by Linda Turner
Panic pooled in her mouth at the thought. No! She couldn’t just go meekly along with him. If he thought he would overpower her without a fight, he was in for a rude awakening. She’d gouge his eyes out—
“I’m not going to hurt you,” he growled in a low whisper that didn’t carry past her ears. “Your brother sent me.”
If he hadn’t had his hand clamped over her mouth, she would have laughed. Her brother?! Yeah, right. Did he really think she was stupid enough to buy that story? The only way he could know she had a brother was if he was hired by the same man who sent the first set of kidnappers after her. The same man, she thought, blanching, who’d ordered her to be killed if her family didn’t leave the ranch in forty-eight hours.
Clawing at the hand that pinched her mouth to keep her quiet, she knew her new kidnapper wasn’t going to wait forty-eight hours. He was going to kill her now and get it over with.
Terrified, she kicked and clawed and silently called him every filthy name she could think of. For a moment, she thought she was making progress when the heel of her hand connected with his nose. He grunted…and locked his fingers around her wrists like a set of handcuffs. In the next instant, he jerked her hands behind her, and before she could do anything but gasp, she was chest to chest with him and totally helpless.
Caught in the trap of his steely blue gaze, she froze…and heard the roar of her blood in her ears. Suddenly, she was aware of just how strong he was, how close, how hard. Her mouth went dry, and she should have been scared out of her mind. Instead, she’d never been so furious in her life. How dare he manhandle her! “Let go of me, you slimy piece of—”
In the darkness, his eyes narrowed, but he only snapped, “Watch your mouth. I’m trying to help you, but if you insist on doing this the hard way, you’ll be the one who suffers.” And with no more warning than that, he jerked open the driver’s door of the van she’d seen in the alley earlier and pushed her inside.
He released her for just a second so he could climb in after her, but that was all the time she needed. Sobbing, she threw herself across the van and jerked open the passenger door.
Run. Run. RUN! a voice screamed in her ear, but her feet never had a chance to hit the pavement. An arm snaked around her waist, snaring her, and she was hauled, kick and screaming, back into the van and tossed into her seat like a sack of potatoes.
“Bastard! Jerk! You’re not going to get away with this! Do you hear me? My brother will hunt you down like the miserable scumbag you are and make you wish you’d never laid eyes on me. Let go of me!”
“No problem,” he snarled, and hit the door lock, making it impossible for her to escape. She was still cussing at him when he jerked out his phone and punched in a number. When the caller came on the line, he held the phone out to her. “It’s your brother,” he told her coldly.
Stunned, she grabbed the phone. “Buck?”
“Are you all right?”
Tears welled in her eyes at the sound of her brother’s familiar voice. “I thought I was being kidnapped again.”
“You were,” he said gruffly. “It was the only way I could think of to get you back. Did they hurt you?”
They both knew he was asking if she’d been raped. “No,” she choked. “They were more interested in killing me in forty-eight hours.”
“I knew the minute I met Donovan, he’d find you. He’s a bounty hunter,” he added. “You’re in good hands, Sis.”
“I’m sorry I insisted on coming back,” she said tearfully. “How did anyone know I was here?”
“I don’t know—I’m still trying to figure that out. For now, though, you’re safe,” he assured her. “That’s what’s important. Now we just have to keep you that way. Let me talk to Donovan again.”
“You mean the Neanderthal?”
He chuckled. “Be nice. He’s your new best friend.”
“Yeah, right,” she sniffed, and handed the phone to the man who was grinning at her smugly. “Buck wants to talk to you.”
Taking the phone, he said, “Yes, sir?”
“I owe you.”
“No, you don’t,” Donovan said easily. “I was just doing my job. So what’s next? Where are you? I’ll drop her off wherever you’re staying.”
“I appreciate the offer,” Buck said, “but plans have changed. I need you to keep her with you for the next month.”
Donovan nearly dropped the phone. “You must be joking.”
“It’s the only way to keep her safe.”
“The hell it is!” he retorted. “She’ll be a hell of a lot safer in Colorado. She can be back with her family at the ranch by this time tomorrow.”
“She’ll never get that far,” Buck said soberly. “They know she couldn’t have gone far. Whoever arranged this is probably already turning the city upside down looking for her. She’s in danger until the ranch is ours. She needs you. We need you.”
Donovan didn’t doubt for a second that he could protect her, but was he prepared to spend a month with her? The lady was a handful—and she didn’t trust him as far as she could throw him. If he was dumb enough to do this, he knew she’d make his life a living hell.
“No,” he said firmly. “I’m not a babysitter. That wasn’t part of the deal.”
“You’ll be doing a hell of a lot more than babysitting,” Buck told him. “I don’t have time to go into everything right now—my flight back to the States has just been called—but the bastards who kidnapped her are bound to be watching the airports, hoping to get their hands on her a second time. And if they do, they’ll kill her this time. That’s how badly they want the ranch.”
“Which is why you need to get her out of the country as soon as possible,” Donovan pointed out.
“I realize that, but it’s not that easy, dammit. I’ve dealt with this for nearly a year, and it’s like trying to catch a ghost. We don’t know what the enemy looks like. It could be anyone, including the baggage clerk at the airport, which means Priscilla’s not safe anywhere…except with you.” He exhaled. “You’re damn resourceful—you found her when no one else could. You’ll be able to keep her safe until you can find a way to get her out of England. I don’t know anyone else who can do that.”
At a loss, Donovan hesitated. Did Buck know what he was asking of him? “I don’t know, Buck…”
“I’ll double your fee.”
Donovan liked to think he wasn’t a fool, especially when it came to money. A job was a job. And he could handle little Miss Priss. “All right,” he said. “But you can tell her. She’s not going to be happy about it.”
“I can’t,” he said. “We’re about to take off—we’ve just been told to turn off all electronics. Tell Priscilla I love her and I’ll see her in a month. Keep her safe. I’m counting on you.”
“Wait a minute. What if—” That was as far as he got before the line went dead. Swearing, Donovan snapped the phone shut and tossed it into a cupholder. “Great! This is just great!”
Beside him, Priscilla eyed him suspiciously. “What is? What am I not going to be happy about? What did Buck say?”
“He’s pretty sure the airports are being watched,” he said bluntly, “so leaving the country, at least for now, is out of the question. He thinks you’ll be safer with me, anyway.”
“What?! Oh, no. I’m going home.”
“Not right now you’re not,” he informed her. “He just hired me to watch over you for the next month.”
“The hell he did!”
A grin propped up one side of his mouth. So the fireworks were about to begin. “He doubled my fee, sweetheart,” he chuckled. “Like it or not, it looks like you’re stuck with me.”
“For a month? You’re out of your mind. In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m not a child.”
Appreciation glinted in his eyes. “Oh, I noticed, all right.”
She gave him a withering look. “Stuff it, Mr.—” Trying to remember his name, she frowned. “What the devil is your name? Dirk? Darryl?”
“Donovan Jones
,” he said with a grin. “But you can call me Mr. Jones.”
“In your dreams,” she snorted. “Keep this up and I’ll call you—”
“Wonderful…studly…Superman—”
“Irritating…obnoxious—”
“George.”
Surprised, she blinked. “George?”
“Clooney.”
Caught off guard, she laughed. “You must be joking.”
For a moment, she thought she’d insulted him. Something that looked like hurt flashed in his steely blue eyes. Then she saw his lips twitch, and alarm bells went off in her head. He was, she realized, far more dangerous than she’d first suspected. He was one of those men who was far too sure of himself, who knew how to set a woman’s heart pounding with just a smile and a twinkle in his eyes. And she had to spend a month with him? No way!
“I’m calling Buck,” she told him, snatching up his phone. “I don’t need anyone to take care of me.”
“You’d have a better argument if I hadn’t just rescued you from those two thugs,” he pointed out dryly, “but go ahead and call him. It’s not going to do you any good. He’s already on a plane back to the States.”
She didn’t believe him. Lightning quick, she punched in Buck’s cell phone, but it never rang. Instead, it went straight to voice mail. Swearing, she hung up. “How much is he paying you?” she demanded. “Whatever it is, I’ll double it.”
He grinned. “Really? What is it with you people? First your brother, now you. You do realize, don’t you, that you’re quadrupling my original fee without even knowing what it is?”
“It doesn’t matter,” she snapped. “I’ll come up with the money someway. Are you accepting my offer or not?”
“It depends on what you want me to do,” he said simply.
“Take me to Heathrow.”
“Forget it!” he said quickly. “That’s out of the question.”
“Then take me to Bristol or Liverpool.”
“Nope. It’s too dangerous.”
“You don’t know that.”
“The hell I don’t. Buck told me all about the problems your family is having in Colorado. Someone wants the ranch, sweetheart, and it sounds like they’re willing to commit murder to get it. In case you missed who their intended victim is, it’s you.”
A cold shiver skated down her spine. Hugging herself, she stared out the van’s passenger window as they raced across London in the fog at a frightening speed. “Oh, no,” she said huskily. “I knew. I was hoping they were just trying to scare me.”
“Did it work?”
Her throat dry, she nodded. “That’s why I ran when you broke in. I knew it was the only chance I was going to get.”
“And you still want me to take you to the airport? Are you crazy, girl? Buck was right—they’ll be watching the airports. You’d be running right into a trap.”
“Not if we got there before they did,” she pointed out. “They don’t know where we’re going—”
He laughed without humor. “Of course they know where we’re going! It’s the only way back to the States, sweetheart, unless you’re going to take a slow boat to China.”
“But we left them back at the flat. We’ve got a head start.”
He couldn’t believe she was serious. “Yes, we do, but how do you know the clowns I tied up back at the flat are the only ones after you? The bastard who sent them after you appears to have a hell of a long reach. Do you really think he wouldn’t have a backup in place in case you were able to escape?”
Horrified, Priscilla felt her heart drop into her stomach. “You mean we’re being followed? Oh, God! Where—”
He checked the rearview mirror for the tenth time in two minutes, but the fog that surrounded them was all encompassing. “Relax,” he told her. “Nothing short of a bloodhound’s following us in this fog. By the time it lifts, we’ll have left London far behind. Not that anyone needs to follow us,” he added. “All your kidnappers have to do is watch the airports…and the Paris tunnel. Those are the only two ways to get off this island, which is why we’re avoiding them.”
“Then where are we going?”
“I’m still working on that. Buck caught me off guard,” he admitted. “But don’t worry. I’ll take care of everything.”
After everything she’d been through, trust was no longer something she gave easily. Eyeing him warily in the dim glow of the dash lights, she lifted a delicately arched brow. “Really? I’m supposed to trust you, just like that? How do I know you’re not working with my kidnappers and taking me back to them?”
“You talked to Buck,” he reminded her. “He told you himself that he hired me.”
“But how did he get your name? You’re a bounty hunter. Why didn’t he hire a private investigator instead? Who recommended you to him?”
He shrugged. “That’s something you’ll have to ask him.”
“I can’t. He’s on a plane for the next ten hours.”
Not the least disturbed, he said, “That’s your problem, Miss Priss. Some things you just have to take on faith.”
“No, I don’t,” she said sharply. “Not when my life is on the line.
“Your life won’t be on the line as long as you do what I say,” he reminded her. “So from now on, you don’t ask questions, you don’t hesitate, you don’t argue. Understood?”
Lifting her chin, she gave him a cool look. “Not in a million years. I’m not one of the low-life criminals you make your living catching, so save your little speech for someone who needs a keeper. Believe it or not, I have a brain under all this strawberry-blond hair, and I don’t need you to tell me I’m in danger. I was the one who was kidnapped, remember?”
“And the one who opened the door to your kidnapper,” he reminded her mockingly. “So tell me again about the brain under all that blond hair.”
“Go to hell.”
He only grinned. “I’ve already been there and back, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere without you.”
Fuming, she was tempted to smack him, but she wasn’t that kind of woman. “He told me he was a cop,” she said stiffly. “He had a badge—”
“I can’t believe you fell for that,” he groaned, rolling his eyes. “That’s one of the oldest tricks in the book. I’ve used it myself.”
“Trust me—I won’t make that mistake again. I felt like a fool.”
“Good. There’s hope for you yet. Don’t trust anyone—I don’t care what badge they’re flashing or what story they tell you. As far as you’re concerned, everyone you see and talk to is after you.”
She lifted a delicately arched brow at him. “Including you?”
He grinned. “I don’t go after the chicks in my custody. Afterward…” He shrugged. “Give me a call, sweetheart. We’ll talk about it.”
“In your dreams,” she sniffed.
When she lifted her pert little nose in the air, Donovan laughed. So he wasn’t good enough for her, huh? They’d see about that. The day would come when he would make the lady purr just to prove he could. But not now. Not when they were practically shackled and stuck with each other for the next month. For now, he had to come up with a plan to keep her safe.
His phone rang then, shattering the silence that had fallen between then. Looking at the caller ID, he swore. Tim Elliot. He was a snitch with a taste for scotch who knew more about what was going on in the back alleys of London than just about anyone Donovan knew. And he didn’t call unless he had a lead he knew Donovan was willing to pay for.
His timing couldn’t have been worse, but Donovan knew he couldn’t afford to ignore the call. If Tim was in need of a drink, he’d go to the perp himself and give Donovan up without a thought for a bottle of scotch.
Snatching up the phone, he barked, “What?”
“I just had a drink with Leo Guardino.”
Donovan clenched his teeth. Leo Guardino was one of the biggest prizes out there—wanted for murder and drug smuggling, he had a 20,000 quid price on his head. Rumors had fl
oated around for the last year that he was dead, but Donovan knew better. There’d been times when he’d been so close to the bastard that he could smell him, but he’d always managed to disappear like smoke in the wind. How the devil had Tim found him?
“Where?”
“The Pirate’s Cove.”
Donovan knew the pub well. It was a dive on a dark, ancient street in the heart of London where no decent person would step foot. The patrons there dealt in drugs and weapons and every kind of contraband known to man, and few, if any of them, remembered what it was like to have a soul. Even the cops didn’t go there if they could avoid it, and Donovan couldn’t blame them. It was a sinister place.
“You didn’t give me up, did you, Tim? You wouldn’t do that to a friend, would you?”
“No. No! No way, man! You know me better than that. I work with you all the time. You can trust me.”
Donovan could practically feel him sweating through the phone. Trust him? Not in a million years. “I’m glad to hear it,” he said coolly. “I would hate like hell to think you would betray me after everything I’ve been through with you. You know, like that incident at The Royal Arms, when you—”
“I’m with you, Donny boy. I’m your man. That’s why I called. I wanted to let you know where Guardino was. Right now, he’s living in a flat around the corner from the Pirate’s Cove, but he’s not staying there long. He said something about going down to Southampton.”
Donovan swore. Southampton, where he could jump a ship and sail away to anywhere. And he was stuck babysitting little Miss Priss while 20,000 quid sailed away. Damn!
“I can’t do anything about it now,” he growled. “Maybe later. Keep me posted.” Hanging up without another word, he raced around a Mercedes that pulled out in front of him, muttering curses all the while.
Her gaze trained straight ahead, Priscilla hung on for dear life. Who was this man? she wondered wildly. What had possessed her brother to hire him? What did he know about him? Was he really a bounty hunter…or as bad as the criminals he claimed to catch?
She mentally relayed the veiled threat he’d issued during his terse phone call. Who was Tim and what kind of crime had they committed together? Was he blackmailing him? It certainly sounded like he was holding something over his head, but what? What happened at The Royal Arms? Was there a fight…a robbery…a murder?