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The Honda slewed around a sharp curve, skating on loose gravel near the ditch.
“I think you can slow down, Riley. Hunter can’t walk this fast.”
She glanced at Wolf. Even in the dashboard’s dim light, she could read his satisfied expression. They’d beat John Hunter. Wolf’s fingers pressed against the arm of his jacket.
“Are you hurt?”
“It’s nothing. A bullet grazed my arm. Stings a bit, but I’ve had hangnails that hurt worse.”
She saw a pull-off, swerved in, and slammed on the brakes. “Let’s see this nothing. If it’s more than that, I’m taking you to the hospital. Period.”
She eased off his jacket. The bullet had barely grazed him. “Okay, you’ll live.” She cut him a stern look. “But next time you’re shot, I expect you to mention it.”
She rummaged in the storage console between the driver and passenger seats for tissues. “I’ll clean it with alcohol when we get to Uncle Ed’s. Ten minutes at most.”
“Hmmm,” Wolf said. “I have this recurring naughty nurse fantasy.”
Riley shook her head. Men!
“We’re near Highway 11. Get out and climb in the backseat. I’ll cover you with a blanket. Don’t want to take any chances when we’re this close.”
Though she could no longer see her passenger’s face, she kept talking. “I should have cell service now. I’ll phone Gary, tell him what we learned about Onward and John Hunter.”
Her brief call was productive. Gary agreed that a change of venue couldn’t erase all risk. He promised to see to it that graduation ceremonies were canceled. Riley let the breath she’d been holding escape. Thank the Lord! BRU would accept the FBI’s advice. The students would be safe.
When Gary demanded her location, she stonewalled and refused to say if she was with Wolf. She knew her silence frustrated the hell out of her ex.
Once the call ended, she pitched her costly smart phone out the window. “Can’t risk Gary tracking us. He’s ticked. He’ll turn over every rock looking for us.”
“Did your ex have any news?”
“Yeah, all good. The state police took your uncle and Tom into protective custody. They’re headed to a Greenville hospital to treat Tom. Gary’s sending agents to guard the two of them until the mess at the sheriff’s office gets ironed out.”
“Thank God,” came a muffled response from the backseat.
She left the scenic highway for a stretch of asphalt marked “Private Drive.” A mile later the Honda pulled up to a decorative but no-nonsense iron gate. She rolled down her window and punched in a code at an unmanned security box.
The gates creaked open. “You can get up. It’s another mile to the house, but we’re on the grounds. No one will see you. My aunt and uncle have more than a hundred acres.”
Adjusting her rearview mirror, she watched Wolf throw off the blanket.
“There’s nobody here? What about the senator’s daughter? Doesn’t a spread like this mean fulltime staff?”
She smiled. “I promise we have the place to ourselves. Jennie told me she wouldn’t arrive until minutes before tonight’s party. Didn’t want her fussbudget mom bugging her about clothes and makeup.
“As far as staff goes, it’s the middle of the freakin’ night. There are no live-ins, and the gardener doesn’t arrive until seven. If I park behind the guesthouse, no one will see the car. We’re fine. Trust me.”
She drove past the main house—a stately mansion reminiscent of Scarlett O’Hara’s Tara. A glance at the empty staff parking spots behind the plantation-style home assured that her assumptions were good.
She pulled behind the guesthouse and shut off the car. Exhausted and filthy, she let herself slump against the steering wheel.
“You okay?” Wolf’s voice vibrated with worry as he extricated himself from the backseat.
“Yeah. I feel like I was strapped in an electric chair and got a pardon at one minute to midnight.”
She opened the car door, swung her legs out, and slapped her forehead. “What was I thinking? I threw away my cell, and I need to make one more call. Guess I can use the phone in the guest house as long as no one’s monitoring the number I call.”
Inside, Riley walked to the telephone on the hall table and lifted the receiver. She’d memorized her BRU communications officer’s home phone number when this mess started. His groggy response indicated he’d been sound asleep. Once he gathered his wits, she asked him to notify all staff that graduation ceremonies would be postponed indefinitely.
“Tell Alan to take charge until I can make it in—sometime after noon,” she added. “One last favor. Have Patty ring my mother at eight a.m. and tell her I’m fine, my assignment just took longer than expected. I’ll phone later.”
She hung up. “I’m officially off the grid. Nobody knows where we are, and Uncle Ed’s not due for eight hours. I can’t think of bigger blessings.”
“You look ready to collapse.”
“Yeah.” She studied Wolf. He looked beat, too. Exhaustion had erased the flush of victory from his face. “I guess we’re both bone tired.”
Glancing across the living room to the winding staircase, she groaned. “There are stairs involved. But I guess it’s worth the climb. A soft bed. Clean sheets.”
“Promises. Promises. Looking at those stairs makes curling up on the floor sound fine to me.”
Riley dragged her battered body up the staircase. The sound of Wolf staggering in her wake reminded her of the last time they’d climbed stairs together. Her house. A frisky prelude to a romp in the hay. This night couldn’t be more different. They barely had enough energy to make it to the second floor much less engage in nude horseplay on the stairs. There would be no playful banter. No teasing laughs. Just bed and, hopefully, sleep.
Neither of them spoke. Fear and death, horror and fatigue had been their steady companions for too many hours, too many days. Hard to laugh when you wake from a nightmare, terrified it will replay the moment you shut your eyes.
I’m alive. Wolf’s alive. That counts for something, right?
Riley barely waited until she stepped across the bedroom threshold to begin shucking her clothes. She discarded her shirt first. Her throbbing shoulder stabbed with pain as she tossed it aside. She felt as if she were shedding an old, soiled skin, peeling away a stink that had nothing to do with her filthy clothes. She needed to escape the horror, to separate herself from death’s door.
In her haste to strip away the remnants of this night of terror, she momentarily forgot Wolf. She turned toward him. His hungry gaze roved over her naked body. She’d never seen this look. His untamed lust—pure animal desire—triggered her own.
“I want you.” His words came out closer to demand than plea. Fierce, fiery.
“Yes.” She didn’t recognize her own graveled voice.
Wolf grabbed her, crushed her naked body against the length of him. He found her mouth. Claimed her lips, drove his tongue against hers. The coarse edges of his dirt-caked clothes sandpapered her flesh as they grappled and tumbled onto the bed. Her below. Him on top. Questing hands. Harsh, frantic. Nothing gentle. What she needed. Take me!
His mouth found her neck, a new trophy. Moist, hot. The sharp pain in her shoulder melded with the sharp pleasure. Her face scrubbed against the bristle of unshaven cheek. Her lips skimmed a patch of skin on his chin where prickly briars had etched a tiny rivulet. Her tongue flicked over the crevice, tasting the tang of salt and dried blood.
The sharp musky odor of his sweat heightened her need. She fumbled with Wolf’s zipper. Panting, she grabbed his waistband and yanked with new-found strength. He moaned, wriggled free.
Hot, fevered skin. Writhing muscles. His calloused fingers pushed against the inside of her thighs. Opening. Claiming. She arched to meet him. He shuddered as she found him, guided him.
“Don’t stop!”
He pounded into her. Pulled free. Thrust deeper. The fury of their coupling cauterized the pain in her shoulder, the ache of her ribs. She lost herself in the white-hot need.
Riley gasped. “Ohmigod. Don’t stop!”
Each time Wolf retreated, she bucked against him. Demanding.
“Harder.”
The precipice felt near. Explosive light tinged with dark oblivion.
Live and forget, block out the death. Hold it at bay.
“Harder.” Her nails dug into flesh. She screamed. “Yes!”