Stolen Seduction (22 page)

she didn’t want to go examining now.

She followed Billy up the steps and tugged her hat lower as she neared her sister. When she reached

the same step, she stopped briefly and leaned in close. “I’m sure I’ll be hearing from you. In the

meantime, though, a bit of advice.” She lowered her voice to a whisper and added a shot of sass she

knew would hit its mark. “Find a mall.”

By the time they reached the parking lot, Hailey was fuming. Billy and Nicole must have parked on

the opposite side of the building because they were nowhere to be seen.

“Hold up, Roarke. My leg’s still sore from being yesterday’s snack.”

She slowed as she reached the first tier of parking spaces and turned toward Shane, hobbling behind

her. “Sorry. I’m just…”

“Pissed. Yeah, I got it. If you decide to turn that temper on me, all I ask is you give me fair warning.

I’m not up for having my ass handed to me today.”

She glared at him. And like water rushing through her veins, all that anger slid away. She had to

look to her left to keep from chuckling. If there was one thing she could say for Shane, when he

wasn’t being a moody SOB, he had a way of reminding her things weren’t as bad as they seemed.

Yeah, right.

She heaved out a sigh. “I could seriously kill her.”

“Shh.” He moved closer with a half grin that did strange things to her insides. “I wouldn’t let anyone hear you say that if I were you. We’re still trying to prove you didn’t do that the last time someone ticked you off.”

“You’re a real comedian.” She frowned. “The difference here is this time I mean it.”

He tipped his dark head. “I’m getting the impression you and Paris Hilton in there aren’t close.”

“What was your first clue? The sparks flying or the fact the entire track was about to spontaneously

combust?”

“What’s she doing here?”

“Beats me. She doesn’t care a single thing about RR. She couldn’t even bother to be present at the

will reading. But she’s not stupid. She’s obviously figured out the will’s solid. And now she’s worried about making sure she keeps her meal ticket.”

“So she recruited Sullivan?”

“Probably. He’s only human, and she’s…well…” She waved her hand. “You saw her. She’s every

guy’s fantasy.”

He scoffed. “Not mine.”

She leveled him with a look. “I saw you with her.”

“Saw me what?”

“Saw her working you.”

His brow wrinkled. “I like my women a little bit smarter and lot less pushy.”

“Don’t get all bent out of shape,” she said as she started walking again. “She was only coming on to

you to piss me off. Odds are good that’s why she hustled Billy, too, because she knew that would

get to me.” Her temper bubbled up all over again at just the thought.

“Hold up.” His hand on her arm pulled her back to face him. “Are you jealous?”

“Of Nicole?”

“Of your sister and Sullivan.”

“Why would I be jealous of Nicole and Billy?”

“I don’t know. You tell me.”

The clip to his voice told her the idea got under his skin, and just the thought had a memory flash of

their heated kiss this morning skipping through her mind. Her skin tingled as she remembered his

hands on her body, what he’d felt like all hard and hot pressing up against her, how good he’d tasted. And what they would have both done if the phone hadn’t stopped them.

Then she heard his gruff admission: I do want you. I’ve wanted you since we met, and that doesn’t

piss me off, it jacks me up. Followed by his numbing revelation that the heat between them would

only cause problems, ones she didn’t want.

She was sick to death of people telling her what she was supposed to do, how she was supposed to

feel, what was best for her. Her father had done it for years. Her ex-husband was still doing it under

the guise of friendship whenever he saw her. Now Shane was trying to do it, too.

Her eyes narrowed. “If you have something to ask, Maxwell, just spit it out.”

He slipped his hands into the pockets of his jeans and flicked something that made a clicking sound.

“You know, that’s really starting to annoy me. What is it?”

He pulled out the square plastic box and gave it a little shake before repocketing it. “Tic Tacs.”

“Nervous habit?”

“You could say that. Safer than Jameson.” His eyes grew serious before she could ask what that

meant. “Why would Sullivan go along with your sister? I thought you said he was helping you.

Looks to me like he’s working against you.”

She turned and resumed walking again, because, yeah, that’s how it looked to her, too, and she

didn’t like it. “He may be a genius, but he’s still a guy. And Nicole knows men.”

“Sullivan’s a genius?” he said with disgusted disbelief from close behind. “Now who’s being the

comedian?”

“His IQ’s in the Nobel Prize-winning-genius category. Not that you’d ever know by looking.”

“No way.”

“Way.”

His footsteps echoed behind her. “Then what the hell’s he doing with you?”

Oh, that did it. She stopped. Pivoted. Leveled him with a look.

He read her reaction and quickly held up his hands. “That’s not what I meant. I should have said

with any of you. Rafe, Kauffman, my sister.” When her glare narrowed, he raked a hand through his

already disheveled hair. “Shit, this is coming out wrong. I’m just gonna shut up now.”

“Smart man.” Temper back to bubbling, she resumed walking and mentally ran over what Billy had

told her. Nicole wanted in. And she wanted part of the prize at the end or she wouldn’t give up her

bronze.

Yeah, right. Like Hailey believed that one.

But what did Nicole really want? Money, sure. Security, of course. A way to get out from underneath their mother’s thumb.

Hell, that last one was the same damn thing Hailey wanted.

If she was ever going to prove she hadn’t killed Bryan and find out what her father had been up to,

she needed those numbers on the bottom of Nicole’s statue. But enough to partner up with the

viper? Oh, that was almost asking too much.

“If you’re thinking through something, Roarke, just say it right now.”

How the heck did he know what was going on in her head before she did?

“Don’t read my mind,” she said without looking his way. “It’s irritating.”

He slipped his hands in the pockets of his jeans. That click-click-click came from his pocket again.

“I wasn’t. I could practically see the little mouse on the wheel in there.”

“You’re a regular Jay Leno today. What got into you?”

“Don’t know. Coulda been loss of blood from yesterday. Mighta been that caffeine I was pumping

you with earlier. More than likely, though, it was you. This morning.”

Three words: You, this morning. That’s all it took to make her completely forget whatever she’d

been thinking before.

She glanced over her shoulder only to catch a deep scowl on his face, not the humorous expression

she’d hoped to see. The man was a complete mystery. One minute he was kissing her with a rabid

passion she hadn’t experienced in, yeah, forever, the next he was looking like just the idea ticked

him off.

No, that wasn’t it, she realized as she studied him. The next he was looking like a man who did

want her but didn’t like the idea of her wanting him back.

And what the hell kind of sense did that make?

She was just about to ask that very question when glass in the passenger window of the car to her

left shattered, raining tiny bits and pieces all over the concrete at her feet.

“Get down!”

The air left her lungs in a rush as Shane slammed into her from behind. He took her to the ground

hard, rolling so his back took the brunt of the impact. Then he was on top of her, his arms and head

and chest shielding her face and torso from the flying glass.

A second and third gunshot slammed into the car above them. Before she even got her bearings,

Shane rolled off, grabbed her hand and jerked her around the other side of the vehicle to push her

down near the wheel well, using it to block their sniper.

He pulled her Beretta from his shoulder harness, where he’d put it this morning after she’d given it

to him on the plane. “Goddammit. I miss my fucking gun.”

So did she. Why had she given him hers? Good thing she’d thought to grab her backup pistol before

leaving the plane.

She draped her bag over her head so the strap ran across her chest, chanced a glance around the car

they were hiding behind, then pulled out the semiautomatic when she saw movement.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Shane asked as she checked the magazine.

“He’s by the gray van over there.” She snapped the magazine back in place. “Cover me so I can get

around behind him.”

His hand snaked out so fast, she didn’t track it until he had a death grip on her Windbreaker. “Like

hell.”

“Maxwell, we’re both trained—”

“Last I checked, you’re a wanted suspect. A paper-pushing wanted suspect. You plug somebody and

you really are going to go to jail. And if you think I’m letting you get close to this son of a bitch,

you’re higher than a kite.”

Glass shattered above them. He grabbed her head and pushed her down so the debris didn’t hit her.

She swatted at his arms with her free hands. “I’m not going to keep running from this guy—”

“Guys,” he corrected. “There were two in the swamp, remember?”

“Shh,” she said, looking to the side. “Listen.”

Shane loosened his grasp, went still. “He’s reloading.”

That was enough for her. As soon as he let go, she was off. Ducking behind cars and moving quietly

and quickly so as not to be seen.

“Goddamn it, Roarke.”

She ignored Shane’s muttering and inched her way up until she was only one row from where she’d

seen their sniper hiding between a minivan and a beat-up Camry.

Her heart pounded in her chest. She thought back to the way her attacker had cornered her in the elevator. Sending her a message, he’d said. Well, he was about to get one right back. She was done

playing the helpless female. She wanted to know if it was indeed Paul and what was really going

on.

Bracing her back against a dirt-covered Suburban, she wrapped both hands around the 9mm and

slowly peered around the corner of the vehicle. Nothing moved within a twenty-foot radius. Security obviously hadn’t heard the shots because no one came running. Cars honked on the street a quarter mile across the massive parking lot. Shouts and cheers echoed from inside the track where the

next race had already started. Above, palms swooshed and swayed in the growing breeze. But all

Hailey heard was her pulse. Strong and hot and heavy in her ears.

Her eyes zeroed in on the van. She counted to three. Took one step and was jerked to a stop by a

hand around her mouth that came out of nowhere.

“Don’t you fucking move.”

“I thought I had a death wish,” Shane whispered in Hailey’s ear. He jerked her back tight against his

chest and didn’t loosen his hand around her mouth or the one with a death grip on her wrist. “But,

lady, you take the cake. Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

She stiffened, but he didn’t let go, not even when she ground that cute ass of hers into him, briefly

sending his brain spinning to thoughts other than the fact some moron on the other side of this SUV

wanted to blow holes in their heads.

They had a real communication problem going on here. That and a power struggle he liked way too

much.

“If we’re going to do this,” he whispered so quietly only she could hear, “we do it together. On

three?”

She froze, then nodded once. She still had the 9mm clamped between both hands. Adrenaline

pumping, he moved in stealth mode toward the other side of the SUV. When he was in position, gun

drawn, crouched low near the front tire, smelling rubber and asphalt, he gave her the signal.

She disappeared around the back of the Suburban as he crept past the hood. Though his first instinct

was to pull her the hell out of here where she couldn’t get hurt, he was starting to realize Hailey

Roarke did things her own way. No matter the consequences.

And damn if that didn’t light him up more and piss him off all at the same time.

He peeked around the side of the SUV, careful not to be seen or get caught in the crossfire if Hailey

started shooting. But he found nothing but air between this vehicle and the next one.

“Goddammit,” Hailey muttered, gun lowered as she came around the other side herself.

Shane pushed up on his legs, and they both took a careful sweep of the cars directly around them in

case their sniper was hiding close by.

Nothing.

He was holstering his gun when Hailey came back into sight, a frown across her mouth, one gorgeous crease between her bonny blue eyes. “Spineless bastard ran off. I’m sick to death of this catand-mouse game.”

So was he, but mostly because she was as unpredictable as their would-be assassin.

As soon as she slipped the safety on her 9mm, he grasped her by the arm, swung her around and

pushed up so her back was against the silver Suburban and he was all she felt at her front. His

mouth was hard, hot and aggressive against hers, and if he left a bruise on her soft and supple lips,

right now he didn’t care.

He pulled back but didn’t let her go. “Don’t ever do that again.”

The shock in her eyes was replaced with a fiery passion he was all too willing to see flare up.

“Don’t turn into the all-macho male, Maxwell. I’m not a rookie.”

“No, you’re stupid.”

Her eyes flashed. “Watch it.”