Saints and Assassins (The Sentinels) (22 page)

“What exactly is the plan? I mean I can’t st
ay cooped up in here forever!” she
exclaimed.
She
did not
want to complain, bu
t he had to bring her
into the loop.

Adam sighed as he stepped further into t
he room and when she saw worry in his brown eyes, her heart ached.
If he told her the truth, it
might just terrify her.

“
Sanders ha
s already hired someone else and he
probably knows about me.
”

“There are two choices. First, we can leave
Chicago
and try to hide or second, we can stay and wait. At some point they’ll find us.”

“No, there a
re three choices.
We can go to San
ders and head this off there,” she
told him.

Adam paused and
stared at her intently. She
couldn’t tell i
f
he thought
she
was crazy or if he were actually considering the idea.

“Adam, we should go to Sanders right now even. I want to confront him, what’s he going to do in a public place, especially a bank!”

“No! You don’t understand the capabilities o
f these people!” Adam shouted raising
his arms in the air.

“I beg to differ. I believe I know exactly what
they are
capable of and
I think that if we show up and catch him off guard
we will
have the intimidation factor on our side. I can’t hide forever
,
either. I’m
already feeling like a prisoner!
” she
shouted back.
She
fi
gured it would be worth a shot and she
was getting a little annoyed
with Adam’s stubbornness
.

“You might be right,” he replied as he ran his hands through his hair
. Then, clenching them into fists, he held them at the side of his head.
“This is so damn frustrating and confusing.”

“What do you mean?” She tilted
her head to the side
.

Adam sighed deeply, “This is so different. I usually can just take care
of the problem and move on.” Her
heart sank
.
D
id he want to
move on
? Eve
feared
at any moment
that he might explode
with anger
so she
gave him some sp
ace and stepped back.

“What?” he snapped.

Did she dare ask? Would he change his mind?

“You need to move on?”
Eve
was going to wait for him to
tell her
what was
wrong
.
She
had been
as
patient with him as h
e had been with her
these last few days, but he seem
ed to be hiding feelings from her
and
she
deserved to hear the truth.

“No. God no! That’s not what I meant,” he said with his teeth clenched together tight. Adam stepped toward
her
and
gently
placed his hand on
her
arm. “That’s not what I meant,”
he repeated in a softer tone
.

“I gue
ss I’m a little dense right now
because that’s what you said
,
isn’t it?”
Maybe it was a Freudian slip, but the fear of him leaving her left her feeling like a bomb waiting to explode.

“Yes, but I was speaking in reference to the past. I
cannot
imagin
e
doing anything without you
.
”
He
wrapped
his arms around
her
,
forcing
her
body to his.
The fear melted away instantly. Adam nuzzled her neck and she felt her body purr from his touch.

“For years I have lived alone, slept alone, ate alo
ne, done everything
alone. I would do a job and move on as I stated. Then by a miracle you enter my life, it’s not a bad thing but you’ve turned my life upside down.”

“I can understand that.” Eve smiled as h
is breath tickled her neck.

“Eve
,
every second has been worth it. I am frustrated because you aren’t safe yet. I am more so confused because everything I’ve done in the last week to prot
ect you has actually brought
you
closer to
danger. I don’t know what to do, which is a fi
rst for me.” Adam
looked
down at her and while she knew they were in danger, she didn’t fe
el fear as long as she was with Adam
.

Then his mouth
was on hers.

“I would never want to leave you,” he whispered as he
moved his mouth toward her
ear. “Don’t ever think that.” Still holding onto her, he stepped back.

“We may want to seriously consider packing up and leaving town,
probably the country.
It’s the logical thing to do right now I think. The man
they have
hired is good, too good.
I
t won’t take him
long to figure out where I live so we should leave. W
e can go anywhere you want to go, you name the place and I’ll have my jet ready.”

“
I hate that you’d hav
e to leave your home and—
”
Which brought her back to the question she had wanted to ask two days earlier.

“Adam, just exactl
y how much money do you have?”
Adam released her and she wondered for a moment if he would be offended by the question, but she quickly realized he wouldn’t. He had been more than open with her the past few days. Even now as they knew that another killer would be coming after them.

“This apartment building is worth a fortune, then
there’s the yacht and a jet too!
You’ve got to come clean here. Not that it matters, but I am curious.”
Placing her hands on her hips, she waited for his response.

Adam smiled,
and opened his mouth to speak, but his phone rang.
Adam pulled the phone from his pocket and as he looked at it, he held up one finger
. He answered the phone and she listened for just a moment and could tell that it must be Greta. Eve
didn’t need to hear this conversation so she
left the room to use the bathroom and when she came back Adam had just shoved his phone back into his pocket.

“Greta,” Adam stated. “Now, I believe you asked me a question
and to be honest I’m not
real sure.
”
He looked as if he were calculating the sum in his head.

“It’s not as much as you would think though, may
be thirty
million? Yeah, I think that’s about right
,
”
he said with a grin. “Now that you know are you going to put a hit out on me so you can take all of my money?”
H
e laughed.

“Not funny
, Adam
.
I
t’s not like I’m your wife or anything, it wouldn’t do me any good
anyway.
” She
added a thick layer of sarcasm
to
that comment and rolled her eyes.

Adam arched a brow.
“We could change that you know.
”

He slinked toward her with a crooked grin. “
There was one more qu
estion that I wanted to ask you.
”

He stared her down and she knew he was toying with her. Backing up slowly, she tried
to distance
herself
from him
,
but ended up agai
nst a small table by the sofa.
He moved toward her like a predator about to attack.
E
xtending
her hands
and
trying to push him away, he closed the space between them
.
Adam wrapped his arms around her and dipped his head down to nuzzle her neck.

“Is that a proposal?”
she
asked as
they
toppled onto the sofa.
She
wasn’t going to get an immediate answer
as Adam had his mouth busy on her
skin
, kissing her
lips and neck.
She
sighed as his warm lips caressed
her
skin. “Now you’re not going to answer me?”

“I’m busy,” he replied as he continued the bombardment of kisses. Then without
notice,
he stopped and straightened
her so that she
was sitting on the sofa and he was kneeling on the floor in front of
her
.

“Eve,” he started.

She
interrupted him, “What are you doing?”

“Shhh, please. Eve, will you marry me? Before you
answer,
I know you’ve only known me a few days now. I’ve known you for a year and I love you, I’ve never loved anyone before you and I want you to be my wife. I know this is unconventional because of the circumstances but just hear me out
—”

“Adam.” she
stated as
she
put
her
finger against his lips to stop his rambling. “Y
es, I will.” That was all she
got out before he picked
her
up and swung
her
around the room, letting out a loud yell as he did so.
Eve
wasn’t sure if it was the
excitement or the spinning but she
was dizzy.
Her
emotions were running in different directions, the fear was still there
, but the joy overpowered it
.

His lips found
hers
again as he slowed the spinning and the fear all but vanished from her thoughts.

“You’re sure about this?” he asked.

“Well of course I am, I said yes didn’t I? I don’t just go around saying yes to e
ve
ry man that proposes to me. But,
I have one condition,”
she
told him
. H
e lowered
her
so that
she stood on her
own again.

“What’s that
?
”
He arched a curious brow and smiled
.

“It’s a request really. I want to be your wife before we leave the country if that’s at all possible.”
She knew it was only a piece of paper, but she
wanted to be married before
they
started
their
life together, even if it was a life on the run.

“Of course, we can do that. Oh I almost forgot I have something for you.” Adam left
her briefly
and returned with a small wooden box. The
polished mahogany
finish
had an
inlaid floral design on it. Adam guided
her
back to the sofa and took a seat next to
her
. He opened the box and removed a ring. The silver band was thin and shiny. Sittin
g on top of the band was a large
oval piece of amber wrapped with more silver
and diamonds.
It was simple yet very elegant.

“This is not a conventional ring but then nothing else between us has been. It’s yours if you want it, it was my mother’s.” Adam stated as he held the ring toward
her
.
She
took
her
eyes away from the ring when he said that it was his mother
s’
and looked directly at hi
s face. He was almost glowing. She extended her
hand out toward his
,
offering it so th
at he could place the ring on her
finger.

“It’s beautiful
,”
s
he told him. As Adam slid it on her
left ring finger
, she
noticed that
his
hand was a bit shaky.
She
felt
relieved
to see that he was nervous about some things, to know that deep in his core he was human.