AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Then yanks back with such force I have to lean down slightly or I’ll rip all her hair out at the roots because of the sheer force of her movement.
Her scream dies in her throat.
“You bastard,” she gasps, pooled at my feet into a panting little ball of hard, tight anger. Her chest rises and falls and God help me, my blood goes where it shouldn’t. I need all the oxygen to go to my brain. Last thing my pants need is a tent.
“I may be a bastard, but I’m not a sucker, Lindsay. Bend down and find my gun.”
“You just want me to bend down so you can see my ass.”
I stay silent, because one of the rules of handling a hostile person is to give them something to be right about.
I can give her a victory on that topic.
Because she is mostly correct.
It’s not the only reason, but it’s a nice fringe benefit.
Five seconds later, my gun’s in my waistband, and she’s two feet away from me. I let her go.
We’re at an impasse.
“Just let me leave, Drew. I’ll disappear. Run away. Hide. I know how.” Her voice is so contrite. Her pleading is damn close to begging. These mood swings are killing me.
Why the change in her? What’s made her so desperate to leave?
“You think letting a presidential candidate’s daughter escape to go live an underground life is on my list of Shit I Want to Do Tonight?” I start laughing. It’s not a pleasant sound. “You’re as crazy as your parents think you are, Lindsay!”
She winces. I hurt her. Hit a nerve. Her eyes simmer in the moonlight, unspilled tears pooling on her lower lids. As pissed as I am, I regret that comment. My heart starts doing the two-step in my chest, and my hands curl into fists so I don’t reach out and pull her into my arms and whisper I’m sorry.
If I do that, it’s like handing her a scalpel and telling her to cut out my beating heart and use it as a metronome.
“Plus,” I add, “whatever you think you know about disappearing is nothing compared to how much more the people who want to get their hands on you know about it. You’d be tracked, found, kidnapped and dead – or worse – before you know it.”
She shudders at the word worse.
Footsteps.
“Help!” Lindsay starts screaming.
“What are you doing?” I plant my hands on my hips and just watch, unamused.
“I’m going to tell Silas what you did to me.”
I snort. “You mean the part where I saved you from yourself?”
“You controlling, overbearing, arrogant son of a bitch! You think you own the world! You think you can tell me what to do and -- ”
“I see Drew hasn’t changed a bit,” says a familiar voice. Mark Paulson’s here, to our right, his face in profile, blond hair a lot longer than the last time I saw him. I catch his eye and see his eyebrows are arched, filled with questions.
“You got here fast,” I snap at him.
He shrugs. “No traffic this time of night.”
Lindsay’s yelling continues unabated. “ -- think you can kiss me and, and, take me to bed and that will change anything-- ”
“This is not quite the Drew I know,” Paulson says, turning away and coughing into his hand.
SLAP!
