Page 54 of Midnight Racers

“Pixie knows Mum’s house,” I persisted. “She’s stayed there when I was on holidays.”

“Look at me, Charlotte.” His voice contained a command that made my stomach tie itself in knots. “You’re coming home with me. No one knows where I live, not even the guys. No one will find you there.”

“Maybe they were just random burglars,” I suggested, my entire stomach turning at the thought of those dead bodies downstairs.

“Or maybe they were sent here specifically to intimidate you,” Flynn said in a low voice. “Stay here. I’m going to make sure the place is ready for the guys.”

He stood up and placed a kiss to the top of my head. Flynn closed the door behind him to keep Pixie in the room. I sat for a few minutes before I followed him.

The three men were lined up on the floor, and he was photographing them, their phones set on their chests.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“You should be in your room,” he replied without answering my question.

“Why are you photographing them?”

Flynn sighed before turning to face me. “Because by tomorrow morning these bodies won’t exist. I’m collecting their information and changing the passwords on their phones to a generic one that will allow us to access them when they are gone.”

My brow furrowed. “Why won’t they exist?”

He stepped closer to me, his fingers intertwining with mine. “This is my world, Charlotte. It’s filled with death and misery, but for once it is going to allow me to do some good. I will find who launched this attack on you and then I will seek vengeance.”

A little voice screamed that none of this was normal, that I should run hard and fast from Flynn because he was dangerous. Yet, with him was the only time I’d felt safe lately.

“Won’t their families miss them?”

He tugged me toward him until my body rested on his. “People don’t miss men like me, Charlotte. We just disappear and the world continues to turn.”

I leaned back to stare up at this complicated man. “I would miss you,” I whispered.

The hint of a small smile haunted his lips. “You shouldn’t get attached to me, baby. I’m not worth it.”

That wasn’t true. Flynn brought warmth to the world.

Lights shone up my hall into the dim light of the house and he released me.

“That’ll be the guys,” Flynn said. “Leave the talking to me.”

I nodded once since I didn’t know what to say anyway. I sat on a barstool while Declan and Joshua wandered through my house as Flynn talked them through what happened. Apparently, I had seen lights outside and phoned him, and he arrived just after they broke in.

“You okay?” Declan asked.

I blinked since tears were burning the back of my eyes.

“Bastards,” Joshua muttered.

I watched as they placed the dead men’s fingers onto their phones to open them, change their passwords and turn them off, then set them on my kitchen counter. They checked their pockets, retrieving wallets and keys to put into a fabric bag with a foil lining.

When they were finished, Joshua went out to the van and brought in three black packages, that when opened out were body bags. The men were lifted into them and carried out to the van. This was wrong on so many levels. The police should be here and I should be sitting in a prison cell.

Declan sprayed something around the broken window and the floor, wiping over it with a mop they brought from the van before placing a bag around the fabric end and taking it away again. Every trace of the men were removed from my house.

“I’ve boarded the window,” Declan said. “I’ll have one of our guys replace it tomorrow with a new pane of glass.”

My throat was tight and I was unable to find the words to say thank you. A tear escaped, followed by another, and my head dipped as my emotions crested over me.

Declan grasped my shoulder. “Don’t you worry about a single thing,” he said. “We deal with these incidents every day. No one will get near you.”

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