by Leah Brooke
In the meantime, she had to concentrate on staying hidden until all involved learned that the contract on her life had been cancelled.
She pulled her baseball cap lower until it touched the rim of her oversized sunglasses, unnerved at the sense of loneliness that she’d never really noticed before.
* * * *
Sitting in the passenger seat next to Lucas, Caleb watched Stormy’s progress on his computer. “She’s just a few miles ahead. Damn this traffic!”
Lucas glanced at him, his features set in stone. “She’s staying on side roads, but of course she would drive through a town having a fucking carnival.”
Logan gripped the back of Caleb’s seat. “Once we find her, I’m gonna take her away somewhere until all this is settled.”
“No.” Caleb turned in his seat to face Logan. “We’ll find her and finish what we started.”
Sitting back in his seat, Logan blew out a breath. “She’s slick. I should have remembered that Stormy always has a way out.” Shaking his head, he stared out the side window. “It’s something I taught her. Always have an exit. She’s learned her lesson well.”
Devlin frowned, glancing at Caleb. “We won’t lose her again. I promise you. It might help us to know what the hell happened to her.”
Shaking his head, Logan continued to stare out the side window. “I won’t tell you that.” Leaning forward again, he looked down at the screen. “I need to know that she’s gonna be safe. I can’t believe you let her get away.”
Lucas swerved around a slower car and hit the gas. “We were trying to keep anyone from getting to her. I didn’t read her well enough and didn’t realize she’d planned to get away from us. I should have.”
He turned to glance at Logan. “You should have told us that she’d have an exit plan. I underestimated her. It won’t happen again.”
Caleb turned back, watching the screen, impatient to catch up with her. He couldn’t believe she’d actually run away from them and couldn’t help but wonder if it had anything to do with their kiss.
“We’re closing in. Once we get past this traffic, we should catch her easily.”
Logan sat up, gripping the back of Caleb’s seat again. “You know, when you suggested that everyone have a tracking device in their vehicles, I thought you were nuts. I can’t contact her by phone for you to trace the call. She probably wouldn’t stay on the line long enough anyway. I don’t even want to think about what would have happened if we didn’t have a way to track her.”
Caleb clenched his jaw. “I would have bet money she would have left town the way she came. Why would she have come this way? Do you have any idea where she’s going?”
Logan sighed and sat back again. “I don’t have a fucking clue.” He stared out the side window again. “There was a time when she told me everything. That was before she found out that I’m a Dominant. There’s been a distance since then that I can’t close.”
Sensing something in Logan’s tone, Caleb shared a look with Lucas. “Does the fact that you’re a Dominant have something to do with whatever happened in the past?”
Logan whipped his head around, paling. “Son of a bitch!” Staring down at his phone as if willing Stormy to call, he shook his head. “Jesus. I never connected…she couldn’t think that about me.”
“Think what about you? Never connected what?” Caleb stilled, his stomach clenching at what seemed to be happening on the screen. “Move, Lucas!”
Lucas was already swerving around another slower car. “I’m going as fast as I can. What’s going on?” He leaned slightly toward Caleb to see the laptop screen.
Caleb divided his attention between the screen and the road, his stomach knotting in horror. Aware of Logan’s sharp attention, he silently turned the screen toward Lucas.
Lucas glanced at it, his jaw clenching, and tightening his hands on the wheel, he cleared the traffic and pressed the gas pedal to the floor.
Both Devlin and Logan sat forward to see the screen, Devlin’s eyes narrowing briefly. “It’s all right, Logan. We’re almost there.”
Logan looked more than a little panicked. “What’s going on? She stopped. Why are you all looking like that?”
Holding the laptop steady with one hand, Caleb pulled his gun from his waistband, his heart in his throat. “Logan, stay in the car, and if you hear gunfire, keep your head down.”
Logan whipped his head around when Devlin pulled out his own weapon. “What the hell’s going on?”
Devlin shared a look with Caleb as he pulled out his phone and dialed, meeting Logan’s frantic gaze as he spoke to Ace. “Ace, it’s Devlin. We’ve got a problem.”
Logan’s grip tightened on the back of Caleb’s seat, his eyes wild when Lucas made a sharp turn down what appeared to be a deserted back road. “What is it, damn it?”
Half listening to Devlin’s conversation with Ace, Caleb slapped the laptop closed and pointed. “There she is.”
As they approached Logan’s truck, Caleb’s guts twisted.
The damage on the driver’s side of Logan’s truck told Caleb that Stormy had been hit several times before the black sports car currently imbedded in the driver’s door managed to push her into the ditch.
Lucas, gun drawn, approached the open driver’s door of the sports car while Caleb moved to the open door on the passenger side of Logan’s truck, praying he didn’t find Stormy slumped in the seat.
The tension in the air could be cut with a knife, and Caleb could feel Lucas’s frustration and fear in each glance.
Barely breathing, Caleb eased closer, his stomach clenching at the sight of the bullet hole in the windshield.
Finding the truck empty, he blew out a breath at the absence of blood and kept his gun raised as the three of them frantically scanned the area, taking in the field behind him and the tree line across the road.
“Where the hell is she?”
The late afternoon sun cast shadows, making seeing through the trees more difficult.
Devlin had already started across the road, his gun raised as he divided his attention between the trees and the ground. “She has to be in here.” As he reached the opposite side of the road, he paused briefly, bending to examine the dirt. “Footprints. One set of small. Three large.”
Lucas moved to Devlin’s left while Caleb took the right. “There’s blood in the car.”
“Good. She got somebody.” Caleb paused at the tree line, pressing himself against a tree trunk and peering around it. “None in the truck.” Seeing no sign of movement, he moved forward to the next tree, scanning the area in a desperate hope to see her.
“Thank God.” Devlin slid from the cover of the tree he’d been pressed against and moved forward, the sound of a gunshot piercing the silence.
Rushing to the next tree, Devlin peered around it to their right, where the shot had come from, cursing when Lucas took off to their left.
Pressed against the tree trunk, Caleb kept scanning the area, stilling when another shot was fired.
Seeing the flash, he motioned to Devlin and took off toward it.
With rage and fear pumping through his blood, Caleb raced through the trees, praying like never before that he would get there in time.
* * * *
Pressing her back against the thick tree trunk, Stormy peered around it, jerking back when a bullet hit slightly over her head, showering her with tree bark.
Seriously outgunned, Stormy glanced left and right, weighing her chances of making it to the next tree.
She’d just slipped her last clip into her weapon, so she had to do something to put some distance between her and the three men shooting at her.
She’d hit the man who’d been in the passenger seat when she’d jumped out of her brother’s truck, shooting at him on her race across the road.
It hadn’t seemed to slow him down much.
She’d been lucky to get away from them, but she didn’t know how much longer her luck would last.
They kept getting clo
ser.
The two on her left kept moving toward her, tree by tree, while the one on her right kept shooting at her each time she tried to move.
Smart.
Effective.
She had to admire their strategy, even if it was going to get her killed.
She pushed thoughts of Logan and her former bodyguards aside, knowing that any distraction could be deadly.
Wishing they were here with her now, Stormy took a deep breath, picked out the closest tree that would provide the most cover, and raced for it.
She’d only managed to take about three steps before something hard and solid slammed into her, knocking her to the ground.
The large body covering her kept her pinned, the strong hand splayed over her head keeping her from lifting it.
A split second later, a bullet whizzed over her head, followed by the dull thud of the bullet hitting the tree behind them.
“Keep your head down before you get it shot off.”
She couldn’t help but shiver at the ice and fury in Lucas’s deep whisper, even as his strong presence and calm control filled her with a sense of security and confidence.
She no longer had any doubt that she would get out of this alive.
Dizzy with relief, she turned her head as far as his hold allowed, studying his hard jawline as he fired three times in rapid succession. “Their aim’s terrible.”
He fired again—the groan of pain that followed telling her that he’d hit his target.
Hearing shots being fired from her left, she stiffened and struggled to whip her head around. “Lucas!”
“It’s Devlin. Be still, damn it!”
Another shot came from her left, followed by the thud of a body falling.
“Damn it! Let me shoot.”
“Shut up. You’ve caused enough damned trouble.”
She heard a growl, followed by a startled cry of outrage. “Who’s that?” Wiggling, she struggled to get some room, but the hard muscle covering her didn’t give at all. “Damn it, Lucas! Are Devlin and Caleb all right?”
Lucas sighed. “Fine. Caleb, at least, gets to take his anger out on someone.”
Suddenly, his weight lifted from her, allowing her to take a deep breath for the first time in minutes. Getting to his feet, he slid an arm around her waist and with no apparent effort, lifted her to her feet.
He pushed her behind him before releasing her, waiting several seconds before tucking his weapon into his waistband and turning to her, his eyes narrowed and ice cold.
“Are you all right? Were you hit?”
Shaking her head, Stormy stepped around him to see Devlin standing over two of the fallen men while Caleb systematically beat the hell out of the third. “No.” She tried to push past him, but he closed his hands on her waist, preventing her from moving away. “Hey! I need to go help them.”
A muscle worked in his jaw, his eyes narrowing even more. “They don’t need any help. This ain’t our first rodeo, darlin’.” He had to raise his voice to be heard over the sirens and screeching tires as the police cars closed in.
Tension emanated from him, and the low fire burning in his eyes stunned her.
Stormy found herself fascinated by the show of emotion from him. “I thought you were hard and cold.”
“I am.” Wrapping a hand around her uninjured arm, he pulled her with him toward the road.
Struggling to keep up, but determined not to show it, she grinned up at him. “Maybe you should go over there and beat the hell out of one of the other guys.”
To her shock, he stopped abruptly, and turned to her, his smile sending a chill down her spine. “That holds no appeal for me at all. What does appeal to me, however, is stripping you out of those jeans and paddling your ass until you apologize for the hell you’ve put us through!”
Chapter Eleven
From the newly installed living room window, Devlin watched the taillights of the door and window installer disappear from view.
It had been hours since they’d found Stormy, and he still hadn’t stopped shaking.
He’d never had a problem with being professional.
He’d never found it difficult to keep an emotional distance.
Earlier, he’d come face to face with the reality that professionalism and emotional distance didn’t stand a chance with Stormy.
He’d been more than angry and alarmed to find her gone.
He’d been terrified, and even more surprising, hurt that she would feel the need to escape them.
He wondered if his friends had felt the same way when they’d met the woman they’d make their own.
The thought of it staggered him.
Taking a sip of coffee to ease his dry throat, he turned and studied Stormy, unnerved by her stillness. “Are you sure you’re all right?”
She’d been sitting in the chair next to the fireplace since they’d arrived, watching the men install the new window and door with flat eyes, and hadn’t spoken more than a few words since her brother left.
Pursing her lips, she nodded and glanced up at him, turning away just as quickly. “I told you that I’m fine.”
Devlin continued to study her, pleased that he knew her a little better—at least enough to tell that she was up to something.
“I know what you told me, but I also know that you’re nervous about discussing the elephant in the room.”
Stormy smiled faintly, a fake smile that made his palm itch with the need to turn her over his lap. “I don’t know anything about an elephant.”
“No?” He slowly crossed to her, some demon inside him celebrating when she stiffened, her eyes flickering to his.
Pleased to have her full attention, he stepped closer, not stopping until his boots almost touched her sneakers. “Do you really think we’ve forgotten your escape?”
Her eyes widened briefly before she looked away again. “Escape?” She turned back to him, a smile of derision curving one side of her full lips. “Am I a prisoner?”
Frustrated that her eyes had become flat again, Devlin smiled coldly. “You are now.”
Setting his mug on the mantel, he closed his hand on the arms of her chair on either side of her and bent over her, deliberately getting in her face. “You try to get away again, and the outcome is gonna be a whole lot different.”
Her breath caught, her eyes widening with alarm before narrowing again with something far more intriguing.
Playful.
Seductive.
Lifting her chin, she smiled again, a slow playful smile that created a strange fluttering in his stomach. “You just have your panties in a bunch because I got away.”
Devlin stiffened when the word panties passed her lips, the image of ripping hers off filling his head and momentarily distracting him.
The amusement in her eyes brought him back to the present, his cock twitching impatiently.
“Try it again and see who ends up with their panties in a bunch.” Pleased when her breath caught again, Devlin straightened and retrieved his coffee. “We were focused on keeping people out, not keeping you in. That’s not a mistake we’ll make again. This time, darlin’, you’re gonna be watched like a hawk.”
An hour later, Stormy realized that Devlin hadn’t been exaggerating.
It irritated her, though, that not only did Devlin watch her, he spent an enormous amount of time texting.
When she went to the kitchen to refill her mug, Lucas and Caleb stopped speaking in low tones to stare at her.
Shaking her head, she smiled and plopped down at the table and turned to Caleb. “So are you and Devlin having a nice conversation?”
Caleb read the last message and blew out a breath before setting his phone aside. “Actually, the two of us have been arguing with Ace. He’s on his way over.”
Lucas rose, his gaze unreadable as he started toward the coffee pot. “Get everything ready.”
The knock at the back door had him changing directions. “He must have already been on his way. This should be f
un.”
Chuckling, Caleb rose. “My money’s on you.”
Stormy reached out and touched Caleb’s arm, shocked at the awareness. Hurriedly letting go when he stiffened, she reached for her coffee. “What’s going on? What are you getting ready?”
Caleb caught her hand with a small smile. “You don’t have to pull your hand away. I like your touch.”
Stormy’s face burned, her lips tingling at the memory of their kiss. “Do you? You stiffened.”
He bent low, touching his lip to the outer shell of her ear. “I’ve got news for you, darlin’. I stiffen every time you come within ten feet of me.”
Ignoring the knock at the door, Lucas came back to the table. “We’re supposed to be protecting her, Caleb.” He sent her an accusing look. “She already ran away once because she doesn’t think we can.”
Caleb grinned, lifting her hand to his lips. “I’m multitasking. I can appreciate a beautiful woman and keep her safe at the same time. Besides, I think she left because she liked my kiss too much and it scared her.”
Shaking his head, Lucas moved to the door. “Perfect. That shouldn’t cause any problems.”
With her chin propped on her hand, Stormy watched the scene that unfolded in front of her, fascinated to learn more about the dynamics of the relationship between such hardheaded men.
The sheriff burst in, planting his feet with a frown. “It’s better if you stay here.”
Standing almost toe-to-toe with the sheriff, Lucas settled his hands on his hips, his expression set. “No. We’re going to the cabin.”
“No. It’s safer for you to stay here. I won’t allow it.”
Lucas’s lips twitched. “I can’t let this endanger anyone else, and you have absolutely no say in it.”
“The hell I don’t! I’ll lock all four of you up and protect you myself!”
Lucas’s eyes narrowed, meeting Ace’s glare head-on. “Try it.”
Both men stood toe-to-toe for several tense seconds before Ace shook his head, running a hand through his hair as he took a step back.
“You’re too hardheaded for your own good.”
Lucas glanced at Stormy, all traces of earlier emotion gone. “She’s our responsibility. She sure as hell won’t get a chance to escape again.”
