by Skye Jordan
Ian patted her down, then dug her cell from the pocket of her jacket and tossed it to Everly. “The other one must be at the house.”
“Hey…stop…Ian.”
Everly darted a this-ought-to-be-fun smirk at Ian before she hustled to her Jeep parked nearby.
“I’m sorry.” Ian wrenched the contents of the safe out of Savannah’s arms, then muscled her into her car. “We need to hurry.”
Her eyes flashed with fury as he stood over her, one hand on the roof over the driver’s door.
“Go home, Savannah. Do you hear me? Straight home. When Corwin finds out you’re not at work, he’ll go to your house and report that you’re there. Rosen’s cleared the break-in with Hank, and Corwin will report you’re home alone, as usual. Hank won’t check the safe until he gets home, which gives us time to pick up Jamison from Bailey’s and make a plan.”
When she opened her mouth to yell at him—he could see it in her eyes—Ian slipped his hand around the back of her neck and lowered his forehead to hers. “Stop fighting me. I know you’re confused and angry, but you have to trust me here. This is all going to work out. You’re going to get what you want in the end, but you really have to do it our way.”
“Trust you?” she snapped, pulling away. “Are you serious right now? Who’s us? For that matter, who the hell are you?”
“I’ll answer all your questions when we’re safely out of this town.” He pulled away, gave her one more “Home, Savannah” warning and slammed her door.
Ian jogged to his truck, turned over the engine, and followed on Savannah’s bumper as she made the short drive home. Having to expose himself and their mission that way made him sick. He’d envisioned something far more congenial. Something actually planned for the appropriate place and time, when he had his explanation all figured out.
Now, he was fucked.
He broke the tail by turning down a side street and entering the alley behind the duplex to avoid Corwin’s watchful gaze.
Everly parked behind him but stayed in the car. “I’m calling Roman,” she told him through the window. With a better-you-than-me look, she tossed out, “Good luck with her.”
14
Savannah stood frozen in the middle of her bedroom and pressed her hands to either side of her head. She couldn’t stop her mind from pinging in every direction. She didn’t know what to do—or not do. How could she trust Ian when he was involved in something she didn’t understand? Something he’d kept from her.
“Grab a few things for Jamison.” Ian’s voice made her jump. She hadn’t heard him come in. He tapped the face of his phone and dropped it on her bed with the blocking app filling the screen. “There’s no telling how much time we have.”
She stabbed her finger at the phone. “That doesn’t work. He knows we were together last night.”
“It works,” Ian told her. “If it didn’t, that safe would have been empty and he would have been waiting for you.”
He turned for the door, crossed the hallway in three strides, and opened Jamison’s dresser. “You don’t need much. Make sure you bring medications and identification.”
Savannah crossed the hallway. “What would you do if I said no? Shoot me?”
He gave her a that’s-a-stupid-thing-to-say look. “I’d have to force you. Please don’t make me do that.”
“I’m not going anywhere until you tell me what is going on, how you know Everly, how you pulled Rosen in on this, and how you know you can even trust him.”
“We don’t have time—”
“Then talk fast.”
He glanced around the room. “Does Jamison have anything he can’t live without? Like a stuffed animal?”
Furious and frantic, she ripped Jamison’s clothes out of his hands and threw them on the floor. “Stop it. Just stop. I don’t understand.”
He gripped her arms and gave her a little shake. “Do you want to get away from him or not?”
“You know I do.”
“I know it feels like your world is imploding,” he said, voice steady and deliberate, “but if you’ll trust me just a little longer, I’ll get you and Jamison through this.”
“You aren’t exactly giving me a choice, are you?”
He bent, swept the clothes off the floor, then grabbed a throw blanket from Jamison’s bed. He pushed past her, crossing the living room and disappearing into the kitchen.
Fear twined around her lungs and made it hard to breathe. Every muscle in her body was coiled tight, her fingernails digging into her palms. She took shallow sips of air and closed her eyes, fighting to find level ground.
“Savannah.” The woman’s voice pierced her bubble of terror. Savannah opened her eyes and had to fight to remember the woman’s name. Everly, that was it.
“Are you with him?” She had no idea why this felt like a pressing question considering the circumstances, but she had to know. “Are you two together?”
A look of dismay flashed across Everly’s face. “Romantically?” She scoffed. “He’s like my brother. They all are.”
“All of who?” A new layer of confusion piled on. “There are more people involved?”
“We’ll have to explain on the road.” She started toward Savannah’s room. “Jamison will be here soon.”
Everly pulled open her dresser drawers and created a small pile of underwear, T-shirts, and jeans. When she turned toward her again, she gave Savannah’s arm a reassuring squeeze.
“I’ll tell you now that Ian has been a champion for you and Jamison from the beginning. He’s a genuine man and one of the best human beings I’ve ever met. Whatever you’re feeling or thinking right now, set it aside until we can give you the whole story, okay?”
“Champion to who? And why?”
The back door closed, and Jamison’s voice floated through the kitchen. Savannah’s focus took a one-hundred-eighty-degree turn—to her boy. He was her soul. Her true north.
“Come on,” Everly said. “We’ve got to move.”
Savannah grabbed Everly’s arm. When the other woman’s blue eyes met Savannah’s, she said, “Promise me, no matter what happens, you’ll keep Jamison safe. Keep him away from Hank and Lyle. If something happens to me, I want him with Misty.”
Everly covered Savannah’s hand and squeezed. “I’ll do you one better. I’ll promise he’ll stay with you. Let’s go.”
Jamison passed Everly in the hall with a quick “Hi” as if having strangers in the house was no big deal.
“Hey, buddy,” Everly said as she passed. “Grab your mom and let’s hit the road.”
Everly turned out of sight just as Jamison launched himself at Savannah. She crouched and caught him. She pressed her face to his hair and held him tight.
“Officer Rosen says we’re going on an adventure with Mr. Ian.”
Savannah ground her teeth but curbed her anger and hurt before she pulled back and looked at her adorable son. She pushed his hair out of his eyes, thinking she needed to get his hair cut. Those mundane things felt so solid and safe in the moment.
“I just heard about it,” she told him. Jamison was clearly thrilled by the idea, and she played along. There would be plenty of time for reality later. “Ian has your blanket and clothes.” She kissed Jamison’s forehead, closing her eyes to absorb his little-boy scent. Savannah pulled back. “I just need to grab a few things from my room.”
Jamison pulled from Savannah’s arms and sprinted back through the living room, calling Ian’s name with glee. That grated over Savannah’s nerves and stoked her anger. She moved into her room and opened the closet, where she pulled up the floorboards and dragged out her box of cash. She stuffed all the money into a backpack and tossed the bag over her shoulder just as Ian appeared in the doorway.
“Ready?” he asked.
“That’s a rhetorical question, right?” She pushed past him on her way to the kitchen. The back door was open, and the cold swept through the space. She took hold of Jamison’s hand and looked at Everly. “Where ar
e we going?”
“To meet the rest of the team.”
Great, more strangers. She cut a look at Ian. “Why are there so many people involved in this? If we needed to get out of town, we could have planned it between the two of us.”
“I’ll tell you once we’re on the move,” was his answer.
She looked at Everly, who was giving her more answers than Ian. “What’s going to happen with our car? With all our things?”
Everly’s gaze darted to Ian standing behind her, then moved back to Savannah. “We aren’t sure yet.”
“When will you be sure?”
“We don’t know. A couple of days, maybe.”
Savannah’s stomach dropped lower. “Perfect.”
Jamison tugged on her hand, smiling up at her with complete and utter trust. “Let’s go, Mom.”
Savannah let him pull her forward even as fear swamped her. Outside, she was faced with two vehicles. “We’ll go with Everly.”
“No, Mom. I want to go with Mr. Ian. He said I could watch movies on a DVD player.”
She cut a look at Ian. He stood nearby, hands on hips. He didn’t exactly look contrite or apologetic, but he didn’t look the least bit happy either.
“How long is the drive?” she asked Everly.
“We’ll stop just inside the county line to regroup.”
“This is insane,” she murmured. She thought she was desperate to escape Hank, Lyle, and Hazard, but now, given the opportunity with a group of strangers with some clandestine agenda, she realized she feared the unknown more than she feared Hank.
And that shook her resistance.
“Fine.” She turned toward Ian’s truck and passed him without a word.
She opened the door and flipped the passenger’s seat forward, then remembered Jamison’s car seat. Just as she opened her mouth to say she had to get it, Savannah spotted one of his two seats already belted into the center of the bench, a DVD player attached to the back of the passenger’s seat.
Ian slid behind the wheel, and she shot him a glare across the cab. “Just think of everything, don’t you?”
He jammed the keys into the ignition and turned the engine over while Jamison climbed in, oblivious to the tension between them.
Everly slid into her Jeep with her phone pressed to her ear.
Savannah climbed into the truck, and Ian pulled out of the alley as she buckled her seat belt.
While Ian explained the DVD player to Jamison, Savannah closed her eyes and rested her head back against the seat, trying to prepare herself for the immediate future. It would be a long, bumpy ride until she found stability again. Her feelings for Ian only complicated the challenge. She could only hope for distraction to keep her from falling apart.
How could she have let another man do this to her? Dupe her into trusting him. Into believing he was someone he wasn’t. At this point, Ian could be as bad or even worse than Hank. A sense of self-loathing flooded her. She had to stop trusting people.
Misty popped to mind. Savannah opened her eyes. Staring straight out the windshield, she told Ian, “I need to tell Misty.” When he didn’t respond, she added an emphatic “She’ll worry.”
Ian glanced in the rearview mirror at Jamison. Savannah checked on him over her shoulder and found him with headphones on, absorbed in a movie, dancing in his seat.
“I’m sorry,” Ian said. “This isn’t the way I’d hoped things would go down.”
“That means nothing to me. What things? Go down with who? What, exactly, are you sorry for? Lying to me? Sleeping with me? Uprooting us? Running roughshod over my life?”
He exhaled and rubbed his forehead. “Very little of what I have to tell you will make you happy or make things right.”
“I’ve already figured that out. Can I please call Misty?” The thought of her worrying made Savannah sick. “She’s going to think Hank chopped us up into pieces and threw us down a mine shaft.”
“I’m sorry, baby,” he said, shaking his head. “You can’t call Misty.”
“Don’t call me that, and why not?”
“Because, unfortunately, Misty is at the center of the reason we’re here. God, I hate having to be the one to tell you this, but she’s involved in Hank and Lyle’s manipulation.”
More confusion tightened her already tangled thoughts. “That’s ridiculous. No, it’s insane. Misty hates Hank and Lyle. She loathes them. And she’s a good, honest, hardworking person. She would never do anything for them. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
He heaved a sigh, shifting in his seat. “Yesterday, before I came into the café, I heard Hank threaten her in the parking lot while she was taking out the trash.”
“Misty’s never let Hank intimidate her, and he has nothing to threaten her with.”
“I know this is going to be hard to grasp, but Misty has been counterfeiting those passports you found in Hank’s patrol car.”
“Are you pulling this stuff out of your ass?” she yelled. “That’s crazy. That’s laughable.”
“I heard him tell her that if she didn’t get you to dump me, he was going to send the FBI to raid her barn. So my team and I went to the barn while she was at work and found a basement hidden under all the junk.”
Savannah’s mouth hung open. She was beginning to think he might actually be insane. Or on drugs. Or delusional. Or maybe this was all a nightmare, and she’d wake and have a wild tale to tell Misty and Ian in the morning.
Only she was still stuck in this car. With a very probable lunatic. A lunatic she’d slept with and thought she knew intimately up until half an hour ago.
“You’re either full of shit, certifiable, a con artist or your eyes and your brain were playing tricks on you. Her father was a hoarder. That place is rotting from the baseboards up. She works double shifts at the diner just to pay the bills. She doesn’t know anything about counterfeiting, and if she’d found that kind of equipment, she’d have sold it long ago to pay off the property’s back taxes so she didn’t have to work so hard.”
“I know that’s what she’s told you,” he said, his voice maddeningly compassionate. “And what you believe.”
“It’s not blind loyalty. I’ve seen that barn.” She had to fight to keep her voice down. “I’ve spent days helping her rummage through the place to find things to auction on eBay for extra cash. She certainly wouldn’t be doing that if she was making money counterfeiting passports.”
She wanted to drop all this nonsense and just stop talking, but she was so angry, so confused. Her whole world was upside down. Everything she thought she knew was being challenged.
“This whole thing is insane. I’m beginning to think you’re insane,” she told him. “You and Everly and this supposed team we’re going to meet. When we roll through Rockport in about ten minutes, just stop and let us out of this truck. I’m about to have a nuclear melt—”
Something connected in her brain. Something vague and just out of her mind’s reach. But the whisper cut off her words and made her stomach drop to her feet.
She cut a look at Ian. At his strong profile, the jump of his jaw beneath a day’s worth of stubble. “The reason you’re here?” She thought for a moment, forced the wheels of her brain to turn, and repeated words he’d just said. “‘At the center of the reason we’re here’?”
He repositioned his hand on the steering wheel and kept his gaze out the window while he scraped his lower lip between his teeth. He looked decidedly uncomfortable. Cold seeped into her gut, chilling the burn of anger.
“Are you saying you’re not here, fresh out of the military, looking for a new start? That you didn’t call in friends when these crazy notions about Misty popped into your warped mind?”
“I never said—”
“Because that would mean this was all planned.”
“Like I said, things didn’t go as expected.”
All the dots connected at once, and the flash of information burned like the stab of a knife. “A security team? Th
e Manhunters?”
He cut a look at her, surprised. “Where did you hear that?”
“Misty. I told her about your tattoo, and she found it on the internet, connected it to the Manhunters.” The depths of her gullibility stunned her. Shame washed over her, heating her face, burning her neck. “Oh my God. You’re after Hank and Lyle. This was all planned. Everything between us was…nothing. Less than nothing. I was a tool. A means to an end. Just part of the plot or the mission or operation or whatever the hell you call it.”
“Savannah—”
“No.” She held up her hands. “I get it now.” She crossed her arms and looked out the passenger’s window, unable to look him in the face. Her gut throbbed with a fresh ache, a mess of fury, self-loathing, disgust. “Talk about pathetic. I let you into my life. I let you close to my boy. Jesus, I must have been your easiest lay ever.”
“Don’t do that.”
She laughed at herself, the sound dark and ugly, exactly how she felt right now. “How could I not have seen it? How could I have put Jamison at risk like this? Maybe he would be better off with Hank.”
Hearing those words out of her mouth told her exactly how badly she’d screwed up. Screwed up because she’d trusted Ian.
Everything inside her cooled and hardened. She stuffed all her emotions behind a solid concrete wall inside her—at least something she’d learned from Hank had proved useful.
“I know this doesn’t look good from where you’re sitting,” he told her, “but I—”
“Just tell me this.” She didn’t want to hear any more lies. Didn’t need him rubbing salt in her fresh wounds—wounds she’d thought she’d insulated herself from. “Will Jamison and I be free of Hank? Forever?”
“Yes.” His answer was immediate and unequivocal.
Something unraveled inside her, a little relief, a little insanity, a lot of pain. “Fine. As long as that happens, I’ll do what you say for now. Beyond that, there’s nothing left for us to talk about.”
She closed her eyes and fought to keep the burning tears from spilling out. She meant nothing to him. Showing the hurt he’d caused her would only make her even more pitiful. She was stronger than that. Better than that. And she wouldn’t let another deceitful man ruin the woman she’d been fighting to recover for years.
