PS02 - Without Regret (13 page)

ago.

He leaned in, resting his hands on either side of her head so that his face was mere inches from hers. His eyes met hers, almost

daring her to give him another reason to manhandle her and god help her she actually considered taunting the bastard just so

that he would.

“Do we have an understanding?” he asked, leaning in closer until she could make out that minty fresh scent of his breath. Her

eyes dropped to his mouth and she swallowed the urge to lean forward and discover how minty his mouth really was.

She was actually starting to become a little frightened that the affects of the drugs weren’t wearing off. In fact, they seemed to

be becoming stronger, at least where Chris was concerned. Her fingers tingled with the need to reach up and run her fingers

through his short hair and muss it, and trace those dark arched eyebrows that looked like they needed to be soothed, down to

his checks and over his firm lips that looked like they seldom smiled. She would love to see him smile again.

This wasn’t good.

“W-when are the drugs going to wear off?” she somehow managed to ask as she wondered if his lips were as firm as they

looked or if they’d be gentle against hers.

Chris frowned down at her. “Drugs?” he repeated.

“Someone drugged you?” he demanded, sounding pissed as he cupped her face gently in his hands and carefully tilted her head

back so he could look into her eyes.

She snorted her disbelief as she reached up and shoved his hands away. “You can drop the act now. It wasn’t too difficult to

figure out,” she snapped, ducking away from his hands when he moved to cup her face again, but didn’t get far before he

grabbed her hand and yanked her back towards him.

“I have no idea what the hell you’re talking about, but if someone drugged you then I want to know about it,”

he snapped back, a little muscle in his jaw twitching menacingly as he glared down at her.

“You already know, you big jerk,” she cried, trying to tear her arm away from him. “Let me go!”

“No,” he said, ignoring her as she pounded on his hard chest with her free hand. “Tell me who drugged you,” he demanded,

practically seething with anger.

“You and your stupid friends!” she screamed in his face.

He noticeably started at the announcement.

For a moment he could only stare at her. “You think we drugged you?”

“I know you did!” she said, sick and tired of his games and this whole mess. She pulled her foot back and let it fly towards his

thigh or groin it didn’t matter at the moment. The only thing that mattered right now was taking some of her frustration out on

him and showing him that he couldn’t push her around without facing some consequences.

Unfortunately for her he caught her foot a split second later and she found herself tipped backwards and falling towards the

blacktop driveway and no doubt a concussion and a few broken bones. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut as she waited for

impact.

When it finally came it took her a few seconds to register that nothing hurt and that she felt oddly safe and protected. A split

second later she realized she was in Chris’ arms. Hesitantly, she opened her eyes to find him glaring down at her.

“You should have been able to see that move coming a mile away and counterattacked,” he bit out, looking pretty furious.

Seriously, what happened to the relaxed guy who not even twenty minutes ago was all nice and relaxed as he tried to give her

the “Join our Cult” speech? That guy she could have worked with, but this one was being a complete jerk and leaving her even

more confused than before.

“Well?” he demanded, walking back to the SUV with her in his arms as if she weighed nothing at all.

“Well what?” she snapped, needing him to put her down and give her some space. Being this close to him wasn’t exactly

escape plan formation friendly.

“Why didn’t you fight back?” he demanded, placing her bottom on the hood of the SUV and unfortunately for her, stepping in

between her legs and caging her there by placing his hands on either side of her legs.

“Um, a little personal space?” she said, sounding hopeful.

“You’re not getting any,” he said, leaning in closer and she could have sworn he was trying to unnerve her. Not that it wasn’t

working, but she had to wonder if he’d given up on his cult speech to try and intimidate answers out of her.

“Now, answer my question,” he said in a deceptively calm voice. She could tell by that little muscle ticking just below his left

eye that he was pissed, making her wonder why he would care if she knew how to fight. If she knew how to fight she wouldn’t

be in this mess, but she didn’t point that out even though she felt it was a valid point.

“I obviously don’t know how to fight,” she pointed out instead.

“Bullshit,” he snapped, making her jump. “You have more than enough natural ability to protect yourself, yet you allowed

yourself to be attacked this morning.”

She snorted. She really couldn’t help it. The man was not only crazy, but clearly delusional. “Let myself be attacked? Are you

serious?”

“Deadly,” he said, narrowing his beautiful green eyes on her.

“Look, buddy,” she said, getting pretty pissed herself as she reached out and pressed her hands against his warm bare hard

chest, forcing herself to ignore just how good it felt to touch him, and tried to shove him away.

When she couldn’t budge him she tried again.

His glare turned confused as he looked down at her hands. “What are you doing?”

“Shoving your psycho ass away from me!” she said, shoving him again.

He frowned down at her hands. “You should have been able to knock me on my ass,” he mumbled, sounding confused.

“And when I take those kickboxing lessons I will!” she snapped, giving up on her efforts to shove him away and dropped her

hands back into her lap.

He looked up at her, studying her so intensely that she fought against the urge to squirm. Finally he shook his head in disbelief.

“There’s no way you should have made it to twenty-seven without triggering your abilities,” he said quietly.

She rolled her eyes. “I have abilities, just not ass kicking abilities or believe me you’d pay for all those times you grabbed my

ass.”

For the first time since he’d turned into super jerk he smiled, a genuine pleased smile that did funny things to her stomach.

“Can’t stop thinking about that, can you?”

“Yeah, out of everything that’s happened to me your touching my ass has made the biggest impression,” she said dryly, only

slightly lying. The way she was reacting to his presence and touch was actually one of her biggest concerns.

“Tell me something, Munchkin,” he said, gently flicking his finger on the tip of her nose to get her attention, “was this morning

the first time you’ve been attacked?”

“First off, don’t call me Munchkin,” she said. “Secondly, you must be kidding. I grew up in New York where getting mugged

was a rite of passage,” she continued, ignoring the way that little muscle started to tick away angrily again.

“And what did you do when you were mugged?” he asked, leaning back slightly so he could look at her as she answered.

She shrugged. “Gave him my wallet and got into the fetal position. What else?”

“You dropped to the ground in a fetal position?” he nearly choked out.

“Of course. I always drop to the ground if there’s no possible way that I can run away,” she explained, wondering not for the

first time why the man was so damn obsessed with her fighting skills.

“You run away?” he repeated back slowly as if she’d spoken in a foreign language.

“Each and every time,” she said, knowing it would probably piss him off and unable to stop herself from doing it.

“Haven’t you ever tried to fight back?” he demanded.

“Of course I have, but I usually end up hurting myself in the process,” she said, holding her poor battered hand up pointedly,

earning another glare from him.

“Although, there was that time I took self-defense lessons at the gym that I was able to make my instructor cry,” she said,

wondering why she was actually enjoying screwing with him.

He looked pleased at her announcement. That is until she added, “But I really couldn’t blame him since I hadn’t meant to shut

the door on his finger.”

In an instant he was back to glowering and she decided to ignore him and take a moment to look around at her surroundings for

the first time since she hadn’t really had the chance to do so when she first arrived or when she was hanging outside the

window like an idiot.

She took in the huge two story white house, attached garage, big driveway, beautiful yard, apple trees and large inground pool

and frowned when she spotted the thick woods surrounding the property on every side.

Why couldn’t they have lived in a city? If she escaped, and she would, she was going to be lost for days in the woods before

someone found her or an animal mauled her.

“You should know how to fight,” Chris said, sounding pissed again.

Oh goody, angry Chris was back again, she thought dryly.

“Yeah, I’ll get right on that,” she said absently as she watched Ephraim storm out of the house, carrying a large black duffle bag

over his shoulder and heading their way.

“Let’s go,” he snapped, looking wound up and ready to kill something as he passed them to toss the bag in the back.

Just great. She had two pissed off men to deal with.

Lucky her, she mused as Chris threw her over his shoulder and proceeded to palm her ass again as he shoved her, this time

successfully, into the back of the vehicle.

She righted herself just as he slammed the door shut and watched him walk around the front of the car as he pulled on a black

tee shirt. Her eyes darted between the door handle and the woods almost twenty feet away from the car. If she could somehow

manage to open the door and make a run for it before they noticed she could”Forget it. You’ll never make it,” Ephraim said and

she started to play innocent, but decided not to waste her energy.

Instead she slumped back in her seat and tried not to freak out when they started driving away from all signs of civilization.

Her eyes darted back to the dashboard clock and she tried not to worry too much when she realized a whole half hour had

passed since the last time she spotted a house or any sign of civilization.

When Ephraim suddenly turned onto a bumpy dirt road, Isabella forced herself to face the obvious.

They were going to kill her.

She studied her surroundings, knowing if she managed to escape she would have to find her way back to the road.

Unfortunately she couldn’t make out much from the darkening night unless she looked ahead at the dirt path that could hardly be

called a road since it was illuminated by the vehicle’s headlights.

Since following the dirt road wasn’t the smart choice she was going to have to run and hide and wait until tomorrow morning

when she could see and hope it didn’t take too long to stumble across civilization.

“Are you sure they’re there?” Ephraim asked Chris.

“Yeah,” Chris said, looking down at a sleek black phone that caught Isabella’s attention twenty minutes ago. It was deceptively

plain, but she’d caught the graphics on the phone’s screen when Chris opened it and fell in love. Even when facing imminent

death she was a geek to the end.

“Jackson over in Davenport sent an alert that they were moving this way and since we already know what they’re after I have a

pretty good idea on how they’re going to try entering the town.”

Town? Isabella’s ears perked up at the word. If they were driving towards a town then there was definitely hope. Maybe she’d

run across someone who could help her.

“You don’t think they’ll go up the river and cut over on the north side?” Ephraim asked, still sounding pissed.

Whatever happened in that house obviously had the man on edge and she hoped distracted.

“No,” Chris said, returning the phone to his pocket. “It’s too crowded and besides that’s normally where we’d set up a patrol

so they’re going to try and go through the backdoor where they can stay out of sight.”

“Good point,” Ephraim said. “Did you have the men Eric left cover that area just in case?”

Chris nodded as he pulled a gun out of the glove compartment and checked the chamber, making Isabella even more nervous.

“He left behind four men. I had two of them patrol the north side and left the other two to patrol the woods surrounding our

property.”

“Shit,” Ephraim muttered, sounding truly unhappy.

“Madison’s scent,” he said, slamming his hands against the steering wheel andDid that thing just bend?

Isabella shifted slightly to the right to get a better look and sure enough both sides of the steering wheel were bent away from

Ephraim.

“Damn it,” Ephraim sighed, grabbing both sides of the wheels and carefully pulling them back until the steering wheel was

back to normal again.

“Great. Now I’m hallucinating again,” she mumbled, not at all happy with the way the drugs were attacking her system.

Ephraim shot her a quick questioning look over his shoulder. “What?”

Chris waved it off. “She thinks she’s been drugged.”

“Oh,” Ephraim said, sounding thoughtful. “That would explain why she’s acting so calmly about everything,”

he said, turning his attention back to the road.

“Yeah, but it’s going to make our job a hell of a lot harder,” Chris said, sighing.