Daniel was glad when Chase immediately followed his orders and wrapped his arm around Leah as he led her to the door. He could hear his son-in-law instructing Leah on keeping her head down and moving fast, but he tuned them out as he eyed the room to make sure they hadn’t forgotten anything. Other than the first aid item that Leah had used on him, nothing else seemed to be missing. He saw his knife on the nightstand and tucked it back into his boot before heading to the door. “We move on my count,” he said before drawing his gun and grabbing the door knob. Daniel glanced at Leah one more time and the frightened look he saw there made him even more determined to get her some place safe so he could go hunt the assholes down that even dared to threaten her. He didn’t want to see that look on her face ever again.
“Move,” he told Chase as he threw the door open and stepped out. He raised his gun with his right hand and said a silent prayer, thanking whoever watched over him that he wasn’t shot in his shooting arm as he scanned the area for any sign of a threat against them. His left arm hung useless against his side and he vowed payback for whoever had shot him. What angered him the most was that had Leah been on the bike behind him, she could have been the one shot instead.
Daniel could hear Chase and Leah moving as he backed up and followed them to the car. It felt like they had been out in the open forever once they finally made it and Daniel glanced behind him to make sure Leah was secure inside. He was glad to see that Chase had arrived in the large SUV with the dark-tinted windows. His motorcycle had been great for a fast getaway, but it wasn’t ideal for shootouts or keeping them from being spotted. It made him feel better to know that Leah was far more safe and secure once she was strapped into the backseat. The SUV was like a tank and could take a few hits without her being harmed.
“She’s in,” Chase told him as he slammed the back door and moved around the vehicle to the driver’s side.
Daniel waited until he heard Chase’s door shut before moving toward his. He gave the area one last scan until his gut told him they weren’t being watched or followed before climbing in. “Make sure we aren’t followed.” He didn’t need to elaborate on the order. He had trained Chase himself and he trusted the man would know exactly what to do.
A light touch to his shoulder had him turning to see Leah, watching him with a look of concern written clearly on her face. The woman was being hunted like some wild animal yet he had no doubt her main worry was for him. Daniel was so used to taking care of other people and being the one concerned, that it felt good to know someone out there cared about his wellbeing. He knew his daughter and her new family cared about him. He also knew that his men cared or else Chase wouldn’t have come and gotten him in the middle of the night, no questions asked, but to him that was different. Leah looked at him in a way he hadn’t had in a long time. She looked at him as simply a woman interested in a man. He would take it for the moment, but he had plans of changing that look to love as soon as he could.
“Are you in pain? You’re really pale and you’re sweating.”
Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, the pain in his shoulder was almost unbearable, but Daniel didn’t want to take anything until he made sure they were safe. He needed to keep his head clear. “I’m good for the moment. I’ll take something if it gets too bad.” The look on Leah’s face was clear that she didn’t believe him, but Daniel was glad she didn’t call him on it. She sat back in her seat and he missed the warmth of her hand on his shoulder.
“We got company, boss.”
Chase’s statement had Daniel immediately on alert. He looked into the side mirror and immediately spotted the “company” Chase had been referring to. The black sedan made no attempts to hide the fact that they were following them as they weaved in and out of traffic, attempting to get closer to the SUV.
Daniel cursed under his breath. “Either these guys are stupid or they’re getting desperate.” He didn’t like either option. Stupid and desperate people did stupid and desperate things. The sound of the back windshield cracking proved his point. The assholes were shooting at him in the middle of traffic. “Get down!” he shouted at Leah before he pulled his gun. “Get us someplace secluded before they get someone killed,” he ordered Chase.
“Yes, sir.”
Daniel felt the SUV speed up as Chase followed his command. He turned and was glad to see that Leah had also done as she was told and lay across the backseat as much as she could with her seatbelt still on. He wished he could take away the wide-eyed fear that he saw, but he couldn’t comfort her. Daniel looked out the back window and cursed. The bullet that struck it hadn’t knocked the window out. Instead there were hundreds of small spidery cracks running through it, blocking his view. He needed to come up with a plan, and fast.
“Do you still have those road spikes in the back?” At Chase’s nod, Daniel felt a sense of pride. The one thing he had drilled into the heads of the men he trained was to be prepared for anything. It seemed his lesson didn’t go unheeded. “Do you think you can get far enough away from them to give us enough time to set them?”
Chase’s only answer was a grin as the SUV sped up. He knew despite the situation, Chase was enjoying himself. If it wasn’t for Leah in the backseat being his first priority, Daniel had a feeling he would have been right there with his son-in-law. The lust for battle was an addiction that never fully left no matter how long a person stayed away. The adrenaline rush would always be a welcomed drug for as long as they lived.
Daniel glanced in his mirror again and, judging by the headlights, saw that the car had fallen about a mile behind thanks to Chase’s driving. He looked up and saw a big curve coming up. If they were fast enough they could have the spikes laid out before the car chasing them caught up. They wouldn’t see the spikes as they rounded the curve until it was too late. “Pull over up here,” he told Chase. “This is a good spot.”
Chase obeyed and Daniel jumped out. He used his good arm to grab one end of the spikes and helped Chase stretch them across the narrow road a short distance behind them. It was dark outside, so the driver of the other car wouldn’t see them in enough time to swerve to miss them. They had just enough time to make it back to the SUV before the car rounded the curve. Daniel heard the tires squeal shortly before he heard the sound of them popping. What he hadn’t been counting on was the car going airborne before it rolled a couple times. He winced when the car landed upside down in a ditch.
“Holy shit.” Chase whistled next to him. “Was not expecting that to happen.”
Daniel didn’t comment. He held his gun next to his leg out of sight in case anyone else decided to pick that moment to drive down the road as he cautiously made his way over to the car. He could play the role of a concerned motorist stopping to help if anyone stopped to ask. He and Chase moved silently as they listened for any sign of movement coming from the overturned vehicle.
The sight that greeted him wasn’t pretty and Daniel cringed. There were two men in the vehicle. Both seemed to be Hispanic, but that was as far as Daniel could tell because neither one had been wearing a seatbelt and were covered in blood. The driver stared up at nothing with lifeless eyes, and the way the passenger’s neck was twisted at an angle, he couldn’t have survived. He would have loved to question the two men, but that wasn’t going to happen. Daniel shook his head at the senseless loss of life, but he didn’t regret doing what he had to do in order to keep Leah safe. “Let’s get out of here,” he told Chase as he stood and made his way back to Leah. He didn’t like being too far away from her for longer than necessary.
As Chase put the road spikes in the back, Daniel opened Leah’s door. She was still lying on the seat, but he could see the questions that she wanted to ask him shining in her eyes. “It’s okay, honey. You can sit up now.”
“Is everything okay? What happened? Did you find out who they were?”
Daniel held up his hand to stop the rapid fire of questions. There were a few he needed answered first. It should have been impossible for them t
o be tracked not once, but three times. At first, Daniel was worried there may have been another leak at MacGregor Inc. If someone knew what to look for, the location of his home and safe house wouldn’t have been hard to find, but that didn’t explain the hotel. All of Daniel’s instincts were screaming that he had done everything possible to cover his tracks, so that brought him to one conclusion.
“I need you to get out of the car for a moment, honey.” Daniel gripped Leah’s hand to help her out and was glad she followed his request. The widening of her eyes told him she wanted to ask questions, but she kept quiet.
Daniel looked her over as she stood. He noted that the only thing she was wearing was the T-shirt she had taken from his house and the sweats and shoes he had given her from the safe house.
“Are you still wearing your bra and panties?” Daniel had been so focused on getting himself dressed and then getting them to safety that he hadn’t noticed if she had been able to put them on.
Leah’s cheeks turned red as she cut her eyes over to Chase walking toward them before answering. She shook her head. “No, I didn’t have time to grab them.”
“Do you have anything on you that you’ve been wearing since before you came to my office?” Even as he asked, Daniel was scanning Leah’s body as he cursed himself for not asking the question sooner. It was a rookie mistake that thankfully hadn’t gotten them killed yet.
Leah shook her head, but that didn’t stop Daniel from looking. There had to be something on her that was transmitting their location to Diego’s men. He wondered if they had somehow gotten close enough to Leah to inject a tracker under her skin without her knowing. Short of having her strip right there in the open and searching her entire body, they would have a hard time finding something like that.
When Daniel’s eyes settled on the small studs in Leah’s ears, he cursed himself again. “Do you ever take those earrings out?” He was already moving before she answered.
“I usually take them out at night before I go to bed.” Leah answered as he removed one then the other. “Why? What’s wrong?”
By the time Daniel had both earrings out, Chase was by his side. They both hissed when he turned one of the small studs over and found what he was looking for.
“Damn, how the hell did you miss that?” Chase whispered.
Daniel wondered the same thing. He’d searched Leah’s clothes when he had taken them off her at his home, but he had been stupid and not searched her body. His lapse in judgment had nearly gotten them both killed.
“What? What’s going on?” The panic in Leah’s voice rose with each question.
“Your instincts about someone being in your home were correct.” Daniel held up the earring. “Do you see this small piece of plastic on the back? That’s a tracking device. Its how they have been able to find us every step of the way.”
When Leah’s mouth only opened and closed with no sound coming out, Daniel pulled her to his chest and wrapped his arms around her. He knew it was one thing to suspect someone had invaded her privacy, but staring at proof was something completely different. Leah’s shiver confirmed his thoughts.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered against his chest.
Daniel pulled back. “None of this is your fault. You have nothing to be sorry for.” He blamed himself, but she didn’t need to know that. Daniel dropped the stud on the concrete and ground it under the heel of his boot. Just to make sure, he did the other one as well. He helped Leah into the backseat before climbing in the front. Once Chase was in, Leah wasted no time asking her questions.
“What happened with the guys in the car? Did you find out what they wanted? You aren’t just going to leave them there are you? What if someone saw us and called the police? Leaving the scene of an accident is against the law. We could go to jail.”
He pressed his lips together to keep from smiling at Leah’s obviously nervous rambling. Jail was the least of their worries, but he didn’t want to sugarcoat anything so he told Leah the truth. “We had no intentions of causing the car to flip, but the men in the car weren’t wearing seatbelts. Neither one of them made it. We made sure no one saw what happened, so we don’t have to worry about the police.”
“It’s okay. I know you didn’t intentionally do that. It’s their fault for chasing us and not wearing seatbelts.”
Daniel grinned at Leah’s statement and knew at that moment that he was head over heels in love with the woman. He didn’t feel guilty about what had happened and he would do it all over again if he had to, but to know that Leah didn’t blame him or look at him as some kind of monster felt excellent. The small glimpse of the backbone of steel he knew she had was also a turn on and had his cock straining in his pants. He wanted to climb in the backseat and pull Leah on his lap and tell her how much he had fallen in love with her, but they were still out in the open. Later, he told himself.
“I hate to bring danger to your doorstep,” he told Chase, “but your ranch is the only place where I know she’ll be safe.”
Chase waved off the comment. “You know you don’t even have to ask. Besides,” he said, smiling, “Kerri would kill me if I turned you away, and I’m way more afraid of her than I am of you, old man.”
Daniel laughed. He didn’t doubt his pumpkin was keeping Chase on his toes. His daughter was a drill sergeant packed into one tiny, compact little package. He couldn’t have been more proud of her if he tried.
“What do we do once we get her there?” Chase asked.
“Then you and I go hunting.” Daniel was pretty sure Chase’s answering grin matched his own. He just hoped they could make it to the ranch before anything else happened.
Chapter 10
Leah felt like she hadn’t slept for a week when they finally arrived in Pine Valley, but she wasn’t too tired to look around as they approached a massive gate that looked like it would be more useful guarding the White House. The black steel was completely out of place with the lush, green hills and huge pine trees that she had seen on the drive in, but Leah wasn’t about to complain. Even though Daniel had found the GPS tracker in her earring and destroyed it, she welcomed the security the gates represented and couldn’t wait to be locked behind them.
What had Leah’s stomach clenching as Chase leaned out to press a code into the small black box located near the gate was the fact that somewhere inside was Daniel’s daughter. Too bad Leah was about to meet her looking like something scraped off the bottom of someone’s shoe. She rubbed her sweaty palms against her thighs, wishing she had taken the time to clean up back at the motel. Between running for her life and then worrying over Daniel as she waited for help to arrive, the thought of showering hadn’t crossed Leah’s mind. Now, she was pretty sure her clothes could stand on their own if she removed them.
Leah smoothed a hand over her hair as the gate eased open and they drove through, and wondered what Daniel’s family would think of her. She wouldn’t blame them if they were pissed at her for putting the man in danger and getting him shot.
“You okay?”
Leah didn’t think her answer to Daniel’s question would get past the knot in her throat, so she just smiled and nodded. Inside, she was freaking out at the sight of the large wood-and-glass house that came into view and the tiny woman she assumed was Daniel’s daughter sprinting down the front steps. She felt like she was about to face a firing squad as Chase pulled the SUV to a stop, but Leah took a deep breath and forced herself to get out of the car.
“Daddy!”
“Hi, pumpkin.”
Daniel let out an oomph when the woman threw herself in his arms, and Leah cringed, but he hugged the woman tightly despite his injured shoulder. Leah’s protective instincts instantly reared up and she had to grip her hands in front of her to keep from pulling the woman off Daniel. Somehow, she didn’t think that would make a good first impression. Instead, she stood there with what she hoped was a smile on her face and waited for the family reunion to be finished.
“Kerri, I’d like you to meet
Leah,” Daniel said as he tucked the small woman under his arm and led her over to Leah. “Leah, this is my daughter Kerri.”
Leah smiled and nodded at Kerri, unsure of what to say. The other woman had no such problems and let go of her dad to wrap Leah in a tight hug. “Thanks for bringing my dad back. I’ve been trying to get him here for a while now.” Kerri let go of Leah before she could respond, leaped into Chase’s arms, and they disappeared into the house, leaving Leah stunned. She expected Kerri to be mad at her for not only dragging Daniel into something dangerous, but for causing the man to be shot. What she didn’t expect was to be welcomed with open arms, no questions asked. She had been psyching herself up to be yelled and screamed at and the tension suddenly drained out of Leah, leaving her feeling rundown and tired.
Daniel smiled. “Come on, let’s get you inside. You look like you’re about to pass out.”
“I should be the one telling you that,” Leah complained, but let Daniel lead her. She was too tired to argue. Ever since her whole ordeal started, Leah felt like she was in another world. It was like she was in some alternate reality where danger, being shot at, and running for her life were common, everyday occurrences. She had thought her life boring before and wished for excitement, but having a hit put out on her wasn’t exactly what she had been looking for. Now, Leah would happily go back to being boring and plain any day of the week.
Guilt swamped Leah as she entered the house and was led to a kitchen. She noticed all the people surrounding a large kitchen table, including the two babies that seemed to be the center of attention. She was putting them all in danger and wondered if they would welcome her if they knew the risk they were taking by allowing her to be there. She was envious of the fact that all of them seemed to be laughing and talking like they didn’t even have a care in the world. Even before all of the mess she was in started, Leah didn’t think she could remember a time when she had ever been like that. She was an only child to older parents and never had many friends growing up. Her life had always been about doing whatever possible to put the least amount of stress on her parents. Watching the Matthews family sitting around the kitchen table, all relaxed and smiling and talking, seemed like a world that Leah had only ever seen on TV.
Second Chances [Pine Valley 4] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 8