Rules of Survival (Entangled Embrace) (16 page)

“You don’t know me.”

“Maybe not inside out, but I know you better than you think I do.”

“Why? Because we’ve spent a few days attached at the hip?”

He flashed me a half smile and an involuntary shiver raced down my spine. That smile had undoubtedly been the undoing of many a girl. “Exactly. I’ve seen you at your worst. Angry and bitter and mean. And I’ve seen you be brave and stand up against things that would tear most people down. I don’t think you’re worried about me not knowing you. I think what you’re really worried about is
you
not knowing you. You’ve spent so much time living like your mom, that you don’t have any idea who the hell you are.”

I tried to answer. I wanted to tell him he was wrong, and crazy, and out of line, but my brain refused to let me lie. Not this time. Not about this—because he was right. With Mom gone, I had no idea who Mikayla Morgan really was.

“I’m not proposing or anything, but yeah, I
do
like you. And no. There’s nothing
wrong
with that. You’re different from any other girl I’ve met. Weird—but in a good way. I look at you and find that I’ve got no idea what you’re going to say or do next.” He leaned even closer until our noses were touching, and all the hairs on the back of my neck jumped to attention. “But I wanna find out.”

Forget the shiver. I had chills. Arctic shards of ice doing marathon sprints up and down my spine. What was a girl supposed to say to a pitch like that? I opened my mouth, but then closed it. My brain was at war with, well, everything else. Heart, hormones—the whole package. For the first time in my life, I ignored what Mom would have said and went with what I wanted.

I grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him to me. The kiss started sweet. Very PG. But it changed, and I wasn’t sure if it was me or Shaun who kicked it into overdrive. One minute our lips were moving together, my uncuffed hand on his face, and his arms around my waist. The next, he was drawing away and pulling me to my feet.

I didn’t question him as he led me across the edge of the lot, past the tree line, and into the forest. As soon as we were away from the tents and people, and tucked into the shadows, he backed me against the nearest tree.

“So, I guess you’re okay with me kissing you?” he asked, leaning in and nuzzling my neck. I let my head fall back, a small moan escaping my lips, and he laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

It was a yes. It was a
hell yes
.

He worked his way down my neck, lingering at my shoulder. A rush of cold air assaulted me as he tugged the collar aside, covering the small patch of exposed skin with fiery kisses. I brought my free hand to the back of his head, running my fingers through his hair. He groaned and leaned into my touch for a moment before lifting me up and stepping away from the tree.

Lowering us to the ground, he never broke eye contact. That kind of scrutiny would have normally sent me scurrying for the nearest rock to crawl under, but with Shaun it was different. I found that I wanted him to look at me. I
wanted
him to see me.

He lay back, letting me straddle his waist. “It’s all you, Kayla. You have complete control over me,” he said softly. “I’ve got a feeling you had it from the moment I first saw you in the cabin.”

I bent down and kissed him. The smell of the forest, mixed with the scent of him, was intoxicating. Like a jolt to the body. Alive. That same feeling I’d gotten at the trailer, but ten times stronger, because this time, I wasn’t standing in my own way. I knew what I wanted and had every intention of taking it. Deepening the kiss, I savored the sensation. It was electric, and I felt more alive in that moment than ever before.

He kept his cuffed hand close, but let his free one drift to my hips, urging them forward. The movement created a friction so intense, I gasped.

So did he. “Fuck,” he groaned into my mouth. He captured my bottom lip between his teeth and pulled, letting his tongue skim across as his fingers gripped the thin material of my sweatpants and tugged hard. “Please, God, do that again.”

I moved again, another wave of electricity rippling through me. This time his hips rose to meet mine, increasing the sensation and stealing the breath from my lungs. Shaun growled. The sound was like ten thousand tiny needles all pricking my skin at the same time. He jerked his hands down, dragging my left one along, and slipped them under my shirt.

Heat, nearly volcanic, exploded as he dragged his fingers across my skin, palm down. A moment later, he shoved me up, into a sitting position. “Don’t stop. Keep moving.”

I braced myself against him with my free hand and began moving. The feel of him, rock-hard beneath me, made my insides quiver. His hands came to my breasts, palming them once before his fingers hooked over the edge of my bra and dragged the cups down in a single, violent pull. Then, with deft movement, he pulled his own shirt up, tucking it behind his head.

Skin on skin now. I felt like I was about to die. Taking the right nipple between his fingers, he squeezed gently, then twisted just a hair. I sucked in a sharp breath and arched my back. Suddenly there were too many layers between us. I wanted to feel that way all over. Skin against skin everywhere.

Shaun must have been thinking the same thing. He pulled his hands from under my shirt. The right one, the one cuffed to mine, he rose above his head, which caused me to bend forward. With a chuckle, he hooked a leg over and had our positions reversed in a single, dizzying move.

“God,” he growled. “Touching you makes me crazy.” He laid his left hand on my face, then dragged it up and through my hair, fingers knotting into a large chunk as he ground his hips against me.

I bit back a scream, arching into him. Who knew how far we would have gone if the red and blue lights hadn’t broken through the trees, followed by the sound of a siren.

“Shit,” he cursed, rolling sideways and taking my hand. Like I weighed nothing more than a feather, he fixed his shirt and pulled me to my feet and tucked us behind the large pine tree.

“What’s going on?” I asked, trying to fix my bra with my free hand. The last thing we needed was to be in the middle of a raid.

“Cops,” he responded, breathing still heavy. He turned to me, eyes full of heat and hunger. “We should move.”

Chapter Seventeen

By the time midmorning rolled around the next day, I had a wicked knot in my back, a sore neck, and my face buried in the crook of Shaun’s arm. We’d run farther into the woods and waited. Thankfully no one had come, but the risk of heading back to the field was too high. We’d settled in the crevice of several large boulders.

“Hey there,” Shaun said as I opened my eyes. He was grinning, eyes bright. Definitely one of the better sights I’d ever woken to.

“Hi,” I whispered back. Not even sixty seconds awake and my heart was already humming.

He pushed forward and brushed his lips to mine, pulling away for a brief moment only to dive back in, this time igniting my insides and really waking me up. When he finished, he pulled away and winked. “Sorry. Just had to be done.”

I smiled. Not the forced, fake thing I’d mastered over the years, but a new expression. One that was genuine. Happy. I was freaking happy. How the hell I could be happy while chained to someone and running for my life, I had no clue, but there it was. Happy.

Shaun wiggled from the rocks and climbed to his feet. Helping me up, he asked, “So what’ll it be, Plan Girl? Mick Shultz?”

I straightened and stretched, trying to get rid of the knot. All I succeeded in doing was making it worse. I’d slept in some funky positions before, but this one took a spot in the top five—bad
and
good. Shaun. I’d curled up beside him and drifted to sleep—not because we were shackled together, but because I wanted to.

“Yeah. I think that’s the best bet we have for getting some solid info. Just one small problem.”

He cocked his brow and I nearly melted. Damn. Each moment we spent together presented a new secret. A quirk or odd expression. The way the corner of his lip twitched as he slept. Small things that would have gone otherwise unnoticed, all there and glaring at me like the sun. “What?”

“Finding him. My entire life, Mom never did anything using her real name. Since Mick is one of her partners, there’s a good chance he’s wanted for murder, too—or at the very least theft. And God knows what else. No way is he walking around with an ID that says Mick Shultz. He’d be using an alias.”

Shaun frowned. “That’s a good point. Want me to call Pat?”

“Not really…but I’m not sure there’s another option. There’s a woman in Dutchess—probably only a few hours or so from here—that Mom was sorta friends with. She might know something, but…”

“But things with Gerald turned out badly. Who’s to say it won’t happen again?”

“’Zactly.”

“So…?”

I sighed. “I guess we try Patrick again. I’ve got no idea how, but he was able to track Mom all those years despite name changes. Maybe he can figure out what alias Mick is using and point us in the right direction.”

He nodded and took my hand. “I saw a pay phone around the corner when we came through last night. Should be safe to head back that way.”

We wove through the woods, then the lot, as quietly as we could, and made our way around to the front of the building. It was still early. The clock on the bank sign across the street read 11:05.

Shaun pulled out a handful of change and dialed Patrick. After seven rings, it went to voice mail. “That’s weird.”

“That he didn’t answer? You keep saying that every time he doesn’t pick up, but honestly, he seems to
never
pick up…”

Shaun frowned and hung up the phone. “This is a new thing. Pat never lets his phone go to voice mail.”

“Well, maybe he’s still sleeping?”

Shaun glared at the phone. “No way. Pat has never slept past six. Not in all the years I’ve been with him.”

“You think something’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure…”

I glanced around the square. Signs of the lunch rush were beginning to surface here and there. There was a line out the door at the small coffeehouse a few storefronts down, and several people on the corner waiting for the bus. The paranoia in me didn’t like the growing crowd. “I don’t wanna hang out. I feel twitchy doing nothing.”

“You think there’s more information in that note back at the cabin? Something that might help us find the evidence?”

I closed my eyes for a moment and shook my head, wishing he hadn’t brought it up. “Don’t tempt me. I’ve already thought about it—but it’s a bad idea. Bad in the way Pompeii was bad… Going the first time was stupid. A second time would just be a death wish.”

“So, your mom’s friend then?”

I kicked at the large pebble by my feet. It skittered across the sidewalk, bouncing to a stop by the edge of the road. You’d think I’d learn. I’d done that once in a parking lot in California and the rock hit a shiny new Toyota. The driver screamed at Mom for half an hour before she handed him a hundred-dollar bill to cover the tiny ding in the side of his car.

“No,” I said with a sigh. “After what happened with Gerald, I don’t wanna chance it. Whoever this Jaffe is, he’s got money to throw around.” I ran my free hand through my hair. “Honestly, I’ve got no idea what to do next.”

“How about you come with me?” a voice said behind us. Deeds.

Shaun and I froze.

“Come on now, boy. Did you really think I was just going to walk away? Jaffe upped the price on this one’s head to a cool quarter mil.”

Of course. When Patrick started asking questions, Jaffe must have realized he wasn’t going to haul me in and made sure the word spread. That’s how Gerald knew to call him. Now we probably had every bounty hunter on the Eastern Seaboard on our asses.

“Quarter mil, huh?” I said as calmly as I could manage. “I guess I should be impressed? All that for little old me?”

“What makes
you
think that you’ll be able to walk off the street with us?” Shaun responded, voice deadly. He nodded across the square to where a police car was just pulling up alongside the coffee shop. The officer slipped from the car, tipping his hat to a group of businesswomen as he disappeared inside the building. Taking a page from my book, he said, “What’s to say we don’t scream our heads off?”

Deeds chuckled. “Go right ahead. I heard you talking. You’re trying to find evidence. I’m betting it has to do with who killed her mother, right? You scream now and the cops will nab her for the murder and she’ll never get it.”

Shit. He had a point.

“What about a deal?” I said, idea forming.

“What kind of deal? Unless you got a quarter million in your back pocket, we got nothing to bargain for.”

“No. Don’t have a quarter million,” I said. This was my area of expertise.
Bullshit
. “I do have a little less than a million, though.”

Grayson Deeds, all about the greed, perked up. A spark of hunger flashed in his eyes and the right-hand corner of his lip tilted skyward. “Is that right?”

Mom had one hell of reputation. It was greatly embellished—she’d said once that rumors were like giant snowballs rolling downhill—but I hoped I could use it to my advantage. At least long enough to buy us some time.

“Um, look who you’re talking to. Why do you think she’s been one of the top five most sought after criminals for the last ten years?”

“Bengali’s money,” he hissed. He stomped his foot and let out a shrill whistle.

“Exactly,” I said, nodding. I had no idea who—or what—Bengali was, but it seemed to have caught Deeds’s attention and that was good enough for me. His mouth was practically watering at the possibility of getting his greedy paws on it. I went full speed ahead. “I know where it is. If you agree to let us go, I’ll take you to it. You can have it all in exchange for leaving me alone.”

He smiled, revealing a large chip in one of his upper front teeth. It was the kind of thing that on someone else, might have given them character. On this guy, it looked trashy. “How do you know I won’t take the money and then turn you over anyway?”

Of course he would turn me over. It meant twice the payout. But he didn’t have to know I knew. “What choice do I have other than to trust you? Kinda got us over a barrel, and I’ve got nowhere left to run.”

He placed a meaty hand on Shaun’s right shoulder, and the other on my left. “Well then, kiddies. Let’s go. Car’s right around the corner.”

…

“You better not be bullshitting me,” Deeds said as we pulled into the First National Bank of Everett. “That Jaffe guy don’t care if you’re dead or alive when he gets you, and I got a nasty temper.”

I’d directed him to Everett, a small town a little over five hours away. He had a lead foot, so it hadn’t taken us nearly as long as I’d hoped—but it looked like it’d been enough.

“I promise it’s there—but we can’t get it right now,” I responded, eyeing him through the metal grate that separated the front and back seats. Most hunters had them, along with active child-safe locks on the back doors. Protection against rowdy marks looking to make a last-minute escape attempt.

Deeds twisted in his seat to glare at me. His face turned bright red—one hell of an accomplishment considering his orangey skin tone—and his eyeballs kind of bulged. If the guy wasn’t careful, he’d drop dead of a heart attack before he hit fifty—unless skin cancer got him first. “Why the hell not?”

I nodded to the building, where a woman in a dark suit was ushering one last group of people from the bank.

“Goddammit!” he yelled. He ripped off his seat belt and stumbled from the car, cursing the entire time. We watched him race across the lot and try to sidestep the woman and slip inside the building. She shut him down.

They started arguing, but the woman stayed firmly planted in front of the door and kept shaking her head. A heated, colorful exchange followed—at least on Deeds’s part. He waved his hands around and stomped his feet like a child. Every once in a while I’d catch a word or two from across the lot. After a few minutes of this, the woman ducked back into the building and locked the door with a smug smile on her face.

“There’s no money, is there?” Shaun said as he yanked up on the door handle. As I’d expected, it didn’t budge. He sighed and settled back in his seat to watch Deeds yell at the woman through the door. Every so often he’d slam his fist against the glass. This only made the woman smile more.

“Oh, there’s money—just not a million dollars’ worth. I told you, Mom kept some cash in all her boxes. We never knew where we’d end up from one day to the next. It was her way of covering all the bases.”

“So what are you planning to tell him when he sees it’s not there?”

“We just need to make sure we’re gone long before morning,” I said as Deeds gave up and stalked back to the car.

Shaun nodded, a look of admiration in his eyes. “That’s why you had him drive all the way here. So the bank would be closed.”

“Don’t gush,” I said, grinning. “I know I’m brilliant.”

“Couldn’t sweet-talk her into letting you in, huh?” Shaun said with a snicker as Deeds yanked open the door and dropped into the driver’s seat. He started the engine with a violent jerk. “I guess you need to work on your routine.”

“Shut your mouth or I’ll shut it for you,” he demanded. “Looks like we’re all stuck with one another for the night. We’ll be back here first thing in the morning when they open.” He stomped on the gas pedal and zipped the car from the lot.

We didn’t drive far. A block or two from the bank, tops. Deeds swung the vehicle into an end spot at the edge of the Everett Motel’s dingy lot, then slipped from the car in silence, presumably to get a room.

There was garbage everywhere. Scattered fast-food wrappers and black plastic trash bags—one of which he tripped over on his way to the registration booth. If the parking lot was this bad, I didn’t even want to know what was waiting for us inside. I had a strong stomach for most things, but bugs squicked me out. One roach and I was going to lose it.

As soon as his attention was occupied, Shaun tilted back and brought both feet up to kick at the grate separating the front and back seats. “If I can get into the front, I can hot-wire this rust bucket.” But the grate wouldn’t budge. “This is obviously
not
our moment.”

“It’ll come,” I said, hoping it sounded more convincing to him than it did me. “I mean, he’s gotta sleep, right?”

Shaun slumped against his door. Nope. He wasn’t buying it, either. “In theory, yeah. But Grayson Deeds is known for his unethical methods. The sooner we put distance between us and this asshole, the better.”

“Unethical methods?” I wriggled my wrist, rattling the shackle chains. “You mean there are
ethical
methods?”

Shaun’s cheeks flushed. “Well, no… But, for example, there was this blue-collar embezzler a year or so ago that Deeds tracked down. James Mendez. The guy was slippery. Pat tried tracking him, but he kept missing him. Mendez had been running for two years. Dude was a major flight risk. Deeds nabbed him in Dakota and drove almost an entire state with Mendez strapped to the roof of the car before cops pulled him over.”

That wasn’t unethical. That was just plan insanity. “
Why?
”

Shaun shrugged. “How much energy would you have to put into escaping, if you’d just driven nearly one hundred miles going seventy strapped to the roof of someone’s car?”

I inclined my head toward the building, a new kind of fear blooming in the pit of my stomach. “He’s coming back.”

Shaun caught my gaze and held it, hazel eyes so intense I found myself holding my breath. “Just be careful. Don’t say anything to set him off. He’s crazy.”

A moment later, Deeds slid back behind the wheel and pulled the car around the side of the motel. A part of me had hoped there would be people—other cars, at least—that might provide some form of distraction and possibly present an opportunity, but there was nothing. Other than Deeds’s car, there was a red SUV with no license plates and a missing passenger’s side tier at the far end and that was it. The place was deserted. My eyes fell to the building. Spray-painted across several of the doors was
Satan sees everything
.

Deserted? I couldn’t imagine why…

“This is how it’s gonna work,” Deeds said, opening the back passenger’s door. “You’ll be quiet and cooperate, and then in the morning we’ll go and get my cash. I’ll let you go, and you can be on your way before lunch. Everyone’s happy.”