He stared at the man a moment more before straightening his jacket. He strode to the exit and withdrew a card. He slid it through the key reader.
“How do you have a keycard to the service entrance?” She hustled to catch up to him.
“Because I own the building, of course.”
Of course. It made perfect sense that he just owned a building in the middle of one of the ritzier parts of the city. Didn’t everyone?
Chelsea stopped and stared back. Two down and they would just keep coming. “Simon, maybe you should…”
His hand found hers, pulling her outside and into the gloomy shadows of the trash bins. He tugged her close, dragging her into the dark with him. “Don’t finish that sentence unless you want the punishment to start now. If you think for a second I won’t discipline you in the backseat of Jesse’s vehicle, you’re wrong. I will have your pants down and I will tear into your backside if you even contemplate finishing that sentence.”
She huddled close, turning her face up to stare at him. “How do you even know what I was going to say?”
“Because I know you. A couple of people are dead and now it’s real. You feel guilty and you’re going into the martyr phase of your cycle.”
She could hear the sirens getting close, very close. Where the hell was Jesse? Knowing him he could have gotten lost. Or found some shiny object and chased after it for a while. “I have a cycle?”
Red and blue lights streamed from the other side of the building. “Oh, yes, you do, love. It’s a never-ending pain in my arse, and the part of the cycle I like the least is the martyrdom followed by the self-pitying cursed one you like to play.”
She frowned his way. “Is there anything you do like?”
His lips curled up just the tiniest bit. “Sometimes you forget to hate everything and you flirt a bit. I do like that part.” He reached down, brushing his thumb over her cheek. “You missed a spot.”
Of dead man’s blood. She tried not to think about how utterly pathetic she must look. She was dressed in an XL T-shirt with a snarky saying about T-rexes hating push-ups and a pair of PJ pants covered in puppies. Now she had blood all over her.
And he was heartstoppingly perfect.
She stared up at him and wished just for a moment that she had half of her sister’s confidence. Charlotte got all the good genes. She got the beauty and the curves and the…
“Holy shit. I do have a cycle. I think I just hit self-pity.”
He frowned even as his head came up and he started to drag her out into the alley. “Yes, I might have mentioned I wasn’t fond of that part.”
A Jeep turned down the alley, stopping on a dime.
“Our ride’s here.”
She followed Simon into the night.
Chapter Five
Jesse wasn’t alone. Simon opened the door to the back seat upon discovering the front was already occupied by a very wide-eyed Phoebe Graham. She peered at him through the thick glasses she wore.
“Are you all right?” Phoebe asked, her voice tremulous.
She was a little mouse, but one who seemed to have Jesse by the balls. They had started dating only weeks before, but Jesse seemed utterly fascinated by her. She was far too submissive for Simon’s tastes, but her very gentle nature obviously called to Jesse.
“We’re perfectly fit. I’m rather surprised to see you, Miss Graham.” Though he said the words to her, he meant them for Jesse, who should have known there were no civilians allowed during an escape from nefarious forces. “Come along, love.”
He would feel better once Chelsea was safely in the car. He ushered her in and then settled himself.
“I didn’t have a choice. I was on a date. You couldn’t expect me to just leave her. Not when I got that call about the emergency fumigation.”
Simon sighed. Emergency fumigation? That was the best he could come up with? Their eyes met in the rearview mirror, and Jesse grimaced.
They had to work on their scenarios.
“I didn’t know the bug problem was so big,” Phoebe said. “I would have thought a building like this would be very clean. And to think that it could potentially reach all the way to Jesse’s place.” She shuddered a little. “I don’t like bugs.”
Luckily Phoebe was a bit naïve. She was the accounting and billing specialist Ian had hired years before. She tended to stay in her office, only talking to Eve and Grace on a regular basis. The men of McKay-Taggart seemed to intimidate her. Until she’d met Jesse and then she’d been so charmingly graceless around him that Simon had to worry about getting a sweet tooth.
“Well, you know what they say about Texas.” He fell back on his cousins and the way they liked to talk. “Everything’s bigger here. Even the bugs. Scorpions. They sting and hard. We had to kill two of them on our way out of the building, so I think it would be good to put some distance between us and that particular memory.”
He heard Jesse curse under his breath as he pulled out of the alley. At least he knew Jesse had gotten the message. Two dead bodies. He would know to avoid those red and blue lights.
He turned left and stopped at the light. Jesse’s voice was tight as he tipped his head to the front of the building. “It looks like the situation is well in hand, partner.”
Or as he knew Jesse would say if they were alone, holy shit, we were almost fucked. There were two cop cars sitting in the circular drive at the front of the building. There was a uniformed officer standing by his car, his radio in hand. He was shaking his head and obviously calling for backup.
So they’d found the bodies. It was a good thing he’d bricked his phone because otherwise it would be ringing at that very moment. He would be one of the first people they called as the owner of the building. Luckily, he had the building manager’s number on file with the security company as his second in command. The poor man would be heartbroken that his lovely building had blood all over it, but he was competent enough.
Chelsea stared out the window, her anxiety a palpable thing. At least she understood what a wretched situation they would be in if they got hauled in by the Dallas police.
The light changed and Jesse very cautiously moved through the intersection. It was one of the reasons he and Jesse got along so well. The younger man almost never panicked. He was cool under pressure, although he had a few triggers that turned him into a beast Simon worried he might have to put down.