I couldn’t have heard him right. There was no way.
Confusion, mixed with shock, held me in place until it started raining, and then I did the only logical thing when I heard them start calling in reinforcements. I peeked around the corner of the building again to see Ocean looking around, swiveling his head back and forth as if he was searching for me. When his gaze reached my hiding spot and peered a little too long in my direction, I gasped again and ran like hell in the opposite direction.
I told myself that was the only reason I ran and not because of what I thought I’d heard.
I sprinted all the way to the meeting point with Destiny, and then I saw her home safely before choosing to sleep in my car. Fortunately, Destiny hadn’t actually been home as I led him tobelieve when Ocean had shown up, but if he was looking for me there, it meant staying at her place wasn’t an option.
Destiny insisted that it was fine. Her over-the-top security measures meant we would see Ocean coming long before he arrived, but I wasn’t willing to take that chance, so Deborah it was.
I didn’t mind.
The Thunderbird and I go way back. She was the first real home I ever had.
Coby was my second.
I think I’m in love.Ocean’s words replayed in my mind as I got comfortable in the backseat of Deb. Eventually, they lulled me to sleep, but not before I had the disturbing thought that in another life, I could have been too.
The next morning, I woke up to three messages from Ocean that chilled my blood and ignited my fury.
Unknown: I hope you’re as good at running as you are at killing, Vengeance.
Unknown: You can run, but there is nowhere you can hide where I won’t catch you
The third message was an attached photo of Coby standing on the balcony of some library that looked straight out of a fairytale. She was smiling widely down at the cameraman like she didn’t have a care in the world.
Like she didn’t miss me at all.
HUNTER
It was risky going back to the apartment, but I had no choice after Ocean had declared war on me. The only thing I had to defend myself with was a single bullet. I staked out the complex for a few hours, watching everyone who came and went before I even dared approach the building.
Two minutes.
It was all the time I would allow myself to gather everything I needed.
When I entered the apartment, I looked around expecting to see it ransacked or someone inside waiting for me, but it was just as I left it. Still, I took my time clearing every room, door, and corner before I allowed myself to breathe.
And then I went into my room and started loading guns, clothes, and bullets as I could into a pink duffel bag. I left the apartment as quickly and quietly as I’d arrived and jogged down the stairs.
I slinked through the breezeway until I reached the back of the building, where Deborah was parked in her usual spot by the pond. That was my first mistake, but a night spent shivering in my sleep inside my cold car left me anything but on top of my game.
Reaching Deb unscathed, I threw my duffel bag across the console and into the passenger seat and quickly dropped into the driver’s seat. It was only after I jammed my key in the ignition, turned it, and listened to Deborah struggle to wake up that I realized my mistake.
I didn’t check the backseat.
A cloud of Axe body spray and cigarette smoke drifted over my shoulder as I stared straight ahead in horror. Snapping out of it, I dove for my gun, but the intruder was faster.
A long arm encased in leather whipped out from the backseat where he had hidden and wrapped around my neck in a brutal hold that had me gasping for air in seconds. The second arm joined the first when I struggled, putting pressure on my carotid and pinning me to the seat.
“You should have known better than to think you were getting away from me that easily,” a familiar voice whispered.
Fucking Kellan.
I gurgled obscenities as I struggled, but his hold was too secure, and none of the rigorous defense training I’d put myself through over the years could slow the fog creeping in from the edges of my vision.
I’d be conscious again in less than a minute, but it didn’t matter. It was time enough for Kellan to incapacitate me permanently if he wanted.
Stop panicking,I scolded.Think.
