The old Explorer picked up speed, bouncing over rocks and ruts on its way downhill.
She gripped the wheel tighter, fighting hard to keep the vehicle in line. Wouldn’t do them a lick of good if she wound up in the lake, would it?
Somewhere not too far off, one of her makeshift bombs exploded, making her jump. Her breath came in nervous, excited little gasps. Hell, if it startled her, the baddies at the lodge must be jumping out of their skins by now, right?
Did they see her yet? Were those dicks aiming at her? Or would they be caught with their pants down when she plowed through the lodge’s back window?
Please God, let Jack the pilot have done his job. Please, God, please.If he’d done it right, then her people would be armed and ready for Amka’s arrival. She’d distract the guards and they’d have their chance at an uprising.Away from the window, she’d told Surfer Jack, like twelve times. Dear God, please let them be away from the window.
Whoo, she felt good now, alive and awake and over-the-top excited—like electricity ran through her veins.
The urge to duck and wrap her arms around her head grew stronger the closer she got. A hundred feet, fifty… She forced her gloved hands to stay on that wheel, kept her eyes on the lodge’s big, well-lit bay window, not daring to blink or look away. At maybe thirty feet she saw movement inside, heard what might have been a shot.
Was that one of them? Shit.Shit!She ducked just as the guy standing inside lifted his rifle and shot at her. Instead of braking, as she’d planned—cause Lord knew, Daisy really would kill her if she destroyed the whole damn lodge—she shoved her foot back on the accelerator and went for him, hell-for-leather.
The crash was deafening—glass shattering, wood splintering, people screaming.
Shaken, but conscious, Amka came to a breathless stop, then sat there for a good ten seconds before she remembered to slide the gearshift into park, trembling so hard she couldn’t hit the seatbelt button on the first couple of tries.
By the time she’d gotten it off and laid her hands on her rifle, the place had settled a bit. She lifted the weapon and pointed at the first thing that moved, though she couldn’t see a damn thing. “Take a step and you’re bear meat.”
“It’s me—Daisy.”
Amka squinted, unsure. Were they being coerced? Daisy sounded weird. “Must’ve got glass in my eyes. Can’t see a god—”
Someone grabbed the helmet and pulled it off her head, giving her back the gifts of sight and sound and oxygen.
She squinted at the people around her—Daisy and Ben, Cane and the rest of the crew. None of the asshole bad guys were visible. “Shit. I could have sworn it was one of those pricks aiming at me. Did you already subdue ’em?” Her heart dropped into her stomach. “Don’t tell me that was you I just tried to run over, Daisy?”
“No, honey. No, you got the last one.” Daisy wrapped one strong arm around Amka’s shoulder and hugged her tight.
“Damn, lady.” Jack’s grin was wide and white and bloodthirsty as hell. “That was one hell of a stunt.”
“You get through to Leo’s friends?” Amka peered at him through the dust. “Don’t know if Marion and the kids have had any luck.”
“No, ma’am.” He lifted a sat phone. “Workin’ on it.”
With an impatient sound, Daisy put one hand on Amka’s cheek and nudged her face in her direction. “You did it all, honey. And just in time.”
“Good.” Amka kissed Daisy long and hard, finally admitting how scared she’d been, then stepped back to take in the wreckage. “Guess we better start cleaning this shit up.”
Chapter 34
The blood rushing through Leo’s veins should have been slow and sleepy from the heat of the water, but instead, it raced through her, burning a hot path from her heart to her limbs and back.
The second Elias pulled her onto him, they kissed, and it was nothing like the kisses they’d shared thus far. There was no exploration, no seeking, nothing sweet or new. It was all need and crushing hunger, gnashing teeth and battling tongues. Before she knew it, she was writhing on his lap, desperate for him, starving for this fire they’d lit together.
His big hands—socapable,so steady and strong—were now demanding and rough. There was nothing steady about the way he handled her, like he couldn’t get enough, like he didn’t just want her, heneededher.
“Elias,” she said into his mouth, her body moving, out of control. She couldn’t stay still, couldn’t get her muscles to do what she wanted. These urges were as uncontrollable as hunger, as unconscious as breathing. He made her feelfevered. She let out a little scream and he ate it right from her mouth, consumed it the way she pictured him consuming the rest of her. And she itched, my God, why was she burning like this—not from the hot springs, but from a desire to get inside this man. To do things, to bedoneby him.
“Hell yes. Yeah, do that again.”
She blinked, tried to look at him, though it was too hard to see and she had no idea what she’d just done. All she knew was that her breasts needed contact, her nipples needed his hands, his cock, his mouth. She was burning with it, not just hungry, but different…rearranged by him, by their raging connection. Like she’d changed for him, somehow, created a space for him. And now he needed to fill it.
This isn’t okay, a little voice of reason intoned. She didn’t change for a man, she’d never make a space in her life for someone else. That wasn’t who she was at all.
He bit her neck, pulled her away from her nagging fear, her worry that if she let him in, she’d never be enough on her own.
