One bottle of water made it into the truck with us and I unscrewed the top, taking a drink before passing it to him. This wasn’t the time for my usual anxieties about sharing a glass with someone. I still wore the same scrubs I went to work in days earlier, and Cyrus watched me pee in a corner. We were beyond germs. I had bigger issues in life than backwash.
“My mom probably doesn’t even realize I’m missing.” Calling my mother might make things worse and cause her stress.
My mother knew I planned to relax for the week. She said she’d be hanging out with her friends. How guilty would she feel if she learned her daughter was kidnapped, rescued, and then shot at while she was out playing a few games of bridge?
Of course I’d have to tell her eventually, but a part of me thought it’d be better if she never found out. I put my mother through enough stress as a child, so she might not handle this one before she had the mental breakdown she’d always threatened me with as a teenager.
“What about your family? Do you think your brother is looking for you now?”
Cyrus chuckled. “Oh, Corbin is definitely looking for me. He’s probably currently telling off half of the security staff and demanding helicopter access. If he hasn’t already hacked all the speed cameras in America trying to run my face profile against them.”
“Your brother can do that?” He mentioned his twin was a supersmart computer guy, but that was CSI level.
Cyrus nodded. “He’s a genius. Always has been. We formed a company together in college and took on quite a few lucrative military contracts, but Corbin always keeps the good stuff for himself. He doesn’t believe the government should have too much power, you know?”
I nodded. But I wasn’t sure Corbin should have that much power, either. What if one day he used it for something bad?
I lay down in the back of the Jeep as the exhaustion hit me hard. “I want to meet him sometime,” I said, half asleep.
He yawned. “I think I’d enjoy that,” Cyrus agreed as he moved the driver’s seat back a smidge, but it quickly hit the folded seats.
I sighed and readjusted my position so we’d have more room. “Would you stop being stubborn and come back here with me?”
Cyrus peeked around the side of his chair and shook his head. “The other thing my brother and I do in our spare time is help women who are fleeing dangerous situations. Normally bad boyfriends, not kidnappings, but it’s close. Corbin sets them up with new identities and paperwork while I find them a new place to live. And you, my dear, are a woman in a precarious situation. It’s my time to be chivalrous.”
What?
Did he only see me as a damsel in distress? I’d kicked ass the last few hours. We had the Jeep Commander because of me. I scowled at Cyrus, but he didn’t notice.
Maybe it was the seaweed in my hair and the fact he watched me pee in the corner. I’d definitely never live that down, even if he promised to not judge me. “You have to because I’d feel safer if you lay beside me, and since you’re trying to be a knight in shining armor, you have to do it now.”
“Beautiful, I’m not sure that’s how knighthood works,” Cyrus said, but he had a smile on his face and he popped his chair back into the upright position.
“It is in America. I don’t remember the last time I saw a knight anyway.”
We had no pillows, but I lifted the emergency heat blanket, letting Cyrus slide under it. One minute he stared at me as we lay on our sides facing one another and in the next exhaustion hit me and I fell asleep staring into his beautiful eyes.
CHAPTER 6
CYRUS
The summer sun beat at the windows of the Jeep Commander. Sunrise came early. Too early. The first second my brain came into consciousness, I felt peace. I drew in a deep breath and even smiled. The next second, everything came back to me in a rush like a wave crashing onto the beach during a tsunami.
I did a quick scan of my surroundings, my memories hit me—the kidnaping, the escape, and the shotguns.
The horribleness of our situation set in.
I panicked, remembering we were still on the run and now almost out of gas in a crap town in Florida, but then none of that mattered because next I realized that in the night Imogen moved from her position on the other side of the open space to one in between my arms. Calm found me again. She was safe.
There wasn’t time to panic after that. I found solace lying there, letting the sun warm us with her head tucked on top of my arm as she snuggled close. We hadn’t eaten or showered in days, but none of that mattered right then. Only the touch of her body against mine was important.
For some reason, the woman kept me calm in a moment of disaster. No one in my life had ever calmed my anxious nerves except my brother.
I shifted, trying to move my arm into a better position, and Imogen groaned. She froze and then scuttled back, putting distance between us.
“Morning,” I said with a smile.
She pushed her hair from her eyes and cringed as her fingers stuck between the strands. “Morning.”
