I jerked inside her, the hot rush of cum flooding over my cock, filling her channel. The power of my orgasm was intense, and my mind spun as it took over me, powering another stream of cum to shoot from my slit. Finally, I was done, and every muscle in my body relaxed with a dizzying wave of bliss.
I wrapped my arms around her waist and pressed my face to the smooth skin of her back, holding her while both our breathing grew slower.
“I love you, Angel,” she said, twisting for a kiss as my cock grew soft inside her.
I held her even tighter, never having felt more joined to another person than I did to her in that moment. “I love you, too, Catalina. And everything will be all right. I swear it. We’ll make this work, no matter what it takes.”
Chapter Twenty
Present Day
THE GRUMBLE OF AN ENGINE followed by doors slamming and male voices woke us both with a jolt.
We were instantly awake and staring at each other.
“Shit,” Angelo hissed. “Someone’s here.”
“Is it the master? Or Torres?”
The voices were jovial, and someone laughed.
He shook his head. “No, it’s probably a group of buddies out here to hunt.”
We’d slept cuddled up on the rug in front of the fire, but now the fire was no more than ash and a handful of embers. Angelo gathered our belongings, and I dragged my t-shirt over my head and pulled my jeans on. Angelo didn’t bother to put on the cut jeans from the hospital, but quickly pulled on a new pair, leaving the ruined jeans in a pile on the floor where I’d thrown them the night before. We moved fast, knowing we needed to get out of there before the new arrivals entered.
“Hey, what’s this?” The shout came from the porch.
They must have seen the broken pane of glass in the doorway.
We were on our feet. Angelo caught up my hand and dragged me toward the back of the cabin. “There!”
We were faced with a rear door with a key sticking out of the lock. Angelo turned it. Mercifully, the door opened, and we spilled out, running toward the shelter of the trees. Angelo still wasn’t able to move fast, and I knew if we were spotted, the men would catch up with us quickly enough. Plus, if they were hunters, as Angelo had assumed, then there was a good chance they’d also have guns. I braced myself for the crack of gunshots from behind us, ready to duck or throw myself to the ground, but none came.
Angelo seemed to be moving better on his leg, though he still had a noticeable limp. I caught a glimpse of the wound when he’d pulled his jeans on, and though the bruising had started to turn from black and purple to blue and green, the leg didn’t look any more swollen than it had. Maybe the small amount of treatment had been enough to stop any further infection, and the fact he was able to put weight on it must mean it wasn’t broken. It was a small comfort to take, but knowing Angelo was going to be okay lightened my soul.
We were gasping for breath before we slowed, clutching at each other.
Angelo glanced over at me, his cheeks flushed, his curls flopping over his forehead, his dark eyes wild, amusement dancing in them. “Holy shit. That was nuts.” And he burst out with laughter.
I joined him, my hand over my mouth as crazed giggles erupted from my throat. I felt wild and reckless, and like a completely different person than the one who’d escaped from the compound only a matter of days ago.
I managed to catch my breath. “Do you think they’re coming after us?”
“No. If they didn’t hear us leave, they won’t know how much time passed since we left. All they’ll find is the warm fire, but we could have gone hours ago. They’re not going to waste time trying to track us down.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“Me, too.” He caught up my hand. “Come on, let’s keep going.”
We slowed our pace, needing to conserve energy. My stomach was hollow, and it felt like a long time ago since we’d eaten the remains of the food we’d taken from the motel and had the candy and coffee at the hospital. We were going to need to eat soon, though we didn’t have any money. Not that there was anywhere around here to buy food from.
Suddenly, I remembered something and shoved my hand into my jeans pockets. My fingers found a slippery piece of paper, and I pulled it out and held it in the air.
“Look!”
I waved the twenty-dollar bill around in front of us. I’d completely forgotten Angelo had given it to me back at the diner.
He gave me a wide smile and pulled me into his arms and kissed me smack on the mouth. “Hey, we’re not completely broke after all.”
I pulled a face. “It’s not much though, is it?”
I thought back to the big car he used to drive, the expensive suits he wore, the way he was always so immaculately groomed—or at least had been recently. Now his hair was all over the place, and black ash from the fire dirtied his shirt. And we only had twenty dollars to our name, but then it was twenty dollars more than we thought we’d have ten minutes ago.
“No, it isn’t, but it’s something. It means we can get ourselves some breakfast when we next reach a town.”
“And then what?” I felt like I was asking that question a lot lately.
“I’m not sure. We just have to keep moving. Take it day by day. I wish I had someone I could call and ask for help, but I just don’t trust anyone enough. It would be too easy for my father to get information from another person. Even if they didn’t want to give up that information, he would have ways of getting it from them.”
I didn’t want to know what those ways entailed. I thought I could probably work it out for myself without getting the details.
“It’s okay. I’d rather it’s just the two of us,” I said. The idea of meeting other people made me nervous. I’d grown up with such a limited number of people in my life, any time new people came into it, my immediate response was to hide and watch and wait.
“You might not be saying that when we’re starving and homeless.”
He must have seen my face drop, as he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and gave me a hug.
“Hey, it won’t come to that. I’ll figure something out before then.”
“I’m sorry I’m so useless. I wish there was more I could do to help.”
He gave me a smile. “You’re far from useless, and we’ll figure that out, too, though the fact you don’t have any kind of ID bothers me. With ID, we have options, but no one is going to employ us or rent a place to us without any kind of identification. Not that my options are much better. I mean, I don’t have my wallet anymore either, and I’m not sure I can risk getting a new driver’s license sent to me.” He gave a rueful smile. “I guess I’m as lacking in identity as you are.”
It made me feel a little better, knowing we were both in the same situation. The weight of responsibility at knowing he’d given up his easy life in return for this one of sleeping rough and having hungry bellies sat heavily on my shoulders. He could have just walked away from me and left me for Torres, but instead he gave it all up for me. I wasn’t sure I was worth the hassle, but Angelo seemed to think I was, and I’d always trusted his opinion before, so why should that change now? It was the thing that kept me going when I wanted to turn back, a part of me missing Yolanda and the other women. What were they thinking of me now? Did they feel I’d abandoned them? Did they wonder if I’d decided I was too good for a life like theirs? I hoped they didn’t hate me for it.
“What are you thinking about?” Angelo asked me.
“Home. I mean the compound,” I corrected myself. It wasn’t home to me anymore. Home was at Angelo’s side, and nowhere else. “But mainly Yolanda and the others. I hope they don’t hate me for leaving.”
“They won’t. They’re probably proud of you.”
I glanced up at him in surprise. “Proud? Why would they be proud?”
“You’ve gotten out of there, Kitty.”
“Only because I had your help, and because of what we did together. I’d never have left if
it wasn’t for you.”
“Do you ever regret it?”
“No, not for a second,” I answered immediately. “I worry about you, and your safety, and what will happen to us both if we’re caught, but I’d rather have lived these last few days with you than spend a lifetime with Torres.”
He tugged me closer and kissed me. “I love you, Catalina. More than anything else in the world.”
Emotion bloomed inside me. “I love you, too.”
We kept going. As we covered more distance, Angelo’s leg forced us to slow, and we took plenty of breaks, him often just leaning against a tree rather than going through the effort of sitting down and awkwardly getting back up again. There was no sign that anyone was coming after us, and even though it felt like we were being hunted from all sides, we’d relaxed a fraction. Eventually, we came across another road, but instead of stepping out onto the side of it and hitchhiking, we continued out of sight, following the route.
Angelo stopped and pointed through the trees. “Look. A signpost. I think it’s for another town.”
“Are we going to risk it? So far, going into town hasn’t worked out so well for us.”
“I don’t think we’ve got much choice. We haven’t eaten all day.”
“What about the police from the hospital? Do you think they’d be able to find us here?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I hope not. But we won’t stay for long. We just need to eat, and get our hands on more money, or transport, or ideally both.”
I bit my lower lip. “You mean steal?”
“I don’t think we’ve got much choice, Catalina. I know it’s not ideal, but if we’re going to be able to survive, we’re going to have to do some stuff we wouldn’t normally be comfortable with.”
He was right, and I wasn’t going to hold him back. “I’ll do whatever it takes,” I said, meaning it.
We reached the outskirts of town, large properties surrounded in fencing. Dogs barked, making me jump. Dogs weren’t something I’d ever gotten to experience in real life—they weren’t exactly the sort of thing that people brought to the compound—and while I was aware that they were supposed to be man’s best friend, these ones, with their curled back lips, sharp teeth, and drool, only seemed scary. Not wanting the animals to draw attention to us, we hurried on.
We reached a crossroads, and on the opposite side was a gas station. My stomach grumbled at the promise of food.
A car waited in the lot, a young man sitting behind the wheel. His window was rolled down, and music blasted from the stereo inside.
My soul soared, the thumping of the beat resonating through my veins, energizing me.
We had never been allowed to listen to music. Just like television, it was considered that popular music with lyrics would put thoughts into our heads. Occasionally, the master had allowed classical music at one of his dinners, or one of the men who came to the compound would insist on music he liked to be played while he got down to business with one of the women, but none of us owned our own stereos or radios.
“What is this?” I asked Angelo, skipping across the road. I held my hands up in the air and laughed, turning in a spin.
Angelo laughed at me. “It’s just music, Catalina.”
“It’s great music!” I exclaimed, doing another spin and adding in a hip wiggle. My shoulders joined the motion of my hips, and before I knew it, I was winding and shimmying around the garage parking lot. I grabbed Angelo’s hand and had him twirl me around, my hand above my head. The guy in the car had seen me and was watching in bemused amusement. Angelo shot him a glare of warning, but I ignored it.
I was having fun, and yeah, maybe I was being silly, but we didn’t know how much time we had left. I finally felt alive and free, and I wanted Angel to absorb some of how that felt, too.
He humored me, half hiding his face with his other hand in mock embarrassment, while casting appreciative glances as I gave my butt an extra wiggle in his direction.
The song changed, and we fell against each other, laughing. Angelo hooked his arm around my shoulder and kissed the top of my head. “You’re nuts. Now, how about we find something to eat?”
Happiness spread as warmth through my body. “Sounds good to me.”
We had nothing—only twenty dollars to our name, which would quickly be gone—but in that moment we didn’t need anything else.
For the first time, I felt like everything was going to work out. We were going to be all right.
We left the parking lot and went into the store. Angelo selected a couple of breakfast sandwiches and bottles of water. “We should probably get some stuff for the road, too,” he suggested. “We don’t know when we’ll next be able to buy something.”
I nodded in agreement. We couldn’t eat dollars.
He chose some cereal bars and breakfast biscuits, carefully adding the cost of everything together so he knew we had enough money. He still had the gun we’d used to steal the car, and I was pleased we were doing things this way rather than holding up the store, which could easily have been another way of getting what we needed.
The man behind the till lifted his head as Angelo dumped all the food on the counter. “Any gas for you folks?” he asked.
Angelo shook his head. “Nah, just the food.”
The clerk got on with scanning our purchases. Something caught his eye. He frowned at a small television screen behind the counter then looked back up at Angelo, and then across to me, and then back to the screen again. His hand paused, and then he ducked his head and cleared his throat, and got back to work.
Nerves fluttered inside me. What was going on? The man had clearly seen something that bothered him.
“Umm....” The man rose from his chair. “Would you folks excuse me for a moment? I’m just needed out back.”
I exchanged another look with Angelo, but he nodded, even though there had been no sign that the man had been called to, or even that there was another person here. “Sure. No problem.”
The man got up and turned to hurry through a door which I assumed led into some kind of stock or staff room. The moment the door swung shut behind the man, Angelo hoisted himself up onto the counter and leaned down to twist the small TV to face him.
“Shit.”
“What is it?” I asked.
He leaned back so I could see.
Young couple wanted in relation to armed carjack. Accompanying the headline was a photograph that must have been taken from the security cameras back at the hospital.
My stomach dropped.
Angelo jumped back over the counter, opened his bag, and quickly scooped everything we’d been trying to buy into the top. Then he threw the twenty down on the counter. “We need to get out of here.”
I wasn’t going to argue. “Do you think he’s calling the cops?”
“Yeah, I think that’s exactly what he’s doing.”
“Oh my God.”
Any sense of happiness and contentment fled me as I realized how close we were to getting arrested. Angel grabbed my hand, and we ran from the store. The man who’d been playing the music from the car had gone now, as had the car, and the streets were quiet.
“This way.” Angelo tugged me along, moving in his lurching run, as quickly as he could.
“If the police know where we are, does that mean the master and Torres will, too?”
“If the cops found my wallet, which they probably would have, then they’d quickly realize it belonged to me and put my name into the system. I’d almost guarantee my father will have someone watching out for it to pop up.”
“So the master and Torres would know we were in the area?”
“Yeah, we haven’t put too many miles between us and the hospital. There’s a good chance they won’t be far away either.”
Tears filled my eyes, and I blinked them away as we hurried through the streets.
I flinched at every car that drove past, certain it would either belong to a police officer, or Silas Cassidy, or Elliot Torr
es.
“It’s okay, my father and Torres wouldn’t be able to get here this quickly, even if they find out we’re here.”
“But if the police arrest us, we’re not going to be able to get away. It’ll buy them enough time to catch up with us.” Tears spilled down my cheeks. “I’m sorry about making us go to the hospital, Angel.”
“It’s in the past. It’s done. And anyway, if I hadn’t dropped the bag and lost my wallet, they wouldn’t have my real name. This isn’t all on you. I messed up, too.”
That didn’t make me feel any better.
“I think we need to find somewhere to lay low.”
“But where? We don’t have any money to stay anywhere.”
“I’m not sure. We’ll figure something out.”
I didn’t like being in town. I felt safer in the forest, despite the bear traps and hunters. We were too exposed out here, and I felt like every person who drove or walked past us knew exactly who we were and what we’d done.
Chapter Twenty-one
Present Day
THIS WASN’T HOW I WANTED things to go. I felt like I was losing control of the situation, and I didn’t like it. We could head back out of town, but going back into the forest wasn’t going to get us anywhere. While we had the small amount of food I’d just bought at the gas station, we couldn’t spend the night out there. We were still without any kind of equipment, and the temperature was dropping with every night that went by.
No, the most important thing right now was putting distance between us and this town.
I drew to a sudden halt. “We need to steal another car. It’s the only way we’re going to put enough distance between us and this place. We’re never going to get far on foot.”
Catalina looked up at me, her blue eyes filled with worry. I knew she didn’t want to steal, but she wasn’t going to say anything. The last time she’d gone against my wishes, things hadn’t turned out too well for us.
For Him: The Complete Series: A Dark Romance Page 30
