AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, I’m just kidding. But are you starting to understand, yet?”
“Understand what, specifically?”
I toy with a stray strand of hair at my temple.
“You can understand that I’mnotsome spoiled, rich kid from Beverly Hills. I’m just a regular girl.”
“You’re not.”
I give him a look and he holds his hand up.
“Let me elaborate. I mean, you’re not a girl, you’re a woman. And I don’t think you’re anything like ordinary.”
A smile spreads over my face, mirroring the giddy heat spreading in my body. Grayson’s praise hits me like rain on a parched desert.
A heavy thump, followed by a clattering sound comes from outside. Grayson leaps to his feet and produces a pistol out of nowhere before I even have time to be scared.
But the fear hits me, all right. It grabs me and doesn’t let go.
16
GRAYSON
Ifeel the familiar rush of adrenaline, and on instinct I calm it down. One of the first things you learn in the CIA is to manage your emotions. Adrenaline might be great for housewives lifting a fridge off of their husbands, but too much makes one shaky and unable to properly aim a firearm.
It doesn’t help me calm down at all, protecting Charlotte. I’ve done plenty of ‘escort’ jobs where I was supposed to keep an asset safe. The thing is, all those other times, I was usually protecting someone not much better than the criminals who wanted them dead.
Charlotte is too good for this world. That doesn’t mean I want her to leave it anytime soon. I have to keep things together, and not let my emotions run away with me.
If they haven’t done so already.
“Get down,” I whisper, gesturing toward the sofa. “Behind the couch. Get as low as possible.”
I flatten my back against the wall beside the cabin door as she obeys. I catch a glimpse of her chocolate brown eyes, filled with fear, before she vanishes behind the sofa.
I flick the safety off with my thumb and grasp the doorknob. My ears strain to hear any sound. How many men are out there? How close? What kind of weapons do they have? With only silence rewarding my efforts, it’s impossible to determine what I’m up against.
They’ll be watching the front door. The cabin only has one. Damn it, I should have taken that into account. How did they even find us up here? I made sure we weren’t being followed…
Didn’t I?
Nothing for it. I have to breach the door. I twist the knob, then shove hard outward. The door swings open and bangs against the side of the cabin. I hear more skittering outside.
I take a breath, then let it out slowly through my nose. I crouch down by the door frame and use it for cover, exposing the bare minimum of my body. Staring down the sight of my pistol, I search for the invaders to our little slice of Eden.
A chattering noise draws my attention to a nearby tree. The fat, furry shape there stares down at me with open suspicion. I check the woodpile and find it’s toppled over into chaotic disarray.
A raccoon. I came out here and pointed a gun at a damn raccoon.
I give the area one last, lingering check just to be sure. Then I keep my pistol in my hand as I investigate the woodpile. The only signs of life I find are little paw prints.
Still not satisfied, I hike a hundred feet down the road and make absolutely sure no one else is around. I even shine my cell phone light onto the turf, looking for tire tracks that don’t match my Jeep.
When I’m finally satisfied it was all a false alarm, I head back to the cabin. I don’t see Charlotte when I enter, but I can hear her breathing.
“You can come out now. It was just a raccoon.”
She pops up from behind the sofa, trembling visibly.
