Unfiltered & Unsaved (15 page)

“What about the money?” She looked at him silently, and he managed to give her a shrug and a smile at the same time. “I’m not in it for the money, Hope. I just wanted to be sure you were okay. But it’s a damn shame you didn’t get anything out of all this.”

“Oh, I did,” she said. “Solomon and Skinner are caught red-handed with a bag full of untraceable cash, and we’re going to stop at a pay phone and call Detective Perez about the house out in the desert, and the girls. I’m betting that’ll be plenty to occupy the lawyers. Avita will be really angry. She’ll tell everything.”

“I believed in her,” he said. “I really bought it.”

“She was fragile and vulnerable and young and pregnant. Of course you did. And all of those things were true. But she decided to use them against everybody else. Maybe this is a good thing, too. Maybe she’ll finally get the help she needs.”

“Maybe she’ll end up behind bars,” he said. “Maybe that’s the help she needs.” He glanced in the rear view mirror. “We’re clear right now, but we need to ditch this van and disappear, Hope. If this turns into a major human trafficking case, they’ll want to find us to testify, and it won’t be local police doing the looking.” He thought for a few seconds, then nodded. “Do you trust me?”

“Yes.” It was a simple, quiet declaration, and he seemed surprised she didn’t qualify it, or explain it. But she didn’t need to.

“We’re going to visit my sister.”

###

His sister was … a minister. An Episcopal minister in a small church across the border in New Mexico—a town dominated by tourist shops promising authentic Native American jewelry and rugs and pottery. From the moment Hope entered the church, she felt a surge of sweet, intense relief, as if she’d finally received the blessing she’d been searching for all this time. While Elijah took his sister—an older woman by at least fifteen years, solemn and resigned to her brother’s ways—off to the side, Hope sat down on the back pew of the small, plain chapel and stared forward at the bare cross on the wall. It was just the basics here: the cross, a podium that looked heavy and ancient, glossy pews, and softly tinted windows that let in peaceful light.

A place of reflection and quiet and shelter in a noisy, dangerous world.

She bent her head and offered thanks for what had brought her here—a twisted path, one that she couldn’t possibly have seen coming. A crime. A man she shouldn’t have trusted. A girl she shouldn’t have believed.

It had to have been a divine hand at her back, because otherwise it was luck, and luck could be taken away. Elijah could be taken away. And she didn’t want to believe that. She chose to believe in
this
… in a plan and a purpose.

“Thank you,” she whispered. “Thank you for seeing me through.”

She cried a little, thinking of the girls in that house, of the pain they’d endured, but she knew that she’d been the key to unlock their chains, and that felt better.

That made something right that had been wrong in the world, and that was what she’d set out to do.

Elijah came back and sat beside her for a moment, staring at the front of the church. “I used to be religious,” he said. “When I was younger. I guess I lost faith. But you know what? You’re starting to convince me there’s something to it again.”

She took his hand and held it for a moment. He let out a slow breath, and she felt his tense muscles slowly relax.

“My sister’s willing to trade us the church van,” he said. “It’s clean and reliable. She’ll trade the one we’re leaving to the reservation folks, and if anyone ever finds it, they’ll have to deal with the tribal police to get it. Hope—where are you going now? What are you thinking?”

“I’m thinking we should head for California,” she said. “I hear it’s nice. And I sent a package there overnight express to a hotel on the beach.”

“A package ….”

She smiled and closed her eyes. “I did good for someone else,” she said. “And now I want to do something good for us. It’s not much, but it’s enough to get us started. I don’t think God will mind.”

Elijah put his arm around her and hugged her close, kissed her softly on the temple, and whispered, “You are one clever girl, for a saint in training.”

“I think the training’s done,” she said. “I washed out when I decided I
really
liked being in bed with you.”

“Speaking of that …”

“Yes.”

Hope woke up slowly, feeling the morning light sheeting warm over her bare skin, and stretched in lazy satisfaction. The sheets felt crisp and clean on her body, and her back was very warm.

Warm because Elijah was pressed close against her, skin to skin. He was just waking up, too, and for a moment she savored that silence, that perfect moment of peace between them. God spoke in the silence—or at least He was easier to hear.

And what God was telling her, without words, was that they’d done right.

The cash had gone fast, but they were lying on a mattress on the floor of a very tiny condo of their own, with the curtains blowing in the stiff ocean breeze. The constant drum of the waves had lulled her to sleep in a way that she’d never felt before, and she’d known from the moment they saw the place—run down and ramshackle as it was—that it was right for them. The deck faced the ocean, and maybe it wasn’t right on the beach, but it was a quick walk to soft sand.

She wondered what had happened to the people who’d owned this place before, and lost it to repossession. Her remaining money had been just enough to win the bid for it, and now she and Elijah had a home.

A real home.

Granted, all that was in it now was a mattress and some second-hand furniture they’d found being thrown out at the curb, but it was a start.

It was enough.

Elijah placed a warm, soft, lingering kiss at the nape of her neck, and she rolled over to face him. She loved the way he looked in the morning, still sleepy-eyed and tousled and vulnerable. She kissed him, and the silken slide of their lips together woke hunger in her, and in him too, from the sudden hardening she felt against her thigh.

“Good morning,” she whispered into his mouth, and felt him smile. “What do you want to do today?”

“This,” he said, and moved his hand down to slip it between her thighs, just the way she loved. She caught her breath and moved against the pressure of his fingers, telling him silently just how right that was, and then kissed her way down his body to show him just how right
he
was, for her, with hands and mouth. It was a skill she’d learned quickly, and one she loved, and from the way he moaned and moved his hips, he loved it too.

But before she could bring him off, he pressed her back against the pillows and nudged her thighs open, and slid into her hot center in a slow, sexy pressure that made her whimper and whisper his name. Then, like the sea, the tides came, receded, and built to a storm inside them both. Beautiful and perfect and
right.

They were still lying warm and sweaty in the afterglow, drying in the ocean breeze, when the doorbell rang. Elijah rolled up and stepped into sweat pants, and Hope threw on a bathrobe as he opened up the door.

“Hey,” Elijah said, and stepped back to let Hope step up next to him. Outside stood a young man of maybe eighteen, ragged and feral, carrying a backpack. He was clutching a piece of paper, and he looked from it to their faces, then back at the paper.

“Ophelia down at the shelter said you’d help me,” he said, though it was more of a mumble. “She said you know about the magazine crews. They’ve got my sister. Can you—can you help me get her back?”

Elijah exchanged a look with Hope, and she nodded.

Because this, she knew, was what they were meant to do.

Help.

Dear Reader,

Thank you so much for reading
Unfiltered & Unsaved
! I hope you love what you’ve seen so far. There’s so much more to come! Next is
Unfiltered & Unhinged
on April 14, 2014 followed quickly by
Unfiltered & Unraveled
 on May 14, 2014.

Already in love with UNFILTERED? Drop by our
website
and
sign up for our newsletter
to keep up on all things Rio Verde. We promise not to spam you, but there just might be some sneak peeks and bonus content!

If you swooned for this book, the best way to help us keep our series alive is to review it. Anywhere! Even a few words are so appreciated! It makes a bigger difference than you think.

Lastly, with so many co-authors, there’s always something fun to read online! Please go to our website (
www.UnfilteredBooks.com
) to find our Twitter handles, Tumblrs, and personal websites.

Thanks Again!

Payge

—◊—

Keep reading for a preview of
Unfiltered & Unhinged
 by Payge Galvin & Jane Lukas, the fourth installment of the UNFILTERED series. For more on the Unfiltered Books, the rest of the series authors, or on Payge Galvin and Bridgette Luna, please visit us online:

www.UnfilteredBooks.com
|
www.BridgetteLuna.com
| Twitter:
@PaygeGalvin
,
@BridgetteLuna15
| Tumblr:
@HellYeahBridgetteLuna

—◊—

READ THE REST OF THE UNFILTERED SERIES:

Unfiltered & Unlawful

Unfiltered & Unknown

Unfiltered & Unsaved

UNFILTERED & UNHINGED

Book four of

the Unfiltered Series

~ Payge Galvin & Jane Lukas ~

COMING APRIL 14, 2014

—◊—

From the back cover of 
UNFILTERED & UNHINGED

After a night-shift shooting of a drug dealer in The Coffee Cave, twelve strangers each walk out with more than $100,000 in dirty money, a pact never to meet again, and the chance to start over…

Cass Montgomery thought money was supposed to make everything easier. But when she tries to pay off her brother’s racing debts, she finds herself in deeper trouble than ever before as she’s forced to race in the sideshows Wrex Cooper controls. With her motorcycle totaled and no way to keep her brother Liam out of the hospital, Cass turns to Dev Coburn, hoping he can get her bike ready to race once more.

What she didn’t expect is how attracted she is to Dev or how much she’s putting him at risk. As the countdown to the final race looms, will Cass and Dev be able to make it to the finish line or will she end up in debt to Wrex for more than money?

—◊—

First there was sex, and then came death.

Cass stood in the entrance of the garage bay, looking around for a mechanic. Where the hell was everybody?

She stepped inside, boots ringing on the concrete. “Hey! Anyone in here?”

“Hang on!” came a deep voice from the back of an adjacent bay. A clatter of metal pipes met her ears, and she flinched at the loudness that echoed in the enclosed space.

Cass looked at her friend, Scott, and shrugged.

“I thought you said this guy was good?” he asked, looking unconvinced.

“He came highly recommended,” she told him, then signaled for him to bring his pickup truck around to the bay. In the bed of the truck lay her motorcycle, a 2004 Honda Superhawk. It had seen better days, but she loved it more than she’d ever loved anything else, including all of her ex-boyfriends. That probably had something to do with why they were her exes.

Just looking at the motorcycle filled her with sorrow and rage. Wrex Cooper was such an asshole. He was the guy who controlled the sideshows and—more importantly—the betting surrounding the races at the sideshow. Cass had been working for Wrex for about six months, trying to dig her twin brother out of his hole of debt.

“Hey, sorry. Whatcha need?”

She turned to meet this mystery mechanic. He came highly recommended by some of the guys at the last sideshow she raced in, before she’d tried to buy her contract out from Wrex. She hoped this mechanic was as good as they said he was.

The guy standing before her was ridiculously great looking. He had dark hair and deep brown eyes that could melt a girl like chocolate. Axel grease streaked across his chin. She wanted to reach over and wipe it off and maybe run her fingers over the strong line of his stubbled jaw. He was over six feet tall, wearing faded jeans, motorcycle boots, and had a set of shoulders that filled out the old gasoline shirt he was wearing to perfection. Chest muscles strained against the thin fabric of his white tank top. Tattoos climbed over the visible flesh on his forearms.

Cass swallowed, reminding herself that she was just there to get her bike fixed, not to ogle the mechanic. He might be fun for a couple of days, but her life was already way too complicated. Bike first. Hormones second.

“Are you Dev?” Cass watched him warily, wondering if she could trust him with her baby. He may be hot as hell, but that didn’t mean he was someone who could handle the work she needed done.

“Yeah.” He dragged a hand across his jaw, scratching at his scruff. He lifted his chin. “Who’s asking?”

“I heard you’re good, and I need a rebuild.” She jerked her head over to the Superhawk lying on its side. “I’m Cass. This is Scott.” She gestured to where her friend stood at the other end of the pickup’s bed.

Dev leaned over the tailgate for a look. “Damn. What did you do to it? Beat it with a baseball bat?”

Cass frowned, shifting from foot to foot. She shared a look with Scott; Dev’s comment was uncomfortably close to what had actually happened to her bike. She ignored his question, asking one of her own. “Can you fix it?”

He ran his hand through his spiky dark hair, causing it to stick up wildly from the grease on his fingers. “Let’s get it inside and see.”

Cass lowered the tailgate and hopped into the truck bed. Dev rolled a ramp up to the truck’s tailgate, while she and Scott levered up the Superhawk to roll it down. Fiberglass had been busted, pieces were hanging off of it. Wiring hung from panels. Just looking at the damage made her want to hit someone.

They rolled it down the ramp and into the bay. Dev handed her a form to fill out while he went to work. Scott leaned over and said softly, “I’ll wait for you in the truck.”