battled against the heavy thoughts, blocking them out. If he lived, correction, when he got them out of this mess, he’d deal with those. Yeah, right, like that’s going to happen.
The reality was that he’d had plenty of time since returning to work to rationalize his feelings. Doing that ranked about as high on his list as shoveling cow manure out of the barn at Gran’s place. He took that back. Shoveling cow manure was far more appealing.
Reed glanced at Emily, who was not more than a ball in the floorboard. Her face scrunched in pain from being forced to move. The thought of doubling her agony lanced his chest. “Hang tight. I’ll get us to safety soon.”
She glanced at him through fearful hazel eyes. “Maybe we should break up. I can hide on my own. Might be better now that they know we’re together.”
Was she still worried he’d run her in? Handing her over to his agency would only put her in more jeopardy. “Not a chance.”
Anxiety and fear played across her features.
A need to protect Emily surged, catching Reed off guard, because it ran deeper than his professional oath. He knew exactly what it was like to be in her position—to be the target of someone who had a dirty agent in their pocket. Reed had a bullet hole in his back to prove it.
“I’m your best option right now. And I’m not ready to let you out of my sight.”
Pain rippled through Emily’s bruised and battered body as she crouched low and hugged her knees into her chest, making herself as small as possible in the floorboard. One of her ribs had to be cracked. The sharp pain in her chest sliced through her thoughts. Being run through a cheese grater would hurt less than the bruises on her face and body.
The agent, Reed, had said she could trust him. He’d said the magic words—he wasn’t hauling her butt in to Homeland Security. And yet, her internal alarm system was still set to red alert. Why? What was it about him that had her wanting to run? Was it the alarming comfort his presence brought?
Sporadic turns and the sound of another shotgun blast said they still had company. Emily didn’t dare try to peek even though her tightly coiled nerves might break at any moment if she didn’t know what was happening. Even so, she doubted her body would be able to respond to her brain’s command to get up.
Reed swerved the car left and then made a hard right. “Wish I’d been alone when I found you. That would make things less complicated.”
“Would you have believed me?”
His compressed frown said it all. No, he wouldn’t have. “I owe you an apology for that.”
“I don’t blame you. I’m sure you deal with all kinds of crazy people in your work.”
“Most have nothing to lose when they run into me. And I’ve learned logic is a better resource than instinct.”
He was used to being shot at? That revelation shouldn’t reassure her. Oddly enough, that’s exactly what it did. Maybe because she had no clues how to escape armed men or dodge bullets and there was no way she’d still be alive without his expertise. Her world had been catapulted into a whole new stratosphere of danger. Having a man around who knew how to use a gun and was on her side didn’t seem like the worst thing that could happen.
Yet, depending on anyone was foreign to her. Thoughts of too many hours of her childhood spent crouched low in the corner behind her bed while her mother experienced “free love” in the next room assaulted Emily. She’d been old enough to remember what it was like to live in a suburb with a normal family and a father whom she believed loved her. Her fairy-tale world had ended the day he left. Emily squeezed her eyes tighter, trying to block out the memory.
Emily slowly counted to a hundred to keep her mind busy, refusing to let fear seize her when more bullets came at them. They pinged by her head tat-tat-tat style, and she knew by the sound difference that whoever was chasing them had changed weapons.
“I can lose them around this bend or when I get on this highway. This turn is going to get hairy, so hang on.”
Chancing a glance at Reed, seeing someone who wasn’t afraid, held her nerves a notch below panic. However, the contents of her stomach retaliated at the high rate of speed combined with sharp turns. She’d probably eaten too fast because the burger and milkshake churned. “Are they still back there?”
“Get back in the seat belt. The threat has tripled, and we’re going to sustain a hit.” The authority in his voice sent a trill of worry through her.
“Okay.” She struggled to move, wincing as she planted one hand on the glove compartment and the other on the seat, praying she could gain enough leverage to push herself up from her awkward position on the floorboard. Her arms gave out and she landed hard, racking up another bruise on her hip.
A glance at Reed said they were almost out of time.
“Brace yourself for impact.” He tapped the brake and swerved.
Emily lurched forward, her head caught by Reed’s right hand moments before it hit the dash. Pushing through the pain, she pressed up to the seat and quickly fastened the belt over her shoulder.
Large SUVs pulled on each side of them as the truck she recognized from earlier roared up from behind.
The quick look Reed shot her next said whatever was about to happen wasn’t going to be good. He floored the gas pedal, shooting out front. Temporarily.
On the right, the SUV hit the brakes. The one on the left barreled beside them, keeping pace.
The window of opportunity to hop onto the freeway and lose these guys was closing with the SUV on the left blocking the on-ramp.
A bumper crunched against the back of the Jeep. Emily’s head whipped forward.
Dueño’s reach had long arms. Just as he had promised. Could Emily envision a life on the run? No. She’d fought too hard to put down roots. She’d found a new city, bought a town house and worked her butt off to be next in line for her boss’s job. Dueño was forcing her into a different direction. Anger burned through her.
Another hard jerk of the steering wheel and Emily felt herself tumbling, spinning.
Reed’s rich timbre penetrated the out-of-control Ferris wheel. “Relax as much as you can.”
Time temporarily suspended. Emily drifted out of her own body as the spinning slowed, and then stopped.
Everything went black, but she still could hear shouting. Someone was yelling at her. A deeply masculine voice called. She coughed and blinked her eyes open.
Smoke was everywhere.
Everything burned. Her nose. Her eyes. Her throat.
Her body might’ve stopped spinning, but her head hadn’t.
“Emily. Stay with me.” The voice came from a tunnel filled with light.
Or did it?
There
