She still hadn’t told him why she’d run out on him. Maybe it was cowardly of him, but he hadn’t been able to make himself ask the question. Promising himself that would be next on the agenda, he turned back toward the barn.
Before he’d gotten more than a few steps, his phone rang again. What the hell did Rafferty want this time? But then he saw the number.
“Lucius, what’s up?”
The big man didn’t bother with the niceties. “Get your ass out of there right now. Leave anything you can’t carry at a dead run.”
Conlan started jogging as he talked. “What’s going on?”
“I stopped in for a cold one after my run only to find out from a friend that some wannabe-soldier types had been asking around about me, claiming they wanted to hire me for a run if anyone knew where I was. Then your name came up, too. They were gone by the time I hit the bar, but I figure they’ll be back. The way they were flashing money around, someone’s bound to sell me out.”
Conlan cursed. “Damn it, Lucius, I never meant to suck you this deep into my troubles.”
“No sweat. I’ll go to ground, and they won’t find me anytime soon. But, buddy, if they’ve figured out we’ve been in contact, they’ll be checking all my favorite hidey-holes, including the one you’re in.”
Lucius wouldn’t like what Conlan was about to say, but he’d say it anyway. “Do yourself a favor and give me up if they corner you, big man. Don’t get yourself killed playing the hero.”
“Like hell! I don’t rat on friends.”
“Damn it, Lucius, just do it. Make them work for it, though, because they’ll know if you roll over too easy. Take their money and run. All I ask is that you keep enough to buy the first round the next time we’re together.”
He was back inside the barn, the need to run riding him hard. “I mean it, Lucius. I don’t have that many friends that I can stand to lose you. Watch your back, and don’t worry about the two of us. We’ll be fine.”
Conlan figured he should probably be crossing his fingers on that last one. There was no guarantee they’d be okay at all, but his friend had done enough.
At least Lucius quit arguing. “I hope so. I’m going to lose this phone now, so you won’t be able to reach me at this number anymore. I’ll text you the new one as soon as I can. You know, in case you need another ride.”
While it wasn’t unusual for Lucius to change numbers often, Conlan took it to mean his friend was genuinely worried about the caliber of the men who were looking for him. He hoped that wherever the big man was headed was truly safe. Then an idea hit Conlan.
“Lucius, fly your ass out to Rafferty’s place. Tell him I sent you. You’ll be safer there than you will on the run, especially when you don’t know who’s chasing you.”
“I’ll think about it.” Lucius hesitated briefly and then added, “Damn it, Conlan, I hope that woman is worth all of this fuss.”
Conlan had been wondering about that himself. Maybe he’d finally lost his mind, but it wasn’t in him to abandon Kat. Not now. Maybe not ever.
“I’ll let you know how it works out. Now get it in gear. I should warn you that the last time I talked to Rafferty, Ambrose O’Brien was with him. I hear he’s been wanting to hook up with you for years.”
Just as Conlan expected, his friend found that hilarious. “I’ll look forward to meeting him, then.” The call ended with the sound of Lucius’s booming laugh.
Inside the apartment, Conlan’s smile disappeared. The whole situation was spinning out of control.
“Pack up. We’re leaving.”
Good to her promise to take orders, Kat immediately gathered up the papers on the table while he shoved the few things they’d unpacked back into their bags. She followed him out to the transport and waited until they were a short distance down the heavily rutted road before she stated the obvious.
“They’ve found our trail.”
He steered around a massive chuckhole before risking a glance in her direction. “A friend warned Lucius that some ex-military types had been nosing around.”
Kat’s eyes flashed wide. “Is he going to be all right?”
Conlan liked that her first thought was for his friend. “I told him to fly back to Rafferty’s and hole up there.” Then he grinned. “The thing is, Ambrose has been after Lucius for years. I’d love to be there when the two of them finally meet face-to-face.”
At least he’d coaxed a small smile from Kat. It faded quickly when she leaned forward to stare out of the windshield. “Conlan, is that black spot in the distance what I think it is?”
He followed her line of sight. “If you’re thinking that’s a helicopter coming this way, you’re right.”
Out here on the road, they might as well have a target painted on the roof of the transport. Cover was scant in the area, but there was a clump of trees a short distance off the road just ahead that would offer them some protection. He cut across country, aiming straight for them. With luck, they’d reach shelter before the men in the helo got close enough to see them.
It was a bone-jarring ride, bad enough to worry him that they’d break an axle before they achieved their goal. Kat had to be scared, but she didn’t complain as she braced herself against the dashboard. Only her white-knuckled grip gave her away.
Finally, they bounced to a stop under the spreading limbs of an ancient oak. He debated whether to leave the engine running but decided against it. If the bastards had heat-signature scanners on board, the hot engine would reveal their location.
“Let’s get away from the transport.”
Because she was human, Kat wouldn’t be able to match his chancellor speed. He swept her up in his arms and ran full-out for the nearest cover. He dived over the edge of a small gully and under some shrubs, angling his body to absorb the shock of landing on the rough ground. He made sure Kat was tucked back out of sight before easing back up toward the top to watch how things played out. He wished like hell he was armed with more than a sidearm and one rifle.
The helo did a slow approach, doing a full circle around the airfield before approaching the barn. The pilot brought the aircraft to a full stop, hovering as a couple of men repelled down a rope. They brought their weapons up with an easy familiarity as they slipped inside the barn. They didn’t stay long.
When they ran back out, they were already on the radio, obviously reporting back to their bosses. Conlan felt Kat crawl into position next to him.
“What will they think?” she whispered.
“Once they spot the dishes we left drying by the sink, they’ll know we’ve been holed up there.”
She shook her head. “While you were out walking, I cleaned up everything and put it all away. I even rinsed out the cans and buried them in that pile of hay in the corner of the barn. Unless I missed something, they won’t be able to tell we’ve been anywhere near the place.”
Damn, he loved a smart woman!
He grinned at her. “That was good thinking on your part.”
Her eyes were haunted. “I’ve had years of practice at hiding my tracks.”
There wasn’t anything he could say to that. “Well, thanks to you, with luck, they’ll check this spot off their list of possibilities and move on to the next one.”
The helo dropped low enough to retrieve the two men, but instead of leaving immediately, it took one more swooping turn around the airfield and headed right back for the barn.
“I’ll be damned,” Conlan muttered as he realized what was about to happen.
One of the mercs had shouldered a heavy weapon and took aim. From where Conlan and Kat were, it was like watching a movie where the sound was out of synch with the picture. The weapon spit fire and then the barn exploded in a ball of flames and smoke. As soon as it did, the helo banked to the left and headed straight to where Conlan and Kat had taken shelter.
He sensed her growing panic and reached out to wrap his arm across her shoulders and pulled her in closer. “Freeze. We don’t want to draw thei
r attention to us. Right now they’re flying too fast to be hunting for us. They’ll keep going.”
Please, God, let that be true.
He kept them both right where they were, hunkered down in an oversize ditch for a full fifteen minutes, telling himself that it was to make sure the bastards weren’t lurking close by and hoping to lure them out. It definitely wasn’t because of how good Kat felt tucked next to his side, warm and soft. Or so he told himself.
Finally, it was time to get moving. The sun was going down and this road wasn’t easy to traverse even in the daylight. He gave her shoulder one last squeeze.
And to his amazement, she hugged him back.
Chapter 11
The trip to New Eire had been far from relaxing. If the scenery had been worth admiring, Kat hadn’t noticed. She didn’t know which was worse—the bone-jarring drive along the rough dirt road to reach the highway or the snail pace along the city streets. Conlan must have had someplace specific in mind, but so far he’d been driving in circles, probably checking to see if they were being followed. Although she knew better, it felt as if everyone they passed was staring at them.
When they’d driven past a traffic officer, she’d even had to fight hard not to duck down out of sight, which would’ve only drawn his attention if he’d noticed. It wasn’t as if she were the center of the universe, but it was hard not to be paranoid when she knew there were faceless strangers out there hunting for her.
For them.
That was the other problem. The longer the two of them were shut up inside the transport, the more aware she was of every breath Conlan took, every small movement he made.
It was an uphill battle to keep her attention on the outside world when all she wanted to do was stare at her companion in wonder. Even now, well over an hour since they’d left the airfield behind, she could still remember the strength of his arm around her shoulders as they’d watched the predators flying overhead.
Some people feared chancellors because of their vampirelike qualities, but not her. Kat truly loved how strong Conlan was. No matter how scary the moment had been, she’d been secretly thrilled when Conlan had swept her up in his arms and carried her to safety.
After three years of running and hiding, she’d learned the hard way not to depend on anyone other than herself. Even so, it was awfully tempting to let Conlan’s broad shoulders take on all the weight of her problems, to sit back and let him take charge. Or, better yet, she could just give the bastards what they wanted along with a promise to simply disappear. She couldn’t imagine how sweet it would feel to be shed of all this mess forever.
But that wasn’t going to happen. There was no way the powerful men behind the Dowitar Institute could afford to let her live, not with the knowledge she possessed. And now they’d be after Conlan, too, because they’d have to believe that she’d shared that information with him.
Maybe she should’ve kept it all to herself, but the burden had simply become too much to bear alone. Once again she found herself staring at Conlan as the weight of all her regrets crushed her heart.
“You’re thinking way too hard, Kat.”
He took advantage of a break in traffic to gun the engine, shooting forward to pass a slow-moving truck before looking in her direction. “No guilt, no regrets, Kat. It might have been better if you’d told me everything three years ago, but we’ll never know that for sure. As it is, all we can do is play the hand we’ve been dealt.”
“Which is?” Because right now, she couldn’t see any future for them outside of this brief respite inside the transport. Once they left it, they’d be back out in the real world, where killers hunted them with all the weight of the Institute behind them.
Conlan actually grinned. “We follow our plan.”
“We have a plan? How come I didn’t know that?” She tried to match his lighter tone but wasn’t sure how successful she was.
“Yeah, sure we’ve got a plan. First we hole up for the night. We’ll get something to eat and grab some sleep. Come morning, we’ll retrieve that flash drive from wherever you’ve got it hidden. Once we have it, we’ll decide the best way to use it to beat down the bad guys.”
“Any ideas on that?”
He watched her out of the corner of his eye. “We could try to do it all on our own, but I’d rather confer with Rafferty and Ambrose. They’ve got clout where it counts.”
“Wow, I am impressed. That’s some plan. It’s complex, with multiple steps and everything.” She stared back out the window. “And here I was worried because the bad guys have helicopters, rocket launchers and dozens of mercenaries at their command, while we just have...”
When she hesitated, Conlan finished it for her. “We have us, Kat, but don’t count out Rafferty and Ambrose. When we really need them, they’ll step up. I know you have no reason to trust them, but I do.”
Then he reached over to squeeze her hand. “Bottom line—we’re not alone, Kat, even if it might seem like it right now. Once we have the proof of your innocence in hand, Ambrose O’Brien will go after the Institute or whoever is behind all of this with the full weight of the Coalition.”
“And if we can’t provide the proof, Conlan? What then? Right now, all you know is what I’ve told you. If I were in your place, I’d kick me to the curb and then drive straight back to Rafferty’s.”
Conlan stopped for a red light, his expression grim when he turned toward her.
“I don’t believe that for a second, Kat. You think I haven’t finally figured out that you left me because somehow someone threatened your nieces and your sister? I do get why you ran, but what pisses me off is that you didn’t trust me enough to help you. And what I don’t understand is why you waited that long to take off.”
He meant long enough to end up in his bed, in his arms. “It took them that long to find out that I managed to alter the data from not only my work but Richard’s and Rory’s, as well, enough to make it all useless to them.”
“Why haven’t they replicated the study with other researchers? You can’t be the only one capable of that kind of work.”
“No, I’m not, but the data that I left for them to find was designed to lead their replacement team to a dead end. If they used that formula, it would’ve also proven fatal to humans, not just vampires and chancellors.” She sighed. “I was hoping it would be enough to keep them from pursuing it any further. It seems to have worked this long.”
He glanced her way. “So are you thinking the Dowitar Institute is a front for a human-supremacy group?”
“It’s either that or the company that hired them to do the research in the first place that’s behind it all. There’s no way to know at this point.”
Conlan lapsed into silence for a short time, but then he asked, “Were there any chancellors working for the Institute?”
His question surprised her. “Come to think of it, not at the particular facility. No vampires either, although there were a few of each at the first site where I worked. I guess that would lend some credence to the theory that it was an outside group who wanted to create a chemical weapon against those who carry the vampire genes.”
On that cheery note, he pulled into a driveway in a residential neighborhood, stopping to key in a security code to open the garage. As they pulled inside, she looked around in surprise. Evidently they were staying, because Conlan shut off the engine and climbed out of the transport.
She joined him and helped gather up their few possessions. “Is this place yours?”
“Nope, it belongs to a friend.”
He hit the button to close the garage door before heading inside. Kat followed him, looking around. What she noticed first were the sparse furnishings in the living room. The next was that, unless she was mistaken, those were bullet holes in all of the walls.
“Uh, Conlan, who owns this place, and what happened here?”
He actually laughed. “If you think it’s torn up now, you should’ve seen it before we cleaned it up some.”
The man definitely had a perverse sense of humor. “You still didn’t answer my question.”
“It belongs to Joss. This was her place before she hooked up with Rafferty.”
He set down his pack and started pulling out weapons while he talked. “A while back, Ambrose was negotiating what he thought was a simple dispute between a human clan and their vampire neighbors. Instead, one of the humans and a chancellor from the vampire clan were conspiring to kill the human’s husband and Miranda, the heir to the vampire clan. They shot up her home in town and then blew up Ambrose’s condo. He brought Miranda here, thinking it would be safe.”
He gestured toward the walls polka-dotted with bullet holes. “Obviously, it wasn’t.”
She shuddered. “Since Ambrose is alive and well, things turned out okay for him. How about Miranda?”
“Depends on how you look at it.” Conlan shot her a wry look. “Ambrose married her. By all reports, they’re really happy together.”
Lucky them. Heck, she wouldn’t mind a little happily-ever-after in her own future. And she knew exactly who she’d like to be part of that scenario. Her mind filled with images of waking up next to Conlan every morning, of spending her nights in his arms, of making love to him over and over.
Then ugly reality returned. In truth, right now she’d settle for knowing she had a future at all.
* * *
Okay, they’d made some progress. Cyrus studied the email Richie had forwarded to him a few minutes ago. As ordered, the mercs had withdrawn to a safe distance from the sprawling O’Day estate. The place was too big to monitor the entire perimeter, but they’d know if someone left by the main gate. Meanwhile, they’d done some digging into Conlan Shea’s past.
Once he’d been dragged off to prison, most of his former associates had written him off as a lost cause. Evidently those chancellors Ambrose was so damn proud of had no loyalty to one of their members, only to the job. However, not all of his friends had jumped ship.
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