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He crossed the street, and she shuffled after him. His imposing height hit her again, and even with the pack on, she couldn’t stop noticing the wide shoulders that tapered to his lean waist. His camo pants hugged his tight ass and strong-looking thighs, not an ounce of fat on him.
Now that the adrenaline was wearing off, she was feeling more jittery, as if she’d consumed numerous cups of coffee. Then she saw his objective—a beat-up heap of a Chevy truck with a for sale sign on it.Maybe it was the dark, the grime, or her revulsion, but she couldn’t even figure out what color it was.
“You’re going to buy that truck?” To think that only a short time ago, she was riding in limos, Lincoln Town cars, and her own sweet Porsche. Now she was reduced to begging and bartering for something she wouldn’t be caught dead in. How low she had sunk.
He turned to look at her, his clear blue eyes flashing. “Yeah, you’re not so out of it anymore, huh?” His glossy hair was tousled in a messy disarray around his head, dark stubble lined his jaw, making his eyes stand out like twin sapphires.
She didn’t want to go back into that morass of humiliation, so she ignored his words, even as she fought off that awareness of him again. So not her type. She was sure he was used to giving orders and being obeyed. He would naturally dominate being the kind of alpha male he was, and her mom had taught her to stay away from these guys. They would impede her success with their demands. The only type of relationship that was acceptable would be one she controlled. “What are you going to use for money?”
“I still have cash in my cargo pockets, but I don’t want to use it, in case we need it for bribes, supplies, and accommodations.” He thought for a minute and said, “How about those shoes? Are they worth anything?”
She reared back and stared at him, her heart beating fast, anger snapping inside of her. “Yes, quite a bit, but there’s no way I’m giving up my Choos. Are you crazy? I risked my life and yours to get them back.”
“It doesn’t matter here what we risked. We have to get out of this city to save our asses and meet up with the team, so we can get back to the States. That warden is looking for you. He murdered a DSS agent to get information about us.” His voice broke a little. “We can’t be stupid.” After all that they had been through, Jack would expect the man to show some anger, but he remained calm. He should be outraged that she was unwilling to help him—them, especially after her pep talk only a few minutes ago.
Oh,God, more people had died because of her, but her visceral reaction to his request only made her want to run again. She couldn’t give them up. “The answer is no,” she said, clutching the bag so tight, one of the heels dug into her side.
He ran his hands through all that gorgeous hair, displacing the curls even more. Wow, this guy was more potent than she could have imagined when she’d first met him breaking necks and trying to handle her.
Was he still trying to handle her? She didn’t like the sound of that. “Okay, princess, keep your glass slippers,” he murmured. He looked down at his wrist and his mouth twisted. Without another word to her, he went toward the truck owner’s home and knocked. The door opened and they had a brief conversation. Easy removed his dive watch from his wrist and the guy gave him a toothy grin. He disappeared inside and when he came back, Easy had the keys.
Suddenly the bag slung by the strap around her chest felt immensely heavy as if she was dragging around rocks instead of light-as-air heels. Had that watch meant something to him?
He went to the truck and started it up. It was like a grump, grumbling and complaining and refusing to turn over.What an Oscar, she thought.Oscar the Grouch.When it finally started, it shook so much, she thought it was going to lose parts. He leaned out the window and motioned to her.
She shook her head. “We’ll be lucky this bucket of bolts gets us ten feet before it falls apart.”
“Jack, don’t fuck around. Get in the goddamned truck.”
Okay, now not so calm. He looked like he meant business. Okay, so maybe he was a little sexy looking. She wasn’t sure her assessment wasn’t because she was in the middle of having a nervous breakdown.
“Jack,” Easy said, looking down the street. “Fuck!”
Exhausted beyond her imagination, she jumped forward when he went to open the door. The look on his face overrode her stubbornness. He gave her an exasperated look as she slipped inside. “Damn, this thing is vibrating so hard, I don’t even need a quarter.” She braced herself on the chewed-up dash to stabilize herself. “Keep your hands to yourself, bucket of bolts,” she murmured.
The sound of his laughter went through her, a low, stimulating grumble. Much sexier than the truck.
Easy pulled out and started down the road, the truck backfiring and scaring the living shit out of her. With a clang, the side view mirror broke and hung by a thread from the mounting. She gave Easy a pointed look and said, “What did I tell you?”
He shrugged and kept driving.
That warden is looking for you,rang in her mind, the terror and the abuse right at the edge, but she closed her eyes to block out any more stress or anxiety, the sheer mind-frying panic of the last half an hour fraying her nerves to a razor’s edge. She was afraid she was going to come undone again. She tightened her grip on the bag to keep her hands from shaking, to keep her whole body from shaking. She couldn’t do anything about the darn truck.
Slipping into sleep was her only way of escaping right now. Her body might be free, but her mind was still somehow trapped back in that prison and Ernesto Ramos held the keys to her cell.
* * *
Easy drove for miles,slipping out of San Agustin del Sur as slick as hell and getting as far away from Caracas as he could. Tex had told him about Cole’s death, and he fought back tears with almost an overabundance of emotions that ripped through him all at once in a jumble of unbearable grief. Then there was a numbness he wasn’t sure was voluntary or involuntary. His brain just knew he had to shut down for now.
How do you sort that kind of shit out when someone you’re that close to dies? The community would mourn him, and Easy would find his own way to honor such an amazing brother. He couldn’t imagine what Dagger was going through now.
Whatever they had done to get information out of him must have been extreme. Ramos, the warden, had much to answer for, but Easy’s number one mission was getting Jack as far away from the bastard as possible.
If he didn’t know the man’s reputation, he would have gotten an idea of it from Jack’s intense reaction to him. If he hadn’t raped her, and he hoped to hell he hadn’t, he’d done something reprehensible to her. The thought of that broke into Easy’s attempt at calm. If he ever got the chance to end the guy, he wouldn’t hesitate.
He’d only ever seen that kind of mindless panic before. The night Jeri died. He pushed those thoughts away. He could ill-afford to have them junk up his mind when he needed to keep it focused and on point. He might now be seven hours away from Caracas, but Ramos had the resources of the police force.
The truck hesitated, the shaking a constant. The back driver’s side fender sheered off, tumbling down the road. This vehicle was a fucking hazard, but they had no choice.
