Page 33 of Nora
Moving back onto the trail, he hurried to catch up to her as she rounded a bend and disappeared from his view. He wanted to call out, but he didn’t trust that the other man he’d seen was gone. Perhaps he was, but if not, Lucian had no wish to call attention to his and Nora’s presence.
He reached the bend Nora had just passed, but when he came to the straightaway on the other side, he stopped. In the faint light of the moon, he could see the trail stretching ahead of him. What he couldn’t see was Nora.
Frantically, his gaze searched the sides of the path. Had she disappeared into the woods? He hadn’t heard a scuffle or any other noise that indicated something had happened to her. He cocked his head to listen.
Nothing.
Then a branch snapped. But the sound had come from somewhere behind him. It was possible Nora had circled back, but he wasn’t going to take that chance. Once again, he moved off the trail and under the cover of a large sycamore tree.
He cursed the dark, and then he cursed Nora. Why had she gone off on her own? And just what the hell was she doing? His mind started traveling to all sorts of dark possibilities. In his mind’s eye was an image of Nora’s body, beaten without remorse and lying in a pool of her own blood. He hadn’t been the one to find Alessandra, but he’d seen the pictures. And now, when he least needed the reminder of what he’d lost, all he could see was Alessandra’s body with Nora’s face.
Forcing himself to take a slow, deep breath, he shoved that image into the back of his mind. Nora wasn’t Alessandra. She was trained and likely armed.Hemight not know what she was doing, but Nora had been in the intelligence field for nearly twenty years. She wasn’t blundering around.
Once his breathing—and his imagination—were back under some control, he focused on listening. Again, a small shuffling sound on the other side of the trail. Perhaps forty feet away. He turned his head to see if he could spot whether it was the man or Nora.
So focused on his goal, he didn’t notice he had company until a hand was over his mouth and his back hit the tree.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Lucian raisedhis arms to shove her away, but Nora leaned in. “It’s me,” she said, keeping her voice low. In a flash, his arms were around her. She let herself be pulled against him but kept her hand across his mouth. Looking up, she waited to see the recognition in his eyes before removing it.
Whiskey-colored eyes glittered down at her. He was pissed, but she didn’t have the time, or luxury, to figure out what the problem was. “There’s someone else out here,” she said, lowering her hand.
His eyes narrowed. “I know.”
“He was ahead of me, but he circled back and is now coming up behind.”
“Do you know who it is?” he asked, dipping his head so his lips all but brushed her ear as he spoke. She shook her head, and his day’s growth of beard rubbed against her cheek.
“Shh.” She raised a finger and placed it over his lips. She’d heard another sound, another snapping of a twig.
They stood that way for another minute—his arms wrapped around her, one of her fingers pressed against his lips, and her other hand resting on his chest. Then she heard their third wheel again. Whoever he was, he seemed to be moving farther away. Back toward the fence. And the training grounds.
Slowly, she became aware of the press of Lucian’s body against hers. The top of her head came to below his chin and if she turned her head, her cheek would rest perfectly against his chest. The way it had in Capri.
Startled at the direction of her thoughts, Nora stepped away. Lucian’s arms tightened, then released her.
“What are you doing out here?” he demanded. He might have released her, but he held the sides of her coat so she couldn’t go far.
“I might ask you the same thing,” she countered.
Again, his eyes narrowed. “My cousin sent me.” It took her a minute before she sorted out how that might have happened. When things clicked into place, he grinned down at her. It wasn’t a nice grin. “You forgot to turn your location tracker off. My cousin probably isn’t the only one waiting for you to explain this little outing.”
She rolled her eyes at him, a trait she’d picked up from Six so thought he’d appreciate. “I didn’t forget to turn it off. I just didn’t think anyone would look.”
“You underestimated your friends’ concern.”
Yes, apparently she had. Not that she didn’t know they cared. She just didn’t think that they’d start tracking her movements. Or that Six would send Lucian out after her.
“Do you know who he is?” Lucian asked, jerking his head in the direction her mystery man had gone.
Again, she shook her head. “I need to make sure he’s out of the area.”
“We need to get back to the grounds.”
“Why don’t you head back to the grounds and follow our friend?”
He looked down at her and said nothing. Yeah, she didn’t think her suggestion was going to fly, but she had to try. She sighed. “Fine, I get you aren’t going to leave me, but I actually do have something I need to do, maybe a few things. So if you stay with me, I need to you stay quiet and not get in my way.”
