Page 75 of Be Courageous

With his heart in his throat, Miles reconsidered his timeline. His angel clearly needed to sleep before he took her anywhere. As he consulted his watch, a huge yawn overtook him, nearly unhinging his jaw and causing his eyes to water. He’d be a lot sharper himself after a power nap.

“Okay, we’ll rest first. And then we’ll leave.”

Rounding McKenzie’s bed to gauge her response, he found her fast asleep. His heart clutched with emotion as he gazed down at her. She’d be a lot more comfortable under the covers, but he didn’t want to wake her, either. He contented himself with lifting her dainty feet onto the mattress and sliding a pillow under her head.

Possessive feelings stormed him as he fetched a blanket from the closet and shook it over her. From this day forward, he would stay with her, protect her with his life if he had to. Who cared about what happened with his career? But what about his mother?

Guilt needled him as he pictured his sweet mother living all alone. Then again, that was Dad’s fault, not his. And it wasn’t like Miles had a choice. McKenzie needed him even more than his mother did.

* * *

A frightening dream jerked McKenzie awake. For an awful second, she thought she was still on Ashton’s yacht, trapped in his smothering grip and threatened with being cut into little pieces. But it was Miles’s sleeping visage that greeted her as she rolled over and found him sprawled atop the second bed fully dressed, while a midday sun beamed through the window beyond him.

His soft snore muted the swift beat of her heart as she memorized every angle of his face, the way his dark lashes fanned his cheekbones.

It hurt to love him so much. But it would hurt even more to watch him give up everything for her sake. She had to take responsibility for her own actions, not put Miles in a position that forced him to break ties with the FBI, to lose his job. Why should both of their lives be ruined?

Slipping quietly off the bed so as not to wake him, she went to collect her things. With stealth she had learned as a child to avoid her father’s notice, she let herself out of the hotel room and closed the heavy door soundlessly behind her. As she coursed the corridor in her bare feet, she passed a housekeeping cart. How was it possible that just yesterday she’d been cleaning rooms for a living? It felt like days had passed.

Down two flights of stairs she hurried, before she emerged into bright sunshine at one end of the hotel. Vulnerability assailed her.What do I do now?

Exactly what she ought to have done last night—head straight for the bus station and leave town.

On North King Street, midday traffic whizzed past her. McKenzie sought to orient herself. Where was the Sea Dip in relation to this hotel? All the restaurants, all the souvenir shops along this four-lane road looked the same. But the bus had to stop around here somewhere, so she started up the sidewalk, barefooted, careful not to step on glass. Did she dare spend the scant money she’d counted in the bathroom to buy herself some sandals?

The sight of a police cruiser halfway up the block broke her stride. A deputy popped out of it, intent on leaving a parking ticket on a car parked near a fire hydrant. As he tucked it underneath the violator’s windshield wiper, he caught sight of McKenzie and stared. In Savannah, many young policemen had joined the Cohort. Surely, that wasn’t the case here.

All the same, McKenzie backtracked to the crosswalk to avoid walking past the deputy. She had nearly made it to the other side when an approaching car, rather than stop for her, sped up and cut her off.

She checked her indignant outburst as the driver’s window came down, revealing a tight-lipped man in a dark suit and sunglasses.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

Special Agent Higgins! Dismay froze her in her tracks.How had he found her so quickly?

“Get in the car.” He jerked his head toward the door behind him.

A car horn blared in her ear, urging her to do just that. Instead, she darted around the back of Higgins’s car and hurried to the curb.I can’t go back to WITSEC. I can’t!

A frightened glance back showed Higgins’s passenger door opening. Out climbed Drake Ellis.Him, too?

Oh, help.They were going to put her right back into the program, and this nightmare would continue until some Centurion caught up to her and killed her.

Running was stupid, especially in bare feet. But the instinct to flee overpowered McKenzie’s reason. She hadn’t run half a block before Miles’s father caught up to her, hooked her from behind with his powerful arms, carried her kicking and squirming back to Higgins’s car. Passersby gawked at them, clearly uncertain what was going on.

The words Mr. Ellis spoke into her ear finally penetrated, causing McKenzie to cease her struggles.

“Calm down, McKenzie. It’s okay, I swear. We’re on your side. None of this was supposed to happen. You’ll be safe now.”

CHAPTER6

Abrisk knock at the door startled Miles awake.

He sat straight up. Seeing an empty room, his skin flashed cold.

“Angel?” He leapt out of bed and peered into the dark bathroom on his way to the door, his panic blooming. This had to be her at the door. In case it wasn’t, he withdrew his Glock from under his pant leg, even as he peered through the peephole.

A vision of his father’s frowning face made Miles blink. Impossible. How had his father found him here when Miles had no cell phone that could be traced? Unless…He hauled the door open and saw his guess was right. McKenzie stood in the grip of a square-jawed man whose attire screamed U.S. Marshal—black suit, white shirt, black sunglasses.

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