Page 2 of Guarded By Them

“We haven’t got much time.” Kodee’s expression was serious. “We need to gather our stuff, then put distance between us and the city. We need to get you far away from here, and the best way of doing that is by plane, and you need ID to board one.”

Sudden panic filled me. “I don’t want to go anywhere without any of you.”

“You won’t be,” he reassured me. “We’re coming with you. We all have several identities.” He scrubbed his hand over his mouth. “Shit, why didn’t we think to make Rue a new identity before now?”

“Wait a minute,” Dillon said. “We haven’t thought this through. What about Ryan and his leg? He’s going to miss all his appointments.”

“I’ll be fine,” Ryan growled. He didn’t like to be thought of as an invalid or treated as such. “I can find a new doctor when we get settled.”

“Settled?” parroted Dillon. “And when is that going to be?”

Kodee tightened his lips. “We don’t have any answers to this stuff yet, Dillon, and you’re not helping by throwing obstacles in the way.”

A muscle flickered by the corner of Dillon’s left eye. “I’m just trying to be realistic. Someone has to be.”

“If you’ve changed your mind,” I said, my voice small, “I won’t hold it against you. I completely understand.”

“We’re way past the point of changing our minds, Rue,” Dillon snapped. “Men are dead, and the boss of those men is going to want to hold someone accountable.”

“Me. They can hold me accountable.” I straightened my full five-feet-two frame and lifted my chin.

But he shook his head. “Sorry, sweetheart, but that’s not going to be good enough. Not anymore.”

Unease swirled inside me. Dillon had changed his mind. He’d said he would protect me, and love me, but now the reality about what that actually meant had come crashing down, he’d realized it wasn’t such a good idea after all.

“No one’s changed their mind.” Ryan glared at Dillon.

Dillon shoved his hands in his pockets. “No, I haven’t, Rue. I’m sorry if that’s what I made you think. I just mean that we can’t go back now. The damage has been done.”

That alleviated some of the tightening in my chest, but I still felt terrible. “I’m sorry,” I whispered, unable to look at them.

“Stop saying that.” Kodee’s tone was firm. “You didn’t ask to be brought to us. That was on Dillon’s head, remember? And you didn’t ask to witness anyone being killed. Going even farther back, you didn’t ask to be sold into this life either. The blame isn’t on you, Rue. Stop saying sorry.”

I pressed my lips together and nodded. I knew everything he’d said was true, yet it was hard to escape the guilt. These men weren’t innocents. They were living a life of crime and associating with those who committed even worse crimes. But they were also sexy and loving, and funny, and generous, and had given me a real home and a place of belonging for the first time in my life. If only we didn’t now have to run from that home.

“Come on,” Kodee said. “Let’s get this done.”

He turned and marched across the apartment to the room they used as a workspace. The door was locked, but he opened it with a key he fished out of his pocket, and we all followed him in.

It was the first time I’d entered the office. The walls were padded with soundproofing material, a way of preventing anyone getting suspicious about what was going on in here. The window was blocked up as well, so even though we were on the top story, no one—such as a window cleaner who might accidentally catch sight of the equipment—would be able to look in.

Kodee strode over to the bank of desks in the middle of the room, which held what appeared to be a large printing machine. “We don’t have time to create a full passport for you, Rue. We’ll take what we need to get it done, but we might have to call in some favors.”

“What about all the printing equipment?” Dillon asked.

Kodee glanced around, and I could see the regret in his deep brown eyes. “We’re going to have to leave it.”

Dillon’s eyebrows shot up his forehead. “It’s hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gear.”

“It’s only stuff. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we’re all still alive, and that we stay that way.”

He was right. Kodee was our level-headed one. The rest of us would fall to pieces if he wasn’t here.

Kodee grabbed a bag from under a table and set about picking up items from the worksurfaces and dumping them in.

He nodded to the corner of the room. “Empty the safe.”

I hadn’t even seen a safe, but Ryan lifted a mirror from the wall, and behind it was a safe set into the brickwork. He bit his lower lip, his eyebrows drawing together as he concentrated, spinning a dial to land on numbers, before something clicked inside the locking mechanism.

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