Ruthless

Chapter 15

Colin hooked his shoulder holster over his t-shirt and adjusted the strap so it wouldn't show through his jacket. Once it was fitted, he holstered the loaded Glock 17 and put the two extra magazines in the other side of the holster.

Right then, Jean came out of the bathroom, ready to go meet with her brothers. She halted when she saw him. "Whoa. You're packing today?"

He picked up a brown leather jacket and slid it on over the holster so no one looking at him would even know there was a gun tucked under the leather. "I'm always packing."

"So are you one of those people who's getting ready for the apocalypse and is always expecting a war?"

He raised a brow. "I'm someone who's discharged a weapon in self-defense before," he said simply. He'd discharged a weapon in non-defensive situations too, but she didn't need to know that. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yep. I just have to—"

Colin's phone rang, and he looked down to see that Smith was calling. He clenched his jaw and headed for the bathroom. "I need to take this," he said simply before he left Jean out of sight and shut the door.

"I'll just wait here," she called from the other side of the door, a not-so-subtle annoyance in her voice. She'd just have to be annoyed for now. He was willing to admit that she had the right to be kept informed about where this investigation was going, but he would still be the one to determine how she got the information. Namely not while she bent over his shoulder to hear what Smith was saying.

"Colin here. What did you find?"

"You know, a little foreplay wouldn't be such a bad thing," said Smith on the other end before a crunching noise came over the line.

"Any dinner I bought you would be ruined by the chips you're eating anyway. I don't have time for foreplay—I'm trying to figure out who is paying to have a friend of mine killed."

There was a pause. Then, "This girl is a friend now? I thought she was a client."

"Does it make a difference?" bit out Colin.

"Well, you don't have friends, so..."

He didn't have time for this. "I'm assuming you called because you had something to say besides berating my personal life."

"There is something, but you're not going to like it."

"So you don't have who paid Tony Marsh yet?"

"I found the account the money came out of, but the name it's set up in is a ghost. Whoever it was, they fabricated this identity for this account, probably because they're doing shady shit like hiring assassins."

"So you're telling me you have nothing?"

"No, I'm still digging. Just because I hit a dead end doesn't mean I don't have any other trails to follow. But I've been keeping an eye on this account and tracking any activity in and out and there was a sizable transfer into a New York City account this morning."

"Sizable?"

"Fifteen grand. Same as the amount that was paid for Tony Marsh."

"Fuck."

"Pretty much."

"Okay, thanks for the heads-up. I'll keep on the alert."

"No problem, Carter. You know I owe you."

"And here I thought I had no friends."

"Just because I owe you doesn't mean I like you." With that, Smith hung up.

"Fuck," said Colin again as he hung up and rubbed his temples. Who the hell would want Jean killed that bad? It would have to be the brothers. No one back in Arkansas had thirty grand lying around to go hiring these kinds of scumballs.

But the brothers wouldn't get any money from her dying. However, there were other reasons to kill. Jean had been born during Walter's third marriage. That was Nathan's mother. Maybe he was a little upset daddy dearest wasn't like the dads on TV. It was a stretch, but he was running out of motives.

Unless these guys were after him. That made a hell of a lot more sense, and there were thousands of motives. For now, he'd work under the assumption that Jean was the target. He brought her into this mess. It was his responsibility to keep her safe. Besides, he'd been watching his own ass for thirty-five years. By now it was second nature.

He came out of the bathroom, expecting to see Jean pissed off and waiting for him, but what he saw was worse. She was hunched over in front of his closet, looking into his still open gun safe.

"See something you like?" He crossed the room to shut the safe.

Jean backed away and pulled the shoulder strap of her purse on. "I see lots of things I like. You know I can fire a gun, right? If you really think I'm in danger..."

"You're not getting one of my guns. Now let's go."

She rolled her eyes at him. "I would've thought last night would've made you less bossy."

He didn't reply as he followed her out and locked the deadbolts on his door. If anything, he was going to be more bossy now. It was easy to keep a disconnect between them before. But even if this was a casual thing, for now she was his woman. He'd instinctively felt protective of her when he'd first walked into that diner she worked at. Now that protective instinct was on overdrive.

But considering how she felt about those protective instincts, he'd keep that change of attitude to himself. "That was my tech guy who called."

She paused on the stairs. "I'm not sure what surprises me more. That you have a tech guy or that you're actually telling me what the phone call was about."

Well, at least sex hadn't changed Jean into the mushy type. He stared her down. "I knew Smith back in my army days."

"And what exactly does this 'Smith' do now, if that is in fact his real name?" There was a joking tone to her voice, but Colin could tell she was serious about both parts of the question.

"Smith," which was his real name, "now works a desk job for the government. But I think he gets bored, so the few times I've asked him for help, he's always been willing." A willing pain in his ass.

Jean nodded, a smile covering her face. Damn, she looked pretty when she smiled. "I love this new honest relationship we're having! Now what did Smith say when he called you?"

"Smith thinks someone else is going to try to kill you really soon."

And that smile was gone. "What?"

"The account that paid Tony Marsh, the guy from the hotel, paid someone else today."

Jean started to take a step back before she remembered they were on the stairwell and she was effectively trapped. "So what am I supposed to do? Maybe we should just stay inside. They don't know I'm with you, do they?"

Colin clenched his fists. These were questions he should've had the answers to. "I'm going to be your shadow today. As long as you're with me, you're safe. Do you trust me?"

Jean eyed him warily. "You know I don't."

Fuck. "Do you at least believe that I'll protect you?"

She paused for a moment, as though considering it. She finally answered, "I think that anyone who gets through you probably wouldn't have been stopped by anything."

That would have to be good enough. "Let's go meet Nathan then. We'll try to keep it short and to the point."

"If he's anything like Robert, that won't be a problem."

Colin scoffed. Well, Nathan certainly wasn't anything like Robert, but he wasn't sure that was a good thing.

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