abruptly stopped. Paloma staggered to a halt beside him, a wild spurt of panic robbing her of breath. Now what were they going to do?
“Back here.” Dante took hold of her arm and spun her around. But he didn’t need to urge her along. She was in an off-limits area of the casino, carrying items stolen from a dead man—in the company of a thief. No way did she want to get caught!
She fled with Dante back down the hallway, running as fast as she could in the dark. But footsteps pounded behind them. “Stop!” the man shouted.
Her pulse frantic, Paloma forced herself to run faster, ignoring the searing burn scorching her lungs. “This way,” Dante said, and she veered hard to the left. They entered another hallway, then sprinted full out toward the emergency-exit sign glinting in the darkness a dozen yards ahead.
Almost there. Fatigue weakened her legs. Her breath rasped like a frenzied saw. Calling on all her strength, she sped down the musty hallway, desperate to get outside and disappear into the night, away from prying eyes.
Dante surged ahead. She trained her gaze on the exit sign, still several yards away.
But then a brilliant flash of light filled the air. Blinded by the sudden brightness, Paloma stumbled and nearly fell. Managing to keep hold of the laptop, she pulled herself upright and squinted in the garish light—straight into a surveillance camera mounted beside the door.
Her heart plummeted. They’d just been captured on camera together.
Dante shouldered open the door. Unable to believe that she’d screwed up yet again, she barreled after him into the night. Then she staggered to a row of delivery trucks parked beside the loading bay, and stopped.
Her lungs heaved. Her heart beat triple time as she gulped in the crisp night air. She’d messed up, all right. Not only had she failed to find that hidden computer disk, but she’d been recorded on camera with Dante, giving the guards a reason to investigate them.
“Wait here,” he said. Before she could ask what he intended, he strode around the truck and disappeared.
Still struggling to breathe normally, she glanced around. Fire trucks rumbled in the parking lot below them. Smoke from the bomb blast lingered in the air, the acrid smell permeating the night. She walked to the end of the alley and scanned the well-heeled people milling around the casino entrance, commenting on the power outage and fire.
Suddenly two guards burst through the emergency exit behind her. Her heart galloping, she moved deeper into the shadows, afraid they would mount a search. But the men just stood on the loading dock for a moment, peering at the commotion outside the casino, then gave up and went inside.
Paloma exhaled. She’d dodged one bullet, at least. But then the shadows beside her swirled, and she whipped around. “It’s me,” Dante said, emerging from the darkness.
She pressed her hand to her chest. “You scared me. I thought you were a guard.”
“Sorry.” He stepped closer, moving into a circle of light, and she caught the tension lines bracketing his mouth.
Her belly tightened again. “What happened?”
“I’ll tell you later. Let’s get out of here first. My car’s at the edge of the lot.”
Not seeing an alternative, she fell in beside him, but her anxiety ratcheted up a notch as they went across the lot. Something had put that worry in his eyes, but what?
Still mulling that over, she wove behind him through the rows of parked cars. People streamed around them, chattering about the night’s events. Paloma ducked her head, hoping no one recognized her—a complication she didn’t need.
Dante stopped beside a dinged-up hatchback. “Get in. It’s not locked.”
Surprised at his choice of cars, she climbed inside. While she buckled her seat belt, Dante grabbed a knapsack from beneath a nearby shrub and tossed it into the back. Then he slid into the driver’s seat and fiddled with some loose wires under the dash.
She blinked. “You stole this car?”
“I was trying to stay anonymous.” He shot her a pointed look. “A lot of good that did.”
She dragged her gaze to the windshield as the old car stuttered to life. She’d definitely fouled up. Getting caught on camera with Dante would create exactly the kind of publicity she’d hoped to avoid—and put innocent people at risk.
Including him.
Although innocent hardly described Dante Quevedo. She cast a glance at his profile as he drove through the gravel lot. She skimmed his dark, stubbled jaw, his big hands grasping the wheel, the heavy bones of his wrists. And that restless feeling quivered through her, that primitive, carnal awareness he’d evoked in her from the start.
Determined to ignore it, she turned her gaze to the blackened forest as they left the grounds of the casino and whizzed down the mountain road. Dante disturbed her, all right. And she never should have enlisted his help. Now he was mired with her in this muddled mess—and it was up to her to get them out.
He shifted to a lower gear. The car slowed abruptly, jerking her against the seat belt, the engine protesting with a high-pitched shriek. He hit the brakes, slowing them even further, and steered the car off the road. The beams from the headlights bounced across the trees as they bumped over the rocky ground.
“What are you doing?” She braced her hand against the dashboard as the car lurched through a rocky ditch. “Why did you leave the road?”
“They’ve set up a roadblock closer to town.”
“How do you know that?”
“I overheard some people talking in the parking lot.”
She frowned. “You think they know that Gomez is dead?”
“No. They’re looking for you. Your bodyguard got a good look at me before the lights went out. When he woke up and couldn’t find you, he probably figured I’d kidnapped you.”
Oh, God. Dante was right. That was exactly what Carlos would think. She sank back against the seat, fastening her gaze on the passing timber as the implications sank in. Her father would act at once. He’d scour the countryside, mobilizing the military and mounting an all-out search.
Her forehead suddenly throbbing, she pressed her fingers to her temples and tried to think. “I’ll straighten this out as soon as I get home. I’ll call my father and let him know that I’m all right.”
“He’s not going to believe you.”
“Why not?”
Dante swerved again. “They saw us together in the hall, and we were running away from the guards. How are you going to explain that?”
“I’ll say I was lost, that you were helping me find my way out. And we ran because … because we didn’t know who they were. We thought the guards were someone else, maybe La Brigada raiding the casino. And you were trying to keep me safe.”
“It still won’t work.”
“Of
