Page 27 of The Vigilante's Lover

This girl is something else.

Her eyes are wild as she lets a hunk of dirt fly at me. The effort causes her to lose her grip on the shawl and it glides back to the hay.

I sidestep so she misses but don’t stop looking at her.

So luscious.

The light from the cracks in the barn makes bright stripes on her skin. I’m not sure which I like better, her standing there, angry as hell, or lying back, enjoying my attention.

“Yes, I want my clothes,” she snaps.

I hold up my hands to fend off anything else she might throw at me. “I’ll fetch them.”

I’m still taken aback by her lack of experience. She’s definitely not in the Vigilante program. Honest-to-God virginity is a bit of a liability in that game. Besides, the training alone tends to throw young people together in ways that just seem to encourage a lot of carnal acts.

But this Mia. I don’t really know what to do with her.

Since I haven’t left the barn yet, she snatches my shirt, still lying at her feet, and sticks her arms through. It’s too large and ends about mid-thigh. I think she might look sexier in it than out of it, although perhaps that’s because I imagine taking it off again.

It may be just as well Sam arrived. A situation like this takes some consideration. And time.

“Sometime this year, maybe?” Her voice spits fire. She probably didn’t appreciate Sam’s suggestion that I’m always with a woman. He’s not very good at saying the right thing in front of ladies.

Before I can answer, Sam and Colette are back. When Mia sees another woman has arrived, I can see her shrink back with dismay.

“Mon Dieu, what have you done to this poor girl?” Colette immediately heads straight for Mia. “Where are her clothes?” Her tirade continues with a half dozen French expletives.

She wraps her arm around Mia. “Let me get you away from this jackass,” she says.

“I have things in the car,” Mia says.

“She got hit by a poison dart,” I mention, rubbing the back of my neck.

“And all her clothes flew off?” Colette shoots back.

There is no point in arguing with an irate Colette. I step back as they pass me for the door. Colette scoops up the shoes on the way.

Sam shakes his head. When they are gone, he says, “That one’s going to cause you trouble.”

“What do you mean?” Sam couldn’t know who Mia is.

“You can’t take your eyes off her,” he says. “How did you sneak a Phase One out of training?”

“She has the shoes, but she’s civilian,” I say, trying to sound nonchalant.

“Not your usual type,” he says, leaning against the barn wall. He glances around. “Nor your usual venue. What happened at the silo in St. Louis?”

“Didn’t go well,” I say.

“Big surprise,” Sam says. “Saw the alert ordering you to New Attica. That’s one hell of a prison.”

I pick up the axe again and turn it over in my hand. “They wouldn’t listen.”

“Tried to tell you, boss.”

I shake my head. “Doesn’t make sense. Klaus was killed. His record was deleted. Then the safe-house records were altered.”

Sam shakes his head. “Ain’t nobody got the clearance for that. Not even Sutherland himself.”

“Exactly. And it reminds me of another bit of tampering.”

“You mean Jovana and that dude you killed.”

“Singer,” I say grimly. His death still weighs on me. “Elroy Singer.”

“He was a punk anyway,” Sam says.

“Vigilante punk.”

“Still a punk.” Sam peers out the barn door. “We can’t stay long with her car. We’re too close to your rendezvous with the silo.”

“I assume they aren’t on to me since I jettisoned the Crybaby.”

“Am I good or am I good?” Sam’s teeth flash white in the dim barn. “You got a plan?”

“I’m planning to take Mia back to the safe house,” I tell him.

If she’ll go, I think silently. That girl is determined to stay on my tail. That’s why I pulled back in the hay when I realized she was a virgin. She’ll get attached, and I don’t need her as a liability with everything going on.

“Colette can do that,” Sam says. “Do we need to do one of your covert exits?”

I grunt out a short laugh. Sam has gotten me out of a lot of tight spots, and some of them have involved extricating myself from an overexuberant female.

“Maybe,” I say.

“She seemed a little miffed.”

“She has her heart set on going with me.”

“Ah,” Sam says. “Looks like she’s all dressed now.”

Colette and Mia come back in the barn. Colette tosses me a shirt and pushes the door a little wider to get more light in.

“Colette, I’m going to need you to take Mia back to the safe house,” I say, setting down the axe so I can dress.

“What?” Mia interjects. “I thought after —” She sputters out, not wanting to say what she did in hopes of earning a place with me.

“You thought wrong,” I say firmly. “Colette will see you home.” I slip on the shirt and start buttoning it. “Sam, I assume my car is all right for you to ride in for a while?”

“I’ll activate my secondary clone ID,” Sam says. “That’ll buy us some time.”

“Where are you going?” Colette asks. “Should I meet up with you?”

Mia looks from one to the other like she’s watching a tennis match. Her anger is about to turn to tears. I need out of here before that happens.

“We’ll let you know,” I say. “Sam will rig something up for communication.”

“I saw you lost both my Blackphone AND my Crybaby,” Sam says. “I’m not giving you anything good anymore.”

I clap him on the back. “Sure you will.” I head toward the door.

“You’re not even going to say good-bye?” Mia’s voice is tremulous.

Colette wraps her arm around Mia’s shoulders. “That rat isn’t worth the words,” she says. “Jax De Luca, I’m ashamed of you. This poor wretched girl.”

But Mia doesn’t like that either. She shrugs Colette away. “I’m not wretched, and I’m not a girl.”

She storms past all of us and back out into the yard.

“Not sure where she’s going,” Sam says. “Unless she’s going to hitchhike.”

“Go pick her up,” I tell Colette.

“I’m not fond of cleaning up your messes,” she says.

“This one is unusual,” I say. “She wants to be a Vigilante and doesn’t understand how things work.”

“I see,” Colette says. “All right. I’ll take her back.” She steps up to me and pokes my shirt. “But you better turn over a new leaf. I’m not going to let young innocents get brokenhearted because you had bad judgment with that other woman.”

I hold up my hands. “Understood.”

Sam shakes his head. “Jax, my man, you have got to get your pecker under wraps.”

I almost correct him on this matter, but decide it’s best just to let it go.