Free Take Me Deeper by Jackie Ashenden Page A

head. “My family’s. I’m not part of it anymore.”
    “I would beg to differ,” she said dryly.
    “You’re my last job.” He gave her a glance. “It was supposed to be easy.”
    There were definitely undercurrents in that statement, and she was annoyed to find that she wanted to figure out what those undercurrents were. Because it was so not happening. The last thing she needed was yet another guy who thought he knew what was best for her, and Zane was very much that kind of guy.
    “It could be easy,” she said. “You could just let me go right here and now.”
    “What? You
really
think you’d be safer on your own?”
    She shrugged. “No, not necessarily. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be going to jail either.”
    He gave her an inscrutable look, then before she could move, he reached out and gripped her upper arm. “Don’t make me use those handcuffs again.”
    Another of those electric jolts went through her at the feel of his strong fingers wrapping around her. He was close now, towering over her, and she was conscious of the fact that he smelled of clean male sweat and fresh pine. Kind of like Christmas.
    He smells like Christmas? You’re crazy.
    Clearly she was. Because she could feel the heat of his body now that he was standing right next to her, and she found that incredibly attractive. She wanted to stand even closer to him, press up against him, take some of that heat for herself.
    Yeah, definitely crazy. Especially given the fact that she wasn’t cold.
    Luckily he didn’t seem to notice her sudden weirdness, moving toward the big double doors of the entrance and pulling her along with him.
    If it didn’t look like a bounty hunting business on the outside, it looked even less so on the inside. In fact, it was like she’d stepped into the kind of moldering, old hotel you saw in the movies. With the signs of a once-glorious past in the shape of huge, dusty chandeliers hanging down and a massive old oak reception desk. There were various sagging couches scattered around and a sad-looking palm tree in a pot. The carpet was very worn and threadbare, with a few of what looked like cigarette burns here and there. The smell of damp carpet and ash hung in the air, along with the faintest whiff of cigar smoke.
    Iris screwed up her nose as she scanned the foyer area. “Wow. This place makes the Motel 6 look like the Four Seasons. I feel right at home.”
    Zane ignored her, hustling her over to one of the couches and pushing her down onto it. “Wait here,” he said, but then didn’t move, looking down at her and frowning.
    “What?”
    “Give me your hands.”
    “Why?”
    “Just do it, Iris.”
    Reluctantly she held out her hands, unsurprised when he pulled the handcuffs out of his back pocket and snapped them around her wrists. “I told you I wasn’t going to go anywhere.”
    “Yeah, but my brothers don’t know that.”
    Brothers? Oh yes, he’d told her it was a family business, hadn’t he?
    But she had no time to ask him because without another word, he turned on his heel and vanished through some more double doors that led God knew where.
    Iris sighed and took another scan around the dingy room. A bounty hunting business in an old hotel? What the fuck was that all about? And why was she any safer here? Sure, it was going to make finding her difficult for Shaw, but the guy wasn’t stupid. He’d figure out where she was soon enough, and unless this place could suddenly convert itself into an armory, it wasn’t going to offer her any protection.
    You’re screwed, Callahan. And not in a fun way.
    Not that screwing was all that fun, apart from Dylan of course. He’d treated her like a princess, as though she was special, and she’d never had anyone treat her like that before. It had been amazing. Until he’d then gone and tainted it all by being a gigantic asshole.
    Screwing Zane, on the other hand, might be fun…
    Iris stared up at the chandelier and very firmly pushed that thought