“You almost done here?”
She didn’t respond. From the corner of his eye, he saw her pause and stare at two swinging doors at the back of the store.
He bent close. The floral scent of her hair wafted near him and he breathed in deeply. His lips moved against her ear. “Don’t even think about it,” he said, his words soft and firm.
She bit her lip. The disappointment in her face would’ve been funny if he wasn’t fighting for their lives.
He took a breath. “I’ll make you a bargain. Let’s deal with Brandon’s problem. Then I’ll take you somewhere safe. After you’ve heard the details, make your decision.”
“If I don’t like what you have to say, you’ll let us go?” she challenged.
“Yes,” he lied. She could never go back to the life she’d known. Not anytime soon. And once her identity changed, he’d never be able to see her...or his son...again.
He ignored the shriveling of his heart at the thought and glanced at his watch. “We’re running out of time. Too many cameras around here that could be tapped into.”
Startled eyes met his. “These people are that sophisticated?”
“You’d be surprised.”
She frowned. “Okay, I’ve had enough security briefings to know it’s possible. I won’t take a chance with Brandon.” She grabbed a diaper bag, baby powder, wipes, clothes, a small blue train, a ball and a couple of jars of unappetizing-looking mashed-up food.
Poor kid.
“Get whatever he needs for a while,” Hunter said softly. “In case you stay with me.”
She narrowed her gaze, then nodded, but she was obviously troubled as she collected several more of everything. “I’m ready.”
“What about you?”
She huffed, then quickly pushed the cart to the women’s section. She tugged jeans and T-shirts off the sales rack, but bypassed the lingerie.
He lifted an eyebrow.
She blushed, grabbed a few serviceable cotton bras and pairs of underwear, and tucked them beneath the other clothes.
He had to smile. She had nothing to be embarrassed about. Her breasts were larger since having the baby, and she’d been impressive before. He’d explored every inch of her body. What he’d give to peel those slips of cotton off her and reenact a time when they’d been safe and warm.
To distract his thoughts, he snagged tennis shoes and socks. “Size seven?”
She nodded and he dumped them into the cart.
He wished he could talk honestly to her, tell her what her future really held. It was too soon. Instead, he simply led her to the checkout center. “Use your credit card.” He handed her a large stack of twenties. “This should reimburse you.”
Erin gaped at the wad of cash and pulled out her debit card.
“No.” He grabbed her wallet. “This one.” He took out the American Express and handed it to the curious clerk.
It was way past Brandon’s naptime, and the baby sobbed in Erin’s arms. Nothing would calm him. She snagged a juice box from the bag and placed it in his hand.
“No!” His cries went full force, and big tears rolled down his face.
“Fis...” He lurched forward, stretching out his entire body as he reached for the goldfish-shaped crackers moving past him. Unbalanced, Erin lost her firm grip on him.
Before Brandon landed on the conveyor belt, Hunter scooped him up with one arm. “Sorry, sport. You’re not on sale today.”
The clerk giggled and it hit Hunter that he was holding his son for the first time. Granted the kid stank, but it didn’t matter. He cradled the boy carefully, and Hunter’s heart melted. He’d never imagined the impact one tiny being could have. He devastated Hunter’s defenses.
“Give him to me.”
He didn’t want to give Brandon back. “Sign the credit slip first.”
As Erin wrote her signature, Hunter couldn’t take his gaze away from Brandon’s every feature. The baby’s nose was like Erin’s, but his mouth was like Hunter’s mother’s.
Odd.
Hunter hadn’t thought of his mother in ages. He’d pushed aside his memories of his less-than-stellar childhood years ago, and yet she was here in the face of his son.
He held up a finger, and Brandon grinned and grabbed it, trying to stuff Hunter’s large knuckle in his mouth.
Erin held out her arms. “He’s mine.”
Her words sent a flash flood of cold water across Hunter’s emotions. Erin was right. He couldn’t let himself get attached. Yet, as he placed Brandon in Erin’s arms, Hunter knew he’d already made that mistake.
He’d fallen in love with his child. First through the photos and often-grainy surveillance videos he’d managed to procure over the past year, and now that Hunter had held his son...
God, he was a fool.
With a heavy sigh, Hunter led Erin to the exit and paused. After a few moments of scanning the exterior, he nodded for Erin to move. They quickly crossed the parking lot. Once they reached the black Hummer, Hunter opened the back end and pulled out the duffel bag he’d planned to use during the operation.
After her reaction to his lifestyle already, he doubted she’d appreciate the weapons and equipment inside. He hadn’t had time to get passports with new names for her and Brandon. She’d have freaked for sure, seeing those.
He and Leona had designed dozens of more dangerous missions than this, but never had more been at stake. He hadn’t planned his overwhelming reaction to Erin—or his son.
While Erin changed Brandon’s diaper, he whined and reached for the cheddar-flavored crackers again. She disinfected her hands and gave him a few. “He’s hungry. It’s dinnertime.”
“What can he eat?”
“He’s teething. I bought some soft baby food I can feed him in the car. His favorite is mac and cheese, though. He loves it.”
“So do I,” Hunter said.
Erin sent him a sidelong glance. “I didn’t know that.”
“My mom would make it as a special treat when she was working.” He made room for the diapers in the duffel. “I haven’t thought of that in a long time.”
With efficient movements, Erin had Brandon settled in his car seat, then handed him a soft ball that he stuffed into his mouth and gnawed on happily.
“You’re quick,” Hunter said.
“Practice.”
Something he’d never have. Hunter closed down his emotions. In moments, he’d packed the remaining items, including Erin’s laptop, in the duffel and closed it carefully, making sure the fastenings created an airtight, waterproof seal.
He scanned the parking lot again. “We’ve got to go now. That credit card swipe started a stopwatch.”
Hunter slipped into the front seat and tapped his earpiece to contact Leona. “We’re done. We’re heading to the marina. Start the electronic bread crumbs. Once our
friends
ping the credit card and find us, I want all transactions to disappear. We can’t leave the cops a trail that they can easily follow.”
“Got it,” Leona said. “How long a lead time do you need?”
Erin got in beside him and buckled up.
A minute later, he pulled out of the parking lot. “The traffic’s heavy. Give me at least fifteen minutes. They need to see everything for this to work.”
Leona sighed. “Are you certain you want to do this?”
Hunter looked at Erin and Brandon. “I have no choice,” he said quietly and ended the connection.
Erin and Brandon Jamison had to die. Today.
* * *
E
RIN
FIDGETED
IN
THE
FRONT
seat, battling urges to jump out of the car or give Clay the trust he asked for. Brandon was in the backseat, so she knew she was staying put for now. Clay
seemed
to care about Brandon, and she couldn’t deny those men had broken into her house, shot the place up and torched it. She’d almost been hit by more than one bullet.
“This is crazy,” she muttered. “I can’t believe I’m letting you take us to the Gulf of Mexico. I barely know you and what I do know scares the pants off me.”
“Excuse me while I savor that image,” Clay said. “I’m saving your life. You know I’m right.”
“I don’t know anything anymore.” Her temper frayed, her emotions in turmoil, she hated that somewhere in the deepest recesses of her mind she’d dreamed of Clay coming back to her, pulling her into his arms. He’d convince her that he hadn’t lied, that she hadn’t been wrong about falling in love with him, that they could be together.
What a stupid fantasy.
As stupid and unreal as her sitting beside him right now with no idea where they were really headed.
She’d graduated from high school at sixteen, college at nineteen and received her doctorate in nanotechnology at twenty-three. She was no dummy, so why was she just sitting here, letting the miles go by? She couldn’t take her gaze away from Clay’s strong, tanned hands gripping the steering wheel. Focused and determined, he constantly swept their surroundings with the awareness of a wild animal ready to pounce on its prey. She could barely recognize in him the man she’d fallen in love with on Santorini.
Then he’d been gentle, funny, romantic. Everything she’d ever wanted.
Had she been completely wrong about him?
Could a man change so completely? Or be so completely deceptive? Had she ever known him, or had she only seen what she wanted to see?
Or what
he’d
wanted her to see?
She shifted in her seat. “Were you
ever
in computer security, Clay?”
His knuckles went white. “In a way. I’m pretty handy with zeroes and ones.”
“That means no. Who do you work for?”
“I can’t say.”
Her pulse pounded in her temple.. “I have a top-secret security clearance.”
“Not high enough.”
Erin nearly growled at him. “I’ve had enough of the cloak-and-dagger stuff. How do I know you didn’t blow up my house? That this hasn’t been some elaborate setup?”
Clay twisted in his seat. “Do you really think I would put my son in danger?”
“I don’t know, do I? Because I don’t know you. Where are you taking us? And why won’t you tell me anything?”
“You’ll understand soon.”
“Not good enough.” She snatched his phone and hit 9-1-1. He leaned toward her, but she unsnapped her seat belt and catapulted into the backseat.
“Erin...”
“No. I’ve given you all the chances you’re going to get.”
“Do you need a pickup?” a woman’s concerned voice filtered through the phone.
Something was terribly wrong. “You’re supposed to say
‘Nine-one-one.
What’s your emergency?’ Who is this?”
“Code!” the woman demanded.
“I ne...need help,” Erin stuttered. “I’ve been kidnapped.”
“Dr. Jamison?” The woman’s voice lowered. “Where’s...Clay?”
“Noooo.” Erin dropped the phone to the floor.
Clay pressed his earpiece. “Sorry, sweetheart. Didn’t mean to give you heart failure. Things aren’t going quite as
smoothly
as I’d like here.”
Clay met Erin’s gaze in the rearview mirror, and she glared. “You can’t hijack 9-1-1. It’s illegal.”
Brandon whimpered, but Clay ignored them both, obviously focusing on the woman’s voice on his headset. Someone he clearly cared for.
“Sorry, Leona, I’ll try not to let my equipment get out of my reach again.”
He disconnected and sent Erin an uncertain look.
“Please. Just let us go,” she whispered. “I won’t tell anyone about you. You can go do your covert ops stuff somewhere else, and no one has to know you were here.”
Clay didn’t respond at first. He maneuvered the vehicle onto a bridge over the water. Redfish Cove sparkled as the sun moved lower in the sky. Several kayakers paddled toward shore.
“Let me get you to safety first. I’ll show you the evidence. Then we’ll talk.”
“I can’t tell if you’re lying.”
His brown eyes darkened. “I know. I’m good at it.”
“That’s not something to be proud of.”
His lips tightened. “Probably not.”
Tense silence between them bathed the interior of the vehicle. A loud laugh erupted from the baby. Erin glanced at Brandon’s joyous glint when he triumphantly pulled out the blue train, but she couldn’t smile. Her world had spun out of control.
“Is Brandon okay?” Clay’s voice had grown even more tense.
“He’s fine,” she answered woodenly. “He found his train.”
Brandon jabbered as he rolled his hand against the wheels. A popping noise erupted from the toy, and he giggled.
She moved closer to her son. The moment Clay stopped the car, she had to escape. She had friends at Eglin Air Force Base. Surely someone there could help her.
Clay crossed a second bridge and finally pulled his Hummer into an out-of-the-way marina not too far from Pensacola Beach. He parked near a slip and tapped his phone.
“We’re here. I’ll be in touch when it’s clear.”
He opened the door and moved to the back, grabbing the duffel. Erin exited the vehicle and rounded the car to retrieve Brandon. She held him tight, glancing around, hoping to get someone’s attention.
But no one was around. The marina had obviously seen better business days. An old man struggled into a dinghy down the way. She saw a couple of Jet Skis and a few rinky-dink boats tied up at the dilapidated dock. Other than that, the place was deserted.
She had to buy time. “Where are we going?”
Hunter headed to the water and snapped the cover off a cigar boat, its sleek lines putting to shame the other crafts. “Somewhere we won’t be found.”
“I’m not taking my son onto the water when it’ll be dark soon. Are you crazy?”
“More than likely.”
Erin clutched his arm. “I’m not going with you, Clay. I can’t do this!”
“You don’t have a choice.” After grabbing her around the waist, he lifted her and Brandon into the boat. She fell back onto the seat, fuming.
Hunter flipped a midsized life jacket to her. “Put it on.”
She shoved the orange flotation device aside. “You hurt me.”
He leaned over her, trapping her between his arms. “Erin, if I’d wanted to hurt you, I’d have let you stay at your house. Now get your jacket on.”
His movements quick and efficient, he bundled a squalling Brandon into his life jacket and settled his son on his hip. “Feel free to leave, but Brandon’s coming with me.”