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A HAND CLOSED OVER my mouth, startling me out of my sleep. With wide eyes, I looked up to find Shade staring down at me, finger to his mouth. I nodded, and he released his hold over my mouth and thrust a gun into my hand. Shade pointed to me, then to the underneath of the bed.
Realizing what he meant, I shook my head furiously. There wasn’t a chance I would hide. The hard stare I received in return told me that one way or the other, I would be getting under the damn bed
I sent a silent snarl at him, but dropped to my stomach and scooted under the bed. All of my training down the drain. What was the point if he was just going to make me hide like a child? My skills would be better used if I was out in the open, helping him take down the threat.
Whatever that threat was.
I watched as Shade’s feet disappeared out of the room right before gunshots rang out. I clapped a hand over my mouth to muffle my startled cry. I shouldn’t be down here hiding while Shade faced danger alone. We could be out there fighting together as a team.
When the gunshots died out, I waited anxiously, watching the doorway for any sign of Shade. After a few minutes, I heard a booted stride coming into the room. Shade had been barefooted when he left the room earlier.
“Ever?” Someone whispered, but I couldn’t make out the voice.
The person walked around in a circle, then into the bathroom before returning to stand in the middle of the room. I kept my hand over my mouth, trying to muffle even the slightest sound. They stood beside the bed for a moment, then bent down.
I sucked in a breath just as a familiar face came into view.
“Ever!” Nate whispered, reaching out a hand. “Come on!”
I scurried from under the bed and Nate helped me to my feet, pulling me into his arms.
“Nate!” I whispered. “Where’s Shade?”
“I don’t know,” he said, pulling me from the room. “We have to go before they return!”
“Before who returns?”
“Your father’s men.”
Fear crept up my spine as his words settled over me. My father’s men had found us.
“Where’s Shade?” I asked again, looking around. There were a few bodies lying around but none of them were Shade. “I can’t leave without him.”
“You have too. We have to leave now.” He tugged on my arm again, but I yanked away.
“I’m not leaving without Shade,” I said louder, pulling the gun from the back of my pants. My hands shook as I aimed it at my friend.
“Don’t be stupid, Ev. He’s not worth getting captured over.” Nate tried to reason with me, putting his hands up.
“You’re wrong,” I told him. “He is worth it.”
“I’m here, darlin’.” Shade’s voice broke through the tension in the air as he came striding into the room. “Grab your bag. We gotta go.” He didn’t have to tell me twice.
Hurrying to the table where I had left my open duffle, I quickly zipped it up and slung it over my shoulder, turning to follow Shade.
“Ever, come with me,” Nate said, reaching for me, but I stepped away. “I can keep you safe.”
“So can I,” Shade told him as he came to stand at my side.
“I’ve kept her hidden for the last two years,” Nate argued, but I held up a hand.
Nate was my best friend, but I wouldn’t leave Shade now. His mission was too important.
“I’m staying with Shade,” I told him, stepping closer to Shade.
“You do realize that was her father’s men, don’t you? Your plan is up in smoke,” Nate told Shade.
“I can’t imagine how they found us.” Shade pulled his gun, leveling it on Nate.
“Shade,” I warned, but my eyes were on Nate. It hadn’t gone unnoticed that he hadn’t denied Shade’s claim.
“Is that true, Nate? Did you tell my father’s men where to find us?” The hurt was evident in my voice. Had he really betrayed my trust?
“You’re not safe with him, Ever. He can’t keep you safe like I can. He doesn’t care what happens to you, but I do. I would lay down my life for you. Come with me, please.” He held his hand out to me, but I didn’t take it.
The look on his face told me everything I had missed before. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t noticed. I tried to think back to when this could have happened.
Nate was in love with me.
The sound of a gun cocking caused my head to whip around to look at Shade. His finger caressed the trigger. I could see him working to control himself. I reached out to take his free hand, hoping to calm him.
“You’re wrong,” I said, looking back to Nate. “And I won’t come with you.”
Nate shook his head in disgust.
“You’re a fool.” He took a step forward.
I thought maybe he was going to make a lunge for me but before he could make a move, Shade’s hand whipped out cracking Nate on the temple. He dropped like a sack of potatoes.
“Oh my God,” I gasped.
“Sorry, darlin’. We really have to go, and we can’t have him following us.” He pulled me toward the door and I gave one last look at Nate’s unconscious form before following Shade from the room.
* * *
BY THE TIME WE MADE it out of the hotel and down the street, my heart felt like it might burst from my chest. At this point, I was running on pure adrenaline after everything that had happened at the hotel.
Shade pulled me along behind him down the sidewalk trying to get us as far from the hotel as we could on foot. We had abandoned the SUV. Shade saying something about not wanting to risk them figuring out that it’s ours.
We were a few blocks away now and I wasn’t sure how much further I could go. Shade looked like he could walk to the next state if he wasn’t hauling all my dead weight around. Relief washed over me when he led me into the parking lot of a used car dealership. It was the middle of the night, so I knew they wouldn’t be open for a few more hours. Surely, he didn’t intend to wait around that long.
When he opened the door of a pickup truck and fiddled around under the steering column, I was clued it.
“Are you stealing this truck?” I whispered, fiercely.
“No, I’m borrowing it,” he deadpanned.
“You can't steal a car,” I hissed.
He looked up from what he was doing to raise an eyebrow at me.
“Darlin’, I killed over a dozen men in a public hotel. Stealing a car is low on my list of things to worry about.” He went back to work and within seconds the truck roared to life. He tossed our bags into the back and nodded toward the truck. “Get in.”
I wanted to refuse, but I didn’t have a solid argument since I was technically an accessory to murder at the point. And on top of that, my father now knew where I was. When his men fail to return, he will send more to look for me. Getting out of here by any means possible was definitely the best option.
“Fine,” I snapped, climbing into the passenger side. “You could at least leave money or something as payment.”
He didn’t bother with my comment as we peeled out of the parking lot.
“Where are we headed?” I asked, reaching for the ancient stereo system. How old was this truck? “Back to the shack?”
“No. They might be following us. I can’t risk someone discovering that place. We’ll find somewhere to hide out until I deem it safe to return.”
“What are we going to do now?” I asked, as classical music filled the truck. I turned it down so it was background music.
“What do you mean?”
“My father knows you have me now. Obviously, he knows you have no intention of returning me.”
Shade just shrugged looking unperturbed.
“The plan is the same. Once I have everything in order, we will return to Vegas.” That didn’t seem like a solid plan, but I had a feeling he hadn’t disclosed the entirety of it either.
Instead of pushing for more details, I nodded, putting it out of my mind for now. When the time was right, I would demand a complete run down. There was no way I would go into this blind. I didn’t care what Shade’s plans were. He might be telling the truth when he said he wouldn’t let anything happen to me, but I couldn’t risk that being a lie. Not when I could ensure my own safety.
“I can’t believe Nate turned on us.” My mind was still reeling over everything.
“I can. I should have seen it coming,” Shade muttered. “The moment he saw you in the bar I knew he would cause trouble.”
“How could you have known that?”
“Because he’s in love with you. A man wouldn’t let the fate of the woman he loves rest in someone else's hand.” That’s another fact my brain had trouble understanding.
“I still can’t believe I missed it. He had always been like an older brother.” I had always wanted siblings and apparently was blinded by that idea when I met Nate.
Shade snorted. “The way he looked at you was anything but brotherly.”
“I know,” I groaned, reaching up to touch my necklace. The metal was no longer cool against my skin, but the smooth metal felt nice against my fingers.
Thinking back, I should have seen the signs.
It was subtle at first, the accidental bumps into me or the lingering touches. I had played them off as just my imagination running wild. At sixteen, I was young and impressionable. He wasn’t much older than me. Maybe by a few years at most and he gave me attention, attention that I hadn’t had from anyone before.
As the months went on, he became my best friend. The person who I could rely on to talk about my feelings. He would listen without treating me like a child. I never kept a diary because that was what Nate had been for me.
When my father told me about his plans, Nate was the first person I went to. He seemed as concerned about me and what was going to happen as if he were my family. As if he were a brother that wanted to protect me. I never suspected that his feelings ran deeper than that. When I tried to look at our relationship with this new perspective, it just felt dirty and wrong. There was no way I could ever feel like that toward him.
As far as I could tell, I only felt something toward one person and he was currently sitting next to me keeping an eye on the road. Nate never stirred something inside me the way Shade had. Sometimes it was like my entire body lit up when Shade was near. There wasn’t enough space in this world to make that kind of heat disappear.
I couldn’t help but wonder if Shade felt the same for me. If there was a deeper reasoning behind his efforts to keep me safe. Maybe that was why he insisted that he cared about what happened to me.
Thoughts like those were foolish and were a one way ticket to crushed hopes.
Leaning my head against the window, I watched as the world flew by. I focused on where we might be going. I hoped it was somewhere nice. As much as I loved the mountains, I wouldn’t mind hiding out on a beach somewhere. I had a feeling it would make for a great place to pretend like I wasn’t being hunted by my sadistic crime lord of a father or that my best friend hadn’t betrayed me in the worst way.