Page 13 of Critical Strike

From there, she hadn’t known what to do other than drive around aimlessly. Nightfall found her outside of Austin, a couple of hours from San Antonio. Wanting to see if Ballard was tracking her, she paid for a room with a credit card, then hid behind the fast-food joint across the street and watched.

Sure enough, it hadn’t taken long before the same men who’d broken into her house appeared. They’d gone inside the hotel and Claire had no doubt they knew what room she’d been given—it would be easy for Ballard to hack a computer system.

Claire had gotten back into her car, once again parked down the road, and left. Her little experiment had proven just what she thought it would. Ballard would trace her any time she used a credit or debit card.

She’d slept in her car at a rest area that night—as much as she could sleep, which wasn’t much at all.

Not knowing who to trust and being down to her last few dollars, she’d gone to her last foster family’s house. The Romeros had cared for Claire through the tail end of high school and still checked in with Claire every once in a while to see how she was doing.

She was running out of money and soon wouldn’t be able to feed herself or Khan. Popping into the Romeros’ and getting a meal—and maybe a bed that wasn’t her car—had seemed like the perfect plan. They’d definitely take her in for a day or two. Give her a chance to rest and figure out a plan.

She’d parked down at the end of the block and had been walking toward their house, rehearsing her story in her head, when she’d realized there was a car at the curb across from the Romeros’ house.

They were being watched.

She’d immediately turned to make it look like she was going to a neighbor’s house, then as soon as she was out of sight of the car, had jumped a fence—leading to more scratches and bruises—and run to her car in a panic.

Her entire body had been shaking. Ballard had figured out where she would go before she had. He had resources she hadn’t even dreamed about.

He was going to hunt her down wherever she went. There was nowhere she could go where he wouldn’t find her. And going to the police without evidence was just going to make it her word against Ballard’s.

He was a millionaire businessman with huge ties to the community. He had friends everywhere and was highly influential.

She was...nobody. No friends. No family.

She’d spent another night in her car, in a random apartment complex parking lot, nearly out of gas and hope. When she’d watched the sun come up, trying to keep from having a complete breakdown, a last-ditch plan had come to her.

Luke.

It had been his voice in her mind telling her to get out of Passage Digital.

She’d never forgotten him. Had wondered what had happened to him.

Then she’d seen him on the news a few weeks back, stoic and handsome. The same Luke, but all grown up. Obviously successful and...

No longer Luke Baldwin, like when she’d known him. He was Luke Patterson now.

Of San Antonio Security.

Protection was definitely what she needed, and she prayed maybe he could help her. Protect her like he had when they were kids.

That was, if he even remembered her.

But she hadn’t had any other options, so she’d looked up San Antonio Security’s office and driven there. She sat in the parking lot across the street for three hours before finally going inside.

He’d remembered her.

He’d helped her.

He’d somehow heated the female parts of her she wasn’t even sure worked correctly. Despite her fear and exhaustion, a few minutes in Luke’s presence had her more wound up than any of the guys she’d had relationships with during college—all two of them.

She turned off the water and towel-dried her body, getting dressed in one of the two sets of clothes she had left to her name. Then she lay down on the bed, rubbing Khan’s gray fur, stretching as she thought of Luke.

No matter how uncharacteristically revved up he’d gotten her, she still hadn’t been able to tell him the truth. What if he didn’t believe her?

Even if he did buy her story, he couldn’t protect her from Ballard. No one could. But he’d bought her a little time.

Khan meowed again and climbed up next to her head on the pillow.

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