“Cassidy!” I couldn’t say it any louder than a whisper. Still, she slept. Whoever had found us had to be right outside this small structure. Silence was imperative. I pressed closer and nipped on her earlobe. Gently, but hopefully enough to get her attention with the least movement possible.
Her gasp shot straight to my dick and I inhaled a lungful of air to trap inside. And she wasn’t awake yet.
So I bit again. Harder. And instantly smoothed my tongue over the sting in case it was too much.
This time, her gasp came with blue eyes shooting wide open. Before she could rear back and do something more obvious, like squeal or shove free, I tightened my arm around her and pressed my leg into hers. Pinned her down with my body and stare.
Do. Not. Move.
I felt her heart racing with her chest locked against me so tightly. She blinked. Once. Twice. Swallowed hard as that adorable blush returned. Ever so slightly, she nodded.
Message received. Perfect. I glanced up to check if anyone had spotted us through that kitchen window. Only the morning sky showed, no peeping trespassers.
“Grab your bags. Kitchen window.”
She nodded to my mouthed commands.
I slipped out of her hold and balanced on the balls of my feet. Once she eased upright and was on two feet, thankfully with shoes still on, I took her hand and gripped it securely. Together, we soundlessly walked across the filthy carpet and grabbed her stuffed tote and purse off the stained and dust-covered Formica.
She stood at my side as I leaned over the kitchen sink and unlatched the locks. Rust hadn’t glued these bits, and I quickly had the window open. Cool, damp spring air rushed in. Behind us, a loud bang and thud sounded. Near the garage. They were trying to get in. A screech of the metal door rising along a rack cut the silence. No. They were getting in.
“Go.” I half-guided and half-hoisted Cassidy up to the sink and out the window. Heart hammering way too fast for just waking up, I jumped up and dove out the opening after her. She’d landed on the grass and was slinging her tote over her shoulder, staring at me with desperate hope.
I took her hand and we ran.
Chapter Seven
Cassidy
I couldn’t do this anymore. This constant rush.
I gasped in air as we sprinted across the dewy grass. My shoes were soaked within seconds and I cringed at sucking squishes. If anyone was following us out of the house we’d slept in, all they had to do was listen for the suction-cup runner.
From the second I’d woken up, my pulse skyrocketed. At least that shock was or could have been a pleasant one. Erotic even. My ear still tingled from Luke’s teeth snagging my skin. Maybe I’d be branded forever.
My slippery soles skidded when Luke directed me to the neighbor’s garage. It was the first structure we came upon after dashing along the treeline. He caught me as I slipped to the ground. It was a pause long enough for me to look back.
Huh.
That was a nice change. Instead of fleeing in a city with walls and open alleys, we were hidden by leafing-out trees and bushes in this end of the countryside. I released a deep breath that no one was coming after us. Yet. There was that word again. How many more times in the near future would I have to be on the edge for the other proverbial shoe to drop?
I pressed my fist to my chest, my lungs burning from the early-morning cardio that didn’t fit into my bookworm physique. My throat ached like I’d gulped in too much air too quickly. Oh. That was from the exercise, too. And to think people ran for fun…
Luke silently stepped along the wall of the neighbor’s garage, still holding my hand. Despite the insta-adrenaline rush at both his wake-up nip and this haste to escape, I felt grounded. With him. Would this awareness of his touch last for long? Pose any residual withdrawal issues? Because I felt foolish to get so…attached.
Has to be because of the danger, you idiot.
Not how perfectly wicked and sweet it felt to sleep in his arms.
God. Warmth seared my face but at least I was spared him noticing my blush this time. He walked ahead of me and sidled up to a parked sedan. Frowning, I cast my gaze between him and the path we’d just taken.
What did he have in mind?
As he opened the unlocked door, he quirked a brow, like he was pleased and surprised. But how would he—
“You’re going to hotwire a car?” I didn’t mean to sound so…prissy.
He scooted into the driver’s seat and shot me a bored glare.
Hmm. Hotwiring a car to get away from whoever had come to the house, or…have a hissy fit over committing a crime? Easy choice. I flicked my fingers at him to urge him to get on with it and I checked for anyone coming.
Auto theft. How could it be so frivolous? I shook my head at my thoughts. Here, I’d thought I’d killed a cop yesterday. Stealing a car should be way less of a misdemeanor to accept.
Technically, I’m just an accomplice here.
It was amazing my people-pleasing good girl habits still held firm.
Luke exhaled harshly and rooted around under the steering wheel. “Come on…” he begged the vehicle. He glanced up toward the front porch and refocused on his task. “Been a while since I’ve done this.”
Hey, I wasn’t going to judge. Better he than me. If escape plans were up to me, it’d be by foot.
I walked past the driver’s door and crouched down to peer around the back window. The driveway to the house we’d crashed at was visible from this angle. More than that, most of the street was within view. Not a single cruiser waited. No police cars. I’d expected some kind of official presence.
Or maybe Michael was involved with an undercover branch of some kind. Lucky us.
When Luke growled again, I retraced my steps and hunkered over him. Metal glinted in the barely-there sunrise, and I ducked closer. I snatched the key out of the old radio space and dangled it in his face. “Wouldn’t this be easier?”
What an idiot to leave an unlocked car ready to go with keys inside.
The swift change from frustration to are-you-fucking-kidding-me on his face could have been hilarious. But a door slamming shut from the direction we’d come from wasn’t. He grabbed the key and I ran around to get in the passenger door.
Luke started the car and backed up quickly but not crazily.
As we drove off, our roles were reversed from last night. If the sun wasn’t making its entrance, I would have thought it still was night. While comforting and so addictively tempting, my rest wasn’t long enough. He drove and I watched the mirrors. Another fortunate getaway, because no one pursued us.
“You didn’t leave anything in your car, did you?”
Besides my meticulously organized collection of the Greatest Hits CDs from the nineties? “No. Wait!” I winced. “His wallet thing.”
After a heavy sigh, he said, “At least we got his info off his ID.”
True. Zero had it. It couldn’t be that big of a loss.
Luke rubbed at his mouth and I recalled his lips and teeth on me. Heat flared. My God. It was past time to lose that image. We’d gotten close…for body warmth. Survival, that was all. And he’d bitten me because…
I clamped my eyes shut and refused to whimper. He’d bitten me to quietly wake me up. End of story.
“We’ll ditch this near the city and pick up my wheels.”
Changing vehicles did sound wise. I nodded, still not trusting my voice around him.
“You okay?” He glanced at me then and I tore my stare off the lower half of his face. Those soft lips. The tantalizing abrasion of his stubble. The—
Stop. I blinked hard a couple of times and resolutely faced forward.
“You’re acting…weird.”
Because I was turned on. And he wasn’t. Wait a second. How did he even know what normal me was? He’d met me two seconds from suffocation.
“Just… Um. I’m not a morning person.”
Nice lie.
“Me neither.”
Well, hey. We had
something in common now, other than running from the police. May as well enjoy my morning lust after all and get my hopes up high. Turning from him, I rolled my eyes.
Focus. It’d been too long since I’d had so much intimacy—accidentally—with a man that it was melting my head.
We’d get his “wheels” and then what?
“Get any news from Zero over the night?” he asked.
Ah. Yes. I could be productive here rather than let my hormonally needy body salivate over him as he expertly shifted the manual clutch on the clunker we’d taken.
I pulled my phone out and didn’t know if the amount of texts would bring good or bad news. Probably the latter. I read them to him as I opened them.
“Nada on Rosa. I’ll keep looking.”
No trace of a biology professor? How?
“Seems she’s fallen off the grid, but she was present on a flight to NQT,” I read on.
“What’s that?” Luke asked and settled into his seat. Long limbs stretched out and I avoided staring again. Those firm lengths of muscles that had held me all night… What, I sleep next to him and now I was gaga? Hardly. How annoying.
If it was in reference to a flight… I perked up. “I’m guessing the abbreviation for Nottingham? Since she was going there.”
So we knew she’d made it there, at least.
“What else?” he asked.
I continued announcing the messages. “Michael Poole seems to be a cop.”
Seems to be? I shared a scrunched-up scowl with Luke.
“He’s registered as an officer with Cincy as of November last year but he’s made no arrests.”
Okay. Weird that he’d have no action on the job.
I read on. “He’s also listed as a member of the FBI in Tucson.”
What?
“As in Arizona?” Luke asked.
“Yeah.” I scratched at the back of my neck, frowning at the phone. How could he be an active officer in two different geographic locations and two different branches of government at the same time?
On to the next message. “He’s never passed the police academy. Anywhere. Period.”
I looked up at Luke after that last text. So he was a cop, but no proof of ever becoming one or acting as one? I understood Zero’s seems to be now. It wasn’t conclusive. Just confusing.
“I don’t get it,” Luke said and fiddled with the car’s heat controls.
Made two of us. I couldn’t see how Michael would show up with not one but two titles. He had the identification for one of them on hand too.
“That’s it?” Luke halted the start of too many questions running around like chickens with no heads in my brain. “Nothing about anything on you?”
“That was it.” If Zero—anyone—checked me out online, they’d find my TBR pile was impossible and that I worked at Mrs. Phelan’s bookshop near campus. I wasn’t even really on social media anymore.
So that was our big update for the morning. Still on the run from a maybe cop. We had to locate Rosa. Oh, and my attraction to Luke had exploded in my face like a surprise confetti bomb.
“Then we’ll stick with the plan,” he said.
What, get his car? Then what? I couldn’t figure out why he was even sticking with me to begin with. Unless he was worried about legal repercussions from stepping into the fight. One more worry. Lay ’em all on me.
“Go to New York and get Rosa’s files from the box,” he emphasized.
It really was the only remaining option at this point.
“I guess.”
My stomach rumbled so I filled the silence in the car with munching on my protein bar. Luke took the one I offered, and I stewed on the actions of the last twenty-four hours.
“How do you know the cops won’t be on to you too?” I asked after I finished. He was slowing and turning onto streets in a smaller outskirt of Cincinnati, and I was curious about this switchover to a new mode of transportation. Not that I felt it wise to hang on to the stolen car. “If you lived next door, they’d perceive your absence as a little suspicious. What if they start a search for you, including your car?”
“Bike.”
I tilted my head to peer at him closer.
“Bike, not a car.”
Oh, come on. I needed a break. A teeny, tiny, miraculous break. “As in…”
“Motorcycle.”
Of course he’d have one. He already had the dark and brooding badass aura down. Why wouldn’t he be even more dangerous and have a motorcycle? I licked my lips and formulated something to say.
“No.”
All right. Starting out strong in this argument then.
“Huh?” He narrowed his eyes at me as he spun the steering wheel into the lot of a long-term storage garage. “No what?”
“No bike. I can’t.”
A cough of a laugh sounded. “What do you mean?”
I meant that I’d never been on one, nor desired to. I had no qualms with stating my fear of them. I wasn’t the sort of individual to seek out risks and thrills. I lived voraciously through thousands of characters on pages. Not in my real life, where my limbs could be broken as I was thrown off a speeding motorcycle or—
“Cassidy?”
He’d parked the car while I’d gotten lost in my haze of worrying and spiraling south into anxiety.
“I’ve never been on one.”
When he left the car, I rushed after him. “Today’s your lucky day then.”
Lucky my ass. He didn’t get it. I could not get on his bike. It was asking too much. “Don’t you have a car or something else? A truck? Minivan?” Magic carpet? Can we Uber to New York?
The blank stare he sent my way irked me. I was not being irrational. If we were stuck in this absurd and unconventional…partnership of sorts, we should be able to compromise.
“I do have an SUV.”
I brightened my smile. See! Easy peas—
“Which is parked at home. You know, the building you were attacked at. My home that was blown up That’s got to be swarming with all kinds of law enforcement by now.”
His home…my God. I hadn’t even settled down enough to absorb that fact. His apartment was lost now too. He was homeless. Maybe that was why he was still tagging along with me. Where else would he go?
“Luke…” It was the first time I’d said his name and it was in a plea. I could think of many other things—naked, innately satisfying things—I’d like to beg him for. Maybe more of his lips and teeth on me. I huffed. Forget about it. “Luke, please don’t make me get on your bike.”
“Then stay here.”
I gaped at him. “But I have the key to the box!”
He shrugged and glowered. “I’m not going to make you do anything you don’t want to, Cassidy.”
Ooooh. Poor choice of words. And he was stingy about this. Duly noted. I didn’t mean he was literally forcing anything on me. But—
“Seriously? You’re scared?” He stopped walking as he came to a spot within the parking garage. “Of this?” After he unlatched a combo lock and unzipped the cover, he revealed his ride.
Sleek, black metal shone under the flickering facility’s spotlights. Spotless. Without a single dent or blemish. I almost wanted to run my hand over it and appreciate the smooth, shiny surface. I knew nothing about motorcycles, but it looked nice. And badass. Well-maintained, too. Also free of signs of accidents and collisions…
“Yes. I’m seriously scared.” I crossed my arms and squarely faced him off. “I’m terrified of riding on that thing.”
“You’re being impractical.”
It was my turn to glare at him. My fears weren’t impractical. Who was he to say how I could feel?
“You had enough guts to smash a man’s head with a fucking skillet last night.” He stepped around the bike and towered over me.
I wasn’t intimidated and I wouldn’t arch back from him. Except I had to bend back to maintain eye contact. Damn was he tall.
“You were ballsy enough to trust a felon like me.
”
“I thought you’re supposed to be an ex-felon.”
He licked his lower lip. “To sleep with me.”
Sweet Mother Mary. Sleep with me? He had to say that?
Actually, no. I hadn’t. I’d slept next to him. And I certainly didn’t need him putting sinfully sumptuous ideas like sex with him in my head. Definitely not in that low, husky murmur.
“I think you’ve proven you can overcome your fears. Give yourself a little credit.”
That was oddly encouraging. Hindsight could be funny like that. He wasn’t even making fun of me. Still— “You can’t drive it,” I protested.
Now he gave me the hint of a wicked grin. As though he enjoyed a challenge.
“I mean, now. Not with your arm. Your shoulder has to be too weak.” There. A perfectly logical reason not to trust him with my life on a motorcycle.
He huffed out a breath and approached me. Before I could step back, he set his hot grip on my waist and lifted me clear off the ground. A squeak left my lips and I held onto his hands hoisting me up. I was no lightweight. But he thrusted me in the air like I was no heavier than a loaf of bread. Alrighty then. Point taken. Maybe he was stronger and more healed than I gave him credit for. But his lips screwed tighter together like he was holding back on showing me how much this bothered his injury.
“Put me down.”
He didn’t. Simply held me three feet from the asphalt, staring up at me like I was some kind of cheerleader about to be tossed up and away. “I’m perfectly fit and able to drive.”
I gently smacked at his head and he came damned close to laughing as he lowered me.
On my feet again, I closed my eyes tight as I asked, “Do you at least have a helmet?”
I couldn’t believe I was doing this. My knees felt wobbly, and not from the awkward ascension I’d just experienced. Heights. That was one thing I didn’t fear. I gave him a wretched, sad pout. He stood there massaging his shoulder and nodded. “Of course.”
Closer to the beast of a machine, I concentrated on steady breaths as he handed me the protective headgear. While he checked odds and ends of his bike, I counted my inhalations and fumbled over the mantra I’d learned in mediation years ago. Once he seemed satisfied, he ducked down to my eye level.
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