by Nicole Helm
She’d fought off someone and locked him in a bathroom, and Holden didn’t want to tear whoever it was limb from damn limb until there was nothing left. Not in the moment.
He wanted to scoop her up and get her away from here. He wanted to deposit her back at her farm and keep her safe and sound. He wanted to erase the wounds on her face and comfort her. Heal her. Apologize, prostrate, for ever having let her out of his sight.
He wanted, so desperately, to make it okay.
But that wasn’t his job.
He jerked the pipe out of the door handle and opened the door, leading with his gun barrel.
The man sat on his butt in the middle of the bathroom. His face was bleeding, his hand hung at an odd angle. He looked up at Holden with venom in his gaze. “I don’t care if I die.”
It was a bluff. Holden could read the terror in the man’s gaze. Maybe surprise that Willa wasn’t such an easy target. He was trying to put on a brave face, but he was terrified of dying.
Which meant he didn’t think he’d die by failing this mission. Odd. Still, Holden would play the game. “Then it’s good I’m not going to kill you,” Holden replied, though he held the gun pointed at the man. Not at his chest or head as the man might have expected. “Just shoot off an important piece of anatomy.”
The man covered his hands over his crotch, eyes widening. “Hey.”
“Three seconds to tell me what you know.” All the ocean of feelings inside him had been cordoned off. His voice was mostly flat. If there was any inflection, it was pure violence.
“The cops’ll come. That cashier knows you’re the only one who’s—”
“Three.”
“—been here. You’ll be wanted for murder.”
“Two.”
“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into here, son. Just let me go and—”
“One,” Holden said with a shrug, flicking the safety off the gun.
“All right! Don’t...” The man huddled in the corner of the stinky, scummy bathroom and held up his hands. “You can have her. I know they put an open call out and all, but a couple grand isn’t enough to kill another guy over. Come on, man. We’re all just trying to make a buck.”
Holden’s brain scrambled to put that information together. Open call. So, he wasn’t the only one after Willa. He glanced at her quickly. She still stood right there, looking like death.
Your fault, Parker.
He looked back at the man. Open call. A couple grand. “Funny, I met another guy who said the same thing. He made the mistake of getting in my way.”
“I won’t. Promise. I’ve got other jobs. You take the girl.” He held up his clearly broken hand. “Too much trouble. I don’t want her. I’d take a percentage...” The main trailed off as Holden’s finger curled around the trigger.
“Okay, okay. No percentage. You take her and drop her off. You take the money. Just let me go and I’ll disappear.”
Drop-off. “Where’d they tell you to drop her off? Because the last guy either had a different point, or he was lying to me.” Holden shrugged. “I don’t like it when people lie to me.”
“Different...” The man didn’t even try to hide his confusion. “You mean they’re giving us different ones?”
Holden shrugged. “Seems like. Which one they give you?”
His expression went cagey. “Which one they give you?”
“Who’s got the gun, smart guy? I...incapacitated the last guy who didn’t answer me. I’ll do the same to you. No skin off my nose.”
“For a couple grand? Surely you aren’t that desperate,” the man said, a wheedling note to his voice.
“Think again, friend.”
“Fine. Whatever. I’m out of this one. Killdare Wildlife Refuge. Lake three.”
Holden nodded. “Guess the last guy was lying to me. You’ll live.” But Holden slammed the door and shoved the pipe back in the handle. It immediately began to rattle.
“Hey! Hey, let me out of here.” The man banged on the door, but Holden slid his arm around Willa’s waist and pulled her forward. “We got to get out of here and quick. Can you jog or do you want me to carry you?”
“I can...”
But Holden didn’t bother. She wasn’t steady on her feet, so he swept her up into his arms.
“Hey,” she protested—weakly at best.
He carried her to the car, hoping they could get out of here before the cashier wondered where her bathroom key had gone. He carried Willa all the way to the car and deposited her in the passenger seat.
He resisted every urge to check her wounds, to buckle her up. They had to get out of here before the police got involved.
He skirted the hood and got in the driver’s side. The cashier was coming out the front door of the station, yelling at them to stop.
Holden didn’t stop. He got in the car and drove. Fast.
He had to get away from here, and any police interference. Then he’d figure out where to go from there.
“Hey. Eyes open,” he said sharply when hers started to droop. “Where’s this nature area?”
“I don’t know,” she mumbled.
“Yes, you do. You need to tell me how to get there.”
She blinked, straightening in her seat. “I’m not familiar with it. It can’t be around here.”
Holden swore under his breath. “Grab my phone and search for it, Willa.”
She slumped again. “My head hurts.”
“I know. I know it does.” He bit back an endearment and had to fight the desperate need to stop the car and take care of her wounds. But they had to get somewhere safe. “But you don’t want to pass out, do you?”
“No.” She blinked a few times, squinted. She lifted her hand.
“Don’t do that,” he said sharply, and she dropped her hand before touching the gash on her forehead. “Grab the phone. Look up Killdare Wildlife Refuge.”
She blew out a breath and grabbed his phone. He watched her out of the corner of one eye, keeping his attention on the road as much as he could.
Her fingers were clumsy, but she tapped something into his phone. She squinted at the screen. “It’s up in the corner.”
“What corner?” Holden demanded. Every ounce of energy was centered on making himself keep going.
“You know. The corner.” She made a vague hand motion. “South Dakota. Wyoming. That corner.”
Holden frowned. Nebraska meeting South Dakota and Wyoming. There weren’t any decent-size towns in that area, but he wasn’t familiar with the wildlife refuge either. Worse, that was hours away.
But he did know of a North Star safe house in that general area. They could get there, duck out of police notice and patch her up. Regroup. Come up with a plan.
He glanced at her, still squinting at his phone. She was bloody and there were bruises already blooming on her face and neck. It made him want to tear something apart. Or maybe turn back around and go ahead and shoot the moron in the bathroom.
But they couldn’t do that. Especially if the cashier had already called the police.
“You’ll tell me if you feel sick,” Holden ordered, increasing his speed as he put his full focus on the road in front of him. “If your vision doubles. Anything majorly off, you tell me. And for the love of God, don’t try to touch it.”
“You’re so bossy,” she said grumpily. “Do you think my parents are there? At this refuge?”
“No. He was supposed to drop you off. Doubtful they’re there.”
“He wasn’t anybody, was he? Just some random...bad guy. Trying to get paid. He didn’t know anything. He’s not the real threat.”
“He did enough of a number on you.”
She shook her head, then winced. “I was paying attention. I looked at the cars. The people. He shouldn’t have been there.”
�
�But he was. That ambush could have killed you.”
She made a scoffing sound. “I don’t see how. I kicked his butt with no help from you.”
Holden wasn’t sure how he’d ever live with those minutes of buying drinks and snacks and taking his sweet time to check on her. When he knew they were in danger... He’d just been so sure they were too sneaky...
They had been. No one could have followed them. Something was off. So off.
Unless someone knew she’d go for that car in the storage facility. He slid her a look. She was deathly pale and bleeding. He could hardly float the idea her parents were giving the wrong people information about her when she was beaten up.
Because of him.
Worse than even that, there was the fact ammunition had been delivered to Evening, and that moron in the bathroom hadn’t used it. Hadn’t had it on him.
Was there someone else? Someone not so bad at their job. Someone who knew something. Someone who was tracking them, even now?
Holden checked his rearview mirror. No signs of a tail, but that didn’t mean they were in the clear.
“You see a town up there called Vollmer? That’s where we’re headed. You navigate. Back roads as much as possible.”
“I just want to go to sleep,” she said, sounding so sad he thought his heart might crack in two.
But he didn’t have time to have a heart right now. “You’ll stay awake, Willa. One way or another. Now. Where should I turn next?”
Chapter Thirteen
Willa’s head was pounding. She felt sweaty and nauseous. Still, she stared at the map on Holden’s phone and told him where to go. She didn’t mention wanting to puke. Or how badly she wanted a drink of water or a bottle of pain relievers.
She just told him where to go. She understood how important it was for them to get out of range of the police. There was no doubt in her mind the cashier had called the police. No doubt in her mind she would have given a very good description of Holden and Willa to the police at that.
They’d been driving for hours, though. It felt like days. Still, no one had stopped them. And they hadn’t stopped. Holden drove a bit like a bat out of hell, and every bump jarred her quickly stiffening body.
But she could tell they’d made some progress. There were trees now. Far more rock outcroppings than there were back in Evening.
“Hand me the phone,” he ordered.
He’d been so stiff and authoritative the whole drive. She understood it was because there was a danger they didn’t understand and couldn’t predict. Because he had a lead, and now he needed to follow it.
And she suspected he was being so...uptight because she’d been hurt. She didn’t know why that’d make him all robotic, but she couldn’t ignore the fact he hadn’t acted like this the whole time—even after she’d tried to beat him with a fire poker.
Still, she was too...drained and hurting and miserable to try and fight with him right now. She handed him the phone and didn’t even complain when he kept driving like crazy with one eye on his phone.
He took a couple unexpected turns that had her entire body jostling as he went off-road.
“What on earth are you...” She trailed off as a small cabin, completely surrounded by trees, came into view. He didn’t slow up, and the car stopped just inches away from the front door.
“Where are we?”
He didn’t answer, just got out of the car. She moved to follow, pushing open the door, but he was there before she’d gotten it half-open. He had her up in his arms again before she could move.
She could walk and she opened her mouth to tell him so, but she wanted desperately to simply lay her head against his shoulder and go to sleep, knowing she’d be safe here—in his arms. The image was so appealing, and everything hurt, so she just...let herself. Rest her head on him, close her eyes and let him take her wherever. She didn’t even open her eyes when he stepped into the cabin. She let herself drift until he was putting her down on a surprisingly soft mattress.
“Don’t go to sleep,” he said sharply. But her eyes were drifting closed again, and sleep seemed like a wonderful alternative to...everything.
She vaguely heard him banging around in another room. It kept her from fully falling to sleep, but she could still kind of float in a weird, gray, exhausted, pained space.
Until he took her by the shoulders. She’d lain down and didn’t quite remember it, but he pulled her into a sitting position. When she opened her eyes, he was scowling at her. But his face was close and his eyes were on hers.
So incredibly blue. She’d seen multiple oceans, seen the bright blue of a tropical island. She’d seen so many blues the world had to offer, and still his eyes reminded her of a Nebraska winter sky, on the days the wind was so cold it felt like knives, but also like the world was hers and hers alone.
Then he pushed something against the throbbing pain on her temple, and she yelped in surprise. Then groaned at the stinging burn of what she could only assume was some kind of antiseptic.
He did it again, and she tried to bat his hands away. “Stop that,” she said to him, trying to squirm out of his reach.
“You stop that,” he returned, holding her in place with one arm. “I’ve got to clean you up.”
“Use water,” she said, still trying to fight him off, though she didn’t have much energy to put any strength behind it.
“Sit still,” he ordered through gritted teeth. “You had a fight in a middle-of-nowhere gas station bathroom. You’re lucky I’m not dropping you into a tub of bleach.”
Willa grimaced, suddenly feeling ten times grimier than she had. “I need a shower.”
“You need to sit still and let me make sure there aren’t any serious injuries here.” When she tried to wiggle away from him again, he blew out a breath. “Was I such a baby when you were bandaging me up?”
“You were unconscious.”
“I can arrange it.”
“Big talk,” she muttered. Then sighed. “I guess we’re going to have matching head wounds.”
He grunted, still prodding at the pain in her head. It still stung, but not with the same force. He lifted her hair out of the way, this way and that. “I think you should be okay without stitches,” he muttered before dropping her hair. He studied her face with narrowed eyes, and then his hand was on her cheek. “Does anything else hurt?” he demanded, holding her face gently and staring at her fiercely, practically nose to nose.
Her whole body hurt, and she wondered just what he’d do if she told him that. Would he touch her everywhere?
Honestly, Willa, is now the time for silly fantasies?
She didn’t mind making time for them usually, even when in danger, but her heart was thudding dangerously against her chest, and she couldn’t break the moment. If he didn’t, she was liable to do something incredibly stupid. Like touch him back. “It was a fight, Holden. I won.”
He muttered something truly filthy and then, in direct contrast to his swearing, gently laid his forehead against hers, his big, rough hand still cupping her cheek.
She was almost afraid to move, afraid to breathe. He was touching her with such gentle reverence, like she meant something to him, and she wanted...
Well, she wanted that. Even more when his mouth touched hers. It was light. Featherlight. The gentlest touch of lips.
Her eyes fluttered closed, and she sank into it. Hey, he started it. Why not apply a little pressure, fit her bottom lip at the seam of his lips. Reach out, slowly and gently so as not to break the moment, and rest her hands on his shoulders.
He was so tense there, and yet his mouth was still gentle on hers.
“I’m...sorry.” The words were unexpected, but any sting she might have felt by them was completely undercut by the fact his lips were still touching hers...as if he couldn’t quite bring himself to pull away.
“For
what?” she asked, a little too breathlessly, making sure her lips didn’t leave his until he did the pulling away.
He pushed off the bed and stood. “Everything.” He stepped away, first running his hands through his hair then over his face. “This has been a mess from top to bottom, and the last thing I should have done was take advantage of you.”
She wanted to think it was sweet, but the last part irritated her. If she was a different kind of woman, like the kind of women he seemed to work with, he wouldn’t feel guilty. He just thought she was...fragile. “Well, don’t be stupid,” she snapped.
“It isn’t stupid.”
“It is. That kiss wouldn’t take advantage of a pig.”
“I’m sorry... What?”
“It was a nothing kiss, Holden. I mean, I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy it, because I did. Immensely. But it wasn’t an advantage when I could have backed away, pushed you off.”
“You’ve been injured. You might have a concussion. I didn’t even bandage you up, I just—”
“Oh, shut up. Congratulations. You ruined it. Now, is there a shower in this place? Never mind. I’ll find it.” And she set out to do just that, letting her anger lead the way.
* * *
HOLDEN HAD NO idea what had just happened. He had no idea what had come over him. Just that she was safe and beautiful, but hurt and... He’d just needed to...
It was ridiculous. He’d been out of line. The apology had been the appropriate response, even if it had been a nothing kiss.
It hadn’t felt like nothing. It felt like being turned inside out. It felt like being absolved of every mistake he’d ever made, and there was no way he could ever be absolved.
He heard the pipes groan. She must have found the shower. Something he wouldn’t allow himself to think about too deeply.
There wasn’t time to think about anything, except...this assignment that didn’t add up. Too many pieces, not enough information, and what little information he had didn’t make much sense.
They wanted to take Willa. That was clear. If they had her parents, and were trying to get some kind of information out of them, bringing in Willa would be an incentive for them to spill the beans.