Page 12 of Explosive Vengeance

Heath shot her an incredulous look.You gotta be shitting me.She’d held him at knifepoint, stolen his phone, and he was just supposed to go with her now to wherever she was going and pretend he was okay with it?

She lifted a dark blond eyebrow. “What’s the matter, you scared?”

“No,” he bit out, even though yeah, she was kinda scary and made his balls shrivel.

One side of her mouth curved up, somewhere between a challenge and a taunt. “If I’d wanted to kill you, you’d already be dead. I’m not letting you out of my sight until I can verify your story, and I’m not doing that here. So come on. We gotta go.” She darted a glance around them, then gave an impatient jerk of her head. “Now.”

He bit back the defensive retort that immediately sprang to his tongue. She might have gotten the drop on him initially because he hadn’t expected any kind of threat from her, but he could hold his own and wasn’t as easy a target as she seemed to think, his bleeding inner thigh notwithstanding.

For a few seconds he considered saying screw this and walking away. But a promise was a promise. He owed Ty and had given him his word that he’d watch Chloe, and he would, whether she was nuts and dangerous or not. Besides, now he wanted answers. “Where are we going?” he said with a scowl.

“You’ll find out soon enough. Move.” She gestured toward the parking lot, her hand near her waist, ready to draw her blade again.

Heath started for the lot, biting back a retort and shaking his head at himself. He’d thought this favor would help even things out on the debt scale with Ty? Not freaking likely.

You owe me for this, you tight-lipped bastard. Big time.

Chloe directed him to the rental car section of the parking lot. He kept a wary eye on her, having a newfound respect for her abilities and vowing to remain vigilant about watching his back until this little detour in his holiday was over. And that couldn’t come soon enough, because there was obviously a lot more going on than he realized.

Question was, how much did Ty really know?

Heath had come here to protect a woman in danger, but from where he stood, the real danger was Chloe herself.

****

She’s so hot, but she almost cut my balls off.

Heath still couldn’t quite wrap his head around that. Over an hour later he had no further information about the situation he was now stuck in.

He’d been forced to ride shotgun from the train station, watching Chloe’s every move as she drove them to this rental townhouse outside the city limits. She still had his phone. She’d checked it over, then switched it off completely before beginning the drive, he guessed because she was paranoid that someone was tracking his movements.

The ride had been tense. They hadn’t said a single word to each other since leaving the station, and it was seriously grating on his nerves. She didn’t seem bothered by it, totally absorbed in what she was doing, driving in circles, he could only assume to see if they were being followed.

He had a real bad feeling about this. She was no helpless civilian in need of protection, that was for sure, so if she was under threat, it had to be pretty major.

“The house is a few blocks east of here,” she finally said as she parked along the curb and turned off the engine. With that she reached into the backseat for her backpack and climbed out of the car.

The one-story cottage looked to be at least a hundred years old, the exterior covered in a pale yellow plaster. “Stay here,” she whispered as they reached the back of it.

Since there was no point in arguing, he stood to one side, on alert as she unlocked the back door, staring in surprise when she drew a weapon from beneath her tunic and eased inside. A pistol? How the hell had she gotten that on the damn train, and what else was she armed with that he didn’t know about?

She came back a minute later, her weapon no longer visible, wig gone and wearing what she had been on the train, minus the hat. Her golden blond hair spilled down her back in a long ponytail. It amazed him how fast she’d made herself practically unrecognizable back at the station. Spooky and impressive at the same time. Was she a spy?

“All right,” she told him. “You can come in.” The moment he crossed the threshold she shut the door and locked it.

He retreated to the living room and watched her from the safety of the sofa. She paced around the kitchen, chomping on her gum, snapping it now and again as she switched his phone back on and checked for whatever she was looking for.

All of a sudden, she stopped, faced him and strode toward him with an unreadable look that had him instantly on his feet and on guard. “All right. Call Ty and put him on speaker,” she said, thrusting his phone at him. “Tell him I want to talk to Megan personally.”

Jaw tight, Heath held her gaze and took the phone. He got why she’d be suspicious of his story, but Jesus. He hadn’t done a single thing to make her feel threatened. Other than…following her and…being a big guy and a complete stranger to her.

He heaved an irritated sigh. “Fine.” This whole thing was bullshit and he wanted it resolved as badly as she did.

He dialed the number Ty had texted him from and put it on speaker while Chloe watched him like a bug under a magnifying glass, arms folded across her chest. “Hey, it’s me,” he said when Ty picked up, “and you’re on speaker because Chloe wants to hear this and then talk to Megan.”

“You got her?” Ty asked when he answered.

“Sort of.” Not the way Ty imagined, however. More like she hadhim.

---