Hiding From Danger (Danger Incorporated Book 2) (13 page)

They’d brought with them every man West could muster. Jason in his pickup truck led the parade with his friend Jared Monroe riding shotgun while Travis brought up the rear in his mint condition cherry red 1967 Mustang convertible that he’d spent thousands of hours and dollars restoring. In the passenger seat was an Anderson family cousin, Shane, who had agreed to help out. He worked with Travis running the oil drilling division and shared West’s brother’s passion for adrenaline rushes. A little wild but down to earth, he was a good addition to the team. Logan Wright couldn’t make it due to family illness but he might join them later.

“I do. I’ll get us some snacks too while I’m in there.”

Gigi started to push open the door but West reached across her body and stayed her movements. She wasn’t going anywhere alone. Jared and Shane would accompany her and keep an eye out for any trouble. So far it had been an uneventful trip and West hoped to hell it would stay that way.

“They’re going to do a sweep of the inside. The emptier it is the better. Be patient.”

With a long-suffering sigh Gigi’s hand fell away from the door handle. “You have a lot of nerve telling me to be patient, Westin Anderson.”

That was one hundred percent true. She’d waited years to find her family, not to mention being on the run to avoid Alan Morton. She was the personification of patience.

“Point taken. But I still need you to wait for a minute.”

The walls of the convenience store were mostly glass and West could see Jared and Shane walking up and down the aisles, their gazes sweeping over the entire location. Jason and Travis stayed back with the vehicles in case they needed to make a swift exit. Jared stepped out of the building and jogged over to the SUV.

“All clear. Just the two clerks.”

“Did you check the ladies’ room?”

Jared nodded, his body tense and alert. “Shane did. It’s empty. We’ll guard the door while she’s in there.”

“Okay, babe. Let’s see how quick this stop can be, okay? We need to get back on the road.”

West had estimated the trip, if they drove all night and included stops for food and gas, at about fifteen hours give or take thirty minutes or so. That would put them in Vegas about noon and in desperate need of sleep.

Gigi hiked her purse over her shoulder and allowed Jared to hustle her into the store. Still keeping an eye out, West swung out of the driver’s seat and popped open the gas cap. He loved this truck but damn, it ate fuel. Stopping so often was definitely going to slow them down although he still probably got better mileage than Travis’s muscle car.

While West refilled the tank another car pulled in to the pumps, a late model sedan. Four doors. Dark tinted windows. Very dark. He didn’t see windows tinted that dark too often on a conservative family vehicle. It had been West’s experience that the only people who had windows that dark were those with something to hide. It also seemed strange that another car was in the middle of nowhere at an almost deserted gas station when West hadn’t seen another vehicle in almost thirty minutes.

Suspicion put him immediately on edge, his blood pumping in his veins. Pulling the brim of his hat down over his face, he finished pumping fuel and pocketed the receipt, keeping his gaze focused on the vehicle. A man – maybe late twenties or early thirties – hopped out of the driver’s side and began filling his tank.

West searched the man’s silhouette for a gun of some sort but nothing looked out of the ordinary. The driver’s white button down shirt was tucked into a pair of blue jeans and there was no place to hide a weapon unless he had it tucked into his boot, which was a possibility. Or maybe a knife. Or perhaps it was a guy who was simply getting gas and not dangerous at all. West scanned the vehicle but the windows were too dark to be able to tell if there was a companion of any sort. If there was one he or she didn’t appear to be planning to get out of the car.

The brake lights of another vehicle driving by on the service road came on and the car slowed down almost to a crawl. Instead of pulling into the station it inched down the road and then unexpectedly veered into an empty lot with an old boarded up fast food joint before cutting the headlights. No one exited the vehicle but the engine continued to idle.

Strange behavior but not necessarily dangerous. It could be someone checking directions on their phone or even just making a call. He needed to remind himself that criminals weren’t around every corner. His job could sometimes bend his world view in a biased direction.

His gaze slid back to the suspicious sedan but the driver was simply standing there filling the tank and whistling an old Guns and Roses song. Glancing over his shoulder, West could see Gigi and Shane out of the corner of his eye paying at the counter and then heading for the car. Their arms were full of drinks and snacks but Jared stopped them at the door, checking the parking lot before letting them out.

Jason heaved a sigh of relief when he saw her coming towards him, looking more beautiful than anyone should have a right to after being cooped up in a car for several hours in the middle of the night. She’d left her golden blonde hair loose today and it bounced around her shoulders, tempting him to reach out and run his fingers through the silky strands.

“I loaded up on junk food,” she said with a smile. “We’ll be wired from all the sugar.”

“I’m going to need a detox diet when we get back home,” laughed Shane, heading for his vehicle. “But I’m going to enjoy it for now.”

In contrast to Shane’s ebullient mood Jared was his usual quiet and controlled self, barely smiling and constantly on alert. The man could relax and have fun with the best of them but he took his job damn seriously.

West walked around the truck and opened the door of the SUV for Gigi, using his own body as a shield in front while Jared had her back. He thought they were in the clear when the passenger door of the dark windowed sedan swung open and the fluorescent overhead lights glinted off the metal of a gun barrel.

“Down!”

Adrenaline surged through West and he shoved Gigi to the hard concrete, his body covering hers. Jared had pulled his own piece from his shoulder holster as the sound of gunfire assailed West’s eardrums but he could barely hear it over the thundering of his own heart.

In his peripheral vision he could see Travis coming up behind the sedan driver – who had acquired a firearm at some point – and knocking him to the ground with a rifle butt to the back of the head. He didn’t have a chance to get to the passenger or the two men who had jumped from the back seat though as a spray of bullets was directed his way, driving him back to his own vehicle where Shane was stationed near the trunk.

West could feel the quaking of Gigi’s body as she lay underneath him, pressed into the unforgiving concrete. If he could get her out of this alive she’d probably have some nasty bruises from him slamming her into the ground.

“Hang in there, babe. I’m going to get you to safety,” he whispered in her ear. She didn’t answer but the whimpering ceased although her lips still trembled with fear.

Get her in the car. Get her to safety.

“Can you handle this?” West hissed to Jared who was using the door of the SUV as a shield. The back window shattered as a bullet ran through it, throwing glass in every direction. “I need to get Gigi out of here.”

“Go,” Jared growled. “We got this. We’ll meet up with you later.”

With one man down now the gunfire paused and West didn’t hesitate for a moment. Grunting with the effort, he pushed to his knees and lifted Gigi with him, practically stuffing her into the passenger side of the vehicle.

“Stay. Don’t fucking move.”

Gigi nodded, tears streaming down her face, her eyes wide with fear.

The pavement digging into his flesh, West crawled on his belly under the door and pulled his department issue firearm. With the driver of the sedan unconscious the three henchmen were outnumbered and outgunned. It was only a matter of time but they weren’t going to give up easily. Right now they were alternating between hunkering down in the car and leaning out of the window, spraying bullets intermittently.

“I’ll cover you.” West lifted his gun and shot off a few rounds as Jared quickly crawled back to the lead vehicle. Jason had positioned himself in the bed of the truck and Jared jumped in with him before signaling with his arm that West should get the hell out of there.

West didn’t need to be told twice. Swinging his body back under the door he slid over Gigi who was curled into a ball in the passenger seat. Smart girl that she was, she’d somehow managed to reach the ignition and start the SUV. He stayed low as he settled into the driver’s side, gunning the engine and careening out of the gas station.

“Stay down,” he commanded, glancing to make sure she obeyed him. He didn’t need her head popping up, creating the perfect target for Morton’s henchman.

All previous plans he’d made were blown to smithereens. West was flying by the seat of his pants and he needed to get Gigi out of the line of fire before he could think about the implications of what had happened back there. With his government and law contacts Jason would be able to handle whatever local law enforcement threw at him, although West would rather his friends get out of there before the cops showed up. He didn’t relish the idea of being out on the road. Alone. No protection. No help. Completely exposed. It wasn’t how he’d pictured this trip but it was now the reality.

If tonight was any indication Alan Morton was serious as a heart attack about getting Gigi back and killing West in the process. West mentally battled back and forth before finally choosing the main highway over a back road. The cops in this area would know the ins and outs of routes off the beaten path better than West would and he didn’t want to get trapped in an unfamiliar area with no exits. The highway offered more options and kept them moving at a high speed but toward what he hadn’t decided.

Did Morton’s men follow them and wait for an ambush opportunity? Or did they know Gigi was heading for Vegas specifically? It might be a good idea to go in another direction for a little while and see what transpired. It might not be a bad idea to change vehicles either. This one was full of bullet holes and a broken back window. It screamed
Gun Fight at the OK Corral
to anyone who saw it.

“Are we safe?” Gigi asked, her voice shaky. She was stilled curled up in the passenger seat, broken glass in her hair and on her shoulders.

West rubbed the back of his neck, his skin slick with sweat. “It depends on how you define safe, babe. We’re out of the line of fire. For the moment. But I need to figure out what to do now. Do you think Morton knows about your brother in Las Vegas?”

“I don’t know. He might. I talked about Zach and Aubrey a lot. He knew I was looking for them.”

Gigi began to sit up but he put his hand on her shoulder and pressed her back into the seat.

“I need you to stay down for now. I have to figure out what we’re going to do.”

She looked as if she was going to object for a moment but then acquiesced and sunk back down below window level.

“I’m scared.”

Those two simple words tore at West’s heart and he reached over to stroke the soft skin of her arm. The lights on the highway flew by as he pressed heavily on the accelerator, putting more miles between them and Morton’s men.

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you. Trust me.”

“I trust you with my life, West.”

Her life. But not her love. She’d been holding a part of herself back since the day he’d met her.

“Everything is going to be okay. Just stay down while I put some distance between us and that gas station.”

A million questions whirled in and out of his overloaded brain, making his temples ache and his stomach churn with acid. The station probably had security cameras which would mean law enforcement would have at the very least a description of his vehicle, or even worse, his license plate number. He couldn’t keep Gigi safe if he was locked away in some small town county jail even if it was only for a short time. He had to keep moving.

West glimpsed an old ramshackle red barn on the side of the road. They sped past it but not before it sparked a memory of long ago. Would his friend still be there? His family had lived on that land for the last hundred years so the odds were good.

West knew exactly where he was headed. If anyone could help him it was Wyatt Stone.

‡

C
ramped and scared
Gigi shifted in her seat, laying her head on the console between herself and West, her face pressed to the cool leather. He’d tried to reassure and comfort her, explaining that they were going to find an old Army buddy of his that lived near here but he still wouldn’t let her sit up in the seat. By the stiffness in his shoulders and his tight jaw it was clear he was angry and frustrated. A perfectionist, he didn’t like surprises and he hated losing control of a situation even more. Her alpha male liked to give the orders and he expected them to be obeyed without question.

The truck bumped and rolled, tossing her around enough that she had to grab on to the door handle. The lights from the highway were long gone and she could see nothing from her vantage point but an inky black sky speckled with a star here and there. The forecast called for rain which made getting a new back window even more important.