Page 23 of Two Steps Ahead

The opposite of the friendly gardener she’d been working with all week.

“You know how to do that?” she whispered.

“Your father would’ve never hired me as protective detail if I didn’t.” He pressed the gun into her hand. “Safety is off, if anyone comes in here who’s not me, shoot.”

He was gone before she could respond.

She blinked against the darkness.

Protective detail.Not the friendly gardener at all. He’d tricked her. Her stomach roiled in anger and pain. He’d lied to her, using their past to make her compliant.

The sickening sound of flesh hitting flesh followed by a moan dragged her out of her own head. She jerked, swallowing a little sob, as a gun went off not far outside the house.

Her head spun in that direction. Oh God, was Weston okay? She had no idea what he was like as a bodyguard. Either way, no matter how angry she was, she didn’t want him hurt.

What should she do? Should she try to help him? What if he’d just been shot?

The darkness was pressing in on her, much more frightening now that she was alone. She couldn’t afford to let the fear swallow her. She pushed away from the corner where Westonhad stashed her and started moving along the wall. She needed to get outside and see if she could help.

She made it into the kitchen, barely able to hear anything over the sound of her own jagged breathing, when a hand wrapped around her mouth from behind. Terror pooled in her gut.

But a moment later she heard a whisper in her ear.

“It’s me.”

Weston.

She sagged in his arms. He released her mouth and she spun to look at him. “Are you okay? I heard a gun.”

“There are two unsubs out there.”

“Unsubs?” She didn’t even know what language he was speaking.

“Unknown subjects. Bad guys. I wounded one of them and they both took off. But we have to get out of here, they will bring back reinforcements.”

“How do you know?” she asked, handing him back the gun he’d given her.

“It’s what I would do.”

It was what he would do.

She didn’t really know him at all, did she?

“Let’s go,” he said.

“Hang on. Let me grab my camera. It’s right here on the counter.”

She wasn’t leaving without it. She wrapped the strap of her camera bag across one shoulder and grabbed her film camera and purse too. She didn’t know if they’d get any of her other belongings here back, so she was bringing as much as she could with her.

They were out the door a few seconds later. He led her away from where her car was parked. She wanted to ask exactly where they were going, but he motioned for her to keep quiet. They moved silently through the bushes near the edge of the lake thenended up on a side road where he had a car hidden under some shrubbery.

“You are certainly prepared,” she said.

He gave her a one-shouldered shrug. “It’s my job to be prepared.”

“Wasn’t there anything in your cabin that you wanted to get?”

He shook his head as they got into the car. “No, there was nothing in there I wasn’t prepared to walk away from in an instant. I try to be that way for any job.”

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