Page 18 of These Reckless Hearts

“You were watching him?” Stone interrupts. “You knew where we went?”

“Of course I did,” Cole sighs. “I knew everything you were up to. We’ve been watching the jeweler to make sure he didn’t go to Lance and that Lance didn’t get to him.”

“Obviously, you’re doing a shitty job of it,” Wyatt snarks.

Cole turns in his seat, eyes flashing. “I’m sorry, do you run a gang? Do you understand the ins and outs of surveillance? Some things happen in the blink of a fucking second. You get that, don’t you, cowboy?”

Wyatt scowls, and I’m getting a fucking headache from all this fighting. “Can we not bitch at each other?” I snap. “This is already too much without your dick measuring contest on top of it.”

“Anything for you, baby girl.” Cole winks before turning around in his seat, and Lucas and Wyatt stiffen next to me. I swear Cole did that to get a rise out of them, and it’s clearly working.

Tension fills the car and only increases the closer we get to our destination. I don’t know where that is until we reach a hospital—the same hospital Lucas was in. Lucas shifts next to me, clearly uncomfortable. My stomach squeezes as we pull around the emergency entrance.

Cole turns toward us. “Stone and Dakota, out. Wyatt, park the car.”

We all do as he instructs. The emergency room doors open as soon as we get close, bringing too many bad memories for me. “They’re not going to let us in.”

Cole laughs darkly, tendrils of shadows blacking out what’s supposed to be an expression of humor. We march right through the other automatic doors that say we need permission to be down this hallway, but no one stops us. No one utters a word, and I turn toward the nurse’s station to find Ninja in front of the window, a tight smile on his face.

These guys are scary. I’d be doing whatever the fuck they wanted, too.

It’s not hard to pick out the room that our friend the jeweler must be in. Two guards dressed in black are standing outside it. They avoid meeting Cole’s gaze, and he warns them they’ll be having a discussion later. Afterward, he strides into the room with authority.

The scent of blood tangs the air and settles on the tip of my tongue as I stride inside to find the jeweler we entrusted lying in a bed. He’s pale as fuck, eyes closed. I stop where I am, but Cole reaches back and drags me forward to the bedside of the middle-aged man thatwebrought into this. He’s only lying in this hospital bed because of us. Jesus. Every time shit hits the fan, I wonder what the hell we got ourselves into. Fuck Lance for doing this to an innocent person.

Cole grips the plastic barrier beside the bed, and it squeaks. The jeweler’s eyes flash open, clearly startled. He glances over everyone in the room. He calms when he finds Stone. Clarity moves in, and he relaxes though his pupils are blown wide. I can only imagine that they have him on some heavy pain killers. He’s shirtless, white bandages tinted in crimson wrap around his midsection.

Any one of us could be lying in this bed. Hell, not a week ago it was Lucas. Whoever Lance hired is dangerous. They don’t care who they hurt. They don’t care who gets in their way. Either Lance ordered this guy taken out, or he’s given free rein to the men he’s hired. However it went down, it’s not good for us.

Luckily, we have someone on our side who’s as dangerous as them.

“I’m friends with these two,” Cole begins as a rather rudimentary introduction. He smiles, but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “First off, how are you?”

“I got shot,” the jeweler croaks, grimacing when his voice breaks. He studies the rest of us apprehensively. “Right through my living room window. I didn’t know what hit me. I didn’t understand what was going on until a couple of guys I’ve never seen before broke into my house and called the ambulance.” He eyes the fire tattoo poking out the collar of Cole’s shirt.

“Those were my guys,” the leader confirms. “We were helping keep you safe due to the important information you were researching for my clients.”

“I think I’m alive because of them.” He tries to change positions and grimaces.

“I’m sorry this happened,” Stone shares. “So sorry. But I need to know what you found out about the artifact you studied.”

The jeweler’s shaky hands rise up to lie gingerly over his bandaged stomach. “It’s so strange. I was getting together my report when everything happened. I was going to call you later today to set up a meeting.”

Lance’s team must have been watching him, too. They knew everything we were doing, too, which means they might have the information we hired this guy to get us.

Fuck.

“Where is it?” Stone inquires. “The report?”

“At my place.” His eyes droop, fighting off sleep, and my heart goes out to him.

“What did you uncover?” Cole’s question makes the jeweler drag his eyes open again. I’m almost unnerved the big bad gang leader is being so nice to this man. He’s not even using his gun to get answers.

“You have a very special piece, Mr. Fleming. As suspected, it’s European, but I was also able to track down its origin. You have a ring that belonged to Spanish Queen Maria Luisa. It’s highly valuable, supposed to have been lost in her treasure horde to Mexico which was a Spanish territory in 1753.”

My heart beats faster at his words. Stone finds my hand and clasps it, giving my fingers a reassuring squeeze. We have answers about the ring. Not only that, we have the name of the person who owned it. Holy shit.

“Where is it?” Cole asks, glancing over at us as my chest heaves up and down.

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