Kissing Fire (10 page)

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“Trying to stop you from beating the shit out of
me!”

“Oh yeah? Well, you deserved it after trying to kill
me on that damn motorcycle. What’s wrong with you anyway? Are you
crazy?”

She tried to get off of me, but the delayed shock
had set in and her body was shaking all over.

“Oh hell, what’s wrong with me?”

She sounded so pitiful I went to put my arms around
her to calm her down. As soon as I touched her, she stiffened.

“Please don’t touch me. Haven’t you done enough
damage already?”

I supposed she had a good point. Her life was in
danger because of me and now how was I going to get her out of this
mess?

“Yes, I have and I’m terribly sorry Avery.”

“Oh, and I guess that’s supposed to make me feel
better.”

“No, but I am sorry.”

I wanted to help her up, but I couldn’t because she
was still on top of me and I couldn’t get up myself. I thought it
best to just let her sit there until she felt better about
things.

She rubbed her face with the heel of her hands and
then looked at me. “I don’t suppose I’ll be going back to my job
any time soon, will I?”

I shook my head. “I’m afraid not.”

“Can I at least call my boss?”

“I’m afraid that’s not possible right now either.
It’s too dangerous for you. And it could put him in danger
too.”

“I see. So where are we going?”

“There’s a military transport plane out there
leaving for Colorado Springs. It’s going to Peterson Air Force Base
and we’ll be on it. Then we’ll hop on another transport and head to
Andrews Air Force Base where we’ll change planes again. This time
we’ll get on a private jet and head to Bozeman, Montana where I
have a home. We’ll be staying there until I think things are safe
again.”

“Why can’t we go straight to Montana?”

“It’s too risky. I don’t want to take any chances.
They won’t be able to track us on a military transport either. One
is difficult, but two flights are nearly impossible.”

“What about my brother and his wife?”

I smiled. “They’re fine and protected. They’re at a
safe house. That was who I texted right away. They have another
place in Seattle just in case anything like this would happen.”

“What? How can that be?”

“Avery, can we talk about this later?”

I looked up to see Pete in the doorway. “Our ride is
waiting on us.”

Avery turned around and noticed Pete standing
there.

“Pete this is Avery. Avery meet Pete.”

They both said their hellos. Pete eyed my face and
said, “Nice handprint you got there.”

“Yeah. It’s gonna match my bruises that should be
popping out in a couple of hours. We had a little issue with a
reaction to the motorcycle ride. I had a couple of tails.”

“Ah,” Pete said. Then he turned to Avery and said,
“Avery, if you think his driving is bad on a motorcycle, wait till
you’re in a getaway car with him.”

“Thanks bud. I appreciate it,” I said. Then I gave
him a little motion with my head and he walked over and helped
Avery to her feet.

We headed out to the tarmac where a C-17 waited. The
back of the plane was open and cargo was being loaded. Pete was
giving me all the paperwork for our flights and Avery asked, “Are
we going on that thing?”

“Yeah.” She looked a little skeptical. “Don’t worry.
These babies are the safest things ever.”

“I’m not worried about safety you goofball. Are we
gonna have to sit on the floor?”

Pete and I looked at each other and just started
laughing. Then Pete said, “No, Avery, I put a couple of folding
chairs in there for the two of you.”

“Oh, okay.”

Good lord, I hope she wasn’t that gullible. Pete and
I talked about Justin and Caroline. He assured me they’d be fine
and that he had them guarded. Their main house was empty...or so
everyone thought. It was swarming with agents in the hopes of
catching whoever was out to get me.

I grabbed Avery by the hand and pulled her behind me
as we boarded the plane. She chuckled when she saw the seats along
the sides of the aircraft.

“Not like your ordinary plane, huh.”

“Oh, we’re not sitting here. Come on.” I pulled her
through the cargo area to the front where the few regular seats
were and chatted for a few minutes with the crew. We sat down and
buckled up. It was great to be on a military aircraft because their
flights always took off on time. About two and a half hours later,
we landed in Colorado Springs.

I had to wake Avery up. She was sound asleep and
purring like a cat. I wondered about this cat thing she had. I
gotta say, it was a major turn on for me. Reaching out, I went to
tap her on the shoulder, but somehow, my hand ended up on her soft
and silky hair instead. I had never felt anything like it in my
life. Maybe that’s why she sounded like a kitty. I picked up a
thick piece of it and rubbed it between my fingers before letting
it glide on through. Her profile was exquisite. It took all my
control not to run my finger down the slope of her nose or along
her lower lip. Watching the simple motion of her chest with each
breath she took made me regret that I had to disturb her gentle
sleep.

“Avery, we’re almost here.” I tapped her shoulder.
She arched her back and stretched, again resembling a contented
feline.

Her eyes targeted mine and I flinched. The intensity
in her gaze was unsettling. My guilt escalated over what I’d done
to her life knowing I’d pretty much ruined it.

“So what now?”

“We just need to change planes. Are you hungry or
thirsty?”

“Miles...or whatever the hell your name is, look at
me. I’m always hungry. And I’m thirsty too.”

“Preston. My name is Preston.”

“Yeah, right. Preston. I don’t suppose you have a
last name?”

“Yep. It’s Mitchell.”

She looked at me really funny and then asked, “I
don’t suppose you once had a sister named Terri?”

I squeezed my eyes shut. I hadn’t even thought about
her making that connection. Damn it.

“Look, I have some things to tell you, but this
isn’t the time or place.”

“Crap. What kind of people are you? I mean...fuck.”
The plane suddenly bumped as we hit a cross wind and she grabbed my
arm.

“It’s okay. It was just the air currents.”

“Is there anywhere I can get a liquor drink?”

I snorted. “I wish, but not on a military
flight.”

“Fuck.” Her hands were clamped together and her
knuckles were white.

“Look, as soon as we get inside, I’ll grab us
something to eat and drink, okay?”

“Yeah, thanks.” Then she looked at me and said, “I’m
sorry I went all psycho on you back there. I don’t know what
happened. I’ve never hit anyone before.” She dropped her head and
quietly said, “Well, that’s not quite true. I hit Little Dickie
when he attacked me, but it was only with my stuffed
dachshund.”

“Someone attacked you?”

“Yeah. He kinda forgot what ‘no’ meant. When he
started to rough me up and hit me, my neighbor heard me screaming
and saved me. She’s a sumo wrestler in training so she took him
right down.”

“Wait. What? A sumo wrestler in training?”

“Uh huh. You oughta see that girl move too. She’s
really something.”

“I didn’t even know women were sumo wrestlers.”

“Oh yeah. She had me on a training program for a
while, but I was pitiful. I could only bench press four reps at
thirty pounds.”

I was trying my best not to laugh, but it was really
hard.

“You think this is funny, don’t you?”

I bit down really hard on my top lip. “Muh uh.”

“Yes, you do. You’re making fun of me.”

I vigorously shook my head back and forth.

“Muh uh.”

“You can’t even answer me. Go ahead, answer me. Say
no.”

I just looked at her and when I let me lip loose,
God help me, I busted out laughing.

“You know what? You’re an asshole.” She crossed her
arms and stared straight ahead.

God bless the pilot, because right at that time, he
came back to us and told us we could deplane.

I stood up and offered her my hand, but she batted
it away. We exited out the back of the plane and went inside the
terminal. I looked around to find the information desk. There was
an airman standing there so I asked about our flight to Langley. He
informed me we only had fifteen minutes before it departed and
there weren’t any real seats. We’d be sitting in the cargo area.
Great. Just what I wanted to hear. He pointed me in the direction
of the canteen and I told Avery to hit the bathroom because we only
had ten minutes until wheels were up.

The canteen’s offerings were minimal, so I grabbed a
little bit of this and that and a variety of stuff to
drink...bottled water, Gatorade and Coke Zero. Avery walked out of
the bathroom and I waved to her. She met up with me and we headed
outside.

When we got on board, there were two seats in the
very back and I pointed to them. She raised her brows at me and I
nodded.

She headed to one and I took the other.

“Yeah, and how long is this flight?”

“Three and a half hours.”

“You know something? You make it really hard to like
you.”

“I know. I’m not asking you to like me. I’m asking
you to let me save your life.”

She whipped her head around so fast and those
perfect eyes of hers latched onto mine. I felt like she could read
my mind...every thought I had about her. I watched her throat
working as she swallowed.

Nodding, she said, “I’ll give you that much. For
some reason I trust you Preston. I don’t know why, but I do.”

I buckled her harness as the plane’s engines roared
to life. It wasn’t long and we were in the air. She started digging
through the food I’d bought and then asked for something to
drink.

“I’m so thirsty.”

“Here,” I said, handing her a purple Gatorade.

“Thanks.” She unscrewed the cap and guzzled the
entire thing down. She made it look so good, I had to have one for
myself.

“God, I’d pay good money for a toothbrush right
now.”

“How about some sugar free gum instead?”

“For real?”

I handed her a piece and I felt like I’d just given
her a diamond ring. She beamed.

“So tell me about yourself.” She wanted to know
about me. I didn’t want to share all the gory details, so I skirted
some of them. Like my scene in prison. I told her how the DEA
recruited me. I had majored in criminal justice with the intention
of going to law school. That didn’t happen. I ended up working for
them straight out of college and my life went to hell right along
with it. I couldn’t tell her everything, especially in a military
aircraft surrounded by soldiers, but I did tell her what I
could.

After I was done I asked her about herself. She was
extremely bright. She had an MBA from Harvard. A finance chick.
Came from big money but didn’t act it. Could’ve done anything in
the world but wanted to work.

“All the guys in my family went into medicine and I
wanted to do that too, but my mom discouraged it. She wanted me to
find a man and get married. I think she wanted grandkids or
something. My mom used to be this really warm person but lately
she’s become so selfish. I don’t know. Anyway, she pushed me into
the MBA thing. My family is part owner of Middleton Enterprises,
which is a large corporation that has its hands in just about
everything. She wanted me to work there forever. I had different
ideas.”

“So you two disagreed.”

“Yeah, you might say that.”

“I went to work for another company and then this
job opened up in Seattle. She was not happy about me leaving
Charleston. I had to though. I was stuck in a nightmare of a life.
Especially after my former boyfriend beat me up and tried to rape
me.”

I felt my whole body tense as she told me that
story. It’s a good thing I wasn’t close to this guy or I would’ve
beat the shit out of him.

“Please don’t look at me like that.
I know I’m lame and all but I didn’t think he was like
that
.”

Jesus, did she really think
she
was the loser?
“Avery, I’m looking at you like this because I’m angry that someone
would try to hurt you.”

She raised her brows and just said, “Oh.”

I was getting all sorts of strange signals here.

“I think it’s wrong on every level for a man to hurt
a woman. That’s why I was looking at you like that.”

“Oh.” She nodded. “Well, Little Dickie got his due
from Melissa.”

“Why do you call him Little Dickie?”

She let out this huge bubble of laughter and it was
the greatest sound I’d ever heard. Then she giggled some more and
held up her pinkie finger and wiggled it. But then, she took her
forefinger and thumb of her other hand to indicate an inch and held
it next to her pinkie finger.

“No way,” I said.

“Way. And he was wielding that thing at me, or
trying to anyway. It was so funny that I laughed at him, but that’s
when he became really violent.”

“Are you exaggerating about his size, or lack of it
I should say?”

“No, I even have a picture. You wanna see?”

“You took a picture of it?”

“Yeah, next to a ruler to give it perspective.”

I started laughing as hard as I ever laughed.

“Oh no!”

“What?”

“The picture is on my phone and it’s at
Justin’s.”

“Don’t worry. It’ll be fine. You can get it when the
storm passes over.”

“I hope so.”

We finished eating and I watched
Avery’s head as it began to drop down as she dozed. Every time her
chin would hit her head, it would startle her awake. I finally
reached out my arm and put it around her. “Use my shoulder Avery so
you can sleep.” She tried to pull away, but I held her tightly.
“For once, can you not fight me and just relax? I promise I won’t
bite you.” I unbuckled her shoulder harness and she leaned against
me, even though I knew she didn't really want to.