Gage Read online

  So many memories.

  So many vivid images of her naked body.

  She’d been right to call him a pervert.

  Gage mumbled some profanity. Oh, good. Now, he was feeling hot in all the wrong places. Sadly, Lynette could do that to him even though his brain didn’t want another dose of what she doled out. He’d barely survived their last showdown.

  “How do we know Denton isn’t already out there waiting for us?” Lynette asked.

  It took Gage a moment to switch gears, which should have been a big fat clue for him to get his mind off her and back on the plan. “Because I left a sensor wire on the road about an eighth of a mile from your house. If he’d driven over it, the monitor in my jacket would have gone off.”

  “Assuming Denton stays on the road,” she pointed out.

  It was an assumption all right, but Gage was banking on the fact that Denton didn’t know anyone was onto him. Gage was also banking on the fact that he was just as good of a shot as Denton. Maybe better. Still, he didn’t want to test that theory because it would mean Lynette would be in the middle of a gunfight. The plan was for her to stay alive, not to be shot in cross fire.

  Gage pulled his weapon and expected the gasp he heard Lynette make. “You said Denton wasn’t here yet.”

  “It’s just a precaution to have the gun ready,” he explained.

  But it might become a necessity. He wasn’t walking out that door without something to defend them.

  They went through the dining room. Then the kitchen. Gage kept his eye on Lynette in case she tried to grab a knife or cast-iron skillet to club him over the head, and he cracked open the back door. The rain and storm muffled sounds he would have preferred to hear, but he didn’t see anything suspicious.

  “Let’s go,” he ordered.

  “On foot?” she asked. When she dug in her heels, Gage took her by the arm and led her onto the porch.

  “I left my vehicle on the Old Creek Road. About a five-minute walk.” Something she no doubt already knew. “Eight minutes if you keep dragging your feet.”

  “I’m dragging my feet because I’m not sure I should trust you.”

  “Yeah. I got that. You tried to shoot me, remember?”

  “I tried to shoot the ceiling,” Lynette snapped. “Not you. But maybe I should have. After all, you broke in to my house.” She mumbled something he didn’t catch. “Of course, you made sure I couldn’t shoot you. Just how long were you in my house before I woke up?”

  Gage would take that secret to the grave, and if they didn’t hurry, he might be in the grave, a real one, sooner than he’d imagined.

  He tuned out her mumblings and protests and kept watch around them. When he was as sure as he could be that it was safe, Gage pulled her off the porch and onto the soggy ground.

  The rain immediately assaulted them, and he hoped his disguise would last a little while longer. All he had to do was get her to his SUV and drive about ten miles to the small regional airport where he had a plane and pilot waiting to whisk her away to safety.

  But all he had to do could be complicated in too many ways. Especially since she was still dragging her feet. Gage gave her a rough jerk to get her moving at more than a snail’s pace.

  “Gage wouldn’t have asked a man like you to keep an eye on me,” she snarled when he pulled her again.

  He was about to assure Lynette that she was wrong, but the monitor inside his coat beeped.

  Just one soft little sound.

  But it was more than enough for him to know this plan was about to get a lot more dangerous. That’s because Denton was ahead of schedule. He’d either driven like the wind or tagged someone else closer to come after Lynette, because Gage didn’t think this was someone else paying a social call at this hour of the morning.

  “Stay low and behind the trees,” Gage warned her. Which shouldn’t be hard since her backyard was littered with pecans and oaks.

  He looked over his shoulder to make sure Lynette understood. But the only thing he saw was the wild fear in her eyes. Before he could even try to calm her down, she shocked the heck out of him.

  She threw the overnight bag right at him.

  Because Gage hadn’t been expecting it, he rammed into a tree when the bag rammed into him.

  And Lynette took off running.

  Gage didn’t take the time to curse or remind himself that he should have kept a closer watch on her. He just went after her, the mud and the rain sloshing all around his boots and probably doing a real number on his disguise.

  Lynette was a lot faster than he’d figured she would be, maybe because she knew which mud holes and tree roots to dodge. Gage didn’t. And he stumbled over a few before he finally managed to snag her by the shoulder. In the same motion, he dragged her behind the nearest tree.

  “Let me go!” she said in an angry whisper. She punched at him again and tried to get away.

  Oh, man. He didn’t have time for this. Gage kept her tight in his grip and reached in his pocket for the tranquilizer. He couldn’t risk Denton hearing her and coming straight into the backyard. It would prevent them from escaping, and he didn’t want to hide out for what could be a half hour or more in the rain and behind a tree with a woman hell-bent on beating the tar out of him.

  “This will keep you calm,” he promised her, ripping open the packet of the liquid sedative. And it’d make her temporarily unconscious—a real bonus right now. “It’ll be safer carrying you than chasing you down.”

  “No. Please.” Lynette frantically shook her head and shoved away the packet that contained the drug-soaked cloth. “You can’t. It might hurt the baby.”

  Now, it was Gage who froze.

  “Baby?” he spit out. “What baby?”

  Chapter Three

  Lynette hadn’t intended to blurt out her baby news.

  She hadn’t wanted a soul to know that she was pregnant. Not yet anyway. But she couldn’t allow this man to use a tranquilizer or any other drug on her. At this early stage of her pregnancy, she had no idea what kind of damage it could do to her unborn child. It might even cause her to miscarry.

  The man glared at her, and Lynette didn’t know why her baby news would cause him to react this way. Nor did she care. She was tired of fighting. Tired of this man. And tired of the entire situation of hit men and danger. If he was so determined to get her to safety, then Lynette was going to cooperate.

  Well, maybe.

  If she got a chance to escape again, she would take it in a heartbeat, but she wouldn’t do that if it meant further risk to her child.

  “Denton?” she reminded him when he just stood there gawking at her. “He tripped the sensor, remember? And that means he’ll be here any minute.”

  He shook his head as if to clear it and caught on to her arm again. “Yeah.”

  Yeah? That was his only explanation for his extreme reaction about her pregnancy? It certainly didn’t mesh with the smart-mouthed cockiness that he’d shown her up to this point. Unless he was planning on doing something or taking her somewhere that wouldn’t be safe for a pregnant woman. Of course, a hit man wouldn’t be safe, either.

  “Come on,” he finally snarled.

  The return of the surly tone was actually a relief. Sort of. But it was more of a relief when he caught on to her arm again. For a moment Lynette thought they might start running. After all, a hit man on their tails warranted running. But he kept the pace at a light jog as they slogged their way through the mud and grass.

  Maybe he was being considerate now that he knew she was pregnant. Or maybe things weren’t as urgent as she’d thought.

  The slash of light changed her mind about the lack of urgency and robbed Lynette of what little breath she’d managed to keep.

  Headlights.

  No doubt belonging to Denton’s vehicle.

  Well, they were Denton’s headlights all right if this mouthy intruder had told her the truth. Lynette couldn’t be sure about him. Something definitely wasn’t right, but she d
idn’t know what. Still, if he’d wanted her dead, he could have managed that before she ever woke up.

  Not exactly a comforting thought.

  The headlights of the approaching vehicle suddenly went dark, causing her heart to pound even harder. Her intruder had no reaction. Not even slightly tensed muscles. And she could tell that because he practically had her in a bear hug as they jogged.

  “Denton’s out of his car,” the man mumbled.

  Lynette had no idea how he knew that, especially since they were a good twenty yards from the house and even farther from the road. Added to that, it was still pitch-dark. But then, there was another light. A tiny streak that had the man mumbling some profanity.

  “He has a flashlight,” he whispered. And he yanked her behind the nearest tree.

  He positioned her so that the front of her body was against the towering pecan. He pressed himself against her back, and he was big enough that he created a shield of sorts.

  They waited there, the seconds crawling by, with her heartbeat crashing in her ears and the rain swiping at them with each gust of wind. The man, her self-proclaimed protector, kept his gun ready and aimed, the barrel sticking out just slightly from the tree trunk.

  “It’s Denton all right,” he whispered.

  Lynette tried to blink the rain from her eyes so she could pick through the darkness and see what had made the muscles in her protector’s chest and arm turn to iron. Now that the headlights were off, she could no longer spot the car.

  But thanks to her security lights that rimmed the eaves of her house, she saw the shadowy figure.

  A man dressed in dark clothes. And he was indeed carrying a rifle.

  Her stomach clamped into a hard knot. Lynette had held out hope that Denton wasn’t real, or that he wasn’t an actual hit man, but that rifle proved otherwise.

  Sweet heaven.

  What was she going to do?

  She hadn’t had time to finish her backup plan to move from Silver Creek, and now it might be too late. Denton could complicate things because once this was over, there’d be an investigation. She’d have to call the authorities. And that would mean bringing in Gage’s family. There was no way she could keep the intruder’s visit a secret.

  “Keep quiet,” the man warned her in a whisper. “And don’t you dare think about running again.” He kept his attention pinned to Denton.

  Lynette had indeed considered running again, but she had to pick her poison here. An intruder or a likely hit man.

  Some choice.

  It was the intruder. For now.

  She watched as Denton skulked toward the house. Straight toward her bedroom window. He lifted the rifle and fired, the bullets crashing through the glass panes.

  Lynette clamped her hand over her mouth to muffle the gasp. The blasts slammed through her and robbed her of her breath and any hope that all of this had been some scare tactic. If she’d been inside, those bullets would have ripped through her. She’d be dead right now.

  The man behind her made an I told you so sound. But that sound had no sooner left his mouth than he sucked in a quick breath. And Lynette knew why.

  Denton looked inside the window, his face right against the now gaping hole that his bullets had left. He pulled back his shoulders, and then his gaze skirted all around the yard.

  Oh, mercy.

  He’d apparently realized that he’d just shot at her empty bed.

  Lynette prayed that Denton would go inside, and then she and her Gage-appointed protector could get out of there. That rifle could fire just as deadly a shot into the yard as it had into the house.

  “Get ready to move,” the man whispered when Denton stepped onto her back porch.

  Lynette did. Well, she got as ready as she could considering the ground was practically a mud bog and that her nerves were in shambles. The moment that Denton stepped inside her house, she and the man started to run. And this time, it wasn’t a jog.

  They ran.

  The security lights didn’t give them much illumination this far out, and it was next to impossible to see where they were running. Lynette hoped they didn’t trip and fall.

  The sound nearly caused her to do just that.

  It was a thick blast, and it ripped through the darkness. Not from inside the house. No. It was much worse than that. This shot had been fired outside and in their direction.

  The man latched on to her arm and pulled her behind another tree. Just in the nick of time. A shot slammed into the trunk of the oak and sent a spray of splinters everywhere.

  Lynette couldn’t think, couldn’t breathe. She could only pray that the shots would miss and would end soon. Every bullet was a risk to her, her baby, and yes, even to this man she didn’t completely trust.

  Again, the man positioned himself so that he was shielding her, except this time he was pressed even harder against her until he had her flattened against the tree.

  He reached out with his right hand and returned fire.

  Since his gun was so close, just inches from her head, the blast was deafening. Lynette put her hands over her ears. Too late. Everything inside her was clanging, and that only revved up her fear and adrenaline.

  Denton fired another shot into the tree.

  Then another.

  With each one Lynette knew this nightmare was real. But why? Why had someone sent Denton after her? Yes, she’d looked into those business deals in her father’s files, but she hadn’t found anything that incriminated Patrick, Nicole or even her father. She certainly hadn’t found anything that would warrant her death.

  Unless...

  Oh, God. Was that it?

  Did this have to do with her pregnancy? Had her father learned the secret that she’d paid dearly to have hidden? If so, then Denton was the least of her worries.

  “Level your breathing,” the man warned her. “Or you’ll hyperventilate.”

  Lynette tried to do that. She tried to stop herself from spiraling into a panic, but it was hard to remain calm when this close to death. If she died, so did her precious baby.

  “Stay ahead of me,” he ordered.

  Lynette had no idea what he meant by that until he shoved her away from the tree and in front of him. He pushed her to start running again. And that’s exactly what Lynette did. She ran with him behind her, once again acting as her human shield. Gage must have somehow convinced this guy to risk taking a bullet for her.

  But why?

  Why had Gage thought of her safety during his last moments on earth?

  Later, that was something she wanted to know. If this man would tell her, that is. So far, he’d been short on explanations and long on details that anyone could have learned. But Lynette had to know—had Gage somehow managed to forgive her during those last moments of his life?

  Was this man the proof of that forgiveness?

  If Gage had managed that, it wouldn’t ease her immediate grief, but it might help with other things.

  She slid her hand over her stomach.

  Another shot.

  Lynette braced herself for one of them to be hit, but this shot also slammed into the tree. Her rescuer had no doubt planned it that way because he kept them weaving in and out of the clump of trees, using them and his body to keep her out of the path of Denton’s bullets.

  “Watch out for the ditch,” he reminded her.

  Good thing, too, because Lynette had forgotten about it, though she’d walked near it dozens of times. Falling at this point could be a fatal mistake. They leaped over the foot-wide ditch and kept running.

  Too bad the shots kept coming their way.

  “Denton will have to reload soon,” he let her know. “And then he’ll run after us.”

  That didn’t help keep her breathing level. Lynette didn’t want to believe him, but unfortunately, he’d been right about everything so far. Maybe when this was done and they were safely out of here, he would tell her more right things. Like how she could stop this from happening again.

  Just like th
at, the shots stopped. Apparently it was reloading time. And Lynette and the man automatically sped up, going from a jog to a sprint.

  She was thankful that she was in good shape, and the irony was just the day before she’d asked her doctor if it was okay to continue jogging. He’d given her the green light. However, her obstetrician certainly wouldn’t recommend her running for her life to dodge a hail of bullets.

  The man shoved aside some low-hanging cedar branches and pulled her into the dense shrubs and underbrush at the edge of her property line. Though it was late September, everything was in full leaf, and the foliage scratched and slapped at her. Still, she felt safer here than out in the open.

  Well, she felt safer until the shots started again.

  And yes, Denton was indeed following them. These shots were closer than the others had been.

  They broke through the wall of thick shrubs, and Lynette spotted the dark waters of the creek coiling around the rock and sand banks. She also spotted the dark-

  colored SUV. It was parked on the narrow dirt road—exactly where the man had said it would be. Another truth in his favor.

  But they didn’t head toward the SUV.

  Much to her surprise, he latched on to her arm and practically dragged her into a clump of hackberries. Lynette was about to remind him that the idea was for them to get the heck out of there, but he put his mouth right against her ear.

  “Denton’s too close to us for us to escape,” he whispered. He positioned them side by side so that he had a good angle to view the dirt road and the SUV. “If I start the engine, he’ll hear it.”

  Lynette shook her head. “But you could drive out of here fast.” In fact, she was going to insist on it. The farther and faster away from Denton, the better.

  “The road’s too straight for that. Denton could, and will, disable the SUV by shooting out the tires, and then we’d be forced to get out while he still has a rifle trained on us.”

  That sounded, well, logical. Something she didn’t want to hear right now. Lynette didn’t want logic. She wanted to get out there and away from the assassin trying to kill them.