Page 5 of Fully Loaded

Candace stepped in front of him. “Cab’s waiting.” She cupped her hands around his fist and tugged. He didn’t budge, and the sultry glimmer in her eye vanished.

He dropped his hand and her hold loosened. “Sorry. I just got some bad news. I need to go.”

“Are you serious? You’re bailing?”

He towed her by her elbow toward the cab. Was he really bailing on sex just because he’d received a frantic long-distance call from his ex? How pathetic was that?

“I’m sorry.” He peeled out a fifty-dollar bill, placed it in her hand, and tucked her into the cab.

“Wait.” She dug in her purse and slapped a card in his palm. “Call me if you come to your senses.” The cab rolled away and he turned to pace in the shadows. All Brock wanted to do was kick his own ass. Not for ditching Candace but for once again putting his life on hold for Dani.

He couldn’t fucking help it. He had some kind of compulsion—she called, and he came running. He found the number that had cockblocked him and hit redial. The line rang once, twice, three times . . . Christ. If he’d just canned Candace for nothing he’d?—

“Hello.” Dani’s raspy voice broke through his consciousness.

“Yeah, it’s me. This better be good.” A sound crackled in the background and she inhaled. “What’s that? Where are you?”

“Uh. Just a storm.” A beat passed. “I’m in Geneva.”

He folded his arm under his elbow. That didn’t surprise him. After her kidnapping, he’d told her about his cousin who’d just moved to Geneva and she’d gushed about always wanting to travel there. Dani was the type to follow through with all her wants.

Except when it came to him.

“You’re breathing, I hear. Not being held captive, I assume. What’s the emergency?” If his voice was a little terse, too bad. He’d put his life on the line to rescue her from Milo’s dad just three months ago. Although he hadn’t expected that to mend all the broken pieces between them, it had to stand for something. Especially since she’d been glued to his side for the first two days after she was safe. Then her shield of armor went up again, blocking him out. A day later they’d had a blowout fight about all their past shit and went right back to not talking. Dani had a lot of great qualities. An ability to forgive wasn’t one of them.

A long, exhausted sigh met his ears. “’Course you’d bring that up. Yes, physically I’m fine. But a couple hours ago, two men were in my apartment. I climbed out my third-story window and into one of the neighbor’s units, cut the building’s electricity, stabbed a man in the leg, then beat him in the head with a frying pan.” Her voice trembled on the last part. “Then I shot a man and here I am. So yeah, I guess by your standards, I’m perfectly fine.”

Brock fished his keys out of his pocket and unlocked his SUV. He couldn’t get that involved again, but he also couldn’t not help. What the hell he was supposed to do from halfway across the world was beyond him, though. He opened the door, dropped into the driver’s seat, and turned over the ignition. He’d had only two drinks over the last three hours, and even if he’d been drunk as a skunk, this conversation would have sobered him right up.

He stretched his fingers around the steering wheel and measured his words. “Dani, are you all right?” He kept his voice even, controlled. Something about her always softened him. Trying to stay mad at Dani was like trying to squeeze water from a rock. Was he bitter? Yes. Hurt? Hell yeah. Angry? No.

A memory of the day he’d met her, sixteen years ago, floated into his mind, and a smile tugged at his mouth. He’d come out of a CD store to find her cutting the lock on his bike. He’d been sixteen at the time and she’d been twelve. Even though he’d caught her red-handed, her defiant blue eyes had dared him to do something about it. He’d promised her ten bucks if she’d let him walk her home. At the time, she’d been far too young to spark any interest in him other than for her well-being, and it was at that moment that he’d nominated himself as her protector of sorts.

“Mmm.” The sound came out strained, as if she were holding back a wave of emotion.

“Take some deep breaths for me.” Silence stretched almost as long as the distance that separated them. He knew her well enough to know that if she could have sent a laser beam through the receiver and blasted his head off, she would have. But a second later, three inhales and exhales followed.

“Better?”

“Yes.”

“When did all this happen? What time is it there?”

“It’s almost six in the morning. I heard them come into my apartment just after three.”

“What have you been doing this whole time?”

“Driving.” Fatigue laced her voice and worry tugged at his heart. She was exhausted, being hunted, and too afraid to stop. “I just pulled into a hotel parking lot. I figure they need to get their wounds taken care of before they look for me again.” She chuckled, but the sound pitched.

He buckled his seatbelt and pulled away from the curb. “I want to know more about what got you into this, but for now, you need to get somewhere safe. Remember my cousin Leland?”

“Yeah, I thought of him. I don’t want to risk staying with anyone, though. It would be too dangerous.”

He rubbed his thumb under the edge of the seatbelt at his chest. She was right. And the last thing he wanted to do was endanger his family. But there wasn’t anything else he could do from California to keep her safe. He’d call Leland in the morning anyway. Maybe he had a connection.

“It’s fine. I’ll rest my eyes until checkout and then find somewhere else to go.”

“You should come home.”