“What the hell is going on Richard? Why would you shoot this woman?” She remained unmoving on the ground, and that scared him more than seeing Sharon bleeding on the floor. “She needs help.”
Richard moved closer to the woman, stopping at her ankles to poke her with the toe of his shoe. She didn’t move. “She’s a bounty hunter, and she’s hunting you to take you back to justice.” He laughed. “Imagine that, a female bounty hunter and a hot one too. However, before she does that, I need to search you and that bike to see if you have something on you. Something, I need.”
Ethan gazed down at the woman on the ground, instinct screaming at him to go to her, to help her. He could smell the blood seeping out of her body and he wanted to tear Richard apart for shooting her, but knew if he so much as twitched, Richard would shoot him too. At least she was alive; he could hear her strong heart beating. He would be no good to her if Richard managed to put a bullet in his head. “Richard, she needs a doctor. And someone’s bound to have heard that shot.”
“I know. That’s why we’ve got to hurry. This poses a minor problem but I think quickly on my feet. You see…disturbed bastard that you are, you shot her trying to get away but not before, she managed to shoot you too. And this time, I’m going to make sure the wound is fatal.”
“What? You are nuts!” Just then, a light, probably from one of the houses a few yards away from where they stood, came on and a dog barked in the distance.
“I see we’re going to have company…” For a moment Richard’s attention shifted, and before he could say anything else, the woman on the ground twisted.
Pulling her leg back, she kicked Richard’s feet out from under him, taking him down to the ground.
Ethan had enough time to get to his bike and get out of there, but he couldn’t leave the woman alone. She might as well have just saved his life. Instead of heading toward his bike, he took two steps and grabbed up the woman who’d already sat up and searched the ground around her.
Richard also scrambled around for the gun that had fallen out of his hand.
Ethan thought it best not to lay odds on who would find theirs first.
Other lights came on from the back deck of the house closest to the woods and Ethan could see someone standing on the deck. He needed to get them out of there, he didn’t want to take the chance Richard would get his gun and shoot him. He also feared for the woman. Richard might still shoot her and blame it on him.
Then whoever stood on the deck yelled out that he’d called the cops.
This helped him make up his mind. Ethan gathered her up in his arms and gave Richard a kick under his chin, knocking him onto his back. Hitting the bastard felt good.
The woman groaned while he carried her. “Can you hang on and ride?” he asked her. “We have to get out of here before he comes to and finds that gun or the cops come.”
“Yes,” she groaned out. “My car is around the corner.”
He leaned her on the bike and climbed on helping her to climb clumsily on behind him. He got the bike started and she held on to his waist for dear life—which it was. Glancing quickly over his shoulder, he saw Richard up on all fours and something glittered in his hand. Not waiting to find out what, he took off out of the woods and onto the street, not glancing back to see if Richard followed. “Where’s your car,” he asked the woman.
“The road just south side of your development,” she whispered.
“Hang on. We’ll be there in a minute.” He drove directly to the street and saw a black Jeep parked on the road. It was the only car there. “Is that your car?”
“Yeah.”
He pulled up behind it, but the woman slumped against his back. “Are you all right? I think I should call an ambulance.”
“No ambulance. I’m fine really.”
“Can you drive?”
She took a deep breath. “Yeah, I think it’s just a scratch but it hurts like a bitch.”
Ethan would have grinned at the fire in her voice, but their situation was not amusing. Nor was it appropriate to feel the ache in his groin from her nearness. “I’m sorry,” he said instead. Apologizing for his unvoiced thoughts, but also because she’d been hurt. While he took her at her word that she could drive, the amount of blood she’d lost didn’t smell like just a scratch to him.
The bullet seemed to hit her high in the arm or shoulder. She rested her head between his shoulder blades like she needed a minute.
If she’d decided to stay that way, leaning on him for a month and a day, he would not have moved.
“Why? Not your fault,” she said, still breathing deeply. “You didn’t shoot me, that bastard of a stepbrother did. And from what I overheard, I think he’s also the one who killed your wife.”
For some reason her simple statement made him want to twist around and take her in his arms again. Since this nightmare of his life began, she was the first person to believe in his innocence. Ethan just turned his head instead and spoke, “I know. Come on.”
She sat up and he got off the bike first. Holding on to her slender waist, he helped her get off. When she raised her eyes to his, he thought he might have been the one shot—through the heart.
He could finally see her features in greater detail. Her eyes were the color of the glass from a Coke bottle he’d once found on the beach. The bottle must have traveled through the ocean for who knew how long, then became buried in the sand for even longer. That piece of glass sat on the desk in his home office. The color had faded with time. He’d never seen another color like it, until now. She felt soft in his arms, he wondered if she felt soft all over and about what her lips would taste like. He stifled a groan. So not the time for such an attraction. When he could organize his thoughts, he said, “Let me get you into your car. We’ve got to get out of here.”
“Yeah, good idea.”
Holding onto her waist, Ethan guided her to the driver’s side. He pulled on the door handle and opened the door for her.
The interior car lights came on and she sat down on the seat, putting her head back and briefly closing her eyes. When she opened them, they sparkled with pain while her beautiful mouth angled up in a grimace.
Whoa! Even in pain, she was beautiful. And a bounty hunter? He shook his head to clear the cobwebs and his emotions. “Do you have your key?” he asked.
She shifted her hips and reached into her pants pocket with her left hand. She held her right arm stiffly across her stomach. The bullet must have hit her on the right.
“Where did you get hit?” he asked.
“Right shoulder, he just clipped me. But don’t worry I can drive.”
He noticed the hole where the bullet had torn through her jacket and he could see wetness around the area. The unmistakable scent of blood strong, she still bled heavily. This was more than a scratch, worse the bullet could still be in there. “Drive straight to a hospital,” he said while staring at her. “I’ll follow to make sure you get there, but for obvious reasons, I can’t take you inside.”
“I know. But I don’t need to go to the hospital. I can take care of this myself. Frankly, I have taken care of worse. Besides, this is a gunshot wound and there’ll be questions I don’t really have answers for right now.”
She did have a point. He couldn’t believe this beautiful woman ever had to take care of anything worse. She knew he didn’t believe her, because she smiled and for a minute, he forgot about everything else—her smile consumed him, but then reality intruded with the ugly truth. He was a man wanted for murder with a five million dollar bounty on his head and she was a bounty hunter. Of course, she’d been shot at before. For all he knew, she’d killed people too, because Ethan had no doubt back in the woods…she would have shot him.
Chapter Five
Edge took a deep breath. To both control the pain and her raging thoughts. Ethan Graves was not only innocent, but also one hell of a handsome man. The few photographs she’d seen of him did not do him justice. This man didn’t have a hint of fat on him
, not like he seemed fat before, but nothing but muscle lay under the veneer of the clothing he wore on his skin. His stepbrother didn’t come close, frankly few men did, with the exception of Cole. A kiss from Ethan would not be like plastic. There was also a wildness about him she hadn’t expected, nor the instant and potent mutual attraction. Oh yeah, he wanted her, she could smell it on him.
Six feet three inches of solidly packed testosterone filled muscle held her gently in his arms and now hovered at her car door. She needed to remind herself she didn’t really like bald men, even if he did have that I didn’t shave yesterday perfect goatee going. He must have shaved his head because his file said he had dark blond hair, but he wore it clean well. It also didn’t help her cause when he had piercing blue gray eyes, set in the kind of face capable of stopping a woman in her tracks. Now, she knew she had high cheekbones from her Lakota side, but this man claimed a squared and cut imperially sharp face.
His nostrils flared like he inhaled her—she wished. His gaze held her turning a flash of darker blue in their depths, making it hard to look away from them. When he opened his mouth to speak, all she wanted to do was shove her tongue inside it. Sooo not the time or the place for her hormones to decide to wake up.
She hadn’t told him the truth, the bullet still resided in her arm, but even now her body repaired the damage and slowly pushed it out. Her muscles reflexively knitted together to do that and by morning, she would be fine. By tomorrow night, there wouldn’t even be a scratch.
Another reason she couldn’t go to the hospital, she wasn’t quite human. Rest. Her body needed to rest soon, so it could shut down to finish the healing process. She needed to be in a safe place by then, but she couldn’t let him out of her sight. Somehow, she had to get him to stay with her and given the way he’d already tried to save her, she thought she could talk him into it.
He met her gaze.
“Listen,” she said. “I don’t need to go to a hospital, but I do need your help. Would you follow me?” She read the indecision on his gorgeous face, but until she figured out what she was going to do, she wasn’t going to let him out of her sight. “I’m going to trust you, and you’re going to have to trust me.” Only so far though, she couldn’t trust him with her Clan secrets. The sirens in the distance caused them both to turn their heads. Not something heard around these neighborhoods very often she guessed. “We’ve got to get out of here,” she urged.
“Where are we going?” he asked, returning his attention to her.
She forced herself not to smile, sure now he would follow her. He’d saved her once already and trusted her maybe a little. “A safe house.” The company kept a safe house, a place they could stash people if they had to. Not something that happened very often, but sometimes they had to house a fugitive for a few hours or a night.
“Are you sure you’re well enough to drive?” he asked.
“Yes.” She hoped. She just had to hang on for long enough to get there.
He nodded. “Okay, I’ll follow you.”
They stared at each other for a full minute, she wondered if she could trust him. Instinct told her she could, to a point.
He shut the car door and went back to his bike, waiting for her to start the Jeep.
She watched him in the rearview mirror, yeah he might follow her until he could be sure she was all right, but then he might very well take off. Didn’t matter, even if he did run, she would just hunt him down again. This time she was better informed about him. Who knew he rode a Harley like someone born to it, but she should have known. Or that he had a world class ass.
She already read the bio on him, but disregarded most of it as hype, PR stuff. After all that had happened to them tonight, not anymore, his extreme sports exploits were all probably true. This man went from dabbling in activities pushing his mind and body to the extreme to running a company considered one of the bedrocks of the nation. No mere corporate exec, the type sitting behind the fancy desk. Not for Ethan, no just collecting his share of the company’s profits and merely hiring others to create a more physical image of himself. He had those athletic vibes down in spades. She could see him climbing Mt. Everest or hang gliding over the Grand Canyon.
Edge kept checking her review mirror to make sure he stayed with her. They hadn’t gotten very far but she’d lost a lot of blood and was beginning to feel the effects. She didn’t think she would make it to the safe house, still at least another hour away. She took the next ramp off Route 66 at the Gainesville exit and headed for the first motel sign she spotted. Pulling into the entrance, she found a parking spot. He turned in alongside her and stopped his bike. She didn’t even have the strength to roll down the window.
Ethan came over to the driver’s side and opened the unlocked door, pulled off his helmet and leaned toward her. “You all right? Is this the place?”
“No—no. I’m sorry but I don’t think I’m gonna be able to drive any more tonight. Rest, just need rest.”
He frowned. “I think what you need is to go to the emergency room. I’m calling an ambulance.”
“No!”
His eyebrows rose in surprise.
She’d said it a little too forcefully, so she spoke again, calmer this time, “Listen, just go in and register us.” She turned her head and using her left hand, grabbed her purse pulling out a hundred dollar bill and held it out to him. “Here, use this to pay cash for a single room. Tell the guy to keep the change, less likely to ask for a credit card.”
Ethan eyed the money like she tried to hand him a live poisonous snake. “I’m good.” He paused as if he wanted to say more but changed his mind. He nodded instead. “I’ll be right back.”
Edge had no idea how long he’d been gone but she opened her eyes to see he held a set of card keys. “I got a room around back. Do you think you can follow me or do you want me to drive and then I can come back for my bike?”
She let out a deep breath. “No I can make it.”
He stepped back and closed her door, before returning to his bike.
She could do this; all she had to do was turn the engine on and wait for him to start the bike. He pulled into the last parking spot at the very end of the three-story building and she parked her car beside him.
Ethan got off the bike, took off his helmet and grabbed his satchel off the back.
By that time, she got out of the car and had her purse straps in her hand her energy waned, so had to lean against the car. Her head spun. She needed to get inside and lay down, but first she would have to clean the wound.
Turning her body toward him, he leaned her against his strength as he helped her walk to the door, only releasing her to take the key out of his pocket and open the door for her. “Ladies first.” He gestured for her to go in before him.
Edge gathered her last reserves of strength and entered. The room looked dark. She felt around on the side of the wall for a light switch. Her hand hit the button and a lamp on the desk by the window came on. “Home sweet home,” she quipped stepping further into the room and going around the first of the two double beds.
She turned on the lamp on the table between them. No need to advertise that she could see just fine without it. Lighted or not, there wasn’t much to the place. Pretty much what she expected for a no tell motel. A desk, one chair, a dresser with a television set on top. At least this room had two beds. She glanced briefly at the man who stood on the other side of the room, although it would not be a hardship at all sharing a bed with him. “Let me use the bathroom and take a look at how much damage that bastard did to me,” she said to focus her wayward thoughts on to more pressing matters.
“Do you need any help?”
Their gazes met, he’d moved around the beds shortening the distance between them, not so close he crowded her personal space but close enough.
She tossed him her keys, which Ethan caught using very fast reflexes. “There’s a bag in the back of my car along with a first aid kit, can you bring those to me?” Edge didn’t w
ait for a reply and being careful not to touch him, she moved past him around the other bed. She opened the bathroom door on the far side of the room, went in and closed the door behind her.
Her heart raced, she needed to do this quickly before her system shut down. Going over to the sink, she turned the water on and washed her face with cold water. When she straightened up, she stared at herself in the mirror. Dark bags hung under her eyes and dirt still streaked across her face. Not to mention the sticks poking out of her hair. Which now resembled a bird’s nest. She looked like crap. Damn, how in hell would Ethan ever be attracted to her? Wait—she didn’t want him attracted to her.
She finished cleaning her face but had no idea what the hell she was doing. She should’ve just called the cops and had that dick Richard arrested. But she knew why she didn’t. Couldn’t. One, she’d been shot, and she didn’t want anyone looking at her wound too closely and secondly, if she’d done so, Ethan would have been taken back into custody. While Richard might have been charged with her assault, it still didn’t prove he’d killed Ethan’s wife. After hearing the conversation exchanged between the men while she’d played possum, waiting for an opportunity to strike, she knew Ethan hadn’t done it. That left Richard.
Her word wouldn’t be enough to convince the controlling powers of Ethan’s innocence but it sure as hell was enough to convince her. Not to mention the fact sitting so close to him, inhaling his scent, she’d sensed something else about Ethan. He might be like her. He had the scent of cat upon him.
Still, she should have let the cops sort it out. Nah. She never liked cops, which is why she wasn’t one. Besides, if Ethan was Atrox she had no choice but to help him. So, first things first, she would help Ethan prove his innocence in exchange for fifteen percent of his bond. The money is what this is all about…And keeping their kind from behind bars.
Edge frowned, when did she start thinking of him as Ethan instead of Graves? She faced herself in the mirror, admitting to her reflection that maybe it was more than just a case. She found herself wrinkling her brows even more as she took her jacket off. “Damn!” A long tear appeared in her jacket where the bullet had sliced through. She liked this jacket too. She dropped it to the floor, getting a better look at the wound. She felt glad she’d only worn a dark colored tank top underneath, so she didn’t have to worry about her clothes getting ripped too. Blood oozed from where the bullet entered at an angle, just at the edge of her bra strap high on her shoulder, still both shirt and jacket were soaked with it. She concentrated and squeezed her muscles enough to get the bullet out. Washing it off, she stuck it in her back pocket, she’d get rid of it later, and returned her attention to her healing wound.
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