Stitch by Jaime Lewis (ebook reader online .txt) 📗

and a black zip-up hoodie. A smell tickled his nose. It was a familiar scent.  He removed the hoodie from the bag and brought it to his nose, and inhaled again. It was sweet, not too strong, but enticing.  It was Mia. The scent from the hoodie was the same perfume that Mia wore, and instantly the vision from the night at the gala fluttered through his mind.  He damned himself for telling her to take a few extra days to visit with her brother. She wasn’t due back to the office until Wednesday. With the situation he was currently dealing with, it could turn out to be a good thing since he’d be preoccupied making sure Oscar and Jules’ fuck up was concealed.

“Are Oscar and Jules sure she didn’t get a look at them?”

“No, they said she was blindfolded the entire time. They are aware of how bad they fucked up.”

“They both are lucky they aren’t floating in the Hudson River right now.”

“I can still make that happen.”

“No. We have enough to deal with right now. I don’t need another reason for the cops to start sniffing around. We need to find out who that woman was that escaped and deal with her. Press Oscar and Jules for more information. I want to know where they picked her up from, and have them give you a better description than a ‘hot raven-haired woman with a fuckable body’.”

“I’ll talk with them.  I’m supposed to meet up with Vargas later next week to go over plans for the next shipment.  He said he knew of a more concealed place outside the city to hold the dogs until they were adopted.  Since he was at the warehouse, I’ll see if he can provide any other information. However, he got there just before she escaped.”

Elijah let out a frustrated sigh and sunk down into the chair.

“What are we doing about the Willow situation, now?”

Willow was the woman Oscar and Jules were supposed to nab off the street. Now he was faced with two problems.

“There is no situation with Willow.”

Elijah quirked his eyebrow, and Claus grinned, then looked at his watch. “Willow should be on her way to her new home.”

“New home?”

Claus shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t have an exact location, but Chen Pham was more than willing to take her off your hands. I was surprised at the price he offered for her.” He gloated.

“You sold her to Pham?” Elijah ran his hand through his hair. “Jesus, she probably would have been better off if you just killed her.  I’ve heard stories about Pham. Not many women last more than a month with him.”

Claus, again gave a shoulder shrug. “Do you really care?”

“No. As long as she can’t open her mouth around here, I don’t give a fuck what happens to her.”

“She was an easy target. I picked her up this morning as she was out walking in Central Park. Not sure anyone taught the stupid girl not to walk alone in the park while it was dark.”

Claus gathered his coat and car keys. “I have the crew meeting me at the warehouse. I’m concerned with the amount of close calls we’ve had the last few weeks. Ones that could have been prevented if those responsible had been paying attention. I’m going to let them know that if there are any more screw-ups, heads will roll. Literally.”

Elijah nodded his head as Claus showed himself out the door. Elijah grabbed his glass and walked over to the windows overlooking Central Park; it was a magnificent view as the windows pan floor to ceiling. He lifted the glass of whiskey to his lips and took a long sip. In his other hand, he still clutched the jacket belonging to the woman who could potentially bring down his empire. He swallowed hard.  Finding her in the city was going to be like looking for a needle in a haystack. His only hope was that she was too out of it to remember where she was.

Chapter Fourteen

Mia started to stir. She felt as if her body and mind were playing a game. Her mind said it was time to wake, but her body seemed to disagree. At the moment, she felt secured and at peace. Her mind might have been a little fuzzy, but she recognized right away that she wasn’t in her bed. Her mattress was nowhere near as comfortable as the one she was curled up in.

She let her eyes adjust to the little bit of sunlight peeking through the slats in the wood blinds. The first thing that caught her attention was a picture on the table next to the bed. She couldn’t help the small smile that formed. It was a picture of Stitch in uniform standing with what she assumed were his parents. Stitch carried both his mom and dad’s features.

Her eyes slowly moved about the room. It was very homey—calm and peaceful, just like Stitch. The contrast of the dark logs that made up the house's interior and exterior, along with the wildlife photos blended with the military pictures and decor, made her smile because it was what she would expect from Stitch.  Even the wood frame of the bed matched the color of the logs. She may live in the city, but her blood ran country, and the look and feel of the room made her feel right at home.

She snuggled further into the down pillow that smelled like Stitch, but that teensiest movement set off a chain reaction of pain throughout her entire body, bringing tears to her eyes. Parts of last night started to come back to her. She remembered meeting the Sheriff, and he had driven her to the cabin. Her brother and Stitch had shown up with a few other people. She recalled talking to them—about what she couldn’t remember, because she had been out of it. Her mind wasn't firing on all cylinders between the pain, adrenalin crash, and pain medicine. She did