Trapped! I could not believe I’d let myself be so distracted by the man in front of me that I lost awareness of my surroundings. Now two goons had gotten the drop on me. The shadowy men on the other bank weren’t the same two that had shown up at my apartment. Due to the hoods all four wore, I hadn’t gotten a good look at their faces, but these men’s scents were different. From the aura of determination radiating from them, I didn’t think these two would be so easily deterred.
Noah stood behind me, offering me the sanctuary and protection I so desperately wanted. But could I trust him? By his own admission, he was one of the owners of Mate Match. My location had been a secret up until minutes after I’d registered with the agency. Coincidence? I thought not.
Were Noah and these men working together? Was this an attempt to get me to let my guard down by presenting Noah as a knight in shining armor, arriving on the scene just in time to rescue me? Or was Noah what he seemed to be, a man who wanted answers to the riddle I presented? Was his offer of assistance legitimate? If I accepted, what did he want in return? I’d learned a long time ago nothing in life was free.
“Honey?” Noah said in a subvocal tone.
I glanced at him, eyebrow arched. Honey?
“You plannin’ on using that gun or is it just for show?” he asked.
As I looked at the weapon in my hand, my mother’s words came back to me. “Listen to me, baby. This world will chew you up and spit you out if you don’t toughen up that heart of yours. Once you’re free, you do whatever it takes to stay free.”
Scared out of my mind at the thought of being separated from her and all I’d ever known of life, I’d asked, “What if they catch me? What if I fail?”
Her eyes had become hard as diamonds as she’d stared at me. “Get that thought out of your head, right now. Failure is not an option. If you’re captured, you do whatever it takes to get free. You hear me? That means if you have to, you lie, cheat, and kill. The goal is freedom. Don’t you ever give up.”
I had run and kept running. I’d lied and cheated a few people over the years in an effort to survive. I’d done a whole lot of hiding, but I’d never had to fight or kill. I looked at the men determined to take away the very last gift my mother had ever given to me. With no tells to give away my intent, I fired off several rounds of the semiautomatic gun. The silencer muffled the sound. I heard a grunt as the bullets met its targets but didn’t stick around to see the result.
Turning, I sprinted off the log toward Noah. My action wasn’t a statement of trust, but of logistics. It was easier to escape from one man than a group of them.
“Come on,” Noah said.
When I reached him, Noah grabbed my hand and pulled me behind him as he took off running. He darted onto a side trail that was little more than a deer track. We made no sound and moved together like one body. I mirrored his actions, ducking when he ducked, dodging and leaping when he did the same. Gun held firmly in my right hand, I was alert for any sounds.
Around us, hidden by the woods but audible to our ears, men argued and fought over women and couples hooked up. Where were my matches? Did I have any or had this whole thing been a ploy to bring me out into the open?
I needed a computer. I needed to access the dark web and see what information I could find. It had been six months since I last checked. My mother would be ashamed of the way I’d let myself become comfortable and lax with my guard. The guilt of that was something my scarred heart would have to deal with later. Right now, nothing mattered but escape.
We ran and ran and ran. I have an excellent sense of direction. Growing up in the mountains of Utah allowed me to recognize the circuitous path Noah took to get us back to the entrance. I didn’t hear my pursuers, but I sensed them the same way I’d felt them at my apartment. The same way I’d sensed Noah coming up behind me in the clearing. Being on the run for so long had given me an almost preternatural ability to know when the infected were in my vicinity. Had I not been so distracted by Noah, I’d have realized the two were on the other bank long before they made their presence known. The bullets might have slowed them down, but it wouldn’t stop them.
The path became rocky, and I heard the sound of rushing water. Soon I smelled it.
“Watch your step,” Noah commanded. His grip on my hand tightened and his pace slowed as we navigated the slippery rocks. We came out onto the ledge of a massive boulder. In front of us was a fast-flowing river.
“Now what?” I asked, breathing heavily. I hoped like hell he didn’t intend for us to take a swim. During the last twenty-four hours, my body had taken enough abuse. I wasn’t adding “bashed against rocks” to the list.
“Down here.” Noah walked to the side of the boulder and carefully lowered himself over its side. I stepped to the edge and saw he stood on another smaller boulder barely visible in the dark. Noah reached up and I allowed him to help me down. Once I stood beside him, he motioned. “The ledge creates a small overhang. This close to the water, they’ll lose our scent. Get under it.”
I looked at the small cave-like structure. If I went in first, I’d be trapped. My only avenue of escape would be taking a swim in what looked like some seriously dangerous rapids. If Noah went in first, he’d be at my back. Better to keep both threats in front of me where I could see them.
I ducked and went inside, stooping over to navigate the small space until I reached the back wall. The place smelled like fresh water and moss. One misstep and I’d be in the seething, churning mass of water literally inches from where I stood. The temperature had dropped and a cold mist from the spray hitting the rocks slowly dampened my clothes.
Noah planted himself right in front of me, facing the opening. His back was so close to my front that I felt the welcoming heat of his body. “Do you trust me with your gun?”
I thought about it for a second before handing it over. It wasn’t my only weapon, just my weapon of choice. Bending over, I reached for the knife holster strapped to my ankle. I may have slacked in other areas, but I’d kept up with my self-defense training. No one would find me to be an easy target.
Mutters and curses reached my ears over the seething water. “Where the hell did they go?”
“They didn’t go into the water. Current’s too strong,” the other said.
I pictured them pacing around, trying to determine the direction we’d taken. The way the boulders were arranged, the overhang wasn’t noticeable. You had to know it was there, like Noah had. This let me know they weren’t familiar with the area. Would Hiram send someone all the way from Utah to fetch me? Unfortunately, the answer was yes. He’d already spent a small fortune trying to locate me.
“Who the hell is that guy? We were told she’d be alone,” the second one muttered angrily. It sounded like they were right over our heads.
“Told you we should have pretended to be suitors,” the guy said.
“I considered it, but there wasn’t enough time. Besides, I doubt we’d have passed the client screening,” the first one said. He seemed to be the leader.
“Why not? We have enough money to pay their stupid fee,” the second one argued.
“Money’s not the issue. Mate Match isn’t like the other agencies. The background check alone takes months and is damned intrusive. We were lucky to find someone on the inside who didn’t mind feeding us information for a price. Let’s go down stream and see if we can pick up their trail,” the first one said.
My mind raced as I strained my hearing to confirm they’d actually left. I didn’t dare move in case it was a trick to draw me out. I mulled over what I’d learned. They’d had someone on the inside of Mate Match keeping an eye out for me. It explained why I’d been found so quickly.
Who was it? One of the intake counselors? Their manager, Jillian? Or did it go higher up the food chain to one of the owners? Noah, or someone like him? Once again, I wondered, were the three of them in on it together? The thought occurred that the men could have known exactly where we were and the conversation had been for my benefit.
Suddenly, Noah spun around. “Who the hell are you and why are those men after you specifically? I thought they’d just seen their chance to grab an unattached female, but that’s not it at all.”
I scowled. “This isn’t your business.”
“They made it my business when they involved me and my company. Now answer the question,” he demanded. It was too dark to see his face. Only the whiteness of his skin and the outline of his form could be seen. He appeared to swell until he loomed over me.
If Noah thought intimidation tactics would work, he was sorely mistaken. “Why should I trust you? How do I know you aren’t in on it?”
“Honey, I’m the only thing standing between you and being captured,” he growled.
“I can take care of myself. I’ve been doing it for a long time,” I snarled, fury rising at the implied insult.
“Yeah?” He sounded skeptical. “I have you backed into a corner. You gave me your weapon. If I wanted to hand you over to them, there is nothing you could do about it.”
Seconds later, the tip of my knife pressed against the underside of his throat. The coppery scent of blood filled the air where the knife nicked him. “Care to reevaluate the situation?”
Noah went very still. A tense silence fell between us as we took each other’s measure. My training said eliminate the threat and escape while I could. My instincts said wait and give Noah a chance.
“Maybe you do have some skills, but there’s two of them and only one of you,” he finally said.
“Four,” I muttered, still battling with what to do.
“What was that?” The damned man leaned closer, pressing harder against the knife.
I snatched it away and held it by my side. Instincts won. There was no way I could kill Noah unless he proved to be a threat to my safety. However, lowering my knife didn’t mean lowering my guard. “There’s at least four of them. Two infected men showed up at my apartment less than an hour after I left Mate Match. They gave chase, but your guys got to me first.”
He hissed his displeasure and muttered a curse. “Until I figure what the hell is going on, I’m keeping you close. You’re being hunted, and someone at Mate Match is assisting them. I won’t rest until I find out who it is, and when I do, they’ll rue the day they heard your name.”