Page 49 of Forbidden Access

Despite the situation, it felt good to be on the road again.

Thorn tightened her grip around his waist, and he smiled into the darkness. The fact she was behind him made it even better. The altitude made his ears pop, but he barely noticed, his mind focused on the ride and the woman molded to his back.

It was easy to imagine a different scenario. One where he was free, and she was his woman. They were on vacation, taking a joy ride, just the two of them. Except that fantasy had come to a shattering halt when the two men with guns had burst into their hotel. He’d thought they were safe, but he’d been wrong.

Thank God Thorn had woken up. He hadn’t heard a thing.

If it had been a couple of hours earlier, neither of them would have seen it coming. He ground his jaw at the sobering thought.

She was right. Fooling around was distracting, and it put both their lives at risk.

But he was right too. They did have something special, but he knew now that something special would have to wait.

He’d admit that much.

Finally, after what felt like hours of winding through the mountains, they crested the highest point of the pass. The road began its descent, the landscape opening up into a vast expanse of rugged terrain, punctuated by distant peaks that seemed to stretch on forever.

A dusty intersection came into view, illuminated softly by streetlights, and he felt Thorn tap him on the shoulder. He pulled over beneath a weathered signpost and cut the engine. The silence that followed was almost deafening, broken only by the ticking of the cooling engine and the faint rustle of the wind.

“You gonna tell me what happened?” He twisted around in the seat.

Thorn dismounted and marched up and down, stretching her legs—legs that seemed to go on and on in those leggings. She wore trainers but no socks. Neither did he. There’d been no time. “I heard a scream and went to take a look. I saw Isabella with two thugs. One had a knife to her throat.”

“Jesus,” he hissed. “Was she okay?”

“I hope so. She told them she hadn’t seen us, and he seemed to believe her.”

“That’s why we put everything in the closet?” He was catching on. She hadn’t wanted to leave any trace of their stay.

She nodded. “I thought about taking them out, but firstly, I couldn’t be sure they wouldn’t hurt Isabella or Clara, and secondly, it would confirm we were there. When they didn’t check in, whoever sent them would know we were on the run.”

“Alek,” he hissed.

“Could be. The men spoke Spanish, and they looked like hired mercenaries. Is that something Markov would do?”

His eyes slanted. “Yeah.”

She nodded. “What I don’t understand is how he found us. We didn’t tell anyone where we were going. The only people who knew our location were Anna, Hawk, Pat, and the chopper pilot.”

“You think there is a leak?” he asked, frowning.

She gnawed on her lower lip. “I friggin’ hope not, otherwise we’re in a shitload of trouble.”

She could say that again. How the hell were they going to make it to the conference if they didn’t know who to trust? He didn’t say as much, however, since they were in the middle of nowhere and there was nothing they could do about it right now. The most important thing was to get out of sight.

“Which way?” He glanced up at the signpost. “We’d better not spend too long out in the open.” The sign was old, the paint faded, but still readable: one direction pointed back to Puebla, another toward Veracruz, and the third straight ahead, deeper into the heart of Mexico.

“Let me take a look.” Thorn unfolded the map, spreading it out on the seat of the bike. She studied it quickly, and he could see her mind working through their options. “We head straight, toward Mexico City. If they do suspect we were in Las Piedras, they’ll expect us to go toward Veracruz or back to Puebla, but I think we should take the opposite route.”

Damian rubbed his jaw. “Shouldn’t we steer clear of the big cities?”

“We're not going into the city.” She traced a route on the map with her finger. “We’ll bypass it and head toward the Sierra de Puebla mountains. There’s a place I know there, deep in the hills, where we can lay low for a few days, maybe longer if we need to. It’s remote—off the grid. I’ll call Pat from there and tell him what happened.”

He frowned. “Why didn’t you mention this place before? We could have gone there instead of Las Piedras.”

“It’s my parents’ place, or rather it was. It’s mine now. I didn’t want to use it for an op, but now…” She shrugged.

“Now it could save our ass,” he finished for her. He was dying to know how her folks had a place out here, but he shelved that question for later. Again, it wasn’t the time.

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