Page 59 of Hunted

As they drove farther away and safety seemed within reach, Connor felt like he ought to say something or do something to let Lexi know … something.

But what?

That he wanted her to stick around, maybe? Yeah, that he wanted her to stick with him a little longer.

He opened his mouth to try to vocalize that, and he’d already said her name before he realized how stupid it would sound.

He realized something else, too. This wasn’t over. And he had no business even thinking about involving her in his future—if, indeed, that was where this train of thought was leading—until he knew he had one. The formula wasn’t safe yet. Beyond that, White was still breathing. Until he killed the bastard, there was no reason to think about anything else. Because he might very well die trying. And that wouldn’t be fair to her.

She was looking at him, waiting for him to finish what he’d started to say. Those big, dark eyes of hers were drinking the heart right out of his body and into her own. She made love to his soul when she looked at him like that. How did she do that?

“You were fantastic back there, Lexi. Saved our asses once again.”

“I was mad. Too mad to be scared, I guess.”

“You were smart. And yeah, mad as well. Too mad to take time to question your own judgment. You trusted your instincts. You ever notice how every time you do that, your instincts turn out to be right on target?”

She smiled at him and his heart stopped. “Yeah. I have, actually.”

Chapter Fifteen

“We’ve got a hit!” Kira shouted.

The four half-sisters of Lexi Stoltz and their husbands had gathered at Nick and Toni’s sprawling Victorian. The women wanted to stick together until they found their missing sister, and the men didn’t like being away from their women. Toni’s place was the biggest, next to Cait and Dylan’s mansion, but that was in Maine, so the upstate New York Victorian it was.

Toni’s young sheepdog, Ralph, was delighted by all the company, and had personally slobbered each and every one of them with love.

They’d all been working the case in one way or another, trying to find Lexi and her abductor. Or rescuer. Or whatever former FBI agent Connor “Molotov” Romano was. So it had been busy, and the energy was tense and worried. But in all of that, there’d been beautiful moments. Laughter. Tears. Secrets shared. Trust built.

Everyone gathered around Kira, who was stationed at the kitchen island with her laptop. “They took a flight to Dulles, used their own names.”

“What does that mean?” Cait asked. She had the prettiest blue eyes, Kira thought. She hoped Cait’s baby had eyes like those. Her niece. Yeah, she was gonna be an auntie this summer. Imagine that. Being Auntie Kira, alongside her sisters, Aunt Toni, Aunt Joey, and if all went well, Aunt Lexi, too.

Toni said, “It might mean they think it’s over. That they’re safe.”

Kira’s husband and fellow DEA agent Michael was looking at his phone. “Stryker is in the D.C. office, but says he doesn’t know anything more than we do. He hasn’t heard from Romano in months.”

“We have to go down there,” Joey said. “I don’t mean we ought to, I mean we have to. Lexi needs us.”

She wasn’t just giving her opinion. She knew something. Kira had left her doubt about the existence of ESP in the dust since spending time with Joey.

“Let’s go then,” Kira said.

“Caitlin, you should stay here.” Toni probably didn’t realize she was holding her arm out, kind of crossing it in front of Cait when she said it.

“I’m coming. I won’t do anything to put the baby in danger, but I …” She looked at the others. “I want to be with you guys … when we find her. I want us to be together.”

“Yeah. I get that.” Kira looked at the women. Delicate Caity, so obviously from a different world than the rest of them. Born rich, still rich. Like stupid rich, not just well off like Kira’s own family. Cait was trying hard to be just one of the girls. But she had the kind of class that showed right through her strategically ripped jeans and button-down boyfriend shirt. Her architect husband Dylan went cow-eyed every time he looked at her.

Joey was funny and smart, and that thing she had made her feel like the oddball of the bunch. It was cool, though how everyone accepted her. Besides, it wasn’t that weird. She was intuitive. Okay, she was way beyond intuitive. And it was a little weird, but she was so much more. She rode a motorcycle everywhere she went from May to November. Her husband Ash was a hotshot journalist who’d been a lot of help chasing down leads and sniffing out clues.

Toni was the most like her, Kira thought. And the least. Her kick ass-ness had come from necessity. She had street in her. She’d had to get tough early. Kira wouldn’t have wanted to tangle with Toni. Yeah, she was a famous writer. She could walk with the elite. But she wasn’t part of them. She was a lioness, walking with the zebras. She knew it, and more importantly, the zebras knew it. Her husband Nick was a cop, and he was almost as hot as Kira’s own husband. Toni, clearly thought he was even hotter.

Her sisters, Kira thought. A little while ago, she’d been the most isolated person on the planet. The most alone. She hadn’t even had herself.

Now … well … now, just look at this family she’d found.

“We’ll all go,” Kira said softly. “We can look out for each other, especially our mom-to-be.”

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