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“What’s going on? Did you get thefile?”
He sunk into the chair as he stared at the phone, wishing there was an easier way to say it. There wasn’t, so he let the words slip past his lips. “I found her.” Silence rang loud through their connection and he could almost hear the doubt buzzing in his friend’s thoughts. “Daniel, did you hear me? I don’t have a lot of time. I foundNatalie.”
“Is—” Daniel cleared his throat, surprise and disbelief echoing in his voice. “Is shealive?”
“Yes.” Grant nodded as he loaded a full mag into his rifle and grabbed the extra magazines from the case. “Yes, she’salive.”
“I want to talk to her. Where isshe?”
He stuffed the magazines in his pack and stood, throwing the rifle sling over his shoulder. “It’s complicated.” He let the pack drop to the floor as he picked up the receiver and held it to his ear. “She doesn’t remember anything, Daniel. She has no idea who she is. There’s a lot going on and she’s in a lot of trouble. I need you to get on a plane and get the hell over here. It’s not a good idea to go into too much detail on this line. I’ve already booked a private flight out of Billings. The travel details should already be in yourinbox.”
Grant waited as another long moment of silence passed. “Daniel, snap the fuck out of it. Do you understand? I need you to get on that plane if you want to see her again.” He understood Daniel’s shock, but he didn’t have time for him to piece it together. She was out there in the dark on foot, surrounded by some of the most dangerous creatures on earth. No matter how good she was with a gun, she didn’t have enough bullets to stop even the smallest of them.Stubborn, foolishwoman.
“Is she there withyou?”
“No,” Grant barked and held back the groan of frustration that clawed at his insides. “But I know where she’s going. Daniel, I have togo!”
“I’m on my way,” Daniel snapped into the phone before the line wentdead.
Thank fuck!Grant slammed the receiver down and swiped up the backpack. He made a short detour to the bedroom for a shirt and his boots before digging out the sat phone. Judging by her location, she had about a two hour head start. Shoving his pistol into his waistband, he rushed through the back door and slammed it closed behind him. He should be able to cut that time in half and hopefully get to her before she became a fresh meal for some other predator.Her ass is damn sure going to be mincemeat when I get my hands on heragain.
Sixteen
The crispsnapof another twig sent Thalia crouching to the ground, her last breath seizing in her lungs as she listened through the darkness. Despite the cooler night air, beads of sweat ran down her neck and trickled between her breasts, the thin cloth of her shirt sticking to her back. She ignored the ache her position caused to her still sore thigh and peered into the pitch black expanse where the noise had come from. Something was stalkingher.
The moon had been hanging high and bright in the sky when she snuck out of the compound hours ago, calming her anxiety over not being able to find a flashlight. Thick clouds had settled in and now she was lucky to see her hand in front of her face.Shit.Her head snapped around, her fingers tightening around the gun in her hand at the sound of the leaves rustling behind her.Make that twosomethings.
She didn’t know how far she’d traveled. At this rate she would reach the service road she’d seen on the map she’d pulled up on Grant’s computer sometime near her thirtieth birthday…if she lived that long. Her skin prickled under the heavy weight of the eyes that were watching her. For the last half hour she’d felt them zeroing in on her, stalking her like the prey she knew she’dbecome.
She’d foolishly thought that facing whatever predators lurked in the darkness would be easier than facing the one that was stalking her heart. She lowered her hand and searched the ground around her feet for a rock, her eyes still focused in the direction of the sounds in front of her. Her stomach tightened as an almost claustrophobic feeling swirled around her. Was this what a gazelle felt like before a lioness pounced? That final moment when they raised their head from grazing to have a four hundred pound beast lunging for theirjugular?
I should have stayed with him.She couldn’t. She knew what was happening between them. The way he looked at her earlier, she recognized the emotion swirling in his eyes. Gone was the dominant, controlling killer who took command of her mind and body to fulfill a mutual sexual need. In his place was a caring, tender lover who was intent on reaching her heart. He’d watched her face and her expressions, determined to make her feel what he was feeling, and she’d felt it. It frightened her to her core. He demanded everything. She could give him nothing.It isn’t fair. There was nothing left of herself to give. She’d already promised her life to Issa. She owed him that. Grant was going to take that away from her. He may not outright deny her revenge, but making her want more than that would garner the same result. Now that she was staring down the dark path to certain death, she wasn’t so sure she’d made the rightchoice.
Thoughts of her time with him floated through her mind as her fist clenched around the rock in her hand. She could see his golden eyes, narrowing in on her thoughts as if he could pick them right out of her head. And the fire that blazed in those eyes as he hovered above her, possessing her body with his. She almost giggled as she pictured the goofy grin on his lips when she paid him a compliment, as if he’d never had one before and didn’t quite know what to do withit.
I’m such a fool.Her entire life had consisted of nothing but one bad decision after another since Issa had died.No! He didn’t die. He was murdered, and Jauhar deserves to pay for that.She repeated the familiar mantra in her head, but she could feel her resolve weakening as the faint whisper of Grant’s voice rolled through her memories –You heal mysoul.
She swallowed back the lump in her throat as she slowly raised her arm above her head and prepared to throw the rock in the opposite direction of where she would run. She didn’t know if whatever was stalking her would come after her or go for the rock. She readied her gun and prepared to sprint as fast and hard as she could, praying she would find somewhere to hide until the sun came up. Hopefully, if her plan didn’t totally work, only one of them would follow her. Her magazine was full, but it was hard to aim when you couldn’t see what you were shooting at. Her legs tensed, her feet shifting inside her shoes as she prepared to run. Another twig broke in front of her as she took in a few deep breaths and cocked her arm back as far as shecould.
“Thalia, don’tmove.”
Grant’s deep voice filled her ears and blazed through her body like a violent bolt of lightning. A loud, high-pitched growl sang through the night air. Less than a second later, a bright burst of muzzle-flash exploded into the darkness behind her, a deafening boom rattling her bones as she was pushed to the ground by an unseen force. A scream lodged in her throat and she pushed against the weight of the animal, unable to free herself from its heavyweight.
“Get it off me!” Her heels dug into the dirt and pushed her backwards as Grant peeled the smelly beast from her body. Her fingers grasped and clawed for purchase before she grabbed onto Grant as he lifted her into his arms. “Oh, shit. Oh, shit.” She panted for breath as her head spun to look into the darkness around them. “There was another one. Where’d itgo?”
“Shh. I’ve got you.” She felt the coolness seep into her backside as he set her down on a nearby boulder. “There was onlyone.”
She shook her head, but before the protest could pass her lips, understanding flooded her fear soaked brain. “It was you?” She squinted and held her hand up to shield her eyes from the bright, blessed beam that shone from the flashlight he pulled from his backpack. “You were following me this whole damntime?”
She didn’t need to see his face to know she’d unleashed another lethal beast. She could feel his anger rolling over her like an ominous fog. “You donotwant to have this conversation right now,” he spat through his clenchedteeth.
His hands never stopped moving over her body as he glared at her. It was making her already frantic heartbeat do funny things. She tried to swat his hands away, but he grabbed her arms, giving her a gentle shake to get her attention. “Are you hurt anywhere, in any way?” He crouched down and cupped his big hands around her face, forcing her to look at him. “And so help meGod, Thalia, you better not lie to me.” She paused a moment and took a mental inventory of her condition, then shook her head in a silentreply.
The last threads of his sanity snapped and Grant was on her in an instant, feeling her rapid breaths of life against his skin. “You scared the shit out of me.” Her heartbeat pounded beneath his lips as he buried his face into the crook of her neck and breathed her in.She’s alive. She’s okay.The words in his head, repeating in a constant loop, did nothing to sooth him. His hunger for her was beyond his control, and his hands moved with reckless abandon, the sound of ripping fabric barely audible through the pounding of his own heartbeat against his eardrums.Fucking hell!Seeing that leopard stalking her every clumsy move through the brush had nearly been his end. If he’d caught up to her even a minutelater…
He squeezed his eyes closed against a barrage of horrid mental images. Her shirt lying in tatters on the ground, he filled his hands with her soft, warm flesh. Driven by a fear he’d never known, nothing else existed beyond his need to feel her, alive and thriving around him. The salty tang of her sweat burst over his taste buds as he flicked his tongue along the slender column of her neck, over her bare collarbone to the soft swell of her breasts. A sudden euphoric sense of belonging and possession washed overhim.
“Ahh!” She hissed as he forcefully peeled away any remaining barriers of clothing between them and crushed his body to hers. Each of her muted cries drove him closer to some undefined edge of an abyss he knew without a doubt he would never return from. His teeth scraped over her nipple as he ground his aching cock against her, pressing her into the unforgiving rock and drawing out another string of hisses andmoans.
