Before he could respond, Angel yanked the truck a hard right and took them over the rocks lining the road with teeth-clacking speed.
“What the—” Emily grabbed the dashboard with onehand and a fistful of Christian’s hair with the other.
“Hell!” Ace finished for her.
“Company,” was all Angel said as he maneuvered the old farm truck around trees like a rally car driver on an obstacle course.
He drove them down into a small depression, soggy leaves squishing under the tires. Christian’s cods took a beating, thanks to the rough ride and Emily’s ass. Then Angel stompedon the brake. The farm truck skidded to a stop, and the Israeli immediately switched off the engine.
All was quiet except for thetick-tickof the cooling motor and thedrip-dropof the water that fell from the wet trees to land atop the truck’s roof.
“Leave the roots if you will, darling.” Christian grabbed Emily’s wrist. He could feel the rapid thrum of her heartbeat beneath the softheat of her skin.
“Huh?” She blinked at him. “Oh!” She released his hair, then ran her fingers through it. He didn’t know if she was trying to get it back into place, or if she was trying to soothe the sting of her fisted fingers. All he knew was that he wanted her to carry on touching him for…well…forever.
Sod it all.
“The people you thought were behind us before?” Ace asked, craninghis head, trying to see above the shallow ravine to the road beyond.
“No.” Angel shook his head. “This car is coming from the direction of the manor house.”
Christian’s chin jerked. He saw Emily’s do the same. “How could you tell?” he asked. “We were ’round a bend.”
“I saw a piece of gravel hit a tree up ahead. Likely kicked up by a tire.”
Emily made a face. “Yousawthat? My God,whoareyou?”
Angel turned to her, one corner of his mouth quirked. It was the Angel equivalent of an ear-to-ear smile. “I’m Batman.”
Emily’s pretty mouth slung open, and she turned to blink at Christian in astonishment. “Did he just make a joke?” She squinted at Angel. “I didn’t know he knewhowto make jokes.”
“I didn’t know he watched movies,” Ace added.
Rusty got in his twopence. “Maybe he doesn’t. Maybe he reads comic books.”
That had themallturning to squint at Angel.
“What?” Angel demanded. “Why are you all staring at me like I have two heads?”
“We’re trying to imagine you with a Marvel in hand,” Ace said.
“I think Batman is a DC Comics character,” Rusty corrected.
“Iwatchmovies,” Angel insisted. Christian was surprised to see a look ofpique flash across the Israeli’s face before he once more donned his impenetrable mask. “What? Do you think I crawled out from under a rock?”
“Maybe not arock…” Ace let the sentence dangle.
Since Angel’s history was a big, black hole, and since he’d been taking solo missions since signing on with BKI, the Chicago compound was often rife with speculation. The most commonly asked questionswere: Who is he really? Where is he really? What the hell is he up to really?
Angel shook his head. Then he jerked his chin toward the window. “Look there.”
They all rubbernecked a peek over the lip of the depression and saw a late-model sedan fly by them on the gravel road. A woman with snow-white hair pulled back in a severe bun was at the wheel. By the certain way she roared down thewinding road—Christian might go so far as to say therecklessway—there was no doubt she was familiar with her surroundings.
The caretaker has left the building!
“How much farther to the manor house?” Angel asked.
“One mile, give or take,” Christian told him.
