The Eligible Suspect (19 page)

Korbin stayed at the window. Savanna took an exit and veered onto I-70 west. She drove ten miles per hour over the speed limit, as much as she dared to avoid attracting too much attention. Close to the foothills, she took an exit and drove down several streets until another campground came into sight.

Maybe it wasn’t wise to stay in one. Tony would check them all to find them. She passed it and got back out onto the highway, driving into the foothills. Korbin came to sit next to her in front, watching the rearview mirror and twisting to look through the windows.

“Turn here.” Korbin pointed to a road ahead.

She slowed and turned the corner. Her hands still shook from all the violence she’d witnessed and survived.

“Are you okay?” Korbin asked.

She nodded unsteadily.

“I’m sorry.”

Why was he sorry? She glanced at him. “It isn’t your fault.” He had such a guilty conscience. Who wouldn’t after what he’d been through?

The two-lane road was deserted this time of year. She drove carefully over the patchy ice. “You know this place?”

“There’s a dirt road up here and a few places to camp.”

Driving in silence a moment, she spotted the road and slowed. The big tires of the RV crunched over gravel and ice. It wasn’t an official campsite, just a forest service road.

“Will we get in trouble?” she asked.

His head turned and she felt him look at her.

With a glance she realized by his raised brow what she’d just asked. She started laughing. A grin sprang up on his face and a few chuckles broke free. The tension from what happened earlier began to lighten.

She found a pull-off that led into the trees. She turned and drove into the shade, out of sight of the road. They’d be well protected here. Finding a flat area, she parked, shut off the engine and then sighed.

“I’ll call Dad and have a car sent here.”

He still wore a slight smile, but humor had warmed to the hint of sexual awareness.

Savanna stood from the driver’s chair and went back to start opening up the RV slide-outs, which they’d retracted when they’d gone to see Pavlo. Finished, she turned from the last living room slide-out to find Korbin standing there.

“Mmph.” She bumped into him.

Korbin steadied her with his hand on her waist. The contact sent her closer to forgetting why she should wait to do what she yearned to. What he also yearned to do. After surviving what they had, it was a relief to feel something good.

He drew her toward him and she stepped into his arms.

Breathless, she pressed herself against him, wrapping her arms around his neck while he crushed his mouth to hers. Nothing else mattered but him. He kissed her, but it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. She dug her fingers through his hair and wordlessly asked for more. He groaned and sank his tongue deep.

Yes.

She kissed him without reservation, moved against him, wished she could bask forever in the power of this feeling she had for him.

Korbin lifted her off her feet. She wound her legs around him, planting kisses all over his face.

“Savanna,” he rasped.

“Yes.”

“Are you sure?”

“Oh, God.” She wished he wouldn’t ask her that.

Korbin started walking with her. Her fingers worked frantically to unbutton his short-sleeved shirt. Down the narrow hall to the master bedroom, he laid her on the bed and finished what she started. She removed her top.

As he dropped his shirt to the floor, she admired smooth skin over rippling muscles. He bent down and she ran her fingers into his hair at the base of his neck. Sexy, she thought, running her hands over him, exulting in the heat that radiated off his body.

He undid her bra and gently cupped her breasts. Air cooled her skin over the layer of sweat on her own body. He planted sweet kisses around each of her nipples, then sucked them while his hands worked to unbutton her jeans, pushing them down. He left that task half-done and untied her boots. She kicked them off. He did the same with his and jerked out of his pants, heated eyes watching her remove her jeans and underwear the rest of the way.

Naked and reaching for him, she melted at the sound of his gruff anticipation. He moved between her parted legs and found her. Bracing his hands on each side of her, he pushed inside. He didn’t stop. He kept moving. Savanna arched her neck and he sucked the skin there. She sank her fingers into his hair again and splayed her other hand over his back, running it down his sweat-covered skin to his butt, where she squeezed.

He drove into her harder, his face just above hers, eyes intent on her, breathing rough and guttural. She came apart looking up at him. Drowning sensation built to a crescendo. She dragged her eyes closed and groaned with the intensity of her release.

He sank his tongue inside her mouth and rode her gently through her orgasm before he took his own with a few quick, deep, hard thrusts.

Then he collapsed on top of her. She felt his heart pounding as fast as hers, heard his ragged breaths slow with hers.

She kissed his cheek, then found his mouth.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Why had he asked?

Rolling off her, he pulled her to his side and folded his arm under his head. Savanna drew a pattern on his chest.

“I take it you are,” he said, grinning.

Her hand flattened on his chest, not knowing what to say. Didn’t want to think much about it. Instead, she slid a leg over him and pushed herself up to straddle his hips. Her fingers kneaded his hard chest. She moved against him.

“Uh.” He gripped her hips and moved with her. “You’re...mmm...going to have to give me a little more...ah...time, sweetheart.”

She laughed, more of a drugged sound, and leaned down to kiss him. “I don’t need more time.”

His deep chuckle heated her more. “You’re right.” He rolled them as one, then positioned her underneath him.

Savanna dug the back of her head into the pillow as he pushed her knees apart and kissed his way from her breasts to her abdomen. She sank her fingers into his beautiful hair as he found the place where she needed him most. He took his time about it, sending shivers spreading with each light touch.

She came with a soft sound she couldn’t repress and Korbin smiled as he kissed her stomach, then dragged his tongue up to one tight nipple, then the other. Taking her head between his strong hands, he looked down at her for a while, eyes soft and sending her intimate messages.

He kissed her lips, and her heart swelled with tender emotion. His tongue reached for hers and when she caressed him with equal feeling, he pressed harder. His breath grew ragged. She lay pliant while he probed for her, watching his eyes grow fevered and intense. He moved slowly, dragging back and forth until he ignited her again. Then he propped himself up by his hands to arrow into her harder. She lifted her knees.

The whirlwind peaked and settled. Korbin fell on top of her and she welcomed his hot, sweaty weight. He kissed her neck just below her ear and moved off her. Pulling her with him, he held her close.

Savanna rested her cheek on his chest, listening to his heart slow to a normal rate. She kissed his skin.

They basked in the aftermath for a while and then the world returned.

They hadn’t eaten yet today. “Let’s eat in bed.” She meant to keep this enchantment going. Because later, reality would return, and she might not like it.

She got up, naked, even though they were somewhere remote, there was something exciting about walking naked into the kitchen with the window coverings open. She was safe and cozy in here, protected by a man she didn’t want to love.

Finding a plate, she put strawberries and cheese on it and grabbed two bottles of water before going back to the bedroom. She rested the plate near Korbin’s hips and he relieved her of the bottles while she crawled onto the mattress. Sitting on folded legs, she lifted a strawberry. It was fresh and plump.

“Mmm.”

Popping the berry into her mouth, she studied him lying there all sexy on the bed, unabashed and propped on one elbow, muscles flexing, bunching.

“Let’s share everything,” she said, holding up a second strawberry.

He took her hand and bit the strawberry, then kissed her fingertips with a velvety touch.

Her breath quickened and she marveled at his appetite. Not for food, either. Letting him keep her hand, she reached for a piece of cheese. She brought it to his lips and he took a bite, leaving half for her. She put it into her mouth and chewed with him, falling into the look in his eyes, those wolfish eyes that hungered for her.

Next came another strawberry. This time he sucked her finger after taking it.

“Oh.”

He gave a lopsided grin. “My turn.”

Taking a berry from the plate, he poised it before her.

“You like fruit,” she teased.

“Juicy,” he said with a dark whisper. “Like you.”

He pressed it to her lips and she took a bite. He ate the other half and brushed his thumb over her bottom lip, no longer smiling.

“Come here,” he coaxed.

She sat on her hip, her legs off to the side, and leaned toward him. He put a strawberry between his teeth and she smiled as she took a bite of her half. Her heart scampered warmly as they chewed with their lips touching. He kissed her.

Their breathing resonated in the room.

“Savanna,” he rasped, and pulled her head back to his.

She lay down and he moved over her, continuing to kiss her. That’s all he did. Kiss her. And then, he lay with her, holding her against him. Savanna could feel him drifting again. Away from her.

Chapter 17

T
he car had been a good idea. Behind tinted windows, they wouldn’t be recognized. Korbin searched the neighborhood as he climbed out of the back, making sure all was clear for Savanna. It was a quiet Saturday morning. She stood with him, eyes a little sheepish but also full of remembered heat as she passed him and headed up the cracked and narrow walk that sliced the front yard in half. Two huge maple trees needed a good trim but kept them in shadows as they stepped up to the covered porch of the 1960s home.

Ringing the doorbell, he looked around again and faced forward when the door opened and Nate appeared. He scanned the neighborhood and let them inside.

A pregnant woman sat reclined on the couch, and two kids about eight and twelve sat on the love seat. The slipcover over it was coming untucked. Bulky furniture crowded the small living room. A coffee table was full of magazines and glasses. The entertainment center was old and too big for the room, and the TV was loud and played a vampire movie.

“Dude, you shouldn’t be here,” Nate said. “Babe, could you get us some beers?”

Korbin held up his hand. “No.” He shook his head at the pregnant woman, who looked glad not to have to get up. “We don’t need anything. We won’t be here long.”

“You got my badge?”

“That isn’t why we’re here.”

Nate’s brow went down.

“What has Pavlo said to you about why he’s working at your company?”

“Hey, man, the cops already questioned me. I told them all I know.” When Korbin and Savanna waited for him to go on, he did. “Pavlo bragged about some crap about how easy it was to get a green card. At first I thought he was joking like he was some kind of jihad warrior. But then I started thinking. He’s from the Ukraine, you know? And he’s always making fun of me as an American. One night after work, we stopped for some beers and he started talking again. Only this time he said he had friends who were going to change the world. When I asked him how, he patted me on the back and said, ‘Don’t worry, you won’t know what hit you.’ It was weird, man. He doesn’t drink so he was sober when he said it. Like I’d be dead after whatever thing he was talking about that would change the world.”

“He’s part of a group who are planning to steal the identities of people who work for companies like the one that employs you.”

“That’s going to change the world?”

“Not by itself, but what if the computer virus that steals identities does something more than that?”

“What if the virus is a disguise?” Savanna asked at the same time he thought of it.

Nate laughed. “A guy like Pavlo is going to plant a virus that will take down NextGen Emergency Communications Systems?” He laughed again. “He’s a freaking janitor.”

“He isn’t the mastermind behind the virus,” Korbin said. “They have others working on it here and must have more in the Ukraine.”

There was never going to be an identity theft. Only a virus that would destroy the systems running key organizations.

Korbin’s cell phone rang. Checking the caller ID, he didn’t recognize the number. He answered.

“If you wish to see your stepdaughter alive, you will do as I say.” It was Tony.

Korbin froze with the implications of the call. He hadn’t anticipated this, that Tony—or anyone—would go after Fallon. Their estrangement should have been enough. But Tony didn’t know they were estranged. And it had been all over the news when she’d given him an alibi.

“Bring Savanna with you.” He gave an address. “You have one hour.”

* * *

Savanna was as ashen as Korbin when she learned what Tony had done.

“I want you to go back to Evergreen.”

“No.” They‘d been arguing about this in the back of the sedan all the way back to the RV. “I’m going with you.”

“That’s two of you I have to take care of, Savanna.”

“You said Tony wanted me to be there, too.”

“He did.”

“What will he do if I don’t show up?”

“Not kill you.”

“I’m going and that’s final.”

The sedan drove onto the dirt road and pulled to a stop at the RV. She and Korbin got out.

“You could get killed.”

While that did frighten her, she could not and would not let him go alone. “We’re in this together, Korbin. We’ll get out of it together.”

He faced her before climbing up into the driver’s seat. Rather than start an argument, she saw that she’d made some headway. They were in this together. They were together in another way, too.

“All right, but you stay in the RV until it’s over.”

She didn’t agree to that. If he needed her, she’d be there for him.

* * *

Tony must have figured out where they’d gone. An RV this size was hard to hide. The meeting place was close. Korbin drove down another dirt road, this one private. As they approached a clearing, a ranch house with boarded-up windows came into view. The outbuildings weren’t boarded up, and outside the barn, two armed men stood.

Another appeared in the open door with Fallon in a chokehold, a gun to her head. Her long, curly blond hair was wild and messy. She wore faded jeans and a sweater and no jacket. Savanna saw the tightening of Korbin’s face. This was the reason she’d insisted on going with him. Women had fallen victim to violence everywhere he went. He had to stop it. And she was going to help him. Because if she’d ever have a chance with him, he had to be able to put all of this behind him.

She waited in the RV, watching him walk toward the barn. As she predicted, Tony appeared, pointing his finger into Korbin’s face. He sent a man to the RV. Savanna got out as he approached and walked toward Korbin, who looked furious that she’d done it.

Three men with guns forced them inside the barn. Fallon whimpered and eyed Savanna. Having been alone when she was abducted and not having a clue as to why, she was frightened to hysteria. She cried as the man shoved her to Savanna, who caught her.

“It’s going to be all right,” she said low into the woman’s ear.

Dust and dirt and cobwebs were thick from lack of care, and milk urns and pump equipment were just as they were left when the ranch had been abandoned. Drains in the concrete floor surrounded stalls on the other side, troughs underneath to catch blood of cattle when the barn had once been used as a slaughterhouse. Disgusting. The creepiness of this place enveloped Savanna.

Tony strode with his hands clasped behind his back, studying his prey, which at the moment was Korbin. Two of the goons with guns covered Korbin, and only one covered Savanna and Fallon.

“You’ve caused me a great deal of trouble, Mr. Maguire.”

“You should give up now,” Korbin said.

Tony snorted. “This coming from a man wanted for murder.”

“The police are going to find out about you. Nate knows all about your plans. We just left his house. He’s going to tell police, if he hasn’t already.”

“Nate doesn’t know anything.”

“The identity theft you’re planning is a ruse. Isn’t that something? What about the virus you’re going to try to infect all those companies with? Nothing?”

It was dangerous for Korbin to push a man like Tony. Right now. When the guns were all trained on them. Savanna looked for a way out. If she could overpower the man before her and Fallon...

“Killing us won’t solve your problem,” Korbin said.

“Perhaps not, but it will give me great satisfaction. I will gladly claim responsibility for your deaths. And I will go to mine with a smile.”

Fallon began crying again. She believed their situation was hopeless. While it did appear that way, Savanna refused to give up. She watched Korbin look over at Fallon. A quiet rage simmered inside of him.

“You.” Tony indicated Fallon. “Back up into that stall.”

Fallon clutched Savanna’s side. “No!”

Savanna pushed her to Korbin. “I’ll go.” She backed up into the stall, looking down at the drains, seeing the trough underneath through a layer of grime.

Tony walked over to a ledge beside one of the stalls and lifted a rusty knife. Savanna had seen enough documentaries to know what that was for. He’d slice her neck and let her bleed out.

“No.” Korbin started toward her, Fallon clinging to him. But the two men moved forward with their guns, aiming not at him but at Fallon.

Tony strode toward her, the rusty instrument hanging from his hand and a sick smile curving his mouth. The armed man watched, not paying close attention.

Savanna looked at Korbin, trying to assure him she wouldn’t go down without a fight. He saw her and checked the two guns on him.

Tony lifted the knife. Savanna grabbed his wrist and pushed him into the man with the gun. Korbin shoved Fallon so that she sprawled to the ground. Savanna went down and pulled her toward her while Korbin fought two armed men.

She watched in horror as one of them was about to shoot him. But he wrestled a gun from one man and shot that one.

As he was about to shoot the third to the stunned disbelief of Tony, a group of men in black rushed into the barn yelling, “FBI. Drop your weapons!”

And it was over just like that.

Tony and two of the armed men were cuffed and hauled off, and the shot man was taken away on a stretcher. One of the agents talked to Korbin while two more stood guard over Savanna and Fallon.

“I’m Savanna Ivy.” She stuck out her hand to Fallon, who was still scared and pale.

“I know. I heard all about you.”

Of course she had. “I’ve heard a little about you.”

Fallon turned to her. “You have?”

“Yes. Korbin told me. He feels awful about your mother. It’s changed him.”

Fallon looked reluctant to believe it. “Is today any indication?”

“Yes. He’s fighting for his life back, the one he should have had with you and Niya.”

“He told you her name?”

“He told me a lot about her.”

“But...I thought the two of you were...”

Savanna smiled, a fake one, really, because secretly that hurt. “We were, but...” She shook her head. “He isn’t ready for that yet.”

“When I heard, I...” Tears sprang easily to the girl’s eyes, still sensitive from her ordeal. “My mother. Shot. I couldn’t fathom it. And because Korbin...”

“It isn’t Korbin’s fault that Damen got involved in this. He wants to have a life with you in it, and not just because you’re Niya’s daughter. He loves you.”

“You’re awfully understanding for someone who’s romantically involved with him.”

Savanna shrugged. “I’ve been through this before.” The second choice, the expendable one. The one who wasn’t quite enough.

Fallon observed her a while. “If Korbin loves you, he’ll stick around.”

“Yeah, I know the drill.”

“No, I mean it. He loved my mother and he stood by her no matter what. He never cheated on her and he treated her like a queen. I see that now. It took me a while, but I saw it.”

Savanna smiled through the ache in her heart. “Yeah, I know that about him.”

“May we have a word with the two of you?” an agent came over to them and asked.

Savanna saw that Korbin was being handcuffed.

“What are you doing?”

The agent glanced back. “We don’t have a choice. Your boyfriend is a hero, but he’s still a suspect in a murder. We have to take him in.”