Page 19 of Critical Mass
That was military training. Special forces, maybe.
But that didn’t mean Natalie could trust him.
He’d been lying to her for three months. About his name, his job, probably everything else.
How could she trust someone who’d built their entire relationship on deception?
Her father’s image slammed into her mind.
She needed to call her father.
He’d warned her about Timothy, and he’d been right. She should have listened.
Maybe he could help her, could send someone to?—
But wait.
Her father had asked such specific questions about Timothy/Hudson. Had seemed to know more than he should.
And those men at the marina—Hudson had said they were dangerous, that they’d come for them. How had they known where to find them?
Nothing made sense. Natalie’s brain felt like it was trying to process too much information at once and failing completely.
She forced herself to sit up, her stomach lurching with the movement. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
Behind them, she could see lights in the distance—the marina they’d fled from, maybe, or the boat that had been chasing them. Everything looked distorted through her tears and the darkness.
“What do we do now?” Her voice came out so raspy she barely recognized it as her own.
Hudson didn’t turn around, but his shoulders tensed at her question.
“I have a plan,” he said. “We’re going to get somewhere safe. Somewhere those men can’t follow.”
A plan. He had a plan.
But what did that mean? Safe where? With whom?
And why should she believe anything he told her?
Natalie pulled the soaked fabric of her outfit away from her skin, wishing she would stop shivering. The romantic, pale-blue dress she’d worn to dinner was ruined, torn and stained with saltwater and whatever filth was on the deck of this boat.
Such a stupid thing to care about, but her mind seemed to be latching onto small details to avoid confronting the larger horror of her situation.
She was trapped on a boat in the middle of the night with a man who’d lied about everything, running from people who wanted to kill her, and she had no idea why any of this was happening.
Hudson had a plan.
She frowned as she remembered his words.
Maybe he did have a plan.
Natalie just didn’t know if she wanted to be part of it.
CHAPTER
TEN
Hudson reachedinto his pocket for his phone.
