He shot her a glance. “I chose to do this,
okay? If I go to prison, it’s not your fault. It’s the culmination
of several things. I make my choices in full understanding and
acceptance of the consequences. Got that?”
Her lip trembled. “Yes. But Matt, if this is
because of what happened in high school—”
“It’s not.” His voice was strong and firm.
“This is what I do, Evie. I rescue people. And I can’t stand by and
let something happen to Sarah when I’m capable of doing something
about it. I’ll deal with the consequences later. For now, your
sister is what matters.”
She felt like she was going to cry, and that
was the last thing she needed to be doing right now. She didn’t
speak for the rest of the ride as she tried to keep a lid on her
emotions. Soon, they approached her mother’s street and Matt
slowed. He switched off the headlights as he made the turn and then
brought the car to a stop about thirty yards from the driveway. She
could see flashes of the white clapboard house between the trees.
Everything seemed still and quiet. No lights winked from the
windows, no cars passed by, though a truck was parked near the
Landrys’ driveway facing toward the BMW. There was no one
inside.
“I want you to stay here,” Matt said. “It’s
safer.”
“But, what if—”
“Evie.” He sounded grave. “Trust me on this.
I know what I’m doing.”
“I’m not really thrilled about sitting out
here alone.”
“Get into the driver’s seat and keep the
engine idling. Don’t unlock the doors for anyone but me. If anyone
tries to get in, gun it. Don’t think twice, don’t worry about
running someone over or wrecking this car, just go. I’ll meet you
at Charlie’s. If you haven’t heard from me in an hour, call Kev
MacDonald. Give me your cell phone.”
She handed it to him. “Matt—”
“I’m not arguing about it.” He punched in a
number, handed it back to her. “It’s saved under your speed dial.
Hit three and Kev will answer.”
She grabbed his arm, panic flaring inside her
belly. “This isn’t what I thought was going to happen.”
“You promised me earlier tonight that you’d
stay put when I told you to.”
Damn him for remembering that right now. She
sucked in a breath. It all seemed so much more intense now that she
knew he risked death on a regular basis. Not that it hadn’t already
been intense, but it was somehow worse knowing that. “I’m not
waiting an hour. Fifteen minutes. If you aren’t back then, I’m
driving up to the house.”
“Jesus God.” He wiped a hand over his hair
and down his face. “Why can’t you just cooperate? You have any idea
what would happen to one of the guys if they disobeyed a direct
order from me?”
She firmed her jaw. No way could she blindly
do what he told her. Not when he was risking so much. “If I
was
one of the guys, you’d be taking me with you. So forget
it. Fifteen minutes, and I’m coming up that driveway.”
“Thirty minutes. B and E takes time.”
“Twenty. Not a second more.”
He sat there, just looking at her. If he
thought she was going to be intimidated by his Mr. Bad Ass Military
Man act, he was wrong. There was too much at stake. His life, for
instance. If anything happened to him, she didn’t know what she’d
do. He didn’t have to do this, didn’t have to help her. But he was,
and because of it she found the strength to return his hard stare
until he got that she meant business.
Finally, when she didn’t back off, he nodded.
“Twenty.”
He reached for the gun he’d tucked into the
side pocket of the door and lifted the handle.
“Wait,” Evie said, her heart hammering.
He turned back to her and she leaned forward,
curled her palm around his neck, and pressed her mouth to his. She
kissed him with all the heat and fire, all the frustration, that
was boiling inside her. He grinned at her when she pulled back.
“I’m looking forward to a whole lot more of
that when I get back, Evangeline.”
When
he got back.
When
not
if
.
“As much as you want.”
His grin still managed to be wicked in spite
of the gravity of the situation. “Remember that. Showtime, Evie.”
His door ghosted open and he melted into the night.
Evie straddled the gearshift and maneuvered
over to the driver’s seat. It took her a few moments of reaching
around to finally locate the buttons to slide the seat forward. If
she had to make a getaway now, she’d be in a lot of trouble since
her feet didn’t even touch the pedals. The seat motored slowly
forward until she felt comfortable. She adjusted the mirrors,
checked the dash clock. He’d been gone three minutes.
Seventeen to go. Oh God. How did he do this
kind of thing on a regular basis?
She peered into the darkness, tried to
discern any movement. He’d disappeared too quickly for her to
follow his progress. He could be anywhere out there. She checked
the mirrors and craned her head around to see if someone was
sneaking up behind the car. She dropped a hand to the gearshift,
ready for anything. She felt vaguely like she had her junior year
when she and some friends toilet-papered the principal’s house at
one in the morning. Exhilarated, frightened, and wanting it to be
over with all at once.
Yeah, she was ready for anything.
Anything except the huge flash that lit up
the sky.
* * *
The explosion was similar to a flash-bang,
all bright light and deafening kaboom. Matt was in the process of
slipping from the giant magnolia in the side yard to a moss-draped
oak about ten feet farther on when the house exploded. The
shockwave knocked him on his ass with the force of a heavyweight
punch. Only hard-won experience allowed him to tuck his head and
twist to the side as the force lifted him off the ground.
He landed hard, his elbow and shoulder
driving into the earth. The wind got knocked out of him and the
heat of the blast felt like it was sucking any remaining air he may
have had out of his lungs. He knew he had to get away from the
flaming debris as fast as possible.
If hot ash didn’t burn a hole in him,
whoever’d set the charge could find him. Not that he knew anyone
was looking, but it wasn’t a chance he wanted to take. He shoved
away the pain and forced his good arm forward, dug his fingers into
the grass and dirt, and pulled, his legs remembering to propel him
at the last possible second when his muscles were screaming, and he
was sure his body wasn’t going to move.
One-armed, he pulled himself back by degrees
into the cover of the trees. He’d find a place to hole up until his
head stopped spinning, then make his way to Charlie’s. He’d told
Evie to go there because the place was so public. He figured she’d
be safe if she stayed until he could get to her. He could’ve sent
her back to Reynier’s Retreat, but no telling what might be waiting
for her there.
Somehow, he managed to get his legs beneath
him. Levered upward, a tree trunk at his back. The world spun. He
dragged in a breath, then another. Pushed farther up until he was
standing. His legs shook beneath him, threatening to drop him
again.
He refused to let it happen.
He had to get out of here, had to find Evie.
Had to protect her.
The sound of tires crunching on gravel and
bleached clamshells reached him through the ringing in his ears. He
flattened against the tree and made himself a part of the trunk.
The car was coming fast, gravel spitting and plinking against the
sheet metal. Brakes locked up and the car skidded to a halt. A door
opened.
“Matt?”
Fucking A.
His heart plummeted to his feet at the same
time a swell of adrenaline pumped through his veins. He had to get
her out of here. Someone could grab her and take her away from
him.
Hurt her.
Though it hurt like a sonofabitch, he
stumbled away from the trunk, swaying unsteadily in the glowing
light of the fire eating the house.
Evie was backlit by the flame, her body in
shadow. He couldn’t tell whether she was looking at him or at the
house.
“I told you to go,” he croaked into the thick
air.
She spun around and gasped. And then he found
himself wrapped up in a bear hug, her lips raining kisses onto his
cheek, his jaw, his lips.
He grasped her, spreading his fingers along
the small of her back. He wanted to hold her, just hold her.
The kisses felt so good, so sweet. Nothing
like what usually happened on an op. He turned his mouth into hers
and said against her lips, “Have to go. Now.”
She shifted his weight until he was leaning
on her, then hauled him around to the passenger side of the car
until he could fall inside. “Get in,” he said when she tried to
fuss and help him get settled.
She ran around the car and hopped in,
shifting into reverse. Gears ground together, then smoothed out
when she found the groove.
“Where… going?” He spoke through the soup in
his mind when she pointed the car opposite of the direction they’d
come.
She shot him an incredulous look. “The
hospital.”
Matt grabbed her arm. “Marina.”
Evie shifted the car and shook her head
emphatically. “No way. You’re hurt. I’m taking you to the
hospital.”
“Not hurt. Stunned. It’ll pass.”
“Yeah, well, I’ll feel better when a doctor
tells me that.”
She glanced up, frowned, and stepped on the
gas.
“Evie—”
“No.” The car leapt forward with a short
burst of speed. “We’re doing it my way this time.” She glanced up
again. “Uh oh.”
“What?”
“I think we’re being followed.”
“Cop?”
“I don’t think so. Wouldn’t they have tried
to pull us over by now?”
Matt blinked against the fuzziness crowding
his head. It would go away, he knew, but it was going to take time.
Time they didn’t have.
But she was right. The police wouldn’t waste
time following them. They’d turn on the lights and make them pull
over. If someone was pursuing them, it was a sure bet it was
someone they didn’t
want
coming after them.
Helluva time for it. He couldn’t take the
wheel, couldn’t drive.
He swallowed a wave of dizziness and made
himself turn around to look at their pursuer.
“Take a left at Robbins.” First, he had to
determine if they were really being followed or if this was just a
coincidence. But what kind of person drove past a flaming house in
the dark and didn’t stop to look? Especially in Rochambeau where
everyone knew everyone else?
Evie didn’t signal, even though he forgot to
tell her not to. She waited until they were almost upon Robbins
Road when she slammed on the brake and whipped the car left.
The headlights behind them slid sideways for
a second, then straightened out, aiming toward them once more.
“Hit the gas,” Matt ordered.
Evie complied, and the car shot forward. The
car behind them did the same.
He knew they needed to do something, a
sequence of somethings in fact, but it wouldn’t quite come to
him.
Think of a route
.
Yes, that was part of it.
Turns, stops, slides
.
Right
. He knew intimately what a car
could do, how to push it to its limits, how to make it do things
that seemed, if only briefly, to defy gravity. But he wasn’t the
one driving.
“Whatever you do,” he said, concentrating on
the words, “don’t panic.”
She laughed without humor. “Easy for you to
say.” She glanced up. “I think we need to get to the police
station. He won’t follow us there.”
“No. He’ll try to force you off the road
before that.”
“Robbins crosses Old Oak Road. If we make a
right there, it’ll take us straight to the PD.”
There was a reason not to take Old Oak, but
he couldn’t remember what it was. Something stuck in his mind,
something he couldn’t pull up from the depths where it was
buried.
“No.”
“If you have a better idea, then tell me.”
Her voice was sharp, demanding.
He couldn’t think. He lifted a hand to his
head, pressing against his temples. Sweat beaded on his skin. He
needed time.
The one thing they didn’t have.
“Matt?”
“No.” He wasn’t sure what he was saying no
to, in fact, but she didn’t seem troubled by any doubt.
“Right.” She pressed the gas pedal. He leaned
his head back on the seat and closed his eyes. A few seconds later
she said, “Hang on.”
The car shifted sideways as the seat belt
grabbed on and held him tightly against the leather. She swerved
hard, the car bumping crazily as they slid across the road and into
the grass on the left shoulder. The engine whined and the tires
spun as she crammed her foot against the pedal. The sickening smell
of burning rubber filled the interior.
“Ease up.” He wasn’t sure if he’d spoken
aloud until the car began to move as she backed off the gas a bit.
“Where’d he go?”
She got the car pointed toward town and they
picked up speed.
“Still behind us. He overshot the turn, but I
see headlights again.”
She’d actually widened the distance between
them, though not by much. Still, he was impressed she’d managed it.
For an amateur, it wasn’t half-bad driving. If she could keep the
distance, they’d make it. There were no more turns to negotiate
since Old Oak went straight past the station.
There were no lights out here on the back
roads, no oncoming cars, nothing but the sweep of the xenon lights
in front of the BMW. A rabbit darted off the road up ahead and Matt
cast a glance at Evie. She gripped the wheel hard, concentrating on
the asphalt in front of her. He had the feeling she’d run over
anything that got in their way, and that was a good thing at this
point. No time for squeamishness if another rabbit crossed too
close to avoid.