A movement beyond him drew her startled attention. There, from the long shadows, two men crept toward them. “Lock the doors and freaking drive!” she screamed.
Disconcerted, he, too, looked around, and the second he noticed the men, they broke into a jog.
Coming straight for them.
“Jesus!” Jerking the car into Reverse, he backed away with haste, almost hitting a telephone pole. Spinning around, he punched the gas and the small economy car lurched forward down the empty street. Again his gaze went to the rearview mirror. “Who the fuck was that?”
Looking over her shoulder, seeing the men fade away, Kennedy sucked in a much-needed breath. “I don’t know,” she whispered. But I know they haven’t given up.
* * *
REYES DROVE LIKE a lunatic. His Harley would have been quicker, but he couldn’t quite picture Kennedy strapped around him with the wind in her hair. Plus, he had no way of knowing if she’d be dressed for the cool night. Grim, he pulled up to the cross street in front of her apartment building. The road was closed off to through traffic, and the firefighters were still hard at work. Crowds had been pushed far back, held at bay by police officers.
Glancing around, he didn’t see Kennedy.
But he did spot two shifty-looking dicks keeping watch on everything. Dressed all in black, with black knit hats pulled low, they watched the streets instead of the fire.
Narrowing his eyes, Reyes did a quick survey of the area and didn’t see anyone else. The majority of people appeared to be enrapt with the fire—unlike these two.
Getting out his phone, he pulled up his recent call list and touched Kennedy’s name. She answered before the first ring had finished.
“Reyes?” she asked with shaky urgency.
“Where are you, hon?”
“I couldn’t come back. Two men are watching for me.”
“Yeah, I see them. Did they bother you?”
“They charged after the Uber car, but my driver got us away. I...I don’t know what they want.”
“I’ll find out. Give me two minutes, then circle by. I should be ready by then.” Belatedly he thought to add, “I’m in my truck.” Because Kennedy came to the gym he owned, and because they’d partnered in the rescue of a big alley cat, she was familiar with his ride.
“What?” With breathless panic, she screeched, “What do you mean you’ll find out? You can’t possibly—”
“Sure I can.” For a while now, he and Kennedy had been dancing around the fact that they both had secrets. When faced with danger, she’d called him, so obviously she understood the extent of his ability.
Tonight seemed like a good night for her to learn a little more about him. “Did you hear me, Kennedy? What did I say?”
“Two minutes,” she repeated blankly. “Reyes, don’t you dare—”
Seeing that the guys had noticed him, Reyes smiled and disconnected. Leaving the truck, he started toward them, his attitude amicable. “What happened, do you know?”
The men looked at each other. The taller of the two said, “Looks like an apartment fire.”
“Yeah, I can see that.” He was only ten feet away now. “Who started it?”
They shared another glance, and Stretch spoke again. “Who says anyone did? Might’ve been faulty wiring.”
“Nah.” He continued to close the distance, his stride long and cocky—with good reason. “Pretty sure you yahoos had something to do with it.” He grinned. “Amiright?”
Stretch reached inside his jacket, and Reyes kicked out, sending him sprawling backward. He landed hard, the wind knocked out of him.
His shorter friend took an aggressive stance.
Bad move. With a short, swift kick of his booted foot, Reyes took out the guy’s braced knee. He screamed in pain as his leg buckled the wrong way.
Quickly Reyes patted him down, removing both a knife and Glock. Still squatting, he shifted his attention to Stretch just as the guy got back to his feet.
Maybe hoping to mimic Reyes’s moves, Stretch tried to plant his foot in his face.
Reyes ducked to the side, grabbed his ankle and yanked him off balance again.
Down he went for the second time. Unfortunately, he cracked his head and, without so much as a moan, passed out.
“Well, hell.” Turning back to the shorter dude, Reyes prodded him. “Who are you and what did you want with the girl?”
Dazed with pain, his face contorted, the guy gasped, “What girl?”
“Dude, you are seriously whack. Want me to bust the other knee? I can, you know.” Using the muzzle of the Glock, Reyes tapped his crotch. “Or maybe you want me to smash these instead?”
Rolling to his side, he cried, “No.”
Heaving a sigh, Reyes stood. “What a wuss. C’mon, man. Give me something. It’s not like I really want to hurt you, you know.” Not much, anyway. But when he thought of these two planning to harm Kennedy...yeah. Red-hot rage. “I’ll give you to the count of three. One. Two.”
“All right! We were hired to grab her. That’s all I know.”
“Bullshit. There’s always more. Like where were you going to take her? Who wants her? And why?”
“I don’t know, man! We were paid half, and once we grabbed her, someone would call with an address. After we dropped her off, we’d get the other half.”
“Yeah? Planned to do this whole thing blind, huh?” Reyes heard Stretch groan and knew he was coming around. Probably a good thing.
“I mean...trust only goes so far.”
What a joke. Who the hell was dumb enough to trust these two? “Maybe your buddy has more info on him. If I find out you’re lying, you won’t like what I do.”
“Bolen woulda found out same as me, when we got the call.”
Sounded legit, but Reyes wasn’t taking any chances. Going over to Bolen, he quickly searched him, removing another gun and also taking his wallet. Inside he found a stack of hundreds, but nothing useful. When Bolen tried to sit up, Reyes pistol-whipped him. He collapsed again.
Glancing back at the other guy, who made a failed attempt to get up, he asked, “What’s your name?”
“Herman.”
“Ah, dude, you said that so fast I’m not sure I believe you.” When Reyes reached for him, the guy flinched away. “Man, you are seriously not cut out for this line of work.” He shoved him to his side and pulled his wallet from his back pocket. It, too, was padded with bills. “You guys got a nice paycheck for kidnapping, didn’t you?”