The shock of cold water exploded through Lori’s body the instant they tumbled into the river. Icy water rushed into her and over her, stealing her breath. She flailed at the surface with her hands, trying to keep her head above water.
Nick was there, combating the current alongside her. One second they were close enough to almost touch. The next they were jostled apart. In this together but fighting their own separate war.
She went under, swallowing water, gagging. Lungs straining, near bursting. The current teasingly thrust her up. Her head popped out and she raked in a desperate breath. Keeping her chin above the surface was a battle she’d win and then lose.
The bank of the river was within reach. She struggled to grab at slippery rocks. To snatch hold of loose roots. But the current sent them hurtling downstream. Her fingers had no chance to find purchase.
She drew a breath, then another. The brutal assault was relentless. On a manic gasp for air, she took more water into her mouth. Her lungs. The weight of her clothing only dragged her down.
If she was still wearing the bulletproof vest, she would’ve surely drowned.
And she still might.
The rushing water sucked them both forward. Sheer momentum and the heavy current became the greatest threats.
“Branch!” Nick sputtered over the roar of the raging river, and it was a ferocious beast, more merciless than Belladonna.
She spotted it. A large branch that hung over the water. A lifeline.
The river tossed Nick into the lead, the current catapulting them faster and faster toward the fallen log. But they couldn’t afford to miss it.
This was their only chance. The one possibility to get out.
Desperation beat through her hotter and harder than a pulse.
Almost there. Almost. Now!
Nick reached up, growling, revealing that he was pure warrior. Down to his soul. He snatched hold of the log.
With only seconds to reposition, he shifted and latched on to her jacket.
Hold on. Hold me!
She grabbed on to his arm and did her best to fight the current as he hauled her up to the log. They shimmied toward the bank. The river yanked insistently, clinging, like an angry lover that wouldn’t let go.
The fallen branch was wedged into the bank. But with the two of them, their weight was too much. Spindly limbs snapped and broke. The soaked bark of the log began to crumble.
She clawed into the earth, grappling to find purchase, and this time her fingers did. Using what little strength she had left, she pulled herself up.
The branch gave way, falling to pieces. But she grabbed Nick’s hand and tugged at him, her muscles burning and her neck straining from the effort.
Water beat against his body, making her temper flare. She pulled harder and helped drag him from the snarling current.
Her heart pounded against her ribs as she coughed up water and crawled over rocks and damp dirt and reeds to get as far from the bellowing river as her body would allow.
They both dropped on the ground. Soaked. Exhausted. Panting. But they were alive.
Huzzah!
She’d never had a greater sense of accomplishment. A stronger desire to jump up and dance for joy. But she was totally wiped.
“Now...what?” she asked between ragged breaths.
“We find the road. Avoid the Jackals. And hitch a ride.”
Sounded like a plan.
“Ready?” He extended his hand to her.
Hell. No. She wasn’t ready. Her limbs were heavy, and her lungs were finally starting to function properly again now that she’d expelled the water. Couldn’t he give her one minute to catch her breath, revel in the fact that they hadn’t drowned?
But she said, “Yeah. Let’s go.”
THE LIST OF reasons why Nick admired and, yeah, was crazy about Lori, had just gotten longer. Beautiful and kindhearted, tough yet vulnerable, funny and courageous, but she was also resilient. And girl-next-door sexy. He’d never met a woman like her. Damn near perfect.
Except for the other list of reasons that had landed her in WITSEC. She was not a victim here. She was a criminal.
He clenched his jaw and dropped her hand the second she was steady on her feet.
They were shivering from the cold and staggering along like they’d been on a weeklong Vegas bender, but he quickened his step. “Come on. Keep up. We’ve got to find help and get out of these wet clothes.”
Huffing and puffing, she held her own, matching him stride for stride. Thankfully, they’d come across a trail. It’d lead to the road or civilization. He’d take either.
They’d gone at least two miles before her lips turned blue. First time that beautiful bow-shaped mouth of hers had stayed closed for so long, leaving him to the torment of his conflicted thoughts.
“Thank you,” she said, as if picking up on his need to end the quiet. “For getting me out of the sheriff’s department, away from Belladonna in the woods.”
“No need to thank me. It’s my job.”
“If it hadn’t been for you, things would’ve played out a hell of a lot differently. Thanks for not turning your back on me after what you heard, without knowing my side.”
Now he had the torment of dealing with her thoughts. The quiet would’ve been better.
“Your side?” he snorted. Her side of the lies, the betrayal. Her side of shacking up with a vile, despicable man. Accepting his jewels, trips, payoffs, his hands all over her body. His stomach roiled. The whole sordid thing sickened him. “You had a chance to come clean, tell me your version of the truth, and all about your kingpin sugar daddy. Instead, you clammed up and pulled away.”
“Is that what you call your interrogation in the car? A chance?” Her angry eyes flashed up at him. “When I asked you to share who you are with me, I was calm, gentle, patient.”
True, true, true. He growled on the inside. No way was he going to let her turn this around on him. He stopped and pinned her with a glare. “Before we walked into the sheriff’s department, I was calm. And gentle. And as patient as you’re ever going to get from me.” He’d told her what was in his heart, only to have her reject it. “Still, you didn’t say a word!”
She swallowed hard, her eyes watering, lips quivering. “Because I couldn’t bear to put myself out there, peel back the layers, and have you look at me the way you are right now. Like you loathe the sight of me.”
Guilt reared inside his chest. He clenched his jaw, not knowing what to say.
He could never loathe Lori. But he wasn’t sure he could accept what she’d done, either.
A rumbling sound up ahead drew his attention. “Do you hear that?”
“Is it a truck?”
“Come on.”
They ran down the trail, and through the tree line was a state highway. An eighteen-wheeler was just about to pass them, when Nick sprinted into the road on the lane opposite the oncoming truck and waved his hands. Lori ran up beside him and helped flag down the driver.
The truck passed them in a whoosh. Then the semi slowed to a stop.
They ran to the passenger side.
Nick climbed up, wrenched the door open and flashed his badge. “We could use a ride to the Big Bear Airport. It’s official business and it’d be much appreciated.”
“Sure! That’s only a ten-minute detour. I don’t mind helping you out.”
They had a ride. Relief sliced through his chest.
Nick helped Lori up and inside.
The driver blasted the heater and gave them a blanket from the back.
“Very kind of you,” Lori said.
The driver asked questions born of curiosity. It is to be expected when two people resembling drenched cats run into the middle of the road and one has a badge.
Nick gave brief, vague answers and luckily, the driver didn’t push and the ride was short.
“Mind dropping us off here?” Nick said, gesturing to the tourist shop that sold souvenirs and clothing. The airport was only one block down.
“No problem.” The driver came to a stop and let them out. “Good luck!”
“Thanks.” They’d still need it.
The store was kitschy, crammed with cheap souvenirs, but they had dry clothes. Sweats were the simplest, warmest choice. Nick opted to keep his shoes on, even though they were soaking wet and squeaked. Lori picked flip-flops, not that there was much in the way of choices for footwear.
Nick set everything on the counter and threw in two pairs of sunglasses. “I’ve got limited cash. What kind of discount can you give?” he asked, once again flashing the badge like it was a black-and-white hypnotic spiral that could bend people to his will.
“I can offer a two-for-one law-enforcement deal.”
He pulled out a few wet bills from his wallet. “Thanks, buddy,” Nick said to the clerk.
Lori changed first in the single fitting room, and Nick went in after.
The clerk was kind enough to give them a large plastic bag for their stuff.
Dry, more or less, and reasonably warmer, they pulled on their hoodies and headed to the airport.
One city block. Six hundred and sixty feet. That was how far away the airport was. And all it’d take was for one Jackal to spot them and another exit strategy would go up in smoke and they’d be back on the run.
The hoodies and sunglasses helped disguise who they were, but at the same time it drew attention to them. An unavoidable trade-off.
Two hundred feet from victory, he spotted Charlie and Yaz leaving the airport and getting into a silver SUV parked out front waiting for them. They’d have to drive past Nick and Lori to go deeper into the town.
Nick grabbed Lori and shoved her into the doorway of a mom-and-pop bookstore. He tried the handle, but the door was locked. His gaze homed in on the be-back-in-15-minutes sign.
“What’s wrong?” Lori asked.
“Deputy marshals. My guys are about to pass us.”
“Why not talk to them, explain everything?”
They’d ask questions, doubt his plan, perhaps even his sanity after he mentioned his concerns about Draper. Nick wasn’t taking any more chances with Lori’s safety. Draper be damned.
He pressed close to her, nudging them both into the corner. “It’d be a hell of a lot easier if they didn’t spot us. We can just hang here a minute and pretend to be—”
Lori took Nick’s face in her hands, and rising on her toes, brought his mouth to hers.
It wasn’t a soft peck, but a greedy, openmouthed kiss that incinerated every thought in his head. Her tongue slid over his as her fingers dove into his hair. His lips burned and his body tingled. Without his permission, his mutinous arms wrapped around her, his treasonous hands clutching her closer.
He breathed her in, sucked down her flavor and squirmed to get even closer. The plains and valleys of their bodies fit and aligned like two halves of a whole. Before he realized it, he was the one deepening the kiss. Nick couldn’t get enough of her mouth. The taste, the texture of her tongue, the sense of rightness despite the warning blaring in the recesses of his mind.
Need stirred inside him, an animate, living thing awakening with ravenous hunger.
His control was spinning, slipping away from him with each caress, each silken stroke of her tongue, and the only thing that mattered was the feel of her curled around him.
The sound of a throat clearing startled them, making them jump apart.
His heart jackhammered in his chest.
A thirtysomething woman with wide eyes and a wider smile, holding a takeaway coffee cup, jangled keys in front of them. “I can open up if you want to come in. But I kind of got the impression you two might prefer to be in a room at the B and B three blocks over.” She waggled her eyebrows.
Lori blushed and hung her head.
“Sorry, ma’am.” Nick took Lori’s hand and led her away to the airport. “What were you thinking back there, kissing me like that?”
“I thought you wanted us to pretend to be intimate. You know, lovers, so no one would notice us. I was just trying to sell it.”
Sold! He’d bought it lock, stock and barrel. “Don’t do it again.”
“You kissed me back, you know.”
He wrenched the airport door open and carted her inside.
“You’re hurting me,” she said in a tight voice.
He looked down at their joined hands and only then did he register that he was not only holding her hand but also squeezing all the blood from her fingers. “Sorry.” He let her go.
Pushing back his hood, he removed his shades, and she did likewise.
“Are we going to be okay waiting here for your brother? What if your colleagues come back?”
“Trust me, they’ll be busy. After they see the devastation at the sheriff’s department, they’ll speak to her, find out that Ted’s body was recovered, and they’ll swing by the safe house to see it firsthand. Then their last stop will be the morgue. To bring Ted’s body back to San Diego. There’ll be lots of paperwork and it’ll take hours.”
“Okay. What do we do while we wait for your brother?”
He pointed to the only restaurant in the small airport and headed over.
The hostess greeted them with a smile and menus the size of poster boards.
“Booth, please,” Nick said. “Can we get that one?” He pointed out one in the far rear, close to the kitchen, where the lighting was dimmer and no one else was seated. It’d also give him clear lines of sight to the front door and restrooms. If anything was coming for them, he’d know.
He flashed a wheedling smile instead of his badge.
“Sure,” the hostess said and led them to the table he’d requested.
Nick ushered Lori with his palm at the small of her back, thought twice about the unnecessary contact and dropped his hand.
They sat across from each other with his back to the wall. A quick perusal of the menu showed him breakfast and lunch were both available until three.
A waitress came over and set two waters down. “Are you ready to order?”
“We have ten bucks and we’re starving,” Nick said. “What do you recommend?”
“Are you sharing?” the waitress asked.
“Yes,” they said in unison.
Old habits die hard. Whenever they ordered takeout at the safe house, he and Lori always shared. It’d started with wanting to try the other’s dish and morphed into standard practice.
“Then I suggest either the cheeseburger or the Reuben with fries.”
“Reuben,” he said.
At the same time, she said, “Cheeseburger.”
Nick bit back a grin. “I know Reubens are your favorite.”
“And I know you love to try the cheeseburgers at a new place,” she said.
Why did she have to make it so hard to hate her and so easy to love her? “The Reuben, and feel free to be generous with the fries.” He smiled and winked at her. “Pretty please.” It wasn’t often that he whipped out his charm card and played it, but he was starving and could wolf down an entire plate of fries on his own.
The simpering waitress nodded and withdrew.
He leaned back, folding his arms and looked at Lori. No smile. No wink.
If she thought that she could ambush him with a kiss—granted, it had been a full-scale bombardment on his senses, the definition of shock and awe—and sharing a meal was going to change his perspective, then she was sadly mistaken.
She wrung her hands and bit her lower lip like she was gearing up to say things he’d rather not hear. “I owe you an explanation.”
“You don’t owe me anything. There’s nothing between us besides my sworn obligation as a US deputy marshal to protect a witness.”
“Stop it,” she said in a harsh whisper. “I may not have told you everything, but I have never lied to you. Please, don’t start pretending like there’s nothing between us. It’s not fair to either of us.”
“Fair?” He leaned forward, putting his arms on the table. “I admitted how I felt about you two hours ago. You told me it didn’t matter. So why are you so hell-bent on explaining anything?”
She took a deep breath, looking as rattled as he’d felt after that insurgent-attack kiss. “Because you deserve to know.”
That he found difficult to argue with. He didn’t invest his heart lightly. And a piece of his belonged to Lori. He did deserve to know. “I’m listening.”