Baited Truth

by Hype, Jenn

  The shooting didn't stop, but it did seem to slow down. Less men shooting. That meant either they were out of ammo - doubtful - or they were gearing to blow us up again.

  "We need a plan fast before the assholes blow us to pieces."

  Trent kept typing away on his laptop while Alice tended to Hunter. Nick was trying to dig around in the cabinets and drawers looking for weapons. Unfortunately, steak knives weren't really much of a match against semi-automatic weapons.

  At first I thought no one had heard me, but then Trent's head snapped up. "Grant, on my count, you and Brooke need to run over here." I started to argue the dangers of that but he cut me off. "Just trust me." A pause and then, "Go!"

  Without hesitation, Brooke and I jumped to our feet and dove across the room. Trent had been on the team for over five years, so I trusted him wholly. That Brooke did as he said without question spoke volumes. Her trust in my team felt just as gratifying as her trusting in me.

  We both rolled up to Hunter's feet right as a huge crash came from behind us. Everyone besides Trent ducked for cover. Trent was already on his feet, running towards the side of the house that was now in pieces. It wasn't until I saw a car sitting in place of the kitchen table that I realized it wasn't a bomb that had gone off.

  Before I could ask Trent what the hell his Tesla was doing inside of the house, he was tossing me a smoke grenade. Pulling the pin, I tossed it out a hole in the wall towards the back of the house while Trent threw his to the front. Alice and Nick were already dragging Hunter towards the Tesla. Brooke ran to them and helped load him into the backseat. Alice climbed inside with him and Nick took the front passenger seat. The gunfire started back up, but it was sporadic, the shots going wild. Someone was blindly shooting into the cloud of smoke.

  The smoke was starting to filter into the house, so before we lost visibility, I joined Trent at the trunk and grabbed two grenades, another smoke grenade, a couple magazines full of ammo and two Glocks. Trent gave me a quick nod before slipping behind the wheel of the Tesla.

  Brooke took one of the guns and joined me behind a piece of wall that was still standing and we covered Trent as he backed out of the house the way the car had driven in. I had no clue if he'd made it past the shooters okay because of the smoke, but it didn't matter.

  "Where are we going?" Brooke asked as I grabbed her hand and pulled her behind me. The smoke had effectively filled the house, but it was already starting to thin. I could make out Brooke's form, but couldn't make out details. We didn't have much time, so I tried to carefully navigate us over the debris, my feet getting cut and torn with each step since I wasn't wearing shoes. She didn't say anything, but I felt her hand tighten in mine when something crunched beneath her. I hadn't paid attention, but she most likely wasn't wearing shoes either.

  I scooped her into my arms and carried her to the door off the kitchen that led to the garage. The keys were in a drawer, but the cabinets had been blown to bits. I almost lost my balance when I knelt down, still holding Brooke, to feel around blindly for the keys. Thankfully I didn't have to search long.

  The garage was dark but still standing. The walls had been reinforced, though they weren't entirely bulletproof, so a few holes along the outside wall let enough sunlight peek in to light the path to the SUV inside. I placed Brooke in the car and took one of the smoke grenades I'd placed in her arms so I could carry her. After pulling the pin and tossing it into the house, I threw in the grenade as well. I could only hope it would serve as enough of a distraction while the door to the garage opened.

  The tail-end of the SUV had barely peeked out when I felt a bullet connect with the fender. The fuckers could shoot all damn day and never get a bullet through the armored SUV, but I still wasn't taking a risk with Brooke in the vehicle with me. I gunned it down the driveway, taking out one asshole with no remorse.

  "What are they doing?" Brooke asked when we drove past Trent's Tesla parked on the side of the road at the end of the drive. Before I could answer her, a massive explosion went off behind us. She looked at it through the side mirror before turning back to me. "Trent?"

  I nodded and watched Trent take off in the opposite direction. The punk was getting a huge raise once this was all done.

  Brooke turned her body towards mine when we hit a state route and picked up speed. "Will Hunter be okay?"

  My eyes darted to the rearview. No one was following us. No cars for miles. It wasn't until Brooke said my name that I remembered she'd asked me a question.

  "I don't know," I answered truthfully. "If Alice was right about his wound, then yeah, he should be okay if they get him to a hospital quickly." Even if Alice had managed to keep him from losing too much blood, infection was still a concern. Hopefully Alice had his wound covered enough to keep the debris from his exposed flesh.

  "So what now?"

  Fuck. She needed to quit asking me questions I didn't have the answer to.

  "I don't know." I was starting to loathe those three fucking words.

  Out of the corner of my eye I saw Brooke staring out the passenger side window. She looked deep in thought. Not scared, worried or overwhelmed. None of the normal emotions I would expect someone to feel after the few days she'd had. Made sense. Brooke was the least normal person I'd ever met.

  "We should go to Baybank."

  I'd considered that myself, but without knowing what we were walking into, it was too dangerous. Especially since these jerks kept finding us, no matter where we went. If we were barely escaping them alive, then barging in without a plan was a death sentence. Not wanting to spark an argument, I deflected her suggestion.

  "How are your feet?"

  My eyes followed hers, wincing when she turned her foot over. "Other than the pieces of glass and wood sticking out of my skin, they're good." She wasn't kidding. My feet weren't any better. We needed to get some supplies, and soon, if we wanted to make sure we didn't end up with an infection.

  I pulled into the parking lot of a small drug store. Popping open the glovebox, I reached inside and pushed the hidden button to release the secret compartment, pulling out the money stashed there. When I saw Jack again, I might kiss him for being so damn prepared. We'd all mocked and teased him for years about it. Now we'd all be falling at his feet in gratitude. He'd give us shit for months. And I'd gladly take it if it meant finding him alive.

  "You stay here." I leveled my gaze at Brooke, prepared for an argument. I hadn't even tried to not sound bossy. If she put up a fight, she was losing. Inside the armored vehicle was the safest damn place for her. "I'm going to grab some pain medicine and a first aid kit. I'll be ten minutes tops. You want anything?"

  She shook her head no and stayed put. It wasn't easy for her though. Her fists clenched tight enough to turn her knuckles white, and she was visibly grinding her teeth. If we weren't in such bad shape, I would have laughed. Though the laughter would have been short lived. As soon as my feet hit the pavement and every curse word known to man slipped from my mouth, all I wanted to do was hit someone, not laugh.

  Luckily the cashier didn't seem to enforce the 'no shoes, no shirt' rules most businesses went by. He did eye my bloody feet and torn clothes with a wary eye, but otherwise said nothing as I paid for the supplies.

  It only took me maybe five minutes to retrieve everything from the little drug store, but I still half expected Brooke to be missing when I got back to the SUV. Since she entered the picture, it seemed like we couldn't go five minutes without some epically shitty event happening.

  The windows to the SUV were tinted past the legal standard, so I couldn't see inside. Like an idiot I hesitated when reaching for the door handle. Standing there an extra few seconds wasn't going to make a difference in whether or not she'd be inside, but part of me just needed a moment to brace myself. In such a short amount of time, Brooke had become vital to my life. All the gunfire and explosions were a cakewalk compared to the thought of something happening to Brooke.

  That self admission was something
I would definitely need to address later. For now, I needed to get us both somewhere safe to clean up and rest so we could figure out what to do next.

  Relief flooded me when I saw Brooke sitting right where I'd left her. She was fiddling with the stereo, flipping between stations. How she could look so at ease at a time like this dumbfounded me. I wasn't blind, though. As I sidled in next to her, her shoulders relaxed a fraction. When she pulled her hand back to her lap, I saw her fingers trembling slightly. Her expression was indifferent and blank, but the corners of her mouth were pinched. All of it was very subtle, and just a glance in her direction would lead one to believe absolutely nothing was wrong.

  It wasn't the time to call her out on it. Without a word, I put the car in drive and pulled out of the parking lot. The air was tense and heavy, music faintly coming out of the speakers the only sound. Neither of us spoke. I could feel her holding back, but I didn't want to force her to open up to me. I wanted her to trust me enough to confide in me. To come to me for comfort or safety of her own accord. Maybe that was expecting too much, but I was too stubborn to give in first. If she didn't know at this point that she could depend on me, I doubted she would ever know.

  A cheap motel came into view, the backlit road sign flickering with one letter burnt out entirely. The place looked like the ones you see in a cheesy horror flick, but it would do. Going somewhere nicer meant more eyes on us. Plus, I didn't know how long we'd be relying on the cash from the glovebox, so we needed to spend it sparingly.

  This time I didn't let Brooke out of my sight, dragging her in with me to get a room. The need to keep her next to me was growing stronger. It was terrifying. Dangerous. Not because I was afraid to care for her, but because caring for her could put her life at greater risk. It could throw me off, make me hedge on a decision that normally would have been instant. Could cause a hesitation in me that would give me enough regrets to last ten lifetimes.

  Still, there was no fighting it. She was a part of me now, consequences be damned. What I needed to do was focus on putting this chaos to an end, give us a chance to actually address what was happening between us.

  "Sorry it's not much. Need to be frugal right now."

  Brooke didn't say anything, just took in the room. One king size bed. Oh, they'd had rooms with more than one bed, and it wasn't that I was looking to get sex tonight. No, I just needed Brooke in my arms. With no idea what the future held, of what tomorrow would look like, I was keeping her close by every second I was with her.

  The room was clean enough. The bedding was almost threadbare and the furniture had nicks and scratches in it, but the water was hot and the mattress better than nothing.

  "Thank you." The two words were the first Brooke had spoken since before I stopped for supplies. Her voice was hoarse, like she was fighting back tears, though her face gave nothing away. She winced a few times as I cleaned up her feet before doing the same to mine. Tweezers pulled out all the glass, peroxide cleaning the cuts. Hers weren't as bad as mine, thankfully, but it still had to hurt.

  One tear fell silently down her cheek. She swiped it away before I could, and laughed.

  "I don't know why I'm crying. I'm just..." She looked over my shoulder, staring at some spot on the wall, lost in thought. I waited, crouched in front of her, rubbing antibiotic cream into the soles of her feet. "I'm so tired," she finally croaked. "The more we figure out, the less things make sense. I really wanted to believe she was victim to some random robbery and that whoever lived at that address would magically find her and everything would go back to normal. Naive, right?" She laughed sardonically. "I should have gone to the police. I was too busy living in the land of denial. Now..."

  Brooke looked away from the wall, her eyes meeting mine. Her brown irises were drowning in sadness. She looked utterly defeated, and my heart broke for her. When I found the bastard causing her the pain she was openly showing me, I was going to kill him with my bare hands. His life would drain slowly and painfully before my eyes, and I wouldn't even feel guilty for the pleasure it would give me.

  "Grant, what if she's not okay? What if... what if all my stupid decisions are going to make us too late? I should have cooperated with you guys sooner." She shook her head, and I opened my mouth to argue, but she kept going. "She was already in bad shape when they took her. The things they could be doing to her... and I'm just screwing around, being a bitch to the people trying to help me and falling for some guy as if I don't have a care in the world. How selfish am I?"

  For a moment, I was too stunned to respond. Either her admission about falling for me was insignificant to her, or she didn't realize she'd even made it. Of all the points I needed to focus on, that was the least important.

  Instead of trying to refute her confessions with words, I lifted her into my arms and carried her into the bathroom. Gently sitting her on the closed toilet lid, I turned on the shower and tested the water until it was tolerably hot. Like before, back at the cabin when we'd first had sex, she handed over control. Lifting her arms when I tugged on the hem of her shirt, pulling it over her head. Standing on shaky legs when I pulled her to her feet, sliding her shorts down her legs. Following willingly behind me into the shower after I rid myself of my own clothes.

  Hot tears slid down her cheeks, mixing with the water raining down on us both. I spun her around to face the water, putting me out of the stream. It was cold in the bathroom, but Brooke's slick skin was enough of a visual to keep my body close to overheating. She relaxed when the rag I'd soaped up slid down her spine, over hip and down her leg.

  My dick stiffened and I took a step back to avoid jabbing her with it. This wasn't about sex. No matter how much I could have used the release, this was about showing Brooke that I would take care of her.

  Once every inch of her body had been thoroughly caressed in the most sensual, intimate way I never thought possible, I sat it down and threaded my fingers through her hair. Her head lolled back, a soft moan escaping her lips on a sigh.

  Just when I felt I was to the point where I thought my dick might actually explode from all the blood rushing to meet in that central location, Brooke turned and wrapped her hands around my neck.

  "Take me to bed," she whispered, her breath against my ear making my dick impossibly harder. I started to argue, but she must have sensed the words before I said them. "Please. Make me forget."

  It wasn't until she whispered the three words that shook me to the core that I finally caved and seized her mouth with mine. She broke the kiss and said them again, the three syllables sounding more like a plea than a statement.

  "I need you."

  Chapter Sixteen

  Crash and Burn

  Brooke

  Waking up next to Grant was addicting. Yeah, I'd only done it a handful of times, but it didn't matter. Having his strong arms wrapped tightly around my waist, his hardness pressed into my lower back and his hot breath on my neck... well, nothing compared, really.

  The way he took care of me last night... it was a night I'd never forget.

  With any other man, under any other circumstance, it would have been a nightmare. Being treated like I was fragile, delicate. Precious. I prided myself on not needing to be taken care of, but last night was different. I needed someone else to put me first and make me feel safe, and that's exactly what Grant did. He did it without me having to ask. He did it without pause, giving me everything I didn't even know I needed - and more.

  Every touch was gentle, caressing. Every kiss was passionate and tender. Every look was filled with promises neither one of us could really make. Our future and the lives of those we loved were entirely unknown, but in that moment with Grant, I wasn't afraid. The fear I'd been keeping at bay disappeared entirely, and the insecurity I fought with daily conceded.

  Grant made the world around us disappear. I clung to that oblivion. With Grant's arms holding me tightly, it felt like nothing could touch us. That anything was possible.

  The morning came too soon. Reality wa
s a bitch.

  Though watching Grant poking his head out the door of the hotel room, gun pointed at the sky next to his head like an actor in a cheesy action movie was pretty entertaining. If it weren't actually necessary, I would have rolled my eyes and mocked him.

  Once he'd determined the coast was clear, we stepped onto the sidewalk. In the light of day, it was easier to see just how run down the place was. It made me cringe to think what might also have been easier to notice if we'd ever turned on all the lights inside our room.

  I stood back and watched Grant circle the SUV, getting down on his hands and knees and pop the hood to examine every nook and cranny of the engine.

  "From what I can see, it all looks okay. No cut brake lines, the gas tank hasn't been tampered with, the tires don't appear to have been damaged. Only one more thing to check."

  He slammed the hood shut and grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to walk backwards until we were almost the entire length of the parking lot away from the car. Using the remote, he pushed a button and started the SUV, sighing when nothing happened.

  "Are you disappointed? Or have you had enough explosions to last you a while?" I teased.

  He gave me a stern look, but his mouth was pulled up into a sly grin.

  "I've had enough explosions to last me ten lifetimes. I can't wait to go a day without someone trying to blow us up. Maybe we'll go to Disney World and celebrate."

  I couldn't help but laugh. "I would pay serious money to see you getting your picture with Goofy."

  He laughed along with me, grabbing my hand in his as we walked to the car. It felt so natural, easy. For a minute I even got to pretend that our lives were normal and we were just two people dating. The moment didn't last long. As soon as we were buckled, Grant told me the plan.

  "Used a burner phone I got from that store yesterday to call the closest hospitals. Hunter is fine. Believe it or not, since that bullet went straight through his shoulder, he didn't have any extensive damage. Lucky bastard. It missed major arteries and muscle. His recovery should be quick, he didn't even need surgery. Alice is going to stay with him. Trent and Nick are going to meet up with us just outside of Baybank. Trent said he found out something but didn't want to say it over the phone."