinthe. Don’t make that mistake. Step aside and I’ll just take her out of here.”
Scarlet was shocked. More than shocked. The things Adrik was saying didn’t make any sense. She tried to step around Absinthe and when that didn’t work, she pushed aggressively against his side in order to be seen.
“We had a contract. It was your contract, Adrik. You were the one who made it very, very clear to me what the terms were from the moment I arrived at your compound. I was very careful to abide by the rules you set. You said there were to be no emotions between us. It was strictly business at all times. I was not to get sentimental.”
“You were to pay for your lessons with your body.”
She tried not to wince. He stated that overly loud, wanting Absinthe and everyone else to hear what she’d done and condemn her. She lifted her chin. “Those were your terms, Adrik. You laid it all out. I also had to clean your house and cook for you. I did those things all without sentiment. All without emotion. And at the end of the year, I left, just like you told me was required of me. I packed and I left without a word, because you said you didn’t want to see me ever again and I wasn’t to come back or contact you or give your name to anyone else. I’ve kept my end of the bargain.”
“Is that true, Adrik?” Absinthe asked, his tone mild in that way he had.
Scarlet wished he would touch her, but he faced Adrik, both hands free, his body relaxed, acting as if he wasn’t in any way worried about Adrik and his strange accusations. She wanted to warn him, but there was no way to make him understand that this didn’t make sense, at least not to her. Adrik very well could have taken Holden’s money and now be looking for a way to get her away from Absinthe and the others.