Catch Me If You Can (Love's Command)

by Billi Jean

  “Ky, we’ve known each other for three days. Less, maybe. But for me, it’s been a life time of not getting why people love one another, when all love does is hurt you when that person dies or leaves.”

  Her heart stuttered. She’d thought the same things herself, hadn’t she? She’d loved her mother, or the idea of her, for most of her childhood, until, one day, she’d realized her mother had left her, willingly left her, to pursue her own life. Only then did she understand how painful love could be. She’d been eight. She’d never forgotten that.

  “But with you…” He touched her face, and bent to brush a kiss to her lips. “With you, knowing you three days or thirty, it won’t matter. I get it now, why people love, why they do the things they do, why they smile waking up to the same person every day, day in and day out. I get it now. I said I love you, Ky. I’ve never said those words to another woman, baby. Never will either.”

  “I love you too, Daren Scott.”

  He settled his face next to hers and breathed quietly along her shoulder blade. The tension she’d felt, fearing he’d not understand her, or worse, not want what she wanted, disappeared slowly until she could take a deep breath. They stayed like that for long minutes before he lifted his head.

  “I want babies. A family and babies,” she told him quickly, before he could say more.

  He blinked. “Okay, that’s okay, baby. We can have—”

  “No, I mean, that’s what I want. One of the reasons I left my work with my dad. Only one of the reasons, but… I want to be a mom. I want to have a family. I want to be a great mom and for someone else to be the great dad, I want—”

  “You mean me, right?” he asked, letting her see a quick frown that wasn’t a tease this time.

  She traced the contours of his face, amazed that a man like Daren would even ask such a thing. “Yes, I would like that very much. You would be a wonderful father.”

  The frown disappeared and he slowly smiled. “Are you asking me to marry you?”

  “Daren Scott!” She was so shocked she started laughing.

  “Aw, now, it’s okay. You can, you know. I mean, I have my pants down around my ankles, but you can—”

  She laughed harder. “You do not!”

  “Well, all the important parts are still out and ready,” he modified with a straight face, then laughed when she smacked his shoulder. He grabbed her hand and kissed it, his ebony eyes on her as if he loved her—everything about her.

  Were they a matched set? She certainly hoped they were, because he fit her. And more than just with his wild sex, Ky. He fits you. He fits me, she thought, hugging him around the neck and kissing his shoulder.

  “Where are we?” she asked, suddenly realizing what they’d really done. Or she’d done. Given Daren a blow job while he was driving. Oh, my, Ky, you loved it too.

  “I loved that, Daren,” she added, when he pulled up and settled her next to him, tucking himself in his pants with a wink at her.

  “Yeah? I could tell. Nearly had me wrecking, but, baby, it was worth it.”

  She laughed and tugged her skirt down, shaking her head at the wet wipes he nodded at. She still wasn’t using those in front of him.

  “No? Come on, I’ll help if you want.”

  “Daren!”

  “All right, I can see you’re still shy, but yeah”—he sighed heavily and frowned at her—“If you want, I’ll have to let you do that daily. Although, I might have to buy this car.”

  “Oh, my God, we still have this person’s car!”

  “True, but for now, I think we needed it more.”

  She shook her head at his teasing, and brushed her hair back out of her eyes. A thought occurred and she stopped him from opening the door with a hand on his arm. “Did you like”—she paused then forged on ahead—“what I did?”

  “Nearly killed me.” He laughed when she huffed at him, then he turned serious brown eyes on her and said, “Ky, I loved it. I should tell you, though, I might be one demanding man when it comes to car rides.”

  “Daren!”

  “What? If you’d kept up that switching from hard to gentle, I might have smacked your butt though. Damn near had me wrecking the car with those lips, baby. I liked it one hell of a lot.”

  She grinned and leaned close to kiss him. “I hoped you would.”

  “Might have to, you know, practice that though, so you can really make me like it.”

  “Oh? Really…” She gave him a flirty look and laughed again when he tried to kiss her. He brought her to his mouth with a firm pressure on her neck that made her heart miss a beat. Slowly, ever so slowly, he brought his lips down to hers, and kissed her until the same heat as before blossomed and grew between them.

  He ended the kiss slowly, almost reluctantly, she thought.

  “Damn, I think we fit fine, Ky. Yin and yang,” he whispered.

  Chapter Sixteen

  With that wonderful statement, Daren Scott filled her heart with so much joy, her throat clogged with painful tears. She held them back, knowing him enough now to know he’d not like to see her cry.

  He straightened, gave her a firm look that made it clear he knew she was fighting tears and touched her cheek. “None of that, missy,” he murmured. “You stay here just until I can check the place. Okay?”

  She nodded, knowing arguing with him wasn’t going to get him to change his mind. He opened the door and once again left her in the car with another quick signal to stay put. Only this time, a gun blasted a hole in the window near her shoulder. She ducked down, curling her arms over her head and heard him shout for her. “Ky, get the hell out of here! Go! Go!”

  Another shot sounded, closer and she thought he slammed his hand down on the roof and yelled for her to go again then raced off, but she was too terrified to do more than scoot over to the driver’s seat, and start the car. The engine sounded too loud, and in a panic she pressed the window button and lowered the glass. She wasn’t leaving him here.

  “Daren! Come on, now!”

  He turned from where he’d dashed off halfway to the tall apartment building. Along the side of where he paused, two men raced forward, guns out and pointing at her. Daren turned, tackled both men down and above where he’d stood, the windows in the building shattered. Another man ran toward her and from where Daren wrestled with the two men she heard him shout her name, telling her to leave.

  The passenger door to the car suddenly opened and a dark-haired man in a suit tried to get in. She floored the gas pedal and at the same time threw the wet wipes at his head. She heard Daren yell something, but she turned the car sharply, then shoved it into reverse, dragging the man a few feet before he fell out.

  “Oh, my God!” She spotted him in her rear-view mirror getting up, but she’d just nearly killed a man.

  “Ky! Ky! Get the hell out of here!”

  She swung the car around in a tight circle, spotted Daren and barreled over the curb to get to him. “You, get in! Get in!”

  He opened the back seat door with a curse and dove in while she floored it, nearly hitting two of the men and running over a newspaper stand, but she got the car down the street and out of range of their guns.

  “Ky, damn it, I told you to go.”

  “I wasn’t going to leave you there!” she shouted, narrowly avoiding an oncoming car. She turned down a one way without stopping. Cars honked at her, but she maneuvered through them and took her first left, ending up nearly hitting a bus, but swerved at the last minute.

  “Holy shit, pull over and let me drive before you get us killed!”

  She ignored him and turned again, throwing him to the side with a bit more satisfaction than she should have. “Those men looked like Americans, Daren. Why did they look like agents? American agents?”

  Daren pulled himself upright with a few swear words, gripping the back of her seat tightly as she swung them out of the way of a traffic light and down another narrow street. This time she laid on the horn, and moved through the traffic slowly unt
il she reached a broad sidewalk, and used that to reach the next corner.

  “Where the hell did you learn to drive like that?” Daren demanded when she got them through the set of lights and down a faster street.

  She took her eyes off the road for a second to judge his expression and saw the frown there. “China. Now, answer me, Daren. They were, weren’t they?”

  “Yeah, they might have been. Turn here,” he said, pointing to a street she knew would lead to the highway.

  “No. No more going the way they want. Tell me how they found us.”

  He cursed again and suddenly maneuvered over the seat to sit next to her. “They’ve tagged you. Maybe me.”

  “They what?” she asked, but she knew. Tagged. Somehow someone had placed a tracker on her. “Did you do it?”

  “Do what?” he asked, wincing at her when she narrowly missed a parked car to get around a big bus.

  She bit her lip. No, he didn’t place anything on her. He wouldn’t have done that. Maybe he was tagged too.

  “You didn’t. But did Tazz? Did he put something on me, or my things”—she paused and laughed. “What things? I have nothing left of what I came here with. Just the file drive and papers I took from the safe. I even lost the wet wipes.”

  “Baby, don’t panic while you’re driving like a Chinese cabbie on crack, okay?” Daren said, his voice rising a bit on the last word as she sped them up to ninety. “Slow down, slow down and we’ll get the tag off.”

  “What? You can do that? Where is it?”

  “Let me get you out of this before we get killed with your driving, okay?”

  She avoided a street cleaning truck and ran the red light, but refused to slow down. She’d gone hours—days really—dealing with too much. She wanted done with it all. Suddenly it didn’t matter as much as having a shower. She’d had sex. Several times, too. She’d gone a full day and a full night without changing. The morning light brightening the streets around her made her feel even worse. She was hungry, tired, her head hurt and she wanted this entire thing to be over.

  At an intersection, she turned left, then quickly left again into a below ground parking garage. Why not? It seemed their MO. Parking garages, cars and being shot at or blown up.

  No attendant stopped them as she settled the car in the first empty space she found inside the darkened interior of the garage. Once there she finally took a breath and turned to face Daren.

  “Why do they want me dead?”

  He winced, reached out and pulled her into his arms. “Ky, don’t say things like that to me, okay? Here, let me see your neck.”

  “My neck?” she asked, refusing to let him go. “Why my neck?” She circled her arms around his neck until their noses touched. He pulled her close and kissed her briefly.

  “It’s usually where they tag you. It might be your clothing though. Did Tazz get close enough to touch you on the ferry?”

  “Daren, we jumped overboard from the ferry!” she pulled away enough to meet his eyes. “It had to be—”

  “It’s waterproof, baby. Here, just bend your neck,” he said, moving her hair aside. He brushed his fingers along her neck so lightly, she barely sensed him until he whispered a curse and pressed down along the right side of her neck, behind her ear.

  “How the hell did he get this here?” he muttered.

  A second later, something like a sharp sting bit her, right where he’d been touching. She turned her head to see him pull back far enough to show her a scrap of something about a centimeter around and nearly transparent. She never would have seen it, or even felt it.

  “This is a tracker?”

  He nodded. “Yep, and there’s one on me as well, I can almost guarantee it.”

  She met his worried gaze and reached up to trace her fingers along his neck.

  “No, not there. I think mine is more permanent.”

  “What do you mean?”

  He tapped his arm, where he had a small scar, she noticed. “Here. I got this last time around, and it’s never healed correctly.” He pulled a knife from his boot as he spoke and shocking her, he sliced along the scar.

  “Daren!” She stopped him by gripping his hands, but saw, beneath the blood, metal. “Oh, my God. Let me do it, please.”

  He brushed a kiss to her brow and removed his hands. She took his big knife, and carefully used the tip to extract the thin tube from his arm. “Oh, Daren. Is this how they’ve found us? Won’t you be in trouble now, for taking it out?”

  A dog barking drew his attention from her, right when he opened his mouth to say something. He suddenly shoved himself over and opened the car door, jumping out as soon as he got it open.

  “Come on. Follow me,” he whispered. Louder, he said, “Here doggie, here pup, come on, come here.”

  The dog looked mangy, as if someone had once owned him then left him on his own. His brown ears tipped forward, then back, and he tucked his tail between his legs. Daren got down on his haunches and whispered to the dog again until cautiously, it moved forward, its tail wagging. Daren opened a pocket in his BDUs and pulled out something in a wrapper. “Here, dog, come on, smell this?”

  The dog perked up at his tone, or maybe the smell of food.

  “What is that? What are you doing?”

  “Just watch, baby, and come on, help me out here.”

  She quietly moved closer and squatted next to him, balancing herself with his shoulder and watched him urge the dog closer, but not sure how to help.

  “You’re bleeding, we need to clean you,” she whispered.

  The dog stepped close enough that Daren reached out with what she thought was jerky and gave him a piece. The tail wagging increased. Daren pulled out another piece, slipped the metal in it, folded the tough meat and handed it to the dog along with the tracker she’d worn. The dog swallowed the whole thing in one gulp.

  “Oh, God, the poor dog,” she whispered.

  “Why? He liked the meal and he won’t be hurt.” Daren grinned at her, and offered her a piece. “Want some?”

  “Uh, no thank you,” she said, shaking her head.

  “Here, pooch, you get it all then.” He handed the dog several more pieces, then with a grin, he stood and grabbed her hand to help her to her feet as well.

  “Here, let me at least wrap that for you,” she said, pulling out her blouse to slice a strip big enough to use on his arm.

  “Ky, baby, you don’t have to—”

  She stopped him by handing him back his knife. “Already done, now here,” she murmured, wiping the spot of blood then using the clean shirt to wrap around his forearm several times until she tied it off tightly.

  “You’re going to be a good mom, Ky.”

  The comment stopped her halfway to tucking her shirt back in.

  “Really?” she smiled at him, and gave him a quick kiss on the jaw.

  “Absolutely, but no driving. Ever, if I can help it.”

  “I’m a good driver!”

  He rubbed his hand over his short cut hair and smiled at her disarmingly. “Let’s go shopping, okay? I think I saw the blur of a store front when we were barreling down the street going ninety.”

  “I was not going ninety, and nothing will be open this early.”

  “We aren’t going to be purchasing clothing, baby. Come on.”

  “We’re going to shoplift?” She tried to stop him, but he tugged her along and out of the garage, forcing her into a quick run to reach the other side. The man was amazing, she thought, with a burst of love filling her with warmth.

  Daren kept Ky on his left, away from his gun. Behind him, he heard the dog barking happily, but as soon as they crossed the street and he looked back, he didn’t spot the poor guy. The agency would track the mutt, but with any luck, they’d not find him for a few hours, maybe longer.

  So far, so good, he thought, keeping alert for any danger.

  Ky was alive, for one. Two, he was with her. Three, she’d not completely freaked on him for being tracked by his own m
en. He knew she understood what they’d landed in, though, and knew it was merely a matter of time before she started questioning what they were going to do.

  The odds of saving her father were dwindling, if he were even alive. If he had to get them into that lab, he’d put them right where everyone wanted her. He couldn’t count on Tazz’s help at this point. Tazz had found him by the tracker. But Tazz was on his side, at least somewhat.

  Dare wasn’t sure how much longer he could count on that. From now on, he’d have to hide to keep Ky safe and alive.

  That meant he was on his own. In Japan.

  They had a few options, but first he needed to change out of the BDUs and into something less conspicuous. Ky might have nearly killed them with her driving, but she’d gotten them to the Shinjuku district, right by the rail station. Across from them was also one of the biggest department stores in Tokyo.

  “You did good, Ky. We’ll get what we need here, then hit that train station.”

  “We can take a subway right to my father’s lab. I thought this would be better than a car.”

  He squeezed her hand and brushed a kiss to her forehead. “You’re too smart for me, baby.”

  She laughed, and gave him a look he could get used to seeing.

  “Just keep up with me a bit longer in those heels, then we’ll get you something more fit for running, okay?” He guided her around the side of the huge department store until he found what he was looking for—a narrow set of stairs by a loading dock. No one manned the area, and a large bolt lock was all that had the place locked down. He scanned the tops of the building, spotted no cameras, and glanced at his watch to check the time. Five twenty a.m.

  “It’s too early for anyone to be here, yet. The shops don’t open until ten in the morning,” Ky supplied.

  He nodded. “Good. Plenty of time,” he said, urging her up the stairs. “Stand back, okay?” He reached down and pulled his lock kit from the side of his cargos. The lock clicked open with a soft snick seconds later. He pulled it free, immediately opened the door and waited. No alarms sounded and after a full minute, he widened the door and stepped inside. He didn’t see any sign of a guard at the small glassed in guardroom, but took no chances. He indicated silence to Ky, and she tilted her head like he’d lost his mind. The ‘of course’ in her look was so damned funny, he smacked her butt just to see her eyes widen.