Asa
From the description Richie had given me when he first found her, that was definitely Lauren Saylor waiting on me. Long blonde hair, legs you wanted to kiss, and the deepest blue eyes any man had ever fallen into. She was thin but still curvy, and she could move those hips when she wanted to.
Had to give credit where credit was due. Dalton Saylor popped out one beautiful woman when he had her. Fiery, too, I could tell. Just the way she looked at me made me want to tear her clothes off and see how high up those legs really went. I wondered mindlessly about what her nails would feel like as they scratched up and down my back, and whether she'd mind if I pulled on that pony tail of hers. I had a feeling she wouldn't.
Honestly, I was impressed, too. Not only was she gorgeous, and sassy, but she'd been on the run for a while. Not everyone had the determination to go underground like she had for the last five years. Cutting yourself off from family was one thing, but friends too? Most people wanted a life, or got tired of the run. Not Lauren that much was for sure. This girl had an iron will inside her, one I wouldn't have to take lightly.
And the way she’d flirted with me while taking my order? Richie hadn't mentioned how much she liked bad boys... He'd had to force her out of the place he'd caught her in, drag her all the way back to his car and stuff her away before she could make a run for it. She finally managed to which was how Richie had gotten in trouble with her daddy in the first place: Dalton Saylor.
Richie's death still fucked me up inside, especially with the way things had gone down. Word was, Dalton had just snapped when Richie told him the bad news and beat my friend to death with his fists. Just his fists. They had to pull the drugged out, crazed asshole off my buddy's bloody corpse, even keep him from going back for a second round on poor Richie's face.
Richie’d been so close, too, to getting inside the operation like our boss wanted him to. Bringing Lauren home would have nearly set him for life, put him in a real position to start moving up through our organization. If he'd managed to deliver the Fortress, the middle-man clearing house of the region, to our boss, he would have been in the clear. He'd have been a prince among men, a king among princes.
Too bad Lauren brought him down that way. Not that she meant to, of course. She had no idea what was going to happen to Richie, just like Richie didn't have a fucking clue either. If he had, he probably wouldn't have gone back to Dalton empty handed. He would have just cut and run and told him to find another way in.
I reached down, took a sip of my coffee, and watched as Lauren started up her side work.
She glanced back at me as she brushed a stray blonde hair back behind her ear, a light smile on her lips. Something about that smile reminded me of a shark. Not in a scary way, or anything. But something about a shark's smile always said, “I'm going to eat you for lunch.”
Of course, given a choice between Jaws or Lauren, I'd take Lauren any day of the week.
I had to remember that sweet body, or that inviting smile, of hers, wasn't what I was here for. I was here for some coffee and a burger, then to follow her back to her place.
I'd make the grab tonight when she got home from her shift, before she got suspicious and started to go on the move again. Shove her in the car, then head for the Fortress before anyone got alerted and called the cops for an abduction. I hated to drag her back to her psycho dad, but if I didn't have Lauren I didn't have shit. No way Dalton or his men were letting me through the doors of that fortress without some sort of offering to pave my way forward.
And, if I couldn't make it through the doors and past all the guns surrounding that place like a ring of steel, then there was no way in hell I was going to get to Dalton Saylor.
I had in my mind the different ways that motherfucker was going to pay. One way or another, I was going to get my pound of flesh from his old psycho hide before I delivered him over to the boss. That was the promise I'd made over poor Richie's grave, and it was the promise I meant to keep.
All I had to do was make sure I didn't spook the girl. She was like a deer in the forest, and I had to approach this carefully. I'd stay, I'd finish my burger, then I'd keep an eye on her from afar. No more, no less.