Razor's Mark: (Marked Book 1) (3 page)

He needed to talk to Sparkle and create a game plan.

“Hey, Razor, everything okay?”

“Yeah, but I have a small problem. Can I have today off, and maybe tomorrow? I need to figure some things out.”

“Oh sure, sugar, you take care of what you need to, and we will be here if you need us. You have my cell, and I’m sure the guys can either reschedule your appointments or take them.”

“You’re the best.”

“Yup, I know.” He kissed her on the cheek before putting his gun away and making sure his equipment was secure. Heading back to the office, he tried to figure out what was happening and why the Department of Defense would be after such a small woman, and why they would kill his
brother;
if it really was them. He saw Faith sitting in the same spot, looking really shaken. She had begun to freak when he said he wouldn’t help, but even now, she jumped at every loud sound. She was scared shitless. He knew just how to calm someone down.

“Come on, kitten, time to go.”

“My name is…”

“I know, just follow me.” He took her hand and pulled her out the door as she squeaked.
Yup, she needed him.

Faith followed Jason, no wait, Razor; he
said Razor was what people called him. He held onto her hand as they walked out the back, but stopped short when they reached a giant motorcycle.

“Um, please tell me we just need to find your car or truck.”

“Kitten, this is my ride. When the weather's nice, it’s the bike. Saves on gas, plus I can use HOV lanes if I am heading down 95. Hop on, I have a spare helmet.”

“I don’t know about this.”

“Come on, Faith.
Put your bag on your back and hop on.” She watched as he lifted a leg and slid onto the seat, handing her a helmet. “I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.” Taking a deep breath, she put on the helmet and made sure her bag was secured and zipped tight. Trying to calm her nerves, she climbed on the back of the bike. Her legs spread wide as she fit right behind him.

“You gotta
hold on to me.” Following his instructions, she grabbed the side of his shirt. “Not even close, kitten. Like this, it’s easier for us both.” He grabbed both of her arms, sliding them most of the way in front of him landing on his stomach. It made her press her body against his.

He laughed and then started the beast. The vibration started to do weird things to her body, and just like
that, they
started to move. She held on as he sped through the streets of downtown, avoiding tourists and onlookers. She rested her head against his
back as he drove
with confidence. The traffic was as bad as it normally was during lunchtime. They passed the museums, heading into the outer parts of the city.

She stopped watching where they were going and held on She wouldn’t have thought that she could feel safe in the situation that she was in, but she did. Razor made her feel like everything was going to be okay and no one would get to her.

It wasn’t long before he pulled into a small apartment complex. He stopped the bike and was waiting for her to let go. Releasing her
hands, she stood but started to shake.

“Easy, kitten. It takes some getting used. Come on
inside; I’ll order us a pizza,
and we can talk, okay?” She nodded and the world started to come to a standstill. Razor once again grabbed her hand then led her up the stairs to the third floor. He pulled out his keys unlocking the door and flicked on a light before shutting the door behind them, then locking it up tight.

“I’ll go get us something to drink.”

“That would be great.” She was thirsty and hungry. She’d forgotten to eat today and hell, last night as well. No wonder she was feeling off. John used to laugh because once she got into something the world
disappeared,
and she forgot about everything, including food. He had started to keep granola bars in his desk along with something to drink.

She didn’t know what she was going to do without him. Though they weren’t dating, he was her closest
friend,
and they relied on each other. She used to joke she would never date again after John did a background check and analysis of her date. Turned out he had been in and out of sperm banks. She didn’t want to know how he found out, but um
…okay, it was
creepy. She ended it, and it turned out to be a good thing. She saw him the next day with his secretary.

Taking a steady breath, she looked around the apartment. Not much to it; simple couch, and a chair. A TV on a stand with movies below. It seemed Razor had similar tastes with decorations. Nothing stood out. She did notice he had some pictures, but they all seemed to be of tattoos. Maybe he did
those? She
didn’t know. He came back and handed her a large, green, plastic cup. She took a sniff.

“Drink it.”

“What’s in it?”

“Drink, you’ll need it.” Without thinking, she took a
drink,
and it instantly burned her throat making her cough. “It’s got a bite, but it will take the edge off. Drink the rest.”

“I don’t want to be drunk.” She didn’t, she needed to keep her wits about her.

“You won’t; I didn’t give you enough, plus we have food coming. This will just calm your nerves. I don’t have any girly drinks. Now drink,” he commanded again, draining his glass in one swallow.

She watched in awe. His Adam’s apple moved accentuating his strong jaw and strong neck. His stubble made her want to reach out and see if it was scruffy or soft.

He must have caught her staring as he raised an eyebrow at her, before nodding to the drink in her hand. Finding the courage, she took another drink, swallowing quickly before taking another. She’d never done
shots, but she could imagine that this was a close facsimile
. When she finally reached the bottom, her insides felt warm and mushy.

She looked at him and saw that he too was feeling out of sorts. “Thank you for helping
me.”

“It’s all good, kitten. Still not sure what I’m protecting you against, but I’ll do my best to keep you safe.” He went to say more, but there was a knock on the door. He looked at her before saying, “Go hide in the bedroom, I’ll get you in a second.” She knew what he was doing. She gave a single nod before heading to his room.

She heard him unlock the door and talk to someone. She walked around and saw he had a picture on his dresser. Lifting it up, she looked at it. It was one of John and him. They both looked to be in their twenties and were smiling with fishing poles. John had told her that once in a while he needed to unwind and went fishing. She didn’t think it was with his brother.

Setting the picture down, she looked around the rest of the room. It matched the apartment; it was sparse and lacked any real emotional connection. His bed was unmade and sheets flipped off. Clothes were scattered along one side of the
wall, and a
towel hung on one of the posts. No pictures of anyone else; not even his parents. Just like John.

It was odd how the two looked very similar, though only half-brothers. They must look like their father. She
wondered
why they didn’t get along or talk to each other more. But then again, she didn’t talk to her brother at all. For a split second, she considered trying to find him and ask for his help if Razor didn’t help her. She jumped out of her skin when Razor spoke behind her.

“Just the pizza; come on and we can talk.” Faith walked back into the living room to see two large pizzas sitting on the little table.

“Not sure what you liked so I got a meat lovers
, and a plain pepperoni.”

“Both are fine, thank you.”

“Want a beer?”

“In the afternoon?”

“Well it’s five o’clock somewhere, and after the last few days I've had, I think I deserve one.”

“Can I have water instead?”

“Sure, I got tap.”

“That’s fine.” Razor went to the kitchen and grabbed a plastic beer cup he’d gotten from one of the many baseball games
he’d gone to. He filled
it at the sink, then he grabbed an ice cube from the freezer and dropped it in. He was trying to figure out this whole situation. He was a simple person. He took after his mother in that aspect; while Johnny had taken after their dad. Sure, he was
smart
and enjoyed reading when he found something worth the time, but nothing like Johnny.

Looking at the woman in his living room, Razor came to the realization that he had no fucking clue what to do. He had people that could hide her, but not from something like this. This shit sounded like classified information. Looking at Faith, he saw a scared woman who needed sleep and maybe something heavier in her drink. He was almost sure that it was all made up, but Johnny never played around with things like this.

“So spill.”

“Spill?”

“Yeah, why is someone after you?”

“Oh, I guess we’re cutting to the chase.”

“Yup, I don’t do chit-chat shit.”

“Wow, okay. There is a difference between you and John.” He simply nodded
once
but waited for her to answer. “Okay, fine. John and I worked together on various projects at Hamilton and Rogers. I’m part of the research and development team. The low man on the totem pole if you will. Normally it would be John who spoke to the executives.”

“Okay, a bunch of brainiacs
. Got it.”

“Anyway, John came to me because he trusted me. He was transferring some data from a recent project and noticed a discrepancy. He did some digging and asked me to look into the background and see if I could dig something up. Needless to say, I used unauthorized channels.”

“You hacked into something, right?”

“Yeah, I guess you could say that. But it wasn’t really hacking, more like opening a
backdoor
they didn’t know they had. Anyway, I was able to pull information that had been forged. I called John to tell him I had found
something,
and he wanted me to connect it with the information he had. He was looking into it as well, but at a different angle. Whatever he found, got him killed.”

“Okay, well what exactly did you find?”

“Information.”

“Okay, kitten, my patience is like a small child’s with all this brainy shit. So break it down for me Barney style, will
ya
?” He was annoyed. Johnny did shit like this to him.

He didn’t understand half the technical terms he would use.

“I found information that says my company was selling weapons and equipment to our men and woman overseas.”

“Okay, that’s a good thing, right?” He was waiting for the other shoe to drop; it always did when people paused and took a breath
while explaining shit.

“Yes, but the weapons were actually resold to foreign countries while defective or outdated equipment was delivered to
our
troops. So…”

“We have a traitor, and it goes up high, doesn’t it?”

“Exactly.”

“And Johnny knew about this.”

“He found the names of those political figures who’d signed off on it.”

“Shit.”

“Exactly.”

“So now they need to make sure no one finds out about them selling to terrorists.” He knew it was fucked up shit. What the hell was he going to do? He was a simple tattoo artist and not some brain; he had more street smarts than book smarts. “Alright. Well, we’ll figure something out. Right now we eat.”

“Just like that.”

“Yup.”

“You don’t like to explain things, do you?” she asked him.

“Nope.”

“I have a feeling you are going to annoy me to death.”

“I don’t doubt it, kitten.” Her annoyed groan only made him smile. At least someone could be as miserable as him about this situation.

Razor watched as Faith picked at her food, realizing how upset she was. It was a hell of a lot of information to take in and keep to yourself, let alone make sure no one knew she had it.

“Eat,” he commanded. Razor already knew he sounded like an ass, but it was him. He didn’t change for anyone.
Plus he knew she needed to eat; she looked as if she hadn’t eaten in days.

“I’m not really hungry.”

“Bullshit. When was the last time you ate?”

“Don’t call BS on me. I know my body and if I’m hungry or not. Not that it’s any of your business.”

“Come on, kitten; right now everything about you is my business. Now when was the last time you ate?”

“Arg
, I don’t know. John pulled me out of the rabbit hole about three days before he showed me the information.”

“Rabbit hole? What the fuck is that?”

“It’s kinda hard to explain, but it’s like we get stuck on something,
and our mind goes fully into a project. We tend to forget to eat, shower, normal things people should do. Almost like a trance. But we call it going down the rabbit hole because we lose all sense of reality.”

“Wow. That sounds…”

“Like what?” she snapped.

“Fucked up. What happens if you don’t come out of this hole?”

“Normally dehydration, hospitalization, and so on.”

“How long?”

“Huh?”

“How long were you gone?”

“Oh, a while.”

“That would mean what?”

“Arg, you’re a nosy ass, you know that.”

“Yes, now how long?”

“Four days.”

“Four days? Shit, no wonder you look like you need a Snickers.”