“They have eyes on Bates, so was it really him who did this?” They were talking over my head as if I weren’t even there, but I was okay with that. I didn’t think I could participate given how I was feeling right then, so I just sat there drinking my Jameson and listening. Kelli leaned forward, listening intently, taking the offered cup of whiskey Raven handed out.
“Maybe he snuck out without our eyes seeing. Or maybe he has a lackey doing his dirty work,” Raven suggested. “But I don’t see him having a partner. He seems like too much of a greedy, distrustful sonofabitch, so I can’t see him confiding in someone or giving them the responsibility to take out Jos to prove a point.”
“I have an idea.” Kelli’s voice was just as quiet as the other two, but there was something on her face that screamed at me to pay attention.
“We’re listening,” Raven assured her.
“That stuff you gave Colt to drug me with—”
“I said I’m sorry about that, didn’t I?” Raven groused as my eyes widened. What the hell had happened that Colt would drug Kelli? I thought they were crazy in love. “When will you drop that? Fuck.”
Kelli rolled her eyes. “Shut up and listen for a second, blondie.”
Flick snickered. “I love how alike you two are.”
“You want to hear my idea or not?”
“Please enlighten us,” Raven said dryly.
“How much of it do you think it would take to kill him?”
“Shit,” I whispered, downing the last of my whiskey and then holding the cup out for Raven to refill.
“He’s a big guy, but he’s got to be over fifty by now,” Flick stated. “And I’ve seen what he orders when he has meals at Aggie’s. His heart is a ticking time bomb. Shouldn’t take too much, I wouldn’t think.”
“We would need to make it look like he’s got a problem,” Raven commented, deep in thought. “It would eat up my supply of the little cocktail I make for the boys, but it would be worth it.”
“Are we bringing the guys in on this?” Flick asked, which seemed to be the most worrisome question among the three of them.
“Fewer people who know, the better,” Kelli said with a lift of her shoulders, then her eyes were on me. “You gonna narc on us?”
I thought back to how hurt Tanner had been when I first saw him. The way my heart stopped both times he coded. How
terrified I was when I saw those oncoming lights headed straight for me. Tipping my cup back, I swallowed the contents in one gulp. “No,” I said, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand. “I’m in.”
Chapter 20
Jos
The sound of the door softly clicking shut had my eyes snapping open. The buzz I’d had from the Jameson was all but gone now, replaced by a fear that suddenly had me sweating. I didn’t move, didn’t even breathe as I waited, listening.
Seconds later, a curse filled the air as the person who’d just entered the bedroom collided with Reid’s pack ’n play. Relief washed over me, and I sat up, snapping on the light.
“Tanner?” I blinked at the man standing at the end of the bed. He was dressed in sweats and a T-shirt, his hair standing on end like he’d been running his fingers through it repeatedly. His beard was still disorderly, but I kind of liked it on him.
“You were expecting someone else to climb in bed with you?” he demanded, brows lifted, a snarl already starting to form on his usually smug face.
“What are you doing here?” I countered, my concern for him overriding the irritation at the jealousy beginning to flood from him. “Doc said you weren’t going to be released until Monday at the earliest.”
“Doc can go fuck himself. I’m not lying around in some damn bed while the woman I love is being run down. You’re mine, Jos. It’s my job to keep you safe, and all I was doing was lying there doing nothing.” He jerked his T-shirt over his head as he crossed the remaining distance to the bed.
I was still caught up on the whole “woman I love” thing and didn’t have the brain power to realize what he was doing until his hands pushed me gently back onto the pillows, his lips already attacking my neck.
He loved me?
A groan that sounded pained left him as he cupped my breast in his four-fingered hand. “Baby.” He shuddered. “Fuck, I’m never letting you out of my sight again.”
“Tanner.” I arched up into his touch, my body melting for him. “Oh God, that feels so good.”