Page 3 of Gatling
Hesitation usually caused more harm than good anyway.
Turning to Vlad, I gestured for him to approach. He had waited by our bikes at the curb, hanging back while I assessed the situation. Since this wasn’t club business, he was here by invitation only.
When Vlad rose from his bike, Ms. Jalinski’s eyebrows shot up and she made a noise of surprise.
“Good lord.”
He tended to have that effect on people everywhere he went. Generating shock and intimidation at the sheer size of him. There was a reason he’d been voted into the Enforcer position. With his tatted forearms, broad chest, and thick Russian accent, he didn’t exactly give off cuddly vibes.
“Stay here with Vlad,” I said. “I’ll take a look around.”
Kelsie nodded, but it didn’t seem to soothe her anxiety. Vlad came to stand a respectful distance away from the ladies, bristling with muscle.
If someone wanted to hurt Kelsie, they wouldn’t dare try anything with Vlad hanging around. Unless they had a death wish. Or they were a fucking moron. I’d seen Vlad crush a man’s skull like a grape with his bare hands. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
I headed into the building, taking the stairs two at a time. Stepping into Kelsie’s apartment, I did a general sweep of the area. I canvassed the kitchen twice, where Kelsie found the sunglasses.
No sign of an intruder.
Then I turned and caught the faint scent of…something.
Not Kelsie.
I knew her soap, her perfume. Sweetly fruity and floral. Like peaches and lilies.
This was different. Musky. Salty. Bordering on metallic.
I took another step, edging toward the living room. Could be the lingering scent of an old boyfriend…
The scent vanished.
“Damn it,” I hissed, circling back in an attempt to find it again.
Like a bloodhound, I paced Kelsie’s apartment, sniffing the air in an attempt to capture that smell again.
No luck.
Back home in West Virginia, I grew up in the woods, tracking and hunting wildlife for meat. Appalachian wilderness was rife with tall tales of monsters that went bump in the night. And when you spend hours, isolated and alone, deep in the backcountry, you start seeing weird shit that isn’t really there.
Joining the military made things worse in that department. Especially after being medically discharged with PTSD. I lost countless nights of sleep to the phantom battles playing out in my bedroom, right before my eyes.
Until the flashbacks faded, and I was alone again, with nothing but hot adrenaline pumping through my body at a million miles an hour.
Was I imagining this masculine scent? Was jealousy fucking with my head and making me smell something that didn’t exist?
Standing in the middle of Kelsie’s apartment, surrounded with her vibrant colors splashed everywhere…an instinctual tug in my stomach told me that I wasn’t making up anything.
Trust your gut,I always told Kelsie.
Some fucker had been in my girl’s apartment.
Chapter two
Kelsie
I blew out a breath of impatience, willing Ryker to appear. My apartment wasn’t that big. What was taking him so long?
Ms. Jalinski stifled a yawn, blinking slowly with fatigue. Guilt tugged at me for waking her up so late at night. She didn’t need all this stress.
