“I don’t know.” Gunner kept glancing in the rearview but couldn’t see anything but dust. He needed to call Sutton. He cursed.
“What?” Lily was searching behind them. “I can’t see them.”
“Not sure we could see anything through this dust. I need my phone.”
“To call the police?”
“No, to call my boss.” He gritted his teeth. Sutton would be able to set up somebody to come intercept the men, get Gunner and Lily into a different vehicle, and find them a safe spot to stay. Gunner was confident in his own abilities and training, but at the moment, he had no wallet, no phone, no gun, and two men pursuing them with serious weapons. Two men. Stalkers usually worked alone and those guys had military grade weapons.
“Who’s your boss?”
“Sutton Smith.”
The name didn’t seem to impress her, but if she didn’t have television or a device, she wouldn’t know about his wealthy, famous boss.
“Who hired you?”
He didn’t like how cold and distant Lily felt right now. The relationship they’d been building was probably shattered. That should be the least of his concerns, but he’d been falling hard and fast for her.
He glanced at her, wondering if her mother had been right, and she would try to escape from him once she knew who’d hired him. He’d been able to be evasive with her earlier, but he wasn’t going to outright lie to her. “Your mother.”
Lily’s eyes got even wider. He focused on the road, but he could see her out of the corner of his eye folding her arms tightly across her chest and could feel her withdrawing further. Luckily, she didn’t ask any questions as the road curved sharply, and he had to accelerate into the corner or risk going off into the ditch and endangering Lily further. The fact that those men had shot at them without any consideration of Lily told him they were here to take them out, not kidnap her. The question was, why? Had her mother done something to enrage the stalker and he’d taken his threats to the next level?
The road straightened again, and Gunner pushed his speed. “Can you see them coming?”
“Yes. They’re almost to the corner.”
Gunner jammed the gas pedal down, but the truck was tapped out. They flew down the dirt road. Lily’s posture was tight, but she didn’t say anything. Past some farmhouses, he saw a truck go by on a cross-road.
They approached the road and spun onto it. It was asphalt so the plume of dust wasn’t giving away their location, but on an open country road like this, with very little traffic, and the lesser vehicle, he had no clue how to lose those men. He glanced back at the road they’d been on and the dust flying behind the silver truck easily marked where they were.
“How are you going to lose them?” Lily asked.
“No clue.” Gunner clung to the wheel, his mind spinning. He needed to lose them then he needed to get ahold of Sutton and get Lily somewhere safe. Glancing in his rearview mirror, he saw a red sedan and the silver Chevy behind it. The Chevy raced around the sedan and was gaining on them.
The man in the passenger side leaned out the open window, firing the machine gun at their truck.
“Get down.” Gunner pushed Lily’s head into the seat, ducking as the back window shattered, spraying glass on them. They were exposed now, and he had no weapon or way to defend Lily. The Chevy was right on their tail.
Gunner had an idea and knew he had to act quick. He pulled his seatbelt over his chest. Lily grabbed it from him and snapped it as another hailstorm of bullets hit the back of the truck.
“Sit up as much as you can,” he commanded. He didn’t want to have the seat belt injure her.
“What?” Lily looked at him like he was nuts, but she obeyed, putting her lower back against the seat, and keeping her head down.
Gunner locked up the brakes. The truck skidded, but luckily didn’t flip. The seatbelt caught him in the bare chest. He was going to have some vicious red marks but maybe he, and more importantly, Lily would be alive. The Chevy rammed into them from behind. The man in the passenger seat flew against the windshield. The other man must’ve been wearing his seatbelt as he didn’t fly forward, but the airbags deployed, and the men were lost from sight.
“Yes!” Gunner floored it again and thankfully the truck responded, taking off. He had no clue what damage there was to the back end but these old trucks were built like tanks.
Looking in his rearview, he could see the front of the other truck was crumpled, pushing into the front tires. The airbags still obscured the men from view. He and Lily raced down the road, and the truck receded in the distance.
He glanced over at Lily. “You okay?”
She rubbed at her chest where the seat belt had probably caught her and nodded. “Nice move.”
“Thanks. Now if we can just find a phone.”
No phone, no weapon, no clothes on but swimsuits, no money. His mind was racing trying to pin down Sutton’s phone number. He’d memorized it a year ago, but since then had always just pushed speed dial. Why had he let his guard down the past few days and left his phone, gun, and knife behind when they went boating? This was his fault. They were in a lot of trouble.
Chapter Ten
Lily kept checking behind them, but Gunner’s crazy slamming on the brakes to make the truck rear end them seemed to have worked. She also watched him. He clenched the steering wheel and a muscle worked in his jaw. He was obviously uncomfortable with their situation and prospects, but at least he knew what was going on.
Her mother.
Her stomach rolled at the very thought of her mother sending Gunner her way. To think she’d been attracted to him, imagining he was a great guy, trusting him like she’d never trusted a man. She felt sick and stupid and sad. How dumb could she be? It was time to get some questions answered, or she was ditching him.
“Why did my mother hire you?” she asked.
“A stalker has been after her for a while. Recently he threatened you. So she hired Sutton Smith’s men to protect herself and you.”
Lily harrumphed and folded her arms across her chest. She shifted on the sticky bench seat, wishing she had more on than a swimming suit. “My mother might have a stalker, but she exaggerates everything.” Those men shooting machine guns at them proved something was seriously amiss, and all evil in her life rooted back to her mother, but she very much doubted Gunner got a straight story when he was hired. It made her feel a bit of compassion for him, but he had made her fall for him on false pretenses, so she wasn’t too inclined to go soft on him right now.
“According to her, the stalker has threatened to kill her if she doesn’t agree to sleep with him. When she didn’t succumb to his threats, he started threatening you.”
“And you believed her?” She’d been vacant from her mother’s dysfunctional life for six years and nobody with a brain would threaten her to get to her mother. Bella Jolie hated her desperately. She couldn’t believe Gunner would buy her mother’s stories. Yet most people believed her mother’s lies, and men were especially susceptible. She’d thought highly of Gunner.
Gunner glanced at her, his dark eyes somber. “Honestly?”
“Yeah, I’d appreciate some honesty from you right about now.”
He nodded. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you everything up front. Bella Jolie claimed you’d bail if you knew.”
Bella Jolie had been right. Gunner had played this perfectly until now. She’d trusted and liked him. “Just answer the question. You believed her?” She was still reeling from knowing this incredible man wasn’t into her, he was paid to protect her, but if he believed her mother she might jump out of the truck and risk dying on the highway or those men catching up with her.
He glanced in the rearview, then spoke, “I thought your mother was a crazy, drama queen, and I’d have a hard time believing she did anything that wasn’t self-serving, but I’ve seen the notes from the stalker and those men who just tried to kill us weren’t exactly a daydream.”
“Why would a stalker try to kill us?” He wa
s right about her mother being a self-serving, crazy, drama queen, and also about the men chasing them; they were very real, and very terrifying.
“That’s my biggest question right now, too.”
“And? What’s your conclusion with your vast military experience? Or was that a lie? Are you really Gunner Steele?”
“Yes, I am. I retired from the SEALs a year ago,” he said stiffly. “And I don’t have an answer. Usually a stalker would work alone. Maybe your mother did something to really tick him off, and he sent those men after us. I don’t know.”
“My mother hates me and disowned me when I left her, the minute I turned eighteen. Nobody would believe that threatening me would matter to her at all.”
His brow wrinkled. “She claimed she loved you and was worried about you.”
Lily rolled her eyes and looked out the window. She’d been so happy away from her mother and especially these past few days with Gunner, and now this. It seemed her mother was intent on trying to ruin Lily’s life with her lies and abuse, even after all these years.
The speed limit dropped, and they drove into the town of Swan Lake. There was an old convenience store on the right Thomas Merc. Gunner dodged into the parking lot but eased around the north side of the store, parking out of sight of the road. “Hopefully the owner’s feeling charitable,” he muttered.
He opened his door, but then focused on her. “Will you please come with me?”
“Worried I’ll try to run away?”
Studying her face, he finally nodded. “That’s why I didn’t tell you the truth up front. I apologize for that. Your mother said you’d bolt if you knew.”
Lily’s eyebrows rose. “She was right. I loathe her, and I don’t trust her.” And now she didn’t trust him. She’d opened her heart to him more in the past three days than she’d done with anyone in years. Losing trust in him, and losing the idealistic vision of having an innocent and real relationship with Gunner seemed to hurt as much as anything Bella Jolie had done to her over the years.
Gunner pushed out a heavy breath. “Look, I don’t blame you. I was … not impressed by her and truthfully I thought protecting that crazy woman’s daughter would be a nightmare.”
She gestured around at the truck hidden behind an old convenience store and them in only their swimsuits. They didn’t even have shoes for crying out loud. “This is somehow … not a nightmare?”
Gunner’s eyes and mouth softened, and she thought any other man might’ve smiled, but he was so serious. “Normal day of work for me.”
“I don’t envy your life.”
“Few do.”
“So how is this not a nightmare?”
“You,” he said simply. “You’re chill, funny, independent, strong, and beautiful. You are nothing like your mother.”
Lily was taken aback by the compliment. It felt so sincere, and even now she didn’t sense duplicity in Gunner. Could he be the man she thought she’d been getting to know or was this all just a job to him?
He stepped out of the truck onto the weeds and grimaced. She didn’t relish walking across the poky weeds and gravel to the store.
“Will you please come with me?” he asked again.
“Because I might bolt?”
He lifted his muscular shoulders. “I’m more worried about those men catching up and us being separated.”
She glanced at his hand then at him. “Okay,” she conceded. She had a lot of concerns about Gunner, hated that he’d hidden who he was from her, and that he’d been hired by her mother, but she didn’t feel compelled to get away from him. Choosing between him and those men trying to kill her was a no-brainer. Him, every day.
She scooted across the bench seat to the edge of the driver’s side. She waited for him to step back, so she could slide to the ground and pull a face like he’d done as her bare feet were assaulted by weeds and rocks. Instead, he put one hand under her legs and the other behind her back and swooped her into the air.
Lily’s arms instinctively went around his neck, and his bare chest against her side made heat rush through her. She had to remind herself she was frustrated with him and definitely didn’t need to be thinking about how attracted she was to him right now.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“These weeds are vicious. I thought I’d save your feet.” He stared at her, so close she could see how tempting his well-formed lips were. She really wanted to touch the hair covering his cheeks and jawline. She cursed herself for letting her mind go to either spot. They were fleeing from those men, and she didn’t know that she could trust one too-attractive, military boy—Gunner Steele. She wished she had her computer so she could Google him. She’d told him she didn’t watch TV or have a phone, but she did have a laptop with Wi-Fi. Back at her trailer. She wished she was there right now with Gunner holding her in his arms. Too bad her wishes weren’t about to come true. Rummikub was dead to them.
“My feet thank you,” she said.
He cracked a small grin, hefted her higher in his arms, and strode to the side of the building. Peeking around, he must not have seen anything concerning as he kept crunching through weeds and gravel into the front of the store. She winced for him, but he didn’t act like it even hurt. They entered the quiet store.
Gunner lowered her onto her feet and released her. Lily’s eyes adjusted to the dingy interior, but her body didn’t adjust as well to the lack of closeness to Gunner. That was stupid. She couldn’t let herself fall for the man her mother hired to protect her. Two things bothered her about that: that Gunner would willingly work for her mother, and that he would hide the truth from Lily and gain her trust so easily. She also couldn’t believe that her mother would waste any time, money, or effort on protecting Lily. She doubted there was even a stalker coming after her. Maybe Gunner was as fabulous an actor as her mother and she’d sent him here to use Lily for some kind of promotion or fame. Could those gunmen have been for show too? Who knew with her mother’s sadistic and imaginative mind? Her own mind whirred, wondering who she could trust, wishing it was Gunner.
“Greetings,” a sixty-something man called from the nearby counter. Above his head there was a prominent sign that read, “No shoes, no shirt, big problem.”
Lily pointed to it, and then to her feet, smiling. “So we’re a ‘big problem’?”
He didn’t return her smile, and his eyes narrowed at Gunner. “Maybe.”
Gunner strode up to the counter. “Can we please use a phone to call the police?”
The man’s eyebrows lifted. “You two okay?” He focused on Lily as he said it, as if Gunner had her captive.
Gunner shrugged and the man’s gaze hardened as he met Gunner’s eyes.
“We’re in some trouble,” Gunner admitted.
The man’s eyes trailed over him, concern evident in his gaze. “You look like you could give anybody trouble.”
Lily thought of Josh and Blake always teasing her about looking for trouble. Such innocence was long gone. She couldn’t really blame this man for being intimidated by Gunner. It wasn’t just the strength in his lean muscles, there was an innate confidence about Gunner that bordered on: I could take over the world and no one could stop me.
“Not without a phone, clothes, or a weapon,” Gunner said. He grimaced at the word weapon. She’d known military personnel who felt more naked without a weapon than they did without pants. Was that how Gunner felt? She wanted to know, but then reminded herself they weren’t falling in like anymore. Far from it, sadly.
“I don’t know that you need any of those to be dangerous.” The man was obviously uncomfortable and looked as if he were trying to decide if he was just going to call the police himself. “You want to tell me the story?”
“We haven’t got time for a story.” Gunner said the words calmly, but Lily could feel the tension rising in him and the man’s entire frame radiated nervousness and uncertainty. Gunner’s eyes darted to the window, but the road was still clear.
Lily was stil
l leery of Gunner and his intentions, but those bullets had been real that hit the truck, and she’d take her chances with Gunner over those men catching up to them. She had to try to help. “We were wakeboarding with some friends at Twin Lakes. These dudes jumped out of their truck and shot at us. We cruised to the other side of the lake, took our friends’ truck, and the men came after us, shot out our back window. Gunner slammed on the brakes and they rear-ended us. Their airbags went off and hopefully it wrecked their truck, but we don’t know. They could be coming any minute. Please let him call the police.” She rushed out the words so fast she hoped they made sense.
The man didn’t move, except his eyes narrowed. “Is that right, miss?”
“Please,” Gunner said. “We have no reason to lie to you.”
The man finally held up a phone and dialed. Lily’s stomach tumbled. Was he going to have the police come after them? Being arrested would be safer than the men with machine guns.
“Yes … we need some help. Just a moment.” He extended the cell phone to Gunner.
“Thank you.” Gunner didn’t immediately put it to his ear. “What’s the area less than ten miles south of here called?” he asked the man.
“Banida.”
“And this highway?”
“91.”
“I need to report a crime,” Gunner said into the phone. He paused. “Two men in a silver Chevy truck. They have machine guns and shot at us. I locked up my brakes and they rear-ended us, deployed their air bags. The accident happened on Highway 91, just north of Banida. My name is Gunner Steele. I work for Sutton Smith. You can check with your superior officer for both of our credentials. Yes, I’ll hold.” As soon as he said it, he hung up, screwed up his face in concentration and then dialed.
Lily kept searching out the window, and then glancing back at the man. He was drumming his fingers on the counter, focused on Gunner.
Gunner must’ve misdialed because he said, “Pardon me.” Then he pushed some more numbers. “Sutton.” His shoulders relaxed. “I’m in a mess.” He paced away from them to the front window and his next words weren’t all clear. Something about Lily, the men, needing help.
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