In her headphones, she heard Micah say, “What’s she doing? She’s going to—”
Colleen was climbing out and leaning toward the asphalt to get the hell out of that helicopter when her headphones hit the end of their cord and yanked her head backward like a leash.
“Dammit!” She yanked them off and threw them at the seat as she continued to feel for the ground with her toes.
Tristan tossed his headset on the seat behind him as he came after her. His mouth was moving, but the screech of the engines winding down and the battering rotors drowned out his words.
Colleen’s toes finally scraped the ground, sending a solid jolt up her leg. She ducked even though the rotor blades were far above her head, and crouching, she began to run toward the small building just past the helipad’s landing zones.
A vice gripped her arm, and her whole body flopped backward. “Hey!”
Tristan was holding onto her arm, saying, “Where are you going?”
She danced around, her wet skirt wrapping around her legs on the heliport’s warm tarmac, and yanked her arm out of his grip. “Out.”
“I would’ve helped you out of the helicopter. You could’ve hurt yourself.”
“I don’t need your help.” The ocean breeze picked up, and the wet silk clinging to Colleen’s back and legs chilled her. “I don’t need anything from you. I want that plane ticket back to Phoenix, and I want it now.”
A flicker of shock rippled through Tristan, and he blinked. “I’m sorry about everything that happened.” He looked away, beyond the tail of the helicopter, and sighed so hard that his shoulders slumped. “Everything went wrong.”
Her heart slammed so hard that her breath shook. “I just need to get out of here. I need to go back to Phoenix where I’m a hell of a lot safer than hanging around you.”
Especially for her heart. She was so stupid for believing him.
She kept talking. “I don’t care about your plans or whatever it is you want from me. I need to leave, and I need to leave right the hell now. Either you buy me that plane ticket to Phoenix like you promised, or else I will march right over to the Southwest Air desk and bankrupt myself by buying the first available plane ticket on my credit card. But however this is going down, I’m done. I’m out. And I’m leaving right now.”
“Don’t.” Tristan scowled at the cityscape of Los Angeles in the distance, and then he gestured at the looming aircraft hangar behind him. “You take the plane. It’ll take you back to Phoenix, and I can transfer your pay for the week in just a minute from my phone.”
That wasn’t what she’d meant. “So where are you going to go?”
Tristan was scowling and staring at the ground. “I’ll stay here.”
“No way!” she yelled at him.
4
Micah
Tristan
“You can’t!” Colleen yelled at Tristan. He could barely hear her feminine voice above the helicopter engines, even though the pitch of their whine was falling as they wound down. She kept yelling at him, “Those mafia bastards are after you!”
Jesus, he gave up. He lifted his hands. “I can draw them away from you. I’ll give them whatever they want so they’ll have no reason to come after you.”
“Tristan, that isn’t what I meant. You shouldn’t do that. Giving crime lords what they want is never the best option.”
Micah had stepped out of the helicopter and approached the two of them. “What the hell is going on with you guys, Twist? Were those guys Russian?”
This was all out of control. Tristan shook his head like a bug was divebombing him. He said to Micah, “I was trying to raise some capital for a big venture, a lot of capital, and Mayamiko Botha sold me out.”
Micah frowned, confused. “Mayamiko Botha sold you out? Some of the other financial people we deal with, yeah, I could see that. But her?”
He nodded. “Botha stated that GrazBank couldn’t finance me, and then they all walked out of the room, just like that, no conversation about finances or anything. And then a bunch of Russian mobsters came in and started demanding to give me money, laundered money, and said they were from the Butorin bratva.”
Micah rocked back on his heels, and his eyebrows rose. “The Butorins? Like Tatiana and Dima Butorin?”
“Yeah, but this guy was one of the other Butorins. I don’t remember him from high school at all. I don’t think he was at Le Rosey. They want a piece of software I wrote, and they were willing to finance my deal. But the cost was my eternal soul, you know? Once you do business with a bratva, they own you forever.”
“Right,” Micah said, now also frowning.
Colleen had crossed her arms over her chest where her wet dress was clinging to her figure, and she was glaring at the two of them. “You cannot just give in to them. I mean, jeez, Tristan. They essentially kidnapped us, and they’re threatening you. You shouldn’t do business with people like that.”
Tristan sighed again. His suit was soaked from the sprinkler system at the restaurant, too, and the soggy fabric was beginning to chill his skin in the breeze blowing from the sea. “They goddamned kidnapped us because they wanted my virus.”
Micah peered more closely at him. “Virus? You’re writing malware now, Twist?”
He shrugged, but as a dismissive gesture, not resignation. “Not that kind of malware. It’s not ransomware or destructive. It trolls the internet. To be specific, it’s not so much of a virus as a worm, but I know what you would’ve said if I’d told you that the Butorins want my worm.”
Micah snorted.
“But they’re after me, Micah. If I don’t give it to them, they threatened to kill us. I mean, they need me to get it, but they specifically threatened Colleen to make me do what they want.”
“And she doesn’t have anything to do with it,” Micah said, the dryness in his voice laced with skepticism.
Tristan shook his head again, frustrated with Micah. “I just met her a few days ago. She’s an innocent bystander, but they know who she is now.”
Micah turned and asked her, “You’re sure they know who you are?”
Colleen nodded. “They knew my name and that I’m from Phoenix, and that I used to go to Southwestern State. They probably have my address, too.”
Micah turned back to him. “Then they’ll find her if she goes off somewhere. She has to stay with you.”
Tristan insisted, “I have to handle this alone. I can’t involve her anymore.”
“It’s too late for that lone wolf shit, Twist. She’s involved, and she’ll be safer with you than walking around with no one to protect her.”
“Bullshit, Micah. She needs to go somewhere and hide. Colleen, can you go to your parents’ place for a few days until this blows over?”
Colleen shook her head, the delicate skin between her brows crumpling. “No.”
Micah gestured at her. “It isn’t going to blow over, Twist. If the Butorins have decided to recruit you, you’re either recruited or you’re dead. And if they’ve decided Colleen is your weak spot, she is. Where are your parents, doll?”