Nowhere To Run (To Protect And Serve) (17 page)

She didn’t wait for him to answer
. She headed around the back of the bungalow. Riley hesitated only a second before following her. He realized the reason he hadn’t heard her slipping up behind him was that she was barefoot.

He reached for the hand that held the gun. “
Why don’t you give me that?” She didn’t. “At least put the safety on. I don’t want you accidentally shooting me or worse -- yourself.”

She turned to face him
. Their eyes met. Locked. “Why did you follow me here? This is a little beyond your jurisdiction, Detective Donovan.”

He tugged at the gun once more
. This time she didn’t fight him. Instead, she threw up her hands in frustration and opened the door. Riley followed her inside in time to see her disappear down a hallway. It took only a moment’s hesitation to go after her.

“Look Jordan
…” Riley stepped into her bedroom and stopped. She’d taken a bag from the closet and had begun randomly throwing things into it. “What are you doing?”

“I’m leaving.”

“Now? Tonight?” he asked incredulously.

She barely spared him a glance
on her way to the armoire placed against the wall closest to the door. From the rub marks on the floor, he guessed it’d been moved repeatedly.

She opened
a drawer and grabbed an armful of clothes.

“Okay, I understand
you’re scared. You have a right to be. He can and will find you, but I can help if you let me.”

Jordan dumped the clothes into a heap in the suitcase and then stopped to look at him as if he’d lost his mind.

“You can’t help me. And you’ll understand that as a cop, you’re the last person I care to trust with my life.”

He took a step closer and watched her counter with a step back
until her back was against the wall. Their gazes battled in silence. Something unrelated to the danger she faced sizzled to life between them. The same awareness that had been there from the beginning. It followed him throughout all his actions so far.

A thousand different emotions played out through her expressive eyes. He
stroked her cheek. Her gaze lowered to the floor, robbing him of witnessing the desire he felt in her.

He anchored his free hand on the small of her back, and tugged her closer, making them fit together like two halves of a torn piece of paper. The concrete bulge between his powerful legs stabbed into her stomach and his thighs were hard against her softness
. There was fire in his gaze. Electricity in his touch. Heat in his breath. He lowered his head letting his lips take slow possession of her. Moving gently against hers -- parting them by the friction allowing him to taste her. Just for that moment, the world around them ceased to exist. They were just two people standing on the edge of something neither had expected.

When he reluctantly lifted his head to look down into her eyes, the spell was broken
.

Jordan shoved at his chest. Riley let her go and watched as she put several steps between them.

“Don’t,” she whispered into the tense space between them. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”

“I can help you.”
He insisted. Even before he’d said the words she was denying them with a dismissive headshake.

“How? You can’t prove he killed Jeremy. You don’t even know who Caesar has working for him. It could be your
lieutenant for all you know. The police chief. The DA. The FBI. How can you help me when you don’t even know who you’re fighting against?”

Riley decided the best way to
answer her was to be honest. “No, you’re right. I don’t know any of those things.” He stepped closer and cupped her cheek. Her breath caught in her throat. She didn’t try to pull away, but he could feel the tension growing in her with each passing moment. “But I can help you. Together we can help each other. I just need a little time.”

“
Time? I don’t have any time. Caesar could be here on the island right now. He could have tracked you.” Something occurred to her. “Did you tell anyone you were following me?”

He knew what she was really asking. Had he unknowingly given away her whereabouts? “Only my father. And he’s not telling anyone.”

“How do you know?”

“Because he’s my old man. Because I trust him.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t know you well enough to trust
you
and he’s a cop—“

“
Former
cop. He’s retired. You can trust him, Jordan. And you can trust me.”

She sank slowly to the bed and covered her face. “That’s just it. I don’t know how to trust anymore. I can’t stay here and wait for him to come after me.”

“No.” They both knew it was only a matter of time before Santiago caught up with her. Riley needed her cooperation and more importantly he wanted to save her.

“Jordan,
I need to know the last time you talked to Mariah Jennings.”

Her gaze
shot to his. “I don’t know what you’re talking about—“

“You do. I know all about
her.” She didn’t move a muscle. “You two grew up together in Brooklyn. Mariah became a PI. The perfect person to help you disappear, I’d say.”

R
iley didn’t give her the opportunity to deny it. “Nice plan by the way. Mariah looked enough like you to fool the bored folks in customs no doubt, but since landing in Moscow, she seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth. So tell me when you spoke to her last. And what you have on Caesar.”

Time took a lengthy
respite while the war raging inside her showed in her eyes.

Riley sat down next to her
. “I need to know now, because I think Mariah’s life might be in danger.”

“
Oh God…no. Not Mariah.” Tears brimmed in her eyes, spilling down her cheeks.

Riley brushed a
gentle thumb carefully over them. “I need you to trust me, Jordan. Let me help.”

“
No. What if…“ Hazel eyes scanned his face looking for reassurance.

“What?”
He prompted, his gaze dropping to her mouth. He could still taste her.

“What if you disappoint me too? Can you promise me you won’t?” Like Caesar had
? Jeremy? Maybe all the men in her life had let her down.

He would have given just about anything to make her that promise. “
No. I guess I can’t. But I will do everything within my power not to hurt you.”

Her reaction was evident in every inch of her.
Right before his eyes, he watched her guard return as if she’d slammed a door between them and locked it tight. Riley felt as if he’d taken the test of a lifetime and failed miserably.

So much for good intentions.
“I need you to tell me what you have on Caesar.”

She eyed him suspiciously for a minute. The smile she flashed didn’t have a trace of humor. “I see. You almost had me there for a minute.” She shoved his hand away got to her feet. He did the same.

It felt as if his frustration had become permanently etched on his face. “I got it. You don’t trust me. Well guess what honey – I’m all you’ve got.”

“No.
I’m
all I’ve got. You – can get the hell out.” She started to push past him, but he caught her and brought her against him. Every nerve inside of his body screamed to life.

“
I’m not going anywhere.” He looked into her eyes and forced her to listen. “That’s one thing I will promise you. I’m not going anywhere without you.”

If there had been any other alternative, he believed she would have rejected his offer of help entirely. But they both knew the truth.

Jordan Scott was all out of options.

“Alright.” She shoved both palms against his chest and pushed.

Sanity returned, little by little. He blinked slow and lazy, as if pulled from a trance. “Alright?”

“Yes, alright. You’re right. I don’t have any choice.” She shook her head tiredly.

“I see.” Not exactly, the answer he wanted, which bothered him all the more.

A couple of minutes passed in silence. Riley cleared his throat and tried to think coherently. “What do you have on Santiago?”

“I don’t know.” She whispered at last.

“Jordan—“

“It’s true. I don’t know. Nothing on those CDs made any sense to me. It was all numbers and words.”

Numbers and words
.
Sounded more like code.

“Wait, back up – what CDs?”

“Caesar had like a dozen CDs locked away in Caesar’s safe. I found them. They contained page after page of numbers listed in groups of six. Along with the numbers, there were several pages of words. Just random words. Nothing that made any sense.”

“
Please tell me you brought them with you.” God only knew they might just be their only change at convicting Santiago of anything.

W
hatever information was contained on those CDs would probably take Quantico’s best decoding team weeks to crack and clearly Santiago wasn’t taking any chances.

She
bit her lip. “No, but I did manage to make copies of them.”

Riley breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God. “Where are the copies now?”

She tossed him a wary look. She wasn’t going to give him anything more for the moment. As much as it hated that she couldn’t trust him, he found himself impressed by her courage.

“
Whatever’s on those CDs is all we have on Santiago. Without them, I can guarantee he’ll get away with Jeremy’s death.”

Still she hesitated. “Jordan…please.”

She dragged in a breath. “They’re not here.” When he released a frustrated sigh she said, “It’s true. I mailed them to an address Mariah gave me. We figured if he found me, maybe he wouldn’t try anything with the CDs still out there somewhere.”

“Smart thinking. Any idea where they’d end up.”

“Yes. The address was a P.O. Box in California. Mariah’s ex-husband, Blake lives there now. I believe she had me mail them to him.”

“That’s a good place to start
. I’ll try calling him and see if he’s heard from Mariah.”

“I
want to call her. Do you think—“

“Jordan, I don’t know
. Let me handle it. There’s a good chance Santiago has your calls monitored. You can’t afford giving away your location by making any calls that might be traced back here.”

“I feel like such an idiot for ever trusting him. I’m responsible for bringing him into Jeremy’s life—“

He took her hand and held it. She was trembling. “No. You can’t think like that. This is not your fault. Santiago’s good at fooling people. Why do you think no one’s ever been able to pin anything on him? He knows how to put on a good front. Hell, he almost had me convinced of his innocence as well. “

She shook her head, but he could see that she didn’t really believe him. “Jeremy made his own choices in life. He chose to get involved in Caesar’s crimes. He chose to use drugs.”

There was just a small amount of hope in her gaze when she looked at him. “You need my assistance.” She told him. She sounded disappointed.

“Yes, I won’t deny that. I do need your cooperation, but I also want to help you.”

He could almost feel her building walls between them. He didn’t want that to happen. Riley knelt in front of her and took her hands.

“You and I need each other, Jordan. You need me as well. Admit it. I can help you if you let me. But you have to trust me.”

She pulled her hands free and got to her feet. “I’m tired and I can’t think clearly anymore.”

After a moment, he nodded. “You’re right. It’s late. Why don’t you try and get some sleep.”

“What about you?”

He flashed her a smile. “As I recall, there’s something resembling a couch in the living room. I’ll bed down there.”

“But—“

“Unless you have a better offer?” He certainly could think of a better way to spend the night and it had nothing to do with a lumpy couch.

If the color creeping up her face were any indication, her thoughts were headed down the same path as his.

Chapter Twelve

The sight of him, standing in her cramped kitchen wearing only jeans was enough to remind Jordan of the hours she’d spent praying for sleep the night before.

“Good morning.” Riley’s easy smile had a way of sneaking up on her. Before she knew it, she was returning it and trying to keep her thoughts focused. This was the last thing she needed right now.

“Want some coffee?” she needed to do something. A distraction to take her mind off the shirtless hunk standing in front of her.

“Sure. Coffee’d be nice. While you’re making it, I’m going for a quick shower.”

Jordan turned away and reached for the first thing her fingers came in contact with. Unfortunately, it was the flour canister. Somehow she managed to keep flour from going everywhere.