Kris lifted her head, far enough back that he wasn’t touching her. “Because you do not like being surprised or outwitted by a damned bloody bitch of a woman,” she sneered, curling her lip. “And don’t lie. You have a gun. I know it. It’s at the small of your back. You have one gun, and two knives, and your hands, the thing you prefer the most to use on women.”
The girl was still sitting, almost afraid to move as though she feared drawing attention to herself. In her small, pale hands, she held Kris’s cell phone and she started to shake, her entire body quivering.
“All right. She can go.”
“And the men you brought are going to be front of us when you head out. I saw them come in. If they even try to touch to her, I’ll know. And my cooperation ends.”
The cool, complacent look in his eyes faltered, replaced by one of pure fury. “Who the fuck are you? You are no cop—I know the smell of cop.” A chilly smile graced his face. “I don’t think that’s what I smell here.”
Kris fought the heated flush that raced up her cheeks at his offhand degrading comment. An icy glint slid through her eyes. “No. I’m not a cop. Not a private investigator, not anything. Just a lady who stumbled into something you really wish I hadn’t.” Licking her lips, she leaned forward and whispered, “I know about the pretty little song bird...her singing stopped, didn’t? And Nessa, I know about Nessa. So do plenty of ot—”
Kris’s breath left her in a rush as he whirled her and pressed her against him in a bizarre lover’s embrace, leaning down to croon in her ear, “Enough, bitch. Before I cut you open here and now and damn the consequences. I’ve run before, I’m good at it. And you’ll be dead before you even hit the floor...know what a stiletto in your heart will do to it? And you’ll still look so lovely too.”
He flashed it long enough for her to see the skinny, deadly point before sliding it back inside the sleeve of his coat.
Fast…her heart skittered in and out of her chest and she licked her lips, forcing the words out, “You can run, maybe from the cops who don’t know that many personal details...yet. But can you run from the people you work with? A lot of them will be feeling their asses fry. And they will be coming after you, too.” Stiffening her hands, she slowly pushed them away from her chest as much as she could. Her gaze jumped around and she knew to almost anybody that looked, they’d just see a man hovering over a woman in a tight embrace, his arms enfolding her from behind.
As his skin touched hers, her eyes clouded over, the feel of his skin on hers forcing a cold wind through her body as his mind merged ever so briefly with hers. “There’s one man, in particular, that you don’t want to have chasing you. He scares you.”
“Shut up,” he rasped in her ear.
Kris laughed shakily before she lapsed into silence, debating her options. She could scream…but if she did that, he might slide that stiletto into her heart, between her ribs, piercing the sac that held the heart, the tissue, the muscle…Kris swallowed, feeling a cold sweat breaking out on her body, a nauseating fear. But even more, if she screamed, she would never have the chance to get to the girls and maybe try to save them.
And Dylan would come.
He would find her, the girls and this man would be stopped.
Her breathing steadied and her voice firmed. “Slide that stiletto in me. Go ahead. And see how much trouble that doesn’t save you. Times up, your game is over…salvage what you can…or try. But then you don’t know what I know or don’t know. And I’m not afraid of dying. I’m more worried about you not dying.”
She felt the tension race through him and his hands tightened to the point of pain on wrists. “Let’s go.”
Kris slid the dark haired pixie a sidelong look out from under her lashes, hoping the girl would be smart. Or at least paranoid enough to not take the chance.
“Bitch, if you want to live, telling me you want me dead isn’t a good way to get started,” he said as he forced her out into the bright sunlight. She kept track of the men around them as they each exited differently, through different doors, one reading a paper, one munching on a sandwich, another just ambling out, staring at Kris with cold, soulless eyes. And he had one hand wrapped around the pixie’s arm, who was staring at Kris with pleading eyes.
Kris could feel words in her head…I’m sorry… they want to hurt you…I just wanted to help…
Kris tsked under her breath and stopped, slamming her elbow back into the man’s gut before aiming her chilly green eyes at a cruiser that was crossing the back of the mall parking lot. “And bringing her out right in front of my face was a very bad move,” Kris said harshly, evading the hands that came from behind. “Let the girl go or the show is up. Now.”
“I decide when the show is up, bitch,” he growled, trying to crowd her towards his car, but unwilling to make too much of a scene. Yet.
Kris could sense his reluctance to draw attention to them. He hadn’t been prepared for this, for anything like this. And his eyes were gleaming with a half mad desire right now, to get away. Without drawing attention, and with a girl. He was used to scared girls, ones who thought that if they did what he said, they just might be okay. Not a woman who knew she was likely good as dead anyway. “Not this time. Not with me. I know the worst you can do. And I know what you have planned for any girl you grab off the streets is worse than anything you can do to me. There was a promise, one made to a girl. It will be kept, and if it takes more than I had originally planned on giving…”
Kris had learned the art of bluffing very well. Tossing her hair back, she evaded yet another set of hands, not hearing them or seeing them, just somehow feeling the man behind her, rotating so that the parking lot was now at her back. The cruiser was moving closer. But he hadn’t noticed her. Not yet. One man, though, the one who held the girl, was leaving the sidewalk, taking her with him. “Don’t take one more step,” she called out, tossing caution aside. A couple of disinterested shoppers tossed her a look before moving on.
Kris turned and moved over to the man who had just tossed her a smirk. She smirked back and opened her mouth to scream.
“Steve. Look at her face,” one of the guys said, shifting from one foot to another. “C’mon.”
Smiling, Kris closed her mouth, swallowing the scream and said, “Yes. Look at my face, Steve. I’ll scream. Because any damn thing you try to do to me is a sight better than whatever fate that girl holds.”
His big, cruel hand fell away and the girl pulled away, gasping. Kris shoved her in the direction of the police cruiser. “Go to them. Fast.” The men had barely even time to blink before they swore heatedly, one automatically reaching for a gun only to have the ringleader grab his hand and hiss, “Are you nuts? Get the fuck to your car. Move.”
He shot Kris a lethal glance. “They die. Tonight. You could have saved them.”
Kris smiled. “I already have.”
He took off, sliding away from her like oil on water. Kris tossed the girl a glance, seeing her stumble to a stop right as the police cruiser noticed her, gunning the car in her direction, the light flashing, a grim faced middle-aged lady riding shotgun with a younger man.
Kris smiled and retreated back into the mall.
She didn’t need to be with that bastard to follow him. She wasn’t exactly certain how she knew.
But he couldn’t possibly hope to lose her now.
And they always liked the same place, that luxurious cabin in Slade, perched over a lake, hanging onto the mountain, private, away from the city, where they could hear everybody that came and went.
With a little luck, she might get there before the others. Nessa was there, right now, suffering and running out of time.
In her hurry through the mall, she didn’t notice the slim blonde who came out of the crowd, a dark frown on her face as she started to tail the tall redhead.
Crazy, Renee thought, shaking her head in sheer shock. The girl had just totally broken every rule of trying to protect a kidnapping victim. And totally inspired.
That man wasn’t too likely to kill somebody who could still bring him money, especially since Kris had made it clear that she’d rather die than fail.
When the phone rang, she didn’t even glance at the number. “I’m babysitting. I’ll call you when I have something worth sharing. Now go away.”
Chapter Ten
Shawn barged through the door to Dylan’s office just as Dylan was on his way out, ready to pound his fist through the wall from sheer frustration. Dead ends. Fucking dead ends. Everything had stalled. Damn it, he had left something unturned, something crucial and it was going to keep him from finding Nessa that much longer. Damn it, Kris. Her and her selfish—
Selfish. Hell, he couldn’t exactly say that, but what the fuck? Didn’t she want to find the girl? What happened to that need he had seen burning inside her eyes?
“Shawn, I don’t have time for your crap right now,” Dylan snapped, shoving his arms into the sleeves of his jacket, adjusting the tail of it to make sure his gun covered. “I’ve got a lost girl I need to find, no leads, no clues, because the one person in this world who seems to able to connect with people and track people down seems to have lost interest in doing that. Kris doesn’t give a damn any more and I have no clues. I’ve no time—”
“Shove it up your ass and come on already,” Shawn barked, jerking his head to the door without so much as another word as Dylan moved aside just in time to avoid them crashing face to face. “Your darling lady who has lost interest has just gotten ass deep in trouble.”
Dylan paused, only long enough to take a breath and asked, “What?”
A cool, feral smile curved at Shawn’s mouth. “If she doesn’t give a damn than maybe you need to go enroll in that clown college they got down in Florida. She’s been investigating it all along, big brother. And she’s ass deep in alligators…as Renee would like to say,” Shawn said, heading down the hall, not even bothering to wait and see if Dylan was coming.
He bypassed Shawn in five seconds, a dark, dangerous look on his face, his brows low over his eyes and his hands clenching into fists. Fury and fear grappled for an even hold inside him as he silently kicked his own ass. Should have damned well know she was up to something. Kris didn’t give up on anything and she had just let this go, in exchange IM chats and web surfing?
“You are gonna tell me how you know this before I get rid of your useless ass, little brother,” Dylan said, shoving the door open, feeling the rage course through him.
Shawn smirked. “Yeah. Sure. Keep telling yourself that, Dylan. You ready for a ride? She’s en route to Slade, Kentucky, small town a little outside of—”
“I know where the hell Slade is. I’ve got a guy down there I’ve been needing to contact. If you tell me that Kris has gone to question him…I’ll beat her ass,” Dylan muttered, fury racing through him, mingling with fear. “What in the hell is she doing, spying on me?”
Shawn snickered, shaking his head and he shoved over the door to Dylan’s Blazer and leaped in. “It’s not one you have to worry about, Dylan. It’s the whole party apparently.”
Dylan growled as he gunned the engine and threw it into reverse. “How exactly do you know about it?”
“Ask Kris when you see her. Renee was reading some notes, very long detailed notes.” A wry laugh filled the air. “I figured out something wasn’t right, but if I was reading them, I’d still be there working my way through them.”
Long moments of silence passed as Dylan thought of her and that damned laptop, that damned office door she kept closing in his face every time he walked by, every time he tried to talk to her. He had assumed she was working on stuff for Escapade.
Pushing him back—that’s what she had been doing, she’d been pushing him back, keeping him from seeing what she had been up to.
Because she had known he would stop her? Damn it, stop… that fucking word would have pissed her off. Fuck. He had known she would be helping out with this, from the time of that first amazing dream. But she could have found a little less dangerous way to show him how damn wrong he was.
Dylan said quietly, “I am going to kill her.”
“You don’t sound very surprised,” Shawn said softly as they sped down the Mountain Parkway to Slade.
“Surprised. Maybe I should be a little. I should have figured she was up to something, should have known,” Dylan whispered, shaking his head. And he hadn’t figured it out. Damn it. If anything happened to her, it was his fucking fault. His. “How far are they ahead of us?”
Shawn shrugged. “Dunno. We may get there around the same time. And I reckon I ought to let you know about Renee.”
****
Kris knew the truck was on her ass.
Glancing in the rearview mirror again, she wove in and out of the light mid week traffic. The problem with rural Kentucky? Not enough traffic, no place to turn, no place to lose somebody tailing her.
She hadn’t really had the opportunity to try in New York, but she imagined it would have been a hell of a lot easier to lose somebody on a road that didn’t stretch out into the clear blue sky. Of course, there was also much less smog here…and Dylan.
Damn his stubborn ass.
“You ought to be sitting here with me, chum,” she muttered, shaking her head as she punched the gas and shot through a narrow opening between a semi and a tow truck. The sporty little BMV handled it like a dream, she smiled as the distance between her, and the truck grew.
She didn’t feel anything wrong coming from whoever was there. And she was leaving herself wide open, more open than she had ever felt in her life. It was bizarre, like somebody had just taken the blinders off of her for the first time in her life. Things were clearer, the colors, the scents, the sound of her own heart. Shooting off the exit at the very last exit, she laughed as the truck missed it and she sped down the little two-lane highway, following that weird feeling deep in her gut.
Kris knew months before, she would have shoved it away.
Now she clung to it, welcomed it.
If she was lucky, it would keep her alive long enough to lambaste Dylan for letting her feel like she couldn’t take this to him.
But Kris was desperately afraid she wouldn’t be able to save the kids and herself. “If I can keep you from doing it again,” she whispered softly. “That will be enough. I’ll make it be enough.”
In her head, she was starting to hear sobs and pitiful screams. They had to stop.
****
She was already out of sight by the time the truck was able to U-turn and catch the other exit, careening down the highway and slamming to a stop at the Shell station right at the base of the mountains. Renee climbed out, whirling and kicking her tire viciously, swearing in a long, heated litany, the words falling from her soft rosy lips in a fashion that would have done Dylan and his Ranger buddies proud.
“How in the fuck?” she half shouted, slamming her fist on the hood. “She’s an editor, for cripes sake. She plays with computers, and reads books, and how the bloody hell?”
Taking a deep breath, Renee reached for her phone and hit the redial button. She was still trying to figure out how Kris had made her when Dylan answered the phone this time. “Do yourself a very big favor, Chicago and tell me that you have Kris standing there with you,” he said.
Renee cocked a brow. Damn. Just like his brother, sexy growling voice and all. “Sorry, slick, and don’t insult me by calling me a Yankee. That girl must have the instincts of a damned coyote or something. She’s gone. Made me quicker than I don’t know what, and she’s done gone, flitting away to the mountains…” her words trailed off as a familiar truck pulled into the Shell station.
The man from the mall. Grim faced, furious, eyes full of death, he came out of the truck and headed into the Shell station. Half way there, he did a chameleon, as Renee watched. He went from a brutal man who looked totally soulless…to a sweet-eyed, simple faced farm boy, tucking his hands into his pockets and nodding with that way only the men of the South c
an, making you feel as though you were sitting on a plantation porch, with a long lacy dress, sipping at mint julep.
Oh, his clothes were still the same, his hair hadn’t changed, except for how he had ran his hand through it, mussing it endearingly. But he looked…other... In a way that Renee simply couldn’t describe. Hell, she was a damned cop and she would have been hard pressed to make connection between this sweet looking old home boy and the bastard she had watched from the shadows as he loomed threateningly over Kris Evress.
Sliding back against the truck, she interrupted Dylan’s rant of, “Where the fucking hell are you?” with a calm, “One of the ringleaders just appeared on the scene. Where are you?”
****
This entire thing had gone to hell in a handbasket as far as Dylan was concerned. It was out of control, with a stray cop he didn’t know out there, watching a dickless son of a bitch, and his little brother riding shot gun.
And his woman was out there.
Hell, all he needed was Nikki to complicate things. Nikki, shit. If anything fucking happened to Shawn—
“You’re out of this, brother. We pull over at the gas station and I’m dumping you. Nik will have my ass for letting you—”
Shawn started to laugh, a deep amused chuckle rolling from his chest as he leaned his head back against the seat. “You still don’t get it, Dylan. This isn’t the army any more. You don’t call the shots, you don’t give orders, we don’t take them. Now you wanna try kickin’ my ass hard enough that I can’t get up off the ground, well you can do that.” Then Shawn’s voice went hard as steel. “But you don’t get it. Kris is like family. She’s Nikki’s bestfriend. And she’s your woman. People don’t fuck with the family, Dylan. We stopped letting that happen a long time ago and I’m not about to change that now just because I didn’t become a card carrying, grenade launching lunatic.”
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