We. Did he mean the CIA? “I’m sure that someone will be assigned to my case.” Wasn’t that how things worked? “You can deliver me to the safe house, to your friends, and then you can go on your merry way.”
“My…merry way?” He seemed to choke on the words.
A yawn slipped from her. “Thanks for saving me,” Delaney said, her words slurring just a bit. “But I know you don’t want to be trapped with me any longer than is absolutely necessary. Drop me at the safe house and get back to the life that is waiting for you.”
She was asleep. He knew because her breathing had finally softened and eased up. She wouldn’t be able to sleep long. He’d have to wake her when they switched rides.
You don’t want to be trapped with me any longer than is absolutely necessary.
Delaney’s words whispered through his mind again, and a faint smile tugged at Nash’s lips. Oh, but she was wrong. Dead wrong. Because he intended to be trapped with her as long as possible.
He’d been telling the truth when he said that he wasn’t the same person she’d known before. He would not make the same mistakes. And he would absolutely not let her slip through his fingers again. Whatever he had to do, whatever rules he had to bend or just completely shatter, whatever it took—Nash was ready.
He would not lose Delaney again.
I will not screw up with her again.
Chapter Five
The door to motel room seventeen hung open. The lights blazed inside, and Kurt Wellington entered the small space with his gun drawn.
The beds were tousled. Covers rumpled. Two beds. Two people who’d clearly each been in a different bed.
The clerk at the motel hadn’t been in the front office. He wasn’t in motel room seventeen, either.
And neither is Delaney. Or the fool who took her from me.
Taking his time, Kurt searched the room. His men stood at attention, looking for any threat. Except there was no threat. There was no Delaney. His bride wasn’t there. The only thing left…
Her stockings.
He found discarded, white stockings in the bathroom. Delaney’s stockings. His fingers fisted around those stockings.
“Boss?” A tentative call from one of his men.
Kurt’s hand flew out, and, still fisted around the stockings, he slammed his fist into the bathroom mirror. The mirror shattered, and glass fell into the sink.
Everything with Delaney had gotten fucked. Everything. At first, things had been so easy with her. She’d smiled at him so trustingly and she’d looked at him…as if…as if…
As if she truly believed I was good. Some white knight to take away all her pain.
For a bit, he’d almost wanted to be that guy. The one she thought he was.
Only…
She’d seen him kill. Delaney should not have been in the warehouse that night. She should never have put herself between him and his target. After she had, there had been no more smiles from her. No more sweet stares of wide-eyed innocence. Instead, she’d looked at him as if Kurt was a monster.
Guess you finally saw me, huh?
He could have killed her then and there. It would have been smart to shoot her and dump her body with the dead man’s but…
He’d hesitated. And he’d locked her in a closet. Thought that he could make her marry him. And maybe…maybe he’d even believed he could convince her to…
“Boss, boss, you’re bleeding!”
His blood dripped onto the broken glass.
Convince her to love me? He’d threatened her with death. He’d fully intended to take all the wealth and the property that came with the pretty package that was Delaney. But, if she’d just fallen in line, if she’d just loved him no matter what, then maybe he could have let her live.
