She shifted her body against the seat. I looked over and thought back to our earlier conversation. “I hardly know you, yet I feel safe with you,” she’d said. I didn’t say it, but ever since the first time I saw her, I’d felt an overpowering need to protect her.
“Decker?”
“Yes, sweetheart?” I smiled.
“Does it bother you that I always fall asleep?”
I grasped her hand, rubbing the back of it with my thumb. “There are occasions that I imagine it would bother me very much. While I’m driving isn’t one of them.”
Her cheeks turned pink, and she shifted again, this time crossing her feet in front of her. I released her hand and rested mine on her leg.
Her muscles flexed as she squeezed her thighs together, sending a current of need from my hand straight to my cock.
“You can’t look at me like that, baby,” I said, hating that I had to tear my eyes away from her to watch the road.
“I can’t help it.”
I groaned. “God, Mila. You’re killing me.”
“I’m sorry.” She spoke the words, but the look on her face said she wasn’t the least bit apologetic.
“Do you know how much I want to kiss you right now?”
Her lower lip stuck out just slightly when she nodded and it did me in. I couldn’t wait another minute not just to kiss her, but to hold her in my arms, to feel her skin against mine.
I turned the truck off the highway and onto a road that was familiar to me. I parked under a tree and unfastened her seatbelt at the same time as mine. I leaned across the console, my hand on her nape, and pulled her to me. “I’m going to kiss you, Mila, and I’m not going to be gentle about it.”
She didn’t hesitate. The moment the last word left my mouth, she kissed me. I wanted to hold her, touch her, feel her naked skin, but I kept myself from doing anything more than wind my tongue around hers. I am an aggressor by nature; that’s who I am. I couldn’t be that way with Mila, though. I had to let her take the lead, let me know what she was comfortable with and how far she was ready to take things between us.
When I pulled back to look at her, something else caught my eye. We were out in the middle of fucking nowhere, but not far from where I’d parked, I could see another vehicle. We had a goddamn tail, and I hadn’t noticed.
“Fasten your seatbelt,” I said, keeping my eyes on the dark SUV I could see from the passenger-side mirror.
“What’s happening?”
“We have company, but don’t worry, they won’t be with us long.”
I threw the truck into gear and put the gas pedal to the floor. Instead of speeding off in the opposite direction, I spun around and drove straight at the other vehicle. Whoever it was—and I intended to find out—would have no time to even get the SUV started, let alone try to escape the oncoming vehicle.
“Keep your seatbelt on, but get down as low as you can,” I told Mila.
Gun drawn, I pulled up alongside the other vehicle and fired twice, hitting both tires on the driver’s side before I continued back onto the highway.
Part of me had hoped the man behind the wheel was Adler Livingston. It wasn’t, which is why I hadn’t fired at the driver instead of the tires.
I got off at the next exit and drove down the side roads of the small town until I was certain no one else was following us. I pulled over and held my hand out to Mila, wishing I could still her trembling.
“Did you see who it was?”
“It wasn’t Adler.” I kept one hand on hers and pulled my phone out with the other. I punched in the license plate number and a description of the vehicle and sent it to Mac before calling him.
“Who do you know in Grover?”
“Allen Bach is the sheriff.”
“Have him get whoever is available to State Road 114, about a quarter mile from the highway. Suspected link to Sybil Knight’s murder. Vehicle is disabled.”
“What did you do?”