My body reacts immediately and I lean into her soft, warm touch, but I return to my original position quickly. We are not there yet.
“I didn't know this was your hair color, you always wore it so short.”
“I always found short hair to be practical for my line of work, but I decided to let it grow, at least until I find Dante. I don’t know what he looks like now, but I’m pretty sure we look alike. We always had the same shade of light brown hair.”
She nods in understanding.
If she’s really aware of everything, that means Carter fed her with all the information, but even Carter’s resources dry up out of the States. That begs the question.
How did she manage to get here?
Until it hits me. The realization strikes me like lightning.
Him.
I remember now.
“Wait.Rage?”
She lets go of my hand quickly and turns her gaze away from me.
“He was the one who helped you?” I raise my voice.
“That’s a random question if I ever heard one. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn't be here, by the way. He and his contacts were a big help to make this possible.”
I drag my eyes from the road to her. Her cheeks darken with a blush, and anger rises inside of me.
“Fuck, Sarah! What did you do?” I hit the steering wheel. “He's a dangerous man, and now you owe him a fucking favor! You're chained to him until he calls it even!”Unless… “Wait, you've already returned the favor, haven't you? Shit! Don't answer me.”
She sighs like I’m an annoying child irritating her with a tantrum over something insignificant.
“Before you keep yelling and accusing me,” she replies, “let me tell you something. He has always been very good to me, he's my friend and—”
“Friend?” I mock. “How can you be that naïve? Rage has no friends! He's practically a fucking animal!” God, I’m so fucking pissed.
“Bruno!” she yells, frowning. “Calm the fuck down, please. Not everything is the way you see it. I don’t know what happened between you two, but like I said, he’s a friend. Maybe a little too rough around the edges and with a shitty temper, but above all that, an excellent military man. He offered to help me. He was guiding me all the way up to this point. If it weren’t for him, I would have surely died a horrible death or worse, I could’ve ended up in some European human trafficking market. He’s a good guy in my books.”
Is she defending him?
Fuck! A wave of jealousy surges through me and blackens my mind. He's involved in all this because of her. Now everything makes sense. That's why he recommended that place to me, damn it. Did something happen between them? Did he kiss her? Touch her? Fuck, fuck!
I draw a deep breath to gather my thoughts and fight down the fury. With the fakest calm voice, I say, “Okay. Explain.”
Sarah settles down in her seat and starts telling me about her difficulties to get here.
“He saved me. If he hadn't packed my bag, I wouldn't be here to tell you this. He anticipated someone would attempt to kidnap me by drugging me.”
This doesn't sound like Rage, it sounds like a man who can't control the urge to do something with his fucking erection, a man who is extremely interested in a woman. But that's something I'm going to look into later.
“Right, so he’s a savior because he packed an EpiPen.” My words drip sarcasm.
“Didn’t you hear what I just said? He saved my fucking life!”
Fucker.
“That was a gamble. You inject yourself with epinephrine and pray to be able to solve the situation before the rush ends. Did you feel extremely tired afterwards?”
“Yeah, so?”
