His free hand slid up the back of my neck, fingers carding through my hair as he cradled the back of my head.
There was something about this pace that felt right, felt almost freeing.
So I kissed his chin and worked my way around to the other side of his jaw, loving the way his stubble created a push and pull with its prickly sensation that also tickled.
“Austin.” I loved the breathy way my name spilled from his lips.
As a reward— for both him and myself— I brought my lips back to his, taking him in a long kiss that held more passion thananything I’d ever known before. It was slow and beautiful. All it did was make me crave more.
And it had me so lost that it took a long minute to register that something wasn’t right.
“What’s that noise?” Ford asked as he pulled away from my lips. His hands cupped my shoulders. Now he was holding onto me like he’d just realized we were on a sinking ship.
The alarm hit my ears, muted at first. Then it was slicing through my romantic daze at full blast, screaming at me tomove.
“Fuck!” I barked as I jumped to my feet.
I fumbled for the remote, clicking on the TV the moment I had it steady in my hand.
The screen filled with different angles of the property.
“Oh, so that’s why you never watched anything on the TV,” Ford said, now standing beside me. I felt his energy change the moment he saw what I saw.
“Looks like we’ve got company,” I said as I counted the three SUVs barreling through the trail that led to the house. “Think they’re FBI?”
“Hmmm. I’ve got a feeling they aren’t.”
“Same,” I said the prickle of danger crawling up my spine. I rushed to the front door, checking the lock even though I knew it was already bolted. I shoved my feet into a pair of boots.
“How long until they get here?” he asked, eyes narrowed on the screen like he was trying to make out how many people were in the incoming SUVs.
“Five minutes,” I answered, hoping we had that much time.
“Got any weapons?”
“Yep,” I said moving to the bookshelves in the corner of the room.
Panic and lack of time had me carelessly shoving the one behind the stairs out of the way, causing trinkets and photoframes to rock and tip and crash to the ground. This wasn’t the time to cry over losing the things decorating the shelves. My fingers worked over the keypad on the wall, relieved when it beeped and the light turned green on the first try. I pressed my thumb against the scanner. The narrow door on the wall popped open, revealing an area the size of a small closet and a set of stairs leading down. To the left was a decent-sized arsenal. I grabbed two handguns, then slid new clips in before shoving them into my pants. Then I loaded my pockets up with extra ammo. Damn, today wasn’t the day for wearing jeans. If only I’d put on a pair of cargo work pants. I pulled a shotgun off the wall and managed to grab two knives with one hand.
“Take anything,” I told him, even knowing I wasn’t going to let him fight this fight. I had to get him in the room.
I stepped out to give him enough space to get what he needed. Blocking the doorway, I slid the knives into my boots, one in each shoe. Then I sent a text to Reed letting him know we had been compromised.
“It had to have been Violet,” I said, unhappy that I hadn’t seen this coming.
I turned to look at Ford when he didn’t say anything.
There was something on his face I couldn’t read.
“No,” he said with a shake of his head, then shoved a clip into the gun in his hand. “He didn’t give me up. If they found me, it’s because they were watching him closer than he thought.”
“Okay,” I said because there was no time to argue.
“What now?” Ford asked, staring at me as if he was waiting for me to tell him the plan.
I pointed to the set of concrete stairs behind him that led to my grandpa’s bunker and a secret passage to the barn.
When Ford raised a brow at me, I shook my head.
