She coughed, her eyes wide, her face pale. “How are you so calm right now?” Her soft voice rose to almost shrill.
“Training?” He ripped around another corner and had to swerve to avoid a woman walking a poodle. Why wasn’t anybody in bed at the damn late hour? “I don’t feel things like other people do, not anymore.” The truck was getting closer.
“As much as I like you opening up, maybe we should talk about your emotions later? After we get rid of these guys?” she gasped.
“Good point.” One of the advantages of his lack of emotion was that the adrenaline flooding his system focused him. Keeping calm and rational was the only way they’d get out of this. He drove up the on-ramp to the interstate just as bullets grazed the back of the bug. If one hit a tire at this speed, the car would roll. “Hold on.” He swerved in and out of traffic, ignoring the blaring horns. An elderly lady in a massive Buick missing a headlight flipped him the bird and he moved onto the shoulder, increasing speed. The truck followed.
At the last second, he veered across multiple lanes of traffic and shot down an off-ramp, barreling through a red light and swerving onto a busy street.
He skidded, hit the brakes, turned the car, and accelerated again.
Dana sat fully up, her blond hair flying over the back of the seat. “I should’ve brought a gun,” she muttered.
“Why?” He turned the wheel and drove the car to the rear of a fast-food joint, whipping around to face the main street. The VW was partially hidden behind the building and foliage as well as the darkness of night.
“To shoot,” she muttered.
He kept his hands light on the wheel. “You can’t get into a shootout on a busy street. This isn’t the movies.”
She rolled her eyes. “Do you have to be so literal all the time?”
He mulled the question over. “Yeah. I think so.” Several minutes passed without any sighting of the black truck. He tugged his phone from his back pocket, wincing as he caught his fingers in the tight leather of the pants. Hitting speed dial, he waited until Angus Force, his boss, picked up.
“What?” Force snarled.
Great. He was in another mood. “Have someone drop off my truck at . . .” Wolfe flipped open the jockey box to pull out the rental agreement and read quickly. “Squishy’s Car Rental on Third Street.” He clicked off before Force could ask questions, turning to face Dana. “We’ll get rid of the car, fetch your things, and then you can come home with me.”
She faltered. “I’m not going home with you.”
“Sure, you are.” Sometimes things were so clear to him, he truly couldn’t understand how anybody else could be confused. “Either those guys were shooting at you—”
“Or maybe you,” she countered, her fragile chin lifting.
He nodded. “Or maybe me. In which case, they surely got the plates of this thing and will investigate the hot blonde in the passenger seat. Even though it’s dark, their headlights were bright enough to get the license plate and your hair color. The guys after me wouldn’t hesitate to go through you to get to me.”
She rubbed her nose. “What guys are after you? I mean, besides the guys in the black truck, who could be after me and not you.”
There were too many guys after too many people. He had to take care of his problems sooner rather than later, and he needed to ensure her safety first. “I like you.” The words rolled out, surprising him.
She drew back, confusion clouding her emerald eyes for the briefest of seconds. “I like you, too.”
“I don’t have many friends, Dana.” It was hard to find the right words, especially when dealing with someone who used words all the time in her work. She was an excellent journalist and writer, and he knew he wasn’t putting this right. “You’re my friend, and I can’t let you get hurt.” There. That made sense.
Her shoulders relaxed. “You’re my friend, too, but I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time, Wolfe. I’m on a story, one that matters to me, and I’m not letting up.”
Her tenacity and dedication had impressed him from the beginning of their friendship. Oh, if she were tough or hardened, they would’ve taken it temporarily beyond friendship. But she was sweet and soft and kind . . . and he was none of those things. Probably never had been. “Would you please relocate to my place while we figure out what’s happening with both of our cases?”
She blinked. “You just said please.”
“Yeah.” He was the muscle for his unit, and when it came to safety, he usually gave orders. She wasn’t his to protect unless she allowed it. Although, if she said no, he’d camp outside of her apartment out of sight. But she didn’t know that.
She sighed. “If I don’t go with you, you’ll just skulk around my apartment complex and scare people.”
Maybe she did know him better than he’d thought. “I don’t skulk.” The idea was a little insulting. He started the engine and drove sedately out onto the main road, turning quickly to use back roads to the car rental place, which took longer than he’d planned. By the time they reached the business, his truck was already waiting on the front curb, gleaming beneath the streetlight.
“Angus Force sure gets things done,” Dana mused.
True. Wolfe parked the car, tossed the rental agreement and keys in the after-hours box, and once again took Dana’s hand to lead her to his truck. Her hand was small and her skin soft against his, and he tried not to notice. He really did.
