When I looked at her, I could see my future with her, my life hanging in her hands, and it had nothing to do with the people trying to kill us. I knew in that moment that she was all I wanted. Whatever happened with all the chaos we dealt with, she was my rock, my compass pointing home.
She brushed a hand across my face, her fingers lingering on my jaw. I could tell she was thinking something similar. What we had was more than love, and it changed everything between us in that one moment. Because we were no longer just running together and taking care of each other. Now, we were each other’s reason to keep moving forward.
I pulled her down on me, holding her to me as she came hard on my cock. My breathing was harsh, but it wasn’t from fucking her. It was the realization that this thing between us was so much more than I ever expected. I would never have a home unless it was with her, and I would never walk away from her unless she was dead, and even then, I would lay down and die beside her.
Carly
We walked through the grocery store in Texas, our new home, bickering about which steaks were the best and what vegetables to buy. It was so ordinary. I couldn’t keep my hands off him, always needing to touch him and reassure myself that he was still with me. We had been together for years, but sometimes it still felt so new. In my heart, I knew that I could never let Josh go. He had made my life so much brighter by being in it. His ability to take things in stride made my life easier, and the fact that he always made the best of every situation made me feel like I would truly never be alone.
He could have left me long ago, but he chose to stay beside me. I still didn’t understand why. Logically, it made sense that we stayed together. There was a better chance of survival if we were always looking out for each other, but sometimes it still felt unreal. If he ran on his own, he might make it. He might be able to start over and have a new life. As long as he stayed with me, he would always be running, because they would never stop looking for me.
“Are you paying this time?” he joked. It didn’t matter. We pooled all our money. He knew about my hidden stashes of money, but he also knew how to access it at all times. There were no more secrets between us.
“Sure, babe,” I laughed. “I’ve got this.”
The cashier smiled at us and finished scanning the food, then took my money and handed me my change. He grabbed two bags and I grabbed the third, then we headed for the door. We had just stepped outside when the hairs on the back of my neck stood tall. I stopped in my tracks and quickly scanned the parking lot.
“Shit,” Josh muttered beside me. He was seeing the same thing I was. We were surrounded. There were at least ten men spread throughout the parking lot that we could see, all forming a semi-circle around us.
“Any ideas?” I asked with a slight smile.
We both watched as the men, all dressed in black, approached us. If we stayed where we were, we were sitting ducks.
“We can’t stay here. Somebody else could get hurt,” he answered.
“I only have one gun on me.”
“Me too.”
“Do we take our chances?” I asked, hoping he had some brilliant idea to get us out of this.
“We go with them.”
“What?” I asked sharply, sure I had heard him wrong.
“Just far enough into the parking lot that we can draw them in closer and away from the store. The last thing I want on my conscience is for someone else to get hurt because of us. Let’s draw them closer to our vehicle. It’s at the back of the lot where no one else is, and if we’re lucky, we can shoot our way out of this.”
“Josh,” I said breathlessly. This was it. I couldn’t see a way out for us. One or both of us was going to end up dead. This was not a good plan, but it was the only one we had.
“It’ll be fine,” he smiled at me. I turned to the men approaching and silently nodded, then I took my first step toward them. With bags still in hand, we made our way toward them. Luckily, they had parked close to us, so they would naturally usher us in that direction. I kept glancing around the parking lot, noting that the other men came in closer, but still kept their distance. Off to our right, a mother was getting her kids out of the car, putting them in a double stroller.
“Do you see them?” he asked.
I swallowed hard. “Yeah, I see them.”
As we got to the back of the lot, we were surrounded by six of them, all of them preparing to take us and throw us in the trunk. At least, that’s the way they used to do it.
“Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
But just as I said that, I heard the sound of a police siren. My gaze shot to the right where a cop was pulling over, obviously suspicious of the men in black surrounding us.
The man in front of us pulled his coat back just enough to show his gun and then shook his head slightly at us. I nodded, letting him know I wouldn’t do anything. The cop parked and got out of his car, pulling his sunglasses off as he approached us.
“Everything alright here?”
“Yeah,” I responded cheerily.
“Do you know these men?”
I glanced back at them and then back to the cop. “They’re…they’re my security detail.”
“Security detail.” I could tell he didn’t believe me.
“I’m an actress. I came out here for a getaway, but my security goes where I go,” I laughed.
“An actress, huh? What’s your name?”
My mouth opened, but nothing came out. I had no clue what to tell him. Who did I look like?
“If you don’t recognize her, then we’re doing our job,” one of the men said. “Sorry, but for her safety, I can’t disclose who this is. You understand, I’m sure.”
I smiled at the cop, hoping that he would just leave. Josh was right. He didn’t need to be dragged into this. He would just end up dead. The cop stood there for another moment before tipping his hat at us. “Y’all have a good day.”
“Thank you, officer.”
When he got in his car, I breathed a sigh of relief, but now we still had to make it out of here. But just when I thought the cop was going to leave, he opened his car door again and stepped out.
“You know, I just gotta ask, can I at least get an autograph?”
The tension was so thick around us that there was no way he didn’t pick up on it. And if I wasn’t mistaken, he knew exactly what was going on here. He might not know who we were, but he knew that we were being taken, and he was just doing his job. I wondered if he had already called for backup.
“Of course,” I said, huffing out a laugh. I held out my hand as he walked toward me. He held out a pen and pad of paper, and just when he was about to hand it over, I saw him reach for his weapon. I didn’t think for another second. I pulled my gun from the small of my back and spun, firing three shots in succession, hitting three of them men surrounding us. I heard the report of Josh’s gun, firing just as quickly as mine was. I had no idea if the cop was on our side, firing at the other men or if he was even still next to us.
I felt the sharp sting of a bullet as it grazed my arm, but kept firing. I saw Josh take out one of them and saw another three on the ground as I fired and took out one more of them. I started pulling him back toward the cop car where we could take cover. I knew that at least six of them were down, but I didn’t know if they were dead or injured. With at least seven down, the odds were much better for us.
“Carly!” he shouted, firing his weapon off to my right as he moved right in front of me. I felt his body jerk back against mine, but he continued to fire as his body collapsed back against me. I caught him and lowered him to the ground, taking a knee as I fired off three more shots, taking out the remaining men that I could see. I looked behind me and saw the cop on the ground. He was groaning, but it appeared that he had been shot in the vest. I didn’t see any blood pooling around me.
I turned my attention to Josh and glanced down at his chest. There was blood oozing from him, but I couldn’t tell exactly from w
here. “Shit, shit, shit!” I muttered, grabbing his shirt and tearing it open. I pulled off my button down shirt, pressing it over the wound in his side. He grimaced in pain and his head lolled to the side so he could look at me. Tears blurred my vision as I looked at him and prayed that he would be okay.
He raised his hand, like he was trying to touch me, but his hand fell back to the ground with a thump. I swiped at my face with one hand and then glanced back up to see some of the men moving around. I had to get him out of here. We had to leave now or we would be dead anyway.
I slid my hand under his back and started lifting him. “Josh, I need you to help me. Sit up, babe.”
“Just leave,” he whispered.
“No,” I said fiercely, tears slipping down my face. “I’m not leaving without you, so either get your ass up or both of us are dying right here.”
That seemed to motivate him. He grimaced and pushed up off the ground. He was still holding the gun in his other hand and gripped it tighter as I helped pull him to his feet. He was like dead weight leaning against me, but we managed to stumble over to the car. I barely got the door open before he collapsed down into the seat.
I slammed the door and ran around to the driver’s side. I was just about to get in when I saw the cop struggling to sit up. I got in and drove the car over to him, blocking anyone from seeing him. If I left him here, he was dead. I put the car in park and ran around to the other side. He was coming around, and I noticed he had hit his head on the concrete hard.
“Hey,” I said, slapping his face lightly. “Come on. We have to go.”
“Hmm?” He looked at me in confusion. I glanced up and saw the men stumbling to their feet. There were at least three, and if we didn’t get our asses out of here, there would be three of us dead.
“Now, get up now if you don’t want to die!”
He nodded and pushed to his feet. He swayed, but when he saw the men, he seemed to understand how dire the situation was. I managed to get him over to the car and inside, and then ran back around to the driver’s side and took off. My tires squealed as I peeled out of the parking lot and hit the main road. I kept glancing in the rearview, but I didn’t see anyone following us. But in this car, it wouldn’t be long before someone found us. I had to drop the cop off at the hospital. There was no way around that. If I took him with us, he would either have to lie, and end up losing his job, or he would tell the truth, which wouldn’t be good for us.
I slammed my hand on the wheel as I tried to remember where the damn hospital was. Taking a hard right, I made a few more wrong turns before I finally found the entrance to the hospital. I pulled up to the emergency room and had the cop out before anyone even came out. As the doors were opening, I was driving away.
I hit the highway and tried to think of my next move. Josh was fading fast beside me. I had to find a way out of this. I couldn’t let him die. I couldn’t stand the thought of never seeing him smile at me again.
Josh
I heard her yelling something and my head drooped to the left. She kept looking over at me and I could see the fear on her face. Everything was hazy around her, like there was a filter of some kind surrounding her. I couldn’t hear what she was saying, but I could see the tears on her face.
The whole car was rocking around me, every sharp turn sending pain through my side. I was trying to hold her shirt against me, but my strength was waning fast. I was barely able to keep my hand on my side at all. I rolled my head to the right to look out the window. I had no idea where we were going, but everything seemed to be flying by at lightning speed.
“Josh!”
I swiveled my head back to her beautiful face and tried to say something reassuring, anything to let her know that I was still hanging on, but I couldn’t get anything to come out. The darkness started to creep in and soon she was gone.
When I woke up the next time, the pain was so intense that I almost passed out again. Something sharp was poking at me and I squeezed something hard.
“Bite down on this!”
Something was shoved into my mouth and I did as she said, biting down on something to keep from breaking my own goddamn teeth.
“Almost got it,” I heard someone say.
I jerked as something sharp stabbed me again.
“Hold him down!”
The pain was blinding, but her voice whispered in my ear, telling me to hold on, that it was almost over. I squeezed her hand and then she appeared in my line of vision. I got to see her again, and she was safe. At least for now. I had to believe that we had gotten out of there and she would be okay. Whatever happened to me, I just wanted her to get on with her life. The darkness took over again and I felt my hand go lax in hers.
It felt like I was floating. Time didn’t exist and it didn’t feel like I did either. I wasn’t sure if I was alive or dead. I heard her voice all the time, talking to me, but none of it made any sense. Sometimes, I thought she was telling me something about herself, but it also felt like something out of the past. Like we had already had this conversation.
There was a constant rocking sensation around me, and when I was finally able to open my eyes, I saw blue skies all around me. There was a song playing quietly in the background, maybe jazz? My head was too fuzzy to think at the moment. My head rolled to the side and I saw her. She was driving us somewhere, and when she saw me open my eyes, she smiled big at me and jerked the car over to the side of the road.
“Josh! Can you hear me? How are you feeling? Are you in pain?”
I squinted, wanting to answer her, but unable to at the moment. It felt like every time I came close to getting to touch her, to speak to her, it all slipped away. The darkness came in again and took over, and she was gone again.
“It’s about time you woke up,” Carly said as she smiled down at me.
I lifted my head and glanced around. We were stopped at a rest area, but I had no clue where.
“Where are we?”
“Idaho.”
“Idaho? What’s in Idaho?”
“Isolation. Come on. Let’s go inside and use the restroom. We can talk after.”
I tried to sit up, but it pulled at my side painfully. Luckily, she came over to my side quickly and moved the seat into a sitting position. After slipping her hand behind my back, she helped me out of the car, and I was sad to say that I barely made it that far.
“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea.”
“We can do this. I promise. You can lean on me the whole way.”
I looked at the distance to the restrooms and winced. But now that she mentioned restrooms, I realized I really had to go. Besides, even though this woman could kick my ass, I didn’t want to be that weak in front of her. Leaning on her, we slowly made our way to the bathrooms. By the time we reached the door, I was sweating and seeing spots. She led me over to a bench where I rested for a few minutes. The longer I sat there, the more the pain started to seep back into my side, but it wasn’t as bad as what I remembered from waking up.
She took me to the family restroom and went inside with me. It was mortifying, but I probably would have fallen on my ass without her help. By the time we had to go back out, I was regretting having come all this way.
“Come on, once we get to the car, I can give you some more painkillers.”
I shook my head. “No, I’d like to be awake for a little bit.”
“The road might be kind of bumpy.”
I gritted my teeth and started toward the car. I had been in a fog for what felt like days. I needed to be awake for a little bit.
“How long have I been out?”
“A week.”
I stopped and stared at her. “A week?”
“Let’s get to the car. I promise to tell you everything.”
We made it back to the car without me blacking out, which I took as a very good sign. Sighing, I rested my head back and closed my eyes. I felt the car shift into gear and then we took off. I could tell that she was driving carefully, trying not t
o jostle me too much.
“So, what did I miss out on?”
“Oh, you know, nothing too exciting.”
“Somehow I doubt that.”
“How much do you remember?”
I thought back, but the most memorable thing was that moment of pain. “Someone was digging into me.”
“Yeah, that would have been the nurse.”
I turned to her and frowned. “I was in the hospital?”
“Not exactly,” she said slowly. “I dropped the officer off at the hospital, but I couldn’t take you there. They would have found us and we both would have been dead in less than a few hours. You passed out, so I found a motel and stashed you there. I wrapped up your wound as best I could and then prayed that you didn’t die while I went for help. I found a nurse at the hospital just getting off her shift, and I…convinced her to come help me.”
I smirked at her. “I can only imagine how that went.”
“Hey, I did not threaten to kill her.”
“Of course not, but bodily harm was probably on the table.”
“It doesn’t matter. She came back and helped me. Honestly, she wasn’t sure you were going to make it. She snuck back into the hospital to steal blood for you.”
“She would lose her job for doing that.”
“I sort of made it look like she had a bomb under her scrubs. Just in case she got caught,” she hurried on. “It was just to make it look believable that she was taken hostage.”
“But she was taken hostage,” I said.
“Well, yeah, but when she saw what condition you were in and when I told her that you were shot jumping in front of a bullet to save my life, she wasn’t so much a hostage as a willing participant. Thank you, by the way.”
“For what?”
She glanced over at me. “For saving my life.”
“I’d do it again in a heartbeat,” I said sincerely.
We drove for a while longer, me dozing in and out of consciousness the whole time. I couldn’t seem to stay awake to save my life. I didn’t know exactly what was going on, but I trusted Carly to take care of both of us. When we stopped again, we were in front of a cabin that sat just off a lake.
Wanted Dead or In Love: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 3) Page 11
