I'm Yours (3 page)

“Well, what did Ronan say? Is he going to fix
this mess we’re in because of him?”

“Kara, we need to talk.”

He glanced over at her to see all the blood
drain from her face. He quickly got off the freeway and turned
around to head north. The SUV followed which they would hopefully
report to whoever they worked for. It would take longer to get to
Ronan, but if he could lead them to Wisconsin instead and then lose
them, he could throw them off the scent a little.

“Where are we going? Are they still following
us?”

“Kara, I know you think Ronan just gets me
into trouble but it’s not just fun and games. Not this time. I
think he’s in trouble.”

“Is he OK? What did he say? Is he going to
help us? People are shooting at us for heaven’s sake.”

“He’ll help us if we can find him. He can’t
come to us.”

She fell back against her seat then let her
head fall back as she looked at the roof of the car. Ian knew She
was trying to figure out what to do next. He had a plan that he
knew would work if he could just lose the car following them. He’d
do every damn thing he could to keep Kara safe.

“This isn’t just a good time for Ronan, this
is what he does. It’s his job.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Danger, intrigue, blah,
blah, blah…”

“What? Ronan told you what he does?”

“Well not all of it, but he asked me out then
kept canceling because of his ‘job’ so he told me a little.”

Plenty of women let Ronan cancel more than
once, but he knew Kara had given him only a second chance then
hadn’t returned his calls for a while. Ronan had wanted Ian to
apologize to her for him, maybe even soften her up so he could ask
her out again. Ian could still remember the surprise on Ronan’s
face when he’d taken a punch to the gut for that request. It had
given Ian great satisfaction to catch his brother off guard with
that punch, but it had also let his brother know he’d encroached on
what Ian considered his territory.

Later, Ian regretted showing Ronan how much
Kara mattered because Ronan and Kara stayed in contact as “friends”
when Kara didn’t really even consider Ian a friend. Ronan was sure
to tell Ian all he knew about Kara because he knew it pissed Ian
off when Ronan knew more about her life than he did. He worked with
her, saw her every day for Christ’s sake, he should know more about
her than Ronan.

“He probably thought that would get him
another chance,” Ian admitted.

“Maybe, but I don’t want to date someone with
a dangerous job. I want someone who’s going to come home every
night.”

Ian would come home every night. He wanted to
know what had disqualified him. She’d said no, more than just a few
times before he’d stopped asking, but she’d never had the decency
to tell him why.

“Where are we going Ian?”

They were getting onto 94 heading north to
Wisconsin and the SUV was still following them. Ian wasn’t taking
any chances with Ronan’s safety, but he had to keep Kara safe
too.

“We have to lose this guy following us. Then
we’ll try to connect with Ronan.”

Kara nodded and looked behind them at the
SUV. She was playing with her purse strap and he could tell she was
nervous. He handed her back her phone and after she put it in her
purse, she started playing with the strap again. So, he took her
hand in his hoping she wouldn’t work herself up. Kara could get
very anxious and there had been a few times she’d had anxiety or
panic attacks. When she had them, she seemed to get really
embarrassed after the fact and once she had even taken a few days
off, not answering his calls to see if she was OK. She wouldn’t
have the luxury of hiding from him if she had an attack now so he
had to keep her calm. She was right though, she shouldn’t be dating
someone in Ronan’s profession.

As they got to the outskirts of Chicago,
rather than head straight north, Ian headed northwest as if he had
a specific destination in mind, he wanted to head to a neighborhood
he knew and he knew Arlington Heights. He started increasing his
speed well above the speed limit.

“Should you be going this fast?”

“If they’re following us, I don’t want to
make it easy. We need to know how hard they’re trying.”

“What? Why wouldn’t they try hard?”

“Exactly, if they back off too easy, they may
have some other way to track us. Either way, we’re going to have to
get rid of your cell phone and I’ll probably have to get rid of my
iPad. The laptop should be OK as long as I don’t access the
Internet.”

“Where are we going?”

“Arlington Heights. We need a new car and I
know where we can get one.”

Kara nodded as she kept her eyes trained
behind them. She could still see the SUV. It was increasing speed
as well. Ian had confused her as to whether this was a good thing
or not. She knew he wanted to lose them, but he also wanted them to
try to follow. She was not cut out for this kind of excitement. She
was a little nauseous from the thought of being chased down and a
little light headed from Ian holding her hand. That seemed to be
confusing her too.

She definitely didn’t want to be followed by
someone who obviously had a gun, but Ian holding her hand and being
kind was something she could get used to. Maybe even something she
could crave. She needed to be careful because he could revert back
to the old Ian at any time. Kara glanced over to see that Ian was
going over 100 miles per hour. The SUV had fallen a little behind
but was still there weaving in and out of traffic to keep up. They
were definitely making themselves known.

“Hold on, love” Ian said as he cut across
three lanes of traffic and barreled down the off ramp.

Kara watched as, almost in slow motion, the
SUV rammed into a car and sent it spinning across two lanes as it
jumped over to follow them down the off ramp. The small car was
still spinning when Ian turned right and the car disappeared from
view. The SUV was flying down the off ramp behind them, but they
had a nice head start. Kara wasn’t familiar with the area and
didn’t really know where they were or where they were going so she
had to trust Ian and his instincts. She realized she did trust him.
Ian had great instincts with everything except women.

He was still going well over the speed limit
on the surface streets and started turning corners; left, right,
right, left. He’d let go of her hand and was turning so many
corners as he drove in a maze through the streets. After a few more
turns, Kara’s nausea began to increase. She’d never gotten car sick
in her life, but as Ian made turn after turn with her looking
behind them, her stomach was rioting.

“I haven’t seen them for the last two turns,
but you have a clearer view, do you see them Kara?”

She looked back at all the cars behind them
and realized she didn’t see the black SUV with the tinted windows.
Ian kept making turns and Kara kept looking but didn’t see the SUV.
Wanting to be absolutely sure, she let him continue this pattern
for a few minutes.

“I don’t see them.” She said.

“OK get out your phone for me again. I’m
going to keep taking corners and working away from the interstate,
but I need to call Liam to see if he’s home.”

“Liam?”

“A cousin, and he happens to work on
cars.”

Ian watched Kara dig through her large purse
again. He still had the Bluetooth in his ear and this time he did
let her dial so he could concentrate on driving. Knowing how hard
the tail had tried to follow, Ian didn’t think they had another way
to track them, but he’d keep the conversation short and ditch the
phone just to be safe.

“Hello?”

“Liam, dhíth orm cuidiú.” Asking for help
would get any of his cousin’s attention immediately. They didn’t
ask for help unless they needed it.

“Ian?”

“Aye col ceathrar.”

“Tá sé a dhéanamh le Ronan?” Liam got the
hint to be careful as he asked if this involved Rone.

“Aye De dhíth orm carr.”

Liam always had cars hanging around, so when
Ronan had told Ian to get a new car rather than offering to bring
one, Ian had immediately thought about Liam. Not that he was
looking forward to introducing Liam to Kara, but they didn’t have
much choice. They needed a free car and they needed it now.

“Anois?”

“Yes, right now.”

“OK, OK mo theach.”

“I’m almost there.”

“OK”

Ian pressed the button on the Bluetooth to
disconnect the call. He didn’t want to stay on the phone any longer
than necessary. Turning toward Liam’s house, Ian glanced at Kara.
She was still cradling her cell phone in her hands.

“Turn off the phone Kara.”

“OK. I need a translator,” She grumbled as
she powered the phone off.

“I’d be more than happy to teach you.” Ian
smiled.

“Oh I’m sure. You’d probably just teach me to
swear.”

He laughed at that, but the thought had
possibilities. He could teach her to say dirty things in her sexy
voice. He could maybe even trick her into saying she’d go out with
him, or that she’d spread her legs for him. He had to get his mind
off that. He was getting hard again thinking about Kara’s legs
especially her legs spread for him.

“How do you say shut up?” she asked.

“t suas”

“t suas , hmm, I’ll have to remember that.
What about d'aontaigh?”

“That’s a good pronunciation. It’s kind of
like OK or I agree.”

She nodded.

“Now say Tá mé leatsa” he commanded
softly.

“Tá mé leatsa.”

Ian smiled, but his heart constricted a
little. He’d love for her to say she was his of her own accord with
full knowledge of what she was saying. In fact, he wouldn’t mind
saying it right back to her.

“OK, now what does that mean?”

When he didn’t answer but only kept smiling,
she punched him in the arm.

“Did I just promise to do something dirty? I
can look it up you know”

“Good luck trying to spell it.”

“t suas”

As Ian laughed again, Kara committed the
phrase to memory along with t suas. He’d probably had her say let’s
have car sex, just so he could make fun of her. She noticed Ian was
still checking the rear view mirror every few seconds. Maybe he was
trying to distract her in which case she could forgive him a little
for making her say something stupid.

Finally, he pulled into a long driveway and
drove behind a garage so his car wasn’t visible from the street.
When he picked up his gun, reached back for his bag and got out of
the car, Kara’s heart started racing. She wasn’t sure she was much
more vulnerable outside the car, but she was still a little afraid
to get out. Ian came around and opened her door as a man stepped
out of back door of the house. The man was gorgeous. He had black
hair and bright blue eyes with a firm square jaw and a beautiful
smile.

“Ian,” he said as he waived for Ian and Kara
to follow him into the house.

Ian opened her door wider and held out a hand
to Kara. She took his hand and stood from the low sports car. He
started for the door then stopped and turned back to her.

“Leave your cell phone in my car.”

She dug the cell phone out of her purse once
again and threw it into the front seat of Ian’s car and shut the
door. Then Ian took her hand again and led her up the stairs and
into the kitchen of what she could only assume was his cousin’s
house. The house was small but beautiful. The kitchen had tile
floors, granite countertops and stainless steel appliances.

“Cé hé an cailín? Tá sí go hálainn,” Liam
said, immediately asking about Kara.

“Lámha amach! tá sí mianach,” Ian replied
harshly as he watched Kara shut the door. Liam had better keep his
hands off. Kara may not know it yet but she was Ian’s.

“What girl,” a woman demanded as she came
down the stairs and into the kitchen.

“Kara, these are my cousins. This is Liam and
Meryl.”

Kara held out her hand to Liam who smiled and
took her hand in both of his. And rather than shake her hand, he
just held it and looked deep into her eyes.

“Mianach,” Ian almost growled.

Liam released Kara’s hand, but seemed
reluctant to do so. Kara was trying to figure out what was going
on. She held out her hand to Meryl who was looking at Ian with
surprise. Then she looked at Kara, took her hand and pulled her
away from her brother and gave her a hug.

“It’s a pleasure Kara” she said.

“Meryl, can you lend Kara some clothes? She
needs something more sensible and some sneakers if at all possible
and maybe something to put her hair up? Liam I’ll need a couple
baseball caps, some jeans, and hopefully some sunglasses.”

Meryl took Kara’s hand and dragged her up to
her room.

Kara looked around Meryl’s room. It was the
room of a college student which she guessed Meryl was. Meryl was
the feminine version of her brother but her skin was more
porcelain. She was beautiful, almost as tall as Kara but much more
slender.

“What size shoes do you wear Kara?”

“Size 8. What were they fighting about
downstairs?”

“Why you of course” Meryl laughed.

“Me?”

“I wouldn’t take it too seriously. I think
Liam was just trying to get a rise out of Ian. I wear an 8 and a
half so I think some of my shoes will fit you.”

“What did Ian say?”

Meryl smiled wickedly, “Ian told Liam to keep
his hands off you because you’re his.”

“His?”

“Well, aren’t you?”

“I…What did Liam say?”

“That you’re beautiful. You are that.”

Kara blushed. Why would Ian say she was his?
Was he jealous? She tried to remember if he’d seemed jealous when
she talked about men, but she didn’t do that often with Ian. Was
this a new thing? Didn’t Ian have tons of women eating out of his
hand? Why would he be jealous of Kara?