“Gentry has a hit list and you’re on the top.”

“Who else is on it?”

“I don’t know, but I suspect Mason’s next. Gentry’s not ready to kill you yet. He’s waiting for orders to set things in motion. Humphrey’s going to carry them out.”

Irritation wrinkled his brow. “What the hell’s he waiting for?”

“Orders. Someone’s hired him to take out the people on the list.”

“And you have no idea who’s calling the shots?”

I shook my head. “Humphrey asked who it was, and Gentry refused to tell him. He only said he was being paid well.”

He started to pace.

“Skeeter, you have to be careful. Part of the reason Humphrey’s working with you is to study your security situation. He told Gentry you only had Jed around and it would be an easy job.”

“Good.”

I sat upright. “Good? What part of that is good?”

He shot me a grin. “I wanted him to think I’d be easy to catch off guard.”

“So you suspected him? Why didn’t you or Jed tell me that?”

“I didn’t want you to be influenced. I wanted your totally unbiased opinion.”

“He’s guilty as hell, but I knew that before I even brought him back here.”

He studied me for a moment. “You’ve got instinct, and while I applaud you for it, you need to follow my orders.” Grinning now, he shook his head. “I might have even enjoyed watching you tell Humphrey off if I hadn’t been so pissed.”

“Well, I’m sorry,” I said, sounding miffed even to my own ears. Then I shook my head. “Wait. No, I’m not. You want me to be part of these meetings, but those men are curious about why I’m there. If I continue to sit back and wait for permission to speak, they’ll have every reason to believe I’m sleepin’ with you.”

He held up his hand in surrender. “Okay, okay. Calm down. We’ll work on that, but first we need to sort out Gentry. What else did you see?”

“In my vision, Humphrey met Mick in a bar. I suspect he’s going to leave here and run right to him. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a vision of something that’s gonna happen later tonight.”

“You’re probably right. Did you recognize the place?”

“No, but I don’t frequent bars much.”

“You worked at a strip club last month.”

I lifted my chin. “I was undercover.”

He shrugged. “Give up the good girl act. You’ve got too much dirt under your nails to call yourself clean.”

His words floored me, mostly because he was right. Shame washed over me, as form-fitting as my new dress.

He must have sensed the change in my attitude because he moved closer to me and lowered his voice. “Rose.”

I sucked in a breath and looked down at my feet.

“Rose.” He was more insistent, so I lifted my gaze to his. “I’m a self-centered son-of-a-bitch, but that’s what got me here today. You have to know that you’re a natural at this business.”

That was what scared me. I was falling into this Lady in Black role like a duck took to water. Maybe it was in my DNA. Evidence was piling up to suggest that my birth parents might have been involved in some sort of criminal activity before I was born. What if the apple didn’t fall far from the tree? But I couldn’t forget that I was here because I’d made a deal with the devil. And while the devil might don his manners and fool me with his charming ways, he was the devil nonetheless.

His eyes softened. “But while you’re a natural, you’re not part of this world. For you, this game is about survival, and you happen to be damned good at it. That’s no reason for you to feel ashamed, so don’t let my asshole behavior convince you otherwise. Got it?”

I nodded, but mostly because I knew it was what he expected of me.

“Tell me what you saw and maybe we can figure out where they are.” His tone was still gentle, which caught me off guard. “If he left to go meet Gentry, I can send some men to intercept them.”

I wasn’t sure that was necessarily a good thing—what if innocent people got caught in the mess?—but it was better than sitting around waiting for Gentry to strike. Especially if Mason was one of the names on his list.

Skeeter pushed on. “How big was the room? What did the tables look like? Could you see the bartender?”

“Um…” I closed my eyes to bring back the memory. “It was dark and they were sitting at the bar. I think the seats were wooden, but I didn’t look down at mine. There were bottles of liquor on the shelves behind the counter, but above those were decorations—a Mexican hat, some maracas—”

“That’s Pedro’s,” Jed muttered.

My eyes flew open as Skeeter glanced over his shoulder. “I think you’re right. Send Merv and Tig on over, but tell them to be discreet. I want information more than I want blood. We need to know how deep this thing runs.”

Jed nodded and pulled out his cell phone.

Skeeter turned back to face me. “Did they say anything else?”

“Gentry wanted to know about me—the Lady in Black. He’s wondering about my end game.”

“And?”

“Humphrey believes I’m here as an investor.”

“Did he say anything else about you?” He seemed on edge. “Think carefully.”