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From the corner of his eye he watched as she licked her lips, as much from nerves as thirst, he guessed.
“In the bag at your feet.” Glancing at the rearview mirror, he watched Elijah’s lights pulling closer.
?
??Incoming call. Secured. Encrypted,” the computer announced.
Lyrica’s head jerked around to him as she tore off the plastic surrounding the water bottle’s lid.
“Accept,” he commanded.
“Hey there, buddy.” Elijah’s voice was friendly, relaxed. “It’s getting lonely out here.”
The other man was alone with no apparent tails.
“How about pancakes?” Graham drawled.
“Sounds great. Same place as before?”
“Meet you there,” Graham agreed before disconnecting the call.
Elijah would shadow their retreat and meet them back at his house. Increasing his speed, Graham drove comfortably, all too aware of every move Lyrica made beside him as she lifted the water to her lips, drank, then stared into the night silently.
She was thinking.
A writer, a thinker, Lyrica was the quiet one of the four sisters Dawg had found six years before. At twenty-four, she spread her work between her cousins’ various established businesses but hadn’t settled on any one vocation.
She wasn’t content. Graham had seen the restlessness just beneath the surface over the years. He’d ached to help her relieve it, and though he knew better than to touch her, he couldn’t seem to release the need to do just that.
“Dawg picked the wrong time to go on vacation.” She sighed, lifting a still-trembling hand to brush back the long fall of heavy, inky black hair that fell over her brow.
“Or was someone just waiting for Dawg to be absent long enough to get to you?” Graham asked softly.
That thought had been bothering him since he’d headed out after her. Why would someone strike now? Was it coincidence? Like the Mackays, he didn’t believe in coincidences. Someone had known that Dawg, Rowdy, Natches, and their families would be gone, and they had waited, believing that getting to Lyrica would be easy.
But they hadn’t counted on Graham. They’d jammed her phone, but nothing could have jammed the secured satellite and cell encryption on the stealth phone he used.
“Why would anyone want to get to me, though?” Her voice was firm—the trembling fear that had been in it when he talked to her on the phone wasn’t there now. “What would be the point?”
“That’s what I have to find out,” he murmured as he took the exit without warning, slowing only enough to make the turn that would take them to the lake and the house he owned there.
“We should call Dawg.” Turning to look at him, the brilliant emerald green of her eyes was filled with worry and concern for her brother and cousins and their families. “He’ll know what to do.”
“Every number on your contact list has been compromised,” he warned her. “If you even reinsert your battery into your phone, whoever tried to kill you will have your location instantly, Lyrica. Don’t worry. Dawg’s not stupid. And I have no doubt he’s already been informed that no one has been able to reach you. By now, he’s well aware that something’s wrong.”
But did that mean he would be there in time to help her? Graham wasn’t betting on it, but he was there. He had her. And he intended to keep her for a while.
—
She was exhausted.
Leaning her head against the back of the seat, Lyrica breathed out a weary sigh.
Her heart was still racing, but as much from arousal now as from fear. Having her face less than an inch from that impressive bulge in his jeans wasn’t exactly a calming experience.
For a second she was lying on his couch again, staring up at him, her body still trembling from the need for release as betrayal raced through her.
Hating him.
