Pax glanced at Joel. The slight shake of his head mirrored Pax’s feelings on the subject. It was too early and they had too little information on Kelsey to dump the truth on her. They needed to press her for information on her brother. But not here. Certainly not now.
Joel cleared his throat. “That’s what we’re here to figure out.”
“And you two just happened to show up—”
“Three,” Pax said.
“What?”
He didn’t see a reason to hide the team. “Ben’s out front.”
“How comforting.” She wiggled and pushed until he let her turn around. Anger and confusion battled in her eyes. “You understand why I’m confused. You guys all conveniently show up, claiming to be the good guys.”
Pax knew he’d never used those words. “I get it.”
“And?”
She deserved points for good questions and intelligence. The instructor side of him would pass her without trouble. In real life, her discomfort meant danger. And facing him, she had a clear shot at using the first attack move he taught women to use against men, and he had no intention of falling to his knees in pain.
That meant the conversation was over and he would end it. Right now.
“We’re done with this.” Her breath hiccupped and the sharp intake echoed in his ears as he bent over and lifted her off the ground. She landed on his shoulder with her head at his back. “Let’s go.”
Joel shook his head. “Man, this is a bad solution.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
Kelsey stammered and spoke in half sentences. She finally got out a string of words. “What are you doing?”
“Since you want to do this the hard way, we will.”
Then he walked out the back door as she started to scream.
Chapter Three
Kelsey stopped kicking and squirming as her brain rebooted. She looked down and saw his jeans and back, an odd from-above shot of his butt and the ground racing by beneath his feet. Being upside down with his fat-free shoulder digging into her stomach, she didn’t have a good angle to nail him in the back. That was okay. She needed to save her energy and come up with a plan to get off this guy and out of there.
She also had to beat back the wave of disappointment swamping her. The wounded military hero backstory she’d created in her mind and spun into interesting tales didn’t fit the real man at all. She’d secretly declared him a hottie and thought about him far too often once the workday ended and she lay in her bed.
Now she knew she’d picked the wrong description. Something that summed up a bossy, manhandling secretive liar would have been more appropriate.
Paxton or Pax or whatever he wanted to call himself carried weapons and got all grumbly and demanding when he wanted something. The idea she’d once thought of him as sweet and had piled all those free doughnuts on him … she wanted every delicious calorie back. The least he could have done was gain weight because really, she needed something to slow him down.
Even with the slight limp—an injury she now totally viewed as an act—he’d stalked down the alley with only the barest crunch of gravel beneath his shoes to give away his position. The bouncing steps continued as they rounded the car and walked within a few feet of the SUV’s back door.
Once he got her in there, breaking free could be impossible. No way was she going anywhere with two men she didn’t know. She’d taken the lessons and listened to the lectures. She’d already lived through an attack once in her life, years ago.
She would not be a victim again.
She’d be smart, pick the exact right moment and then run in the direction of the nearest person or telephone, screaming her head off as she went.
The door on the opposite side of the car opened. Twisting around on Pax’s shoulder, she looked through the window and spied Joel sliding across the passenger side of the backseat. She could only guess he was her assigned babysitter for their ride to wherever.
Just as she saw the gun in his hand, her butt smacked against the side of the car as Pax balanced her weight. Keys jangled and the world spun around her, the clear blue sky whizzing by, as her feet finally hit the ground.
Pax kept a steady hand on her arm as he reached for the door handle. “We’re done with the nonsense, right?”
Whatever that meant. She nodded, trying to look obedient and terrified, though that last one wasn’t much of a stretch for her limited acting skills. If the blood pounding in her ears and wild flip-flopping of her stomach were any indication, she registered pretty high on the terror scale.
He ducked his head and stared straight into her eyes. “Kelsey?”
“Fine, yes.” She just needed him to shift an inch or two to the side, move a little out of the way, and she was out of there.
With a click, the door opened. He pulled it toward him with slow precision, coaxing her into the small space he created. Inch by inch she crept closer to being penned in and vulnerable.
No way was this happening a second time. The first scarred her, left her sleep tortured and her trust in tatters for years. The seventeen-year-old version of her made a vow never to go back to that dark place, to fight no matter what, and she intended to honor that promise.
Angling her body, she turned to get a better position and set her weight so she could spring off her back leg and race down the alley to the open street beyond. She launched and miscalculated the opening. Her hip banged off the edge of the door.
Red lights danced in front of her eyes and her leg went numb. Then the pain came roaring on, pulsing and knee-buckling in its intensity. Her mouth dropped open to yelp but no sound escaped.
He threw the door open wide and put his hands on the sides of her waist in a gentle touch that somehow managed to hold her upright. Concern showed in his narrowed eyes. “Are you okay?”
“That hurt like a—”
“I bet.”
He touched his fingers against the throbbing spot on the side of her leg. The rubbing eased the burning enough for her concentration to rev up again. She pushed out all sense of comfort and lowered her head, getting him to look down.
With her hands on his arm, she shoved with all her strength and bolted. She heard him swear as his body thudded against the side of the car. But she was gone. She sprinted down the alley, glancing around for any sign of life or a place to duck and hide. The wind whipped around her as footsteps thudded behind her, growing louder with each step.
“Kelsey, stop!” Pax’s husky voice, fueled with fury, bounced off the brick walls, magnifying the sound.
She saw the bright light at the far end of the alley and headed for it. Thirty feet away, half the distance between the SUV and freedom, a shadow
