DRAGON SECURITY: Volume 2: The Complete 6 Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

  Amelia would be okay. I just wasn’t sure how my own shit was going to pan out.

  Chapter 9

  Rowan

  I woke a second morning in a row with Amelia’s head near my shoulder, her breath tickling the sensitive skin of my neck. I didn’t panic when I opened my eyes this morning. I knew it was her, could still smell her on my skin. The memory of last night wasn’t going to just disappear, no matter how difficult the reality around it was proving to be.

  My code was finished. I’d slipped out of bed in the middle of the night, not long after she’d finally settled into an exhausted sleep, and compressed the files, sending them over the questionable hotel wireless connection to an address I hoped was correct. It was killing me, sending everything I’d worked so hard for to a stranger, but I didn’t know who else I could trust.

  The fact that no one had attempted to get into my secure system at work suggested that whoever was behind Rachel’s death didn’t work for the company. That implied that it was Rachel’s own people trying to set me up, and that simply didn’t make sense. Why would they kill one of their own?

  There was no one I could trust. Even Amelia.

  I rolled toward her and touched her pale shoulder, wondering what my mother would think of her. She’d likely approve.

  A mite gorgeous lassie you’ve got there, I could almost hear her say.

  But my mother had much too much faith in my tastes. If she knew the truth about this entire situation, she would definitely look at me differently.

  “Amelia,” I said softly, running my finger along the side of her jaw. “We should probably get up.”

  She groaned, snuggling closer to me as she did. I pulled her close, pressing my face into that warm space between her shoulder and her neck, breathing her scent in deep. I kissed her, sliding my lips slowly along her neck, along the line of her collarbone, as I sought out one of her perfect nipples. She arched her back, pressing her nipple deeper into my mouth as I nibbled at it, drawing out goosebumps that covered her bare skin from nipple to navel.

  I pulled her underneath my body, sliding upward before I breathed into her ear, “I love your body.”

  “It’s all yours,” she whispered back.

  I slipped inside of her and she moved up against me, opening her hips and wrapping her legs around mine, pulling me into the places she needed me to touch the most. We moved together slowly this moment as different as our shared passion last night could possibly be. We kissed, our tongues dancing together, the only sound in the room that of our breathing as it mingled in the air between us.

  I wished we could stay in that moment forever. I wished we could forget about the nightmare that waited for us back in Houston, that we could forget the personas we’d created as Mr. and Mrs. Randolf, just lie here and pretend the world had disappeared. But we couldn’t.

  A knock came on the door as we lay in the afterglow, an insistent knock that forced me out of bed, tugging on a pair of trousers without the protection of briefs.

  “We’re leaving in forty-five minutes,” the tour guide announced as I opened the door, his muscles straining as he attempted to see Amelia behind me.

  “You’ll need to be downstairs in half an hour if you don’t want to miss instructions.”

  “No problem.”

  I closed the door as he started to speak again, not interested in watching him throw out his back trying to look around me. Amelia was sitting up in the bed, the sheets pooled in her lap as she looked around for something to cover herself with.

  “Shower,” I said, grabbing her wrist and dragging her off the bed. She was blushing when I looked at her again, and that made me laugh.

  “After the places I put my tongue last night, you’re embarrassed to stand there without a pair of pants on?”

  I flipped on the water in the shower and pulled her inside with me, dropping my pants on the floor. She shivered as I shoved her under the water’s spray, grabbing a bottle of body wash she’d left in there the night before. There was nothing more beautiful than a woman’s body covered in bubbles. I ran my hands over every inch of her, bringing this spark to her eyes that made my cock stand up once again.

  “You’re insatiable,” she said, moving close to me, her warm hands wrapping themselves around my shaft.

  “It’s been a while.”

  “It’s been twenty minutes.”

  I kissed the top of her head. “I mean it’s been six months since I’ve had a woman in my bed.”

  “Is that a long time for you?”

  “Pretty long. What about you?”

  “Longer than six months.”

  “No wonder you’ve been throwing yourself at me.”

  Her mouth dropped open and she stuttered as she tried to respond.

  “I did not! You … I didn’t … you kissed me first!”

  “Because you were flirting with me.”

  “I was not!” she insisted. “You were accusing me of focusing on Hayden because he was safe. You have no idea—”

  I kissed her, really not interested in hearing her talk about Dubois. I didn’t want to be reminded that, in her mind, I was just a lousy substitute for something else.

  She sighed when I pulled back, her hands still playing with the length of my shaft.

  “Where are we going today?”

  “Montgomery, Alabama.” She looked up at me. “It’s an overnight stop on the way to Atlanta.”

  “Sounds like fun.”

  “Doesn’t it?”

  I brushed her hair back from her face and ran my thumb over the healing wound that lived there.

  “Maybe we should separate.”

  Her head came up quick at that. “Why?”

  “I don’t want you getting hurt. What if someone comes after us with an automatic weapon again?”

  “I’m here to protect you.”

  “But things have changed.”

  She ran her hand slowly over my bare chest. “Nothing’s changed. You’re still in danger and I still work for Dragon. It’s my job to make sure you make it out of this in one piece.”

  “And what happens if they catch up to us and start killing innocent people?”

  “They already have.” She rose up on her tip toes and kissed me. “I know my job. I do it quite well. Let me do it.”

  She reached up and kissed the tip of my nose, then moved around me to step out of the shower stall. I could hear her moving around the bathroom, knowing the moment she left it. I stood under the hot spray a while longer, wondering what I’d gotten myself wrapped up in.

  “No one will ever know. You slip me some information once or twice a week, and I take it to my bosses. No one will know it was you, no one will know that they were even under investigation. And when it’s all said and done, you will have saved your code from being used to murder countless people. Don’t you think that’s worth any risk?”

  Yeah, I had at the time. But Rachel wasn’t supposed to die. People weren’t supposed to be firing automatic weapons at my head. I wasn’t supposed to be on the run with a beautiful woman who was in love with someone else.

  I had to get Amelia away from me before things went sour.

  All the other couples were already on the sidewalk outside the hotel before Amelia and me. We moved up beside Jayne and Sam, our smiles less forced this morning.

  “You look relaxed,” Jayne said in a loud whisper as she leaned toward Amelia. “Had a good time last night?”

  “Didn’t we all?”

  Jayne groaned, elbowing Sam in the chest. “Yeah, well, Mr. Lactose Intolerance over here forgot that parmesan is a cheese, you know? He was on the toilet most of last night.”

  “Sorry to hear that,” Amelia said, glancing at me with a look that said please save me!

  I tugged her closer as the tour guide began his speech about the day’s travel. I slowly began moving sideways through the group, eventually ending up toward the back of the pack as we began boarding the bus. By the time we got on board, Jayne and Sam
were lost in the crowd.

  “Did you call Dragon last night?” I asked.

  Amelia sat up a little straighter, glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention to us before she slid back down with her head against my shoulder.

  “They don’t have a lot for us right now. But I’ll try again when we make our first rest stop.”

  She curled up against me, clearly deciding it was her right to touch me however she pleased today. There was no hesitation, no distance, like there had been yesterday. And we talked, not about anything important, just talked, as Louisiana dwindled away behind us and we moved into the small tip of Mississippi.

  She was funny, this Amelia, and a little self-deprecating in a way most women were incapable of these days. I found myself lulled into a sort of false comfort by the sound of her voice. I was almost disappointed when she finally drifted off to sleep, lulled herself by the movement of the bus. I slid my arm around her and stared out the window, running things over in my head. When we stopped, I had to go. I had to disappear.

  I was better off on my own. Going to Dragon had served its purpose, but now I had to deal with this mess on my own. I had to find Rachel’s handler and figure out if the agency was behind this. My bosses, despite their apparent decision to sell my code to a foreign government, didn’t seem too concerned in my absence. There was no sign that anyone had tried to touch my notes, let alone my code. Unless …

  Unless the impossible had happened. Unless someone had figured out how to get around my security protocols.

  If that was it, then I was in deeper than I imagined. That would mean that another coder, someone on my level, was involved in this. And if that was the fact, then it was possible that neither my bosses nor the agency were coming after me. It could be more like the story I’d fabricated for Dragon: another coder was trying to get rid of me long enough to take credit for my work.

  If that was the case, they would be sorely disappointed. The code was gone, replaced with a cheap imitation that wouldn’t tell them anything.

  I picked up the small bag Amelia had bought in New Orleans yesterday, a little backpack that she was using to carry small feminine essentials, and found the shape of her gun buried among the tissues and the wallet she’d stolen at some point on our rush out of Houston. I slipped the gun free of the bag and shifted just enough to slip it into the waistband at the back of my pants.

  She’d be okay. I’d slip away just as the bus was leaving … she wouldn’t even realize until they were well on their way. Then she would be in Montgomery and I’d be on my way back to Houston.

  It was the only way.

  I sat back and closed my eyes, taking one more deep breath of the sweetness of her, relaxed now that my decision was made. I was just on the verge of falling asleep when someone screamed and someone else uttered a curse. And then I was flying forward, instinctively pushing Amelia back before I hit, headfirst, into the seat in front of me.

  The world suddenly exploded with flying purses, tablets, and phones, half a dozen items from the seats in front of me slamming into my back and head, a screech like fingernails on a chalkboard screaming through the suddenly shuddering bus. It seemed to last forever, that deafening noise and the chaos. But I think the quiet was worse.

  I felt pain in the quiet.

  Chapter 10

  Amelia

  There was absolute silence. And then there was crying. And then came the screams.

  Pain shot through my arm as I struggled to sit up. I was lying at an odd angle against the metal side of the bus, shattered glass raining down with my every movement. I remembered getting on the bus, but I couldn’t quite remember why. For a moment I was convinced I was on the bus that took me to basic training. But only for a moment.

  “Rowan?”

  I didn’t hear an answer. It was dark, somehow. Despite the fact that my mind knew there should be bright light shining through the windows, it was dark. I used my hands to search around me as I waited for my brain to adjust. I didn’t feel anything but twisted metal and items I couldn’t quite identify all through the debris. And then a slight bit of movement.

  “Rowan.”

  I scooted closer, my hands moving over his waist, over his chest, searching for damage. He mumbled something, but then another noise pulled my thoughts from my fear. A new danger was coming our way.

  I’d heard the distinct sound of a gun being cocked.

  “Help!” someone cried from somewhere in front of us. “I think he’s stopped breathing!”

  Rowan made a sound, something like a gurgle at the back of his throat. I slid my hand over his mouth and lay across him, blocking his form from whoever’s boots were crunching debris as they made their way toward us. Instinct told me something wasn’t right about this whole thing.

  Footsteps came toward us, hands reaching down to touch my throat. And then they moved on, but no one asked any questions, no one assessed the injured. No one seemed to be doing much of anything. Just one individual, moving from person to person, looking for something.

  What the hell?

  My eyes were adjusting. I turned and could see him, an average-sized man wearing a plaid shirt and a baseball cap, touching people’s throats to check for a pulse, checking the faces of the men to compare them to a picture on his phone. I could only assume he was looking for Rowan. And that assumption implied that this accident wasn’t an accident.

  I could hear sirens in the distance. I had to get Rowan out of here, but I had no idea how badly hurt he was. What if he had internal bleeding? What if he needed a hospital? But even as the thought slipped through my mind, he twisted beneath me and grabbed my arms, pulling me down into the debris beside him.

  “You have to go,” he hissed near my ear.

  “We have to go.”

  I glanced around him, checking where the interloper was before I ran my hand slowly over his chest.

  “Are you injured?”

  “My leg. But I think it’s minor.”

  “Are you sure?”

  He nodded, his eyes moving over me. “Are you okay?”

  I nodded.

  Light suddenly filled the bus as men with flashlights boarded. I peeked toward the back and watched as the interloper crawled between seats at the back, hiding from their prying eyes. We waited until the rescue workers reached us, listened to the chaos as people began crying and screaming again, begging to be the first taken out of the destroyed bus. When they got to us, I tried to keep my body between the back of the bus and Rowan, trying to hide the fact that he was on board. I especially tried to hide his face.

  Whoever was looking for him needed a picture to identify him, so he didn’t know him on sight. That had to work in our advantage, right?

  Once off the bus, we got a clear indication of exactly what had happened. A semi-truck with a load of pipe on its tractor had been cut off by a small sedan and skidded sideways, slamming right into the side of the bus. The front of the bus was crumpled into half of what it had been. And everything had slammed forward at such a speed that the frame of the bus was visibly warped.

  People were laid out on the asphalt bleeding, paramedics doing the best they could to treat everyone, but overwhelmed by the number of injured. People were pulling to the side of the road, coming around to help, but most of them didn’t know what to do aside from offering comfort and putting pressure on bleeding wounds.

  Rowan was limping. I wrapped my arm around his waist and let him lean on me, hoping that his limp was exaggerated for the benefit of those around us. I needed him to be healthy.

  We made our way to the fringe of the group. I spotted Jayne and Sam. She was dazed, staring off into space, silent for the first time since I met her. Sam was on the ground, a piece of metal sticking out of the top of his thigh. His head was bloody too, like he’d been smacked across the forehead with something heavy. I felt like I should go over and make sure they were okay, but I had to think about Rowan.

  “The red car,” I said, gesturing wi
th a movement of my shoulder. “If we can get over there …”

  Rowan didn’t respond, but he moved in that direction, leaning heavily on me until we were about ten yards away. Then he pulled from my touch and hobbled to the passenger side door while I headed for the driver’s side. I happened to glance in the rearview mirror as I popped the transmission into gear—silently thanking the owner for leaving it running—and saw an average-sized man sprinting in our direction. He had his cellphone in his hand and he was yelling something I couldn’t hear.

  “You know him?” I demanded of Rowan as we peeled out.

  He turned in his seat and looked out the rear window. “No.”

  We sped ahead of the chaos, moving in and out of traffic as we found an exit for Tallahassee. I pushed the little car as hard as I could, putting as much distance between us and that stranger as we could.

  “Did you see anything right before the accident?” I demanded. “Do you know who did this?”

  “No.”

  “How did they know where we were? How were they able to find us?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Did you email anyone last night? Did you tell anyone about your success with your code? Did you send anything anywhere?”

  “No, Amelia. I know better than that.”

  I glanced over at him, noting the frustration in his voice. “They had to have found us somehow. Could they have figured it out by the way you used the Wi-Fi in the room? Could they have found the computer?”

  He shook his head. “I destroyed the computer before we left. And I didn’t do anything over the Wi-Fi they could trace. At least, I don’t think …”

  “Rowan, I need to know what’s going on. They had to have tracked us somehow.”

  His hand shook as he ran his fingers through his hair. There was blood smeared on the back, congealing against his warm skin. I studied him and stared at his clothes, searching for the source of blood. Then I realized it was on his leg, his blood so dark that it practically disappeared in the dark material of his jeans. But it was there.