Page 11 of Accidentally a Dragon Daddy

“But they don’t,” I whispered.

Silence followed my statement.

“You should go.”

I backed away, looking up into his eyes. “What?”

“You should go,” he said, pointing at the mostly loaded SUV. “Until it gets sorted out.”

The implications of his idea settled over me. “You want me to run from the cops?” I hissed. “Are you nuts? That’ll just make me look more guilty!”

“Listen, you said it yourself, this has to be some sort of mistake. Or you’re being framed. Either way, what you need is time for the police to figure things out, discover the truth. They aren’t going to get you if you’re behind the lines.”

“But they’ll say I tried to flee. That’ll make me look guilty.”

“You won’t be fleeing, though,” Rob said with a smile as crooked as his nose. “Because you don’t know they’re after you.”

“Huh?”

“You’re just doing your job, don’t you see? You leave now before anyone has found you or told you anything. You were too busy to check your phone, which you never take with you anyway. You cross the border, and boom, you’re gone for days. Days the police can use to uncover the truth. They’ll track me down, and I’ll try to get things sorted out. By the time you come back, hopefully, you’ll be free!”

“You’re taking an awfully big risk,” I said quietly. “Covering for me. Pretending you didn’t know.”

He patted my shoulder, ever the elder brother type. “Don’t worry about me. It’ll be my word against their suspicions. They’ll never know. That’s the least I can do for you.”

Despite all Rob was willing to do for me, I still hesitated. Could we pull it off? It wasn’t like I would be doing something unprecedented. It was my job, after all. I was simply going where they couldn’t reach me. Not right away, at least. As Rob had said, I’d be coming back.

But I was innocent. That should count for something, right?

Except they had my DNA at the crime scene. The house of a man I’d never met, let alone heard of. It was impossible.

“Go,” Rob urged, grabbing some blankets and stuffing them into any open space he could find. “Go now, Lena.”

He so rarely used the shortened version of my name.

“Okay,” I said. “Fine. I’ll go do this run. Then I’ll come back, and hopefully, everything will be sorted out by then.”

“It will be,” he assured me. “I still have some contacts with the feds from my days with the Agency. I’ll call in what favors I can.”

“Thank you,” I said gratefully, rising on my tiptoes to give him a peck on the cheek. “I appreciate it.”

“Don’t mention it,” he said. “Now, come on. Let’s get you packed up and out of here.”

He didn’t say “before the police arrive,” but he didn’t have to. We both knew time was short, and so we got to work.

Chapter Seven

Elanya

I pulled my foot off the gas as the needle inched to the right on the speedometer. Too fast. I was going too fast, and that would attract attention I desperately couldn’t afford.

Murder. It was crazy.

Almost as crazy as running for it.

“You aren’t running for it,” I said, saying the words out loud as I stared in the rearview mirror, trying to convince my reflection it was true. “You’re just pretending you have no idea what’s going on. Because you are innocent.”

The eyes frantically searching the road behind me suggested otherwise as I scanned for the flashing lights I knew had to appear at some point. It wasn’t going to work. It just wasn’t. They were going to catch me and throw me in jail.

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