LITMIR.BIZ

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Harrison gaped at her. “You’re blaming me for this?”

      “You’re the focal point.”

      He struggled to bank his answering swell of anger as she shoved another gun in the back waistband of her pants beneath her shirt. Boxes of shells went into the duffel bag.

      “Let me remind you that you kidnapped me.”

      Leaving the bag open, she ignored that and sized him up with eyes that were haunted by grief. “Thirty-six-inch waist?”

      He narrowed his eyes. “Thirty-four.”

      “Close enough.” She reached in and pulled out a pair of men’s jeans and added them to the bag that already held clothing.

      “What are you doing?”

      “What does it look like?” She tossed in a couple of shirts as well.

      “I have my own clothes.”

      “Not with you.”

      He shook his head as she added more items with no wasted motions. “I’m six-one.”

      “So?”

      “The man downstairs—”

      The look of pain on her face rocked him back. “His name was Tony. He was five-eleven.”

      Tony, not Dad. “Who—?”

      “Later. We need to move. I don’t think they rigged this house to explode or it probably would have by now, but I don’t have time to be sure.”

      Cold swept him.

      “Let’s go.” She closed the duffel bag and handed it to him. “You carry it. I’ll take point.” She reached the doorway in two strides.

      “Why aren’t we calling the police?” Why hadn’t he done that instead of standing around like a brain-dead fool?

      She didn’t bother responding. His gut coiled as he realized she really did think the house might explode. They exited the way they’d entered with no last glance at either body. If it hadn’t been for her obvious grief, he’d have thought she didn’t care.

      His own mind was numb with what he dimly recognized as shock. He couldn’t help the accompanying fear that this house might blow up at their backs as well.

      Instead of running back to her car, Jamie ran to the two-car garage behind the house. She bypassed the zippy bright red sports car and unlocked the large black sedan beside it. “Get in.”

      “What about your car?”

      “It’s a rental. We need to get rid of it. Toss the bag in the back.”

      Harrison obeyed. He climbed in as she opened the garage door with a remote clipped to the visor. “What about the SUV in the driveway behind us?”

      “I’ll go around it.”

      He looked back through the darkly tinted windows and swallowed a protest. He’d have sworn there wasn’t enough room between the house and the big SUV for this large sedan, but he’d have been wrong. She drove with an impressive precision, scraping neither the house nor the car and barely slowing down in the process.

      She braked as soon as she reached her rental car. “Here.” She handed him the keys.

      “What’s to stop me from leaving?”

      “Not a thing. I almost wish you would. But you won’t survive another twenty-four hours on your own. You seem to be a slow learner, Mr. Trent. Someone wants you dead and they don’t care who else they have to kill to make it so.”

      There was cold certainty in her voice. Harrison didn’t understand what was happening here, but he could tell she believed every word she was saying. “Pretty sure of your abilities, aren’t you?”

      Her expression didn’t change. “There’s a good chance neither one of us is going to survive the next twenty-four hours, but I have the expertise to try. What about you?”

      There was nothing he could say to that.

      “There’s a gas station not far from here where we can leave the rental.”

      “You know who’s behind these attacks.”

      She didn’t flinch at the accusation. “No.”

      “You’ve got some idea.” He could see that she did.

      “Either follow me or go, but get out of the car.”

      It was her inner anguish that decided him. “I’ll stick with you.” He wanted answers and she was going to give them to him one way or another.

      Harrison stepped from the sedan and moved to the smaller car. He stayed right behind her as she drove the speed limit out of the development. Obviously, she didn’t want to draw any attention to them.

      His mind mulled over the little he knew, trying to fit pieces together. There were too many pieces missing, too many answers he might never know. He wished his mother was still alive so he could ask her all the questions filling him.

      Pulling into a closed gas station, Jamie motioned him to park along the side where similar cars were stacked two deep. He did and got out of the rental. She left the sedan’s engine running, got out, took the rental’s keys from him along with the paperwork that sat inside the glove compartment. Dropping everything in a slot in the door of the gas station, she ran back to the sedan. Only then did he see the discreet sign that the station acted as a rental place as well.

      “Let’s go,” she called to him.

      He joined her in the sedan. “Where?”

      Jamie’s response was to pull the car out into the early morning traffic. Harrison saw her fatigue now that the adrenaline rush had begun to fade. “How long have you been up?”

      She darted a surprised glance his way. “I’m fine.”

      “I’m not and I got some sleep before you attacked me.”

      “I didn’t attack you.”

      “Drugged, abducted, taped and secured in a strange location. What would you call it?”

      “My job. We can sleep later.”

      “You’re right about the sleep, anyhow. We need to go to Zoe’s apartment.”

      “Not a chance.”

      “Stop the car.”

      Her glare was quelling. “You still don’t get it!”

      “I get it fine.” He interrupted the start of her next tirade. “Someone wants me dead. And that same someone may want her dead as well. It’s the next place they’ll target. We both know that. I’m going there with you or alone. They already believe they killed us,” he added over the objection she started to make. “And if they don’t, it doesn’t matter. I am going to Zoe’s.”

      “I’m trying to keep you alive here.”

      “Try keeping us all alive. Zoe’s pregnant.”

      He didn’t know what had made him add that last, but she stilled.

      “We’re getting married this morning,” he reminded her.

      “No. You aren’t. And before you jump all over me again, your wedding is scheduled for eleven. I was supposed to keep you safe until noon. That should tell you something, Mr. Trent. Someone does not intend for your wedding to take place.”

      Harrison forced his fingers to uncurl. “Why not?”

      “I don’t know! Maybe Tony knew, but Tony’s dead.” Pain laced her words.

      “Who was Tony to you?”

      Jamie released a slow breath. “The closest thing I had to a father.”

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