Page 32 of Edge of Danger

He didn’t know the first thing about her. Not really. Nothing substantial. Only that she loved Walker. At least they agreed about that.

Otherwise? He’d imagined her going to a hotel, maybe getting a manicure or whatever young women did when they wanted to pamper themselves. A facial, a haircut. It wasn’t like he knew a lot about those things.

Now, he tried to imagine the situation through the eyes of a woman with nowhere else to go.

But why didn’t she have any other options? That was the question. He had nothing but questions about her.

She was behind a strip mall. He rounded the corner of the store on the end and instantly made out the shape of his car parked in the shadows of a line of trees behind the loading area.

And the sight of another car swinging into view at the opposite end of the mall, headlights washing over the glass-strewn concrete. It was barely dawn. What were they doing there?

It was clear soon enough as the car stopped and two men jumped out and headed straight for his car, marching with fisted hands swinging at their sides.

Brax acted before he thought, flooring the gas pedal, tires squealing as he raced their way. His approach startled them both into stopping.

“What are you doing?” he demanded on rushing out of the Jeep. “Get out of here.”

One of them snorted. “Get lost, boy scout.”

“I don’t know who you’re looking at, but I’m well past the age of being a boy scout.” When the second man continued toward the car, even trying to open one of the doors, he shouted, “I said, leave it alone.”

“Who the hell are you?”

“I’m the guy whose car you’re touching, and you might want to take your hands off it right damn now.” Brax didn’t raise his voice.

Suddenly, so suddenly all three of them jumped in surprise, the door swung open and out popped Tessa.

Brax didn’t have time to figure out the implications of this—Had she slept in the car? Why?—before he caught sight of what she held in one hand.

The bat he’d forgotten he’d left in the back seat.

“Get in the Jeep!” he shouted, moving forward to put himself between Tessa and the men now stalking toward her.

One of the men shoved him, or tried to, and was visibly surprised when Brax didn’t budge. And even more surprised when Brax’s fist crashed into his jaw and sent him falling back.

Tessa grunted. Brax turned to her, ready to kill whoever had put their hands on her, but found that she’d grunted in the act of swinging the bat and it connecting with the second man.

“He was going to jump you from behind,” she gasped, looking down at the man who’d collapsed with both hands against his lower back.

Brax didn’t waste time waiting for the guys to recover. He took her hand, running for the Jeep. She jumped inside and within moments, they’d fled the lot.

“They’ll follow us.” She sounded so confident. And so flat. Matter-of-fact.

“I trust they will.” It was the Riviera cartel. It had to be. They’d been searching for his car.

And he might’ve gotten her killed.

She turned in the seat, peering behind them. “Yeah, I see a car coming out of the parking lot. Turn as soon as you can. They might not see us yet, especially if they’re both dazed.”

“They’ll be dazed and furious,” he grunted, knowing the lengths men like that would go to make somebody pay for hurting them. He took a quick right, tires squealing, and thanked his lucky stars there weren’t many cars on the road at this time of the morning.

She faced forward again. “Maybe that little side street,” she suggested, pointing up ahead. How was she still so calm? Was she in shock?

She should’ve been screaming. Demanding answers. If he hadn’t gotten there when he had...

He turned onto the side street and cruised a little more slowly. They were now in a residential area. The last thing he wanted was to strike an innocent bystander out for their morning jog.

Tessa looked behind them again. “I think they just turned onto the street three blocks back. I can’t really make out the car.”

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