Page 10

“A simple no thank you would’ve worked. I’m beginning to wonder what Kade sees in you.”

“Kade doesn’t see anything in me because Kade doesn’t know me, and I don’t know him.” The pressure in her chest was growing uncomfortable the farther she got away from the house.

“So, you’re going to let him fight all those guys in there and you don’t even want to see the end result?”

“Why would he fight them?” she asked, rounding on him.

Cash shrugged. “So he can take you home?”

“Home? I am home!”

“There’s a snake.”

She yelped and jumped high as a jackrabbit, then skittered away. Indeed, a rattlesnake slithered across the deer path between them.

“Why is your home trying to kill you?” he asked.

“Am I in danger here?” she asked, needing to hear the truth in his voice when he gave her some kind of reassurance.

“Probably.”

“What?”

“You’re a member of the Sister’s Edge Crew. You’re probably a psychopath and also probably your animal is poisonous. Puffer fish?”

She slowly blinked, then did an about face and speed-walked back in the direction of her house.

“My mate is probably going to be waiting for me.”

“Oh, Connor? He sounds lame.”

“How do you know Connor?”

“I don’t know him. I did look up his social media though, and after I waded through the thirst-traps he posts for the probably thirty women he’s private-messaging on there, I found a picture of him eating an entire bag of pickle flavored sunflower seeds.”

“Wait, really?” How had he even found his social media?

“No. He did say he doesn’t like cats on one of his posts though, so fuck him. He probably has a micro-penis.”

She pursed her lips against a grin because this crazy stranger didn’t need encouragement. “Are you here to kill me?” she demanded, rounding on him again, and pushing him back.

“No. Like I said, just abduct. I’m assuming that’s why Kade is here. He wasn’t really specific. He was like, don’t follow me, bla, bla, don’t tell our Crew, bla, bla. I don’t know, my mate had just sent me tit pictures like ten minutes before, and I was still riding the high from that. Plus, I got stuck on the part where Kade said he was paired.”

“Was paired. Was. Our contract is up. He came here for nothing. Those guys will kill him in there.”

“Mmm, well then they would all die by fire.”

“What?” she asked. “Fire. What does that mean? Do you have a dragon?” she asked. “Because we have a dragon.Youwill be the one to die by fire.”

He spat a sunflower seed and pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, then pulled a twenty-dollar bill from it. “I bet you twenty dollars our fire-maker will beat your fire-maker.”

“Did you hear me? I said we have a dragon?”

“Whoopy-whoo.” He shook the twenty-dollar bill, but she slapped it out of his hand.

“You’re crazy.”

“I’ve been called worse,” he said as he stooped to pick up his money. He spilled a bunch of sunflower seeds on the ground and uttered a cuss word. “Do you have a suitcase?”