Authors: Elle Saint James
Tags: #Romance
“Likely, but more than that. Unfortunately, there were others in the house. She’s upset about losing them.”
“How many were in there?”
Troy turned to Ava. “How many people were in the house?”
Her mouth opened, and nothing came out for a few seconds. She held up two fingers and finally uttered, “Just two. My housekeeper Marisol and her son Javier. He was only five.” She dissolved in tears again. Her hands went to cover her face. Great gasping sobs came next.
Over the phone, Clay said, “Tell her two people left out of the backside of the house before it exploded. I was watching live feed. They were headed to an old highway three miles north of your current position.”
Troy asked, “Are you sure?” He wanted to relieve Ava of her sorrow in the worst way.
Clay added, “Yes. But I don’t see them now. I lost them in the forest canopy after the explosion. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to maintain this feed much longer, but if I see them again before the screen goes dark, I’ll keep tabs.”
Troy put his palm on her leg to get her attention. He got it. She startled and sent a ferocious gaze his way. It was a “why the hell are you touching me” look. Quickly he said, “The other two people in your house got away out the back door.”
“What?” She reached out and clutched his forearm with a grip stronger than he would have expected. “Are you sure? How could you possibly know that?”
Troy glanced down at her hand, which didn’t stop squeezing him. “My friend on the phone was watching your house from a live satellite feed.”
They stared at each other for several seconds. Her gaze suddenly narrowed as if in speculation. “Huh. Well, we can chat about
that
later on.” She released his arm and swung her gaze out the back again. “But thank you. I’m so relieved.” She took a deep breath and released it with a light trembling moan. Her eyes slid shut. She wiped her cheeks with trembling fingers.
Troy didn’t remove his hand from her leg. He wasn’t going to unless she made him. Into the phone he said, “Thanks, Clay.”
“Get home safe. I’ll call when I have any information regarding the details of the explosion or the others speeding there now.”
“Right.” Troy pushed the end call button with his thumb. He caught Declan’s gaze in the rearview mirror. His friend had an odd expression, one Troy couldn’t quite catalog the meaning of. He’d seen his friend and the way he reacted to their new charge. If he wasn’t mistaken, Declan was in lust as well.
Beneath Troy’s palm, her leg seemed to warm up. It took all his willpower not to move his hand farther up her leg on further search for even more heat.
Ava didn’t seem to notice that he still touched her. Her eyes popped open suddenly. She turned to face forward and said, “If Marisol went out the back door, she’s probably headed to the highway. We have to go get them. Turn around, and let’s go back. I’ll tell you which road to take to get to the road she’ll be on. It should only take us twenty minutes or so.” She twisted to look out the rear window.
Declan responded from the front seat. “No. We are getting the hell out of here before anyone sees that you didn’t survive the blast.”
The SUV lurched forward as if Declan had just floored it. They were making pretty good time for being on a dirt road with a canopy of trees overhead and coming on the full darkness of night.
“Wait a minute.” Ava suddenly swiveled around to face the front once more. “Where do you think you’re going anyway?”
“We’re getting out of here. If someone is on the way out to see the destruction and search for body parts, we don’t want to be seen or identified.”
“Except that this is a dead end road, genius. It ends up at the Drummond property in less than ten miles. Plus, the owner is not what you’d call friendly. You need to turn around. And so what if anyone sees us? How do you know firefighters weren’t on the way to the scene?”
“My friend watching through the satellite said they probably weren’t law enforcement or fire rescue,” Troy told her quietly. He then smiled when he caught Declan’s sardonic expression in the mirror. His friend calmly added, “Law enforcement or not, we aren’t turning back, sweetheart. I know a shortcut up here. Why don’t you just sit back and enjoy the ride?”
“A shortcut? Where would that be? Over the trees? Is this a magical mystery van that flies or something? Because I can’t wait to see that.” Her sarcastic tone equaled Declan’s and completely amused Troy. Without thinking he squeezed her leg in approval. This of course called attention to the fact he was still touching her.
She looked down at his hand, which he didn’t move, and then pointedly back into his eyes. He expected her to demand that he stop touching her, but she didn’t. Instead, she dropped her sultry gaze from his eyes to his mouth. He smiled as she stared her fill. Several heartbeats later she licked her lips. His libido pulsed with sudden interest and powerful need. She turned her focus away from his intense stare and back out to the front window of the SUV.
When she finally spoke again, her low tones might have been meant for her ears alone, but he heard them. “A carnival psychic once flipped over several tarot cards to read my fortune. She told me that I was about to go on a perilous journey filled with danger and—” she stopped speaking suddenly.
“A perilous journey filled with danger and what?” Declan asked from the front. Apparently he’d heard her, too.
“Romance,” she whispered in a disgusted tone. In a louder voice, she added, “Just so you know. This isn’t exactly what I pictured.”
“Maybe you should go find the psychic and get your money back,” Declan muttered.
Ava stared at the back of his head and rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I never believed in such nonsense, but bouncing along this road made me think of it. Obviously I shouldn’t have shared.”
She said the word “shared” and put Troy’s head in a whole new place. He traded another gaze with Declan in the rearview. His friend might banter with Ava like they were at odds, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t interested in sharing
her
between the two of them.
Troy’s cock stirred. He wanted to move his palm up all the way to her inner thighs, then stroke a smile onto her face by way of the space between her legs. He resisted the urge, counting it a victory that she hadn’t demanded that he remove his hand. And until she did, he wasn’t pulling away.
“Do you remember where the turnoff for the shortcut is?” he asked Declan, trying to change the focus of his thoughts from the fact that they were basically escaping the aftermath of an explosion set off by persons unknown.
“Does a bear shit in the woods?” came Declan’s quick retort.
Troy saw a smile tug at the corner of Ava’s mouth. He wanted to lick that spot and taste her amusement. Then he wanted to move on to other more tasty places on her body and delight in other aspects of her unique flavor.
It was probably good that they were on the run. Otherwise he’d continue thinking about how good Miss Ava Campbell smelled and wander down a path he might regret in the near future. It wasn’t like they were in the market for a woman, but Troy put her at the top of his personal list.
Declan slowed down then stomped the brakes as he turned the wheel to the right. Without any more warning they blasted through a squat row of shrubbery along the side of the road. Troy slid over on the seat into Ava until their legs and sides mashed together. Her eyes widened as they suddenly went off-road and into the woods. With his high beams lighting the uneven way, Declan bounced and jostled the vehicle through the thick, dense forest, dodging large trees and mowing down saplings in the wake of their unexpected off-road escape.
Last night, in addition to researching everything about Ava Campbell, they’d also surveyed the area around her home before coming. Declan liked to be prepared for any eventuality regarding escape. And even if they hadn’t known about the trail in the woods, his friend didn’t believe in dead-end roads. He made his own road most of the time anyway. But checking out the surrounding area had turned out to be a great idea, in retrospect.
They suddenly went down a steep hill, then crossed a small stream, and finally climbed a rocky hillside before coming through another bunch of foliage and onto a dirt road next to a field.
Declan turned southward. At least they were going south according to the built-in compass mounted on the dash.
Ava pointed out the back window again. “You could still turn around and go the other way. We might be able to find Marisol and Javier in no time.”
“Bad idea.” Declan muscled the wheel around the edge of a furrow in the road filled with water. They didn’t need to get stuck.
“Why?”
“Do you know why your house blew up?”
Her eyebrows scrunched. “No.”
“Don’t you think it would be a good idea to find out before any other consideration?”
Her look hardened. “No.”
Declan shrugged. “Too bad you’re not driving then. We aren’t going after anyone. We need to disappear.”
“Why can’t we disappear with Marisol and Javier? They especially need to hide.”
“Because we don’t need to have more possible innocent bystanders with us when we don’t even know what the threat is yet. If someone is trying to kill you, the less people next to you the better.”
“Does this mean you’ll be dumping me off on the side of the road soon to save your own ass?”
“Don’t tempt me, sweetheart.”
Troy rolled his eyes, wondering if he’d be the designated referee between them for the duration of their time together. Her lips thinned and her eyes rolled as she looked away. But she also seemed to ponder his assessment and didn’t say anything else. Declan had a point. He was usually right when it came to matters like these.
Suddenly he felt a vibration. He put a hand on his phone. The vibration came again. It wasn’t his phone. Ava pulled her phone out of her sweater pocket and answered it. “Hello,” she said in a soft breathy voice. His cock stiffened just listening to her.
Ava breathed out a sigh as if relieved. Her palm landed on her forehead, and her eyes shut tight. “Oh, Marisol, I’m fine. Is Javier okay?” She listened a while longer, and relief spread across her beautiful features. “Good. I’m so glad you’re safe. No. Really. I’m fine. Not a scratch. Thankfully, I wasn’t in the house. And not that I’m not completely grateful, but why did you all leave out the back door anyway?”
Troy couldn’t hear the response from the caller, but watched Ava as she listened. Her expression morphed from concerned and grateful to concerned and puzzled. After several minutes, she said, “You don’t have to do that. We can pick you up.”
Declan flashed a look that said he wasn’t picking anyone up, and he didn’t care what promises she made.
She listened for a much longer time before saying, “Where will you go? How will you live?” More silence from her side, and then she said, “Well, I guess I can’t talk you out of this then, can I? Are you sure? Well, all right for now. I want you to call me when you’re safely there. Okay. Yes. Bye.”
The phone snapped shut soon after. She didn’t say anything, just stared at the device as if it would give her answers.
After a few minutes, when he couldn’t stand the silence any longer, Troy asked, “Everything okay?”
Ava shrugged. He saw a tear slip down her cheek, but she brushed it away quickly. “It’s so silly. She doesn’t want to be a burden to me. She’s going to some distant relative’s house for shelter and a new life. It’s where she was headed before I took her in. I hope she knows what she’s doing.”
“She’ll be better off on her own and away from us. More important, her kid will be better off.” This came from Declan in the front seat.
“Maybe you’re right. Apparently, I almost got them both killed, and I still have no idea why.”
Troy squeezed her leg once more. “We’ll figure it out.”
Before she responded, a set of headlights lit up the back window of their SUV. The light got brighter and brighter as if the vehicle behind them was about to smash into their rear bumper or drive up their tailpipe.
Declan cursed a blue streak under his breath loud enough that Troy heard him clearly. “Hold on,” he said and gripped the steering wheel.
The SUV took off like he’d flipped on a power booster. The light dimmed a bit, but Declan slowed down to make another turn, and the lights got even brighter.
Troy didn’t worry until he heard the distinct sound of gunfire erupt from the vehicle chasing them.
The side of Ava’s face crushed into the leather of the backseat when Troy covered her not only with his hand to her thigh, but put his whole body over her. The sound of a bullet ricocheting off of the back of the SUV made her eyes mash shut. She was frightened and unsure why anyone wanted her dead and gone.
The face of her ex flashed in her mind, but he hadn’t even contacted her after they split up. She’d been of no use or issue to him. She couldn’t imagine him caring enough to bother or go to any great lengths or financial expense to see her killed.
Ava couldn’t quite inhale a full breath with Troy pressing her to the seat. And yet, there was something to be said for having nearly two hundred pounds of muscular, gorgeous man crushing her for protection. It was even better than landing on the other hunky man after being thrown to the ground after her house blew up. A tear threatened to escape at the thought of all that work gone in an instant. She shook off the sadness. She’d deal with it later.