Page 96 of Her Passionate Hero

“I never made it to him. I was ambushed.” She didn’t sound hurt.

“What the fuck do you mean you were ambushed. Alia, are you all right?” All three men were now giving him intent looks.

“Yes, I’m fine. But I’m worried as hell about Lottie. Mark has her, and I didn’t make the meeting, I was―”

“Goddammit, Aliana, tell me where the fuck you are,” Hunter roared.

“Come to the front of the high school. I’m in a black suburban. I’m with Nicolas and two of his friends.”

He’d started out the door as soon as she started to tell him where she was. He was on his bike by the time she said she was with Nicolas. If there was a God, he would have made it there by the time she had finished speaking, but instead, it required seven extra minutes. He pulled out his gun and aimed it at the driver.

“Come out with your hands up.”

“Hunter, these are friends,” Aliana yelled as she opened up the left rear door.

“Aliana, go sit on the curb.”

Aiden, Zed, and Dalton were beside him. The Audi was fast. They all had their guns drawn. Two Hispanic boys who probably hadn’t started shaving got out of the SUV with their hands up as well as a grinning Nicolas. Hunter didn’t know whether to hug him or beat the shit out of him. What the fuck was going on?

“Can I get up now?” Aliana was sitting on the cold cement, wearing a turquoise tunic and drawstring pants she’d bought from the hotel gift store. She had her hand up like she was in class, but her expression was hardly that of a student, it was more of a pissed off Vice Principal.

Now that he knew everything was in hand, he rushed over to her and swept her into his arms. He palmed the back of her head and searched her eyes, assuring himself she was okay. Please, say she hadn’t been traumatized.

Aliana wound her arms around his neck. “I knew you’d come.”

He crushed his lips against hers. He tried to get a modicum of control, but there was none to be had. She opened for him, welcomed him. The hot, sultry, Southern California air curled around them, adding another layer of heat to a kiss that was out of control.

“Hey, we have a mission here. Remember?” Zed yelled out.

“They can’t hear us. They’re deaf to the world,” Dalton laughed.

“Shut it, you two. Just wait til it happens to you,” Aiden said.

“Ms. Novak?” Nicolas whispered quietly. Aliana immediately started to pull away.

Hunter tucked her face into the crook of his neck, turning to look at Nicolas.

“Son, can you give us a report?” He watched as the young man’s shoulders straightened, and he looked at him and each of his teammates in turn.

“My real dad has Ms. Rodriguez. He’s going to use her to hurt you, Ms. Novak.”

“Sperm donor,” her words muffled as she said them into his shoulder. She pushed away from him and twisted to look at Nicolas. “He’s not your father Nicolas. He’s nothing more than a sperm donor. A father is someone who nurtures you and takes care of you. This asshole did nothing more than supply some DNA. He’s not your dad, Honey.”

Hunter watched as the kid brightened. Jesus, here they were in the middle of a kidnapping, potential torture mess, and she’s working on lifting up a kid’s self-esteem. First, he was going to kill some people, then he was going to figure out what mountains he had to move, but goddammit, he was not going to lose Aliana ever again.

“Hunter,” she whispered.

“Yeah?”

“You’re kind of squeezing me a little too tightly.” Her eyes were dancing.

He kissed the tip of her nose and loosened his hold. He turned to the others.

“Okay, we need a plan.”

Chapter Fourteen

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. What in the hell was Lorenzo doing at the tattoo parlor? Hunter might have thought he had come prepared, but he was an amateur compared to Dalton and Aiden. That’s how he was on the roof across the street with a pair of high powered binoculars which allowed him to see into the second floor window of the tattoo parlor.