Page 24 of Perfect Convergence

“Wren? Adam?” a masculine voice calls.

Her eyes widen. “No. Not Thomas,” she whispers, taking an involuntary step back.

“Here,” Adam yells, slowly crawling to his feet.

Shit. I’m running out of time to get to my car. And there’s no way I’m leaving Wren. Not when she looks as terrified as she does right now.

I’m going to have to take her with me.

To her credit, she tries to run. Even stomps on my foot before she does. But she doesn’t even make it a step before I’m grabbing her and pulling her into me. My arms wrap around her torso, trapping her arms to her sides.

“Stop,” she shouts, wiggling and trying to stomp on my foot again. “I swear, if you kidnap me, and another stupid fucking man gets in the way of me finally living my goddamned life, I’ll—I’ll... do SOMETHING!”

My whole body shakes from silent laughter. Is that seriously where her mind is going right now? God, she’s cute.

“We need to work on your self-preservation instincts,” I murmur.

She freezes. “Ol-”

I clap a hand over her mouth before she says my name. Adam can still hear us. “It’s me, princess,” I whisper in her ear. “And I need you to run.”

I let go of her, grab her hand, and pull her down the alley. There’s a shout behind us, I presume from whoever the fuck Thomas is, but I don’t look back.

At the end of the alley, I turn left onto the sidewalk, then wrench open the passenger door of my car and shove Wren inside. By the time I’ve shut myself into the driver’s seat, the man Wren elbowed inside the Grille comes bounding out of the alley, followed by a limping Adam.

I’ve never been more grateful for darkened windows in my life.

Wren shrinks down in her seat as I yank off my ski mask.

“Who is he?”

“My stepdad,” she pants as he looks our way. “Oh god, oh no—”

“He can’t see us. Just take deep breaths. I’ve got you. I promise.” As I reach out and take her hand, I peer at the parking garage exit. In under a minute, Williams’ driver is pulling his car out and onto the street.

Thomas and Adam are still looking up and down the road full of parked cars, searching for Wren. Starting my car will draw their attention, but if they don’t get out of here soon, I won’t have a choice. Williams is probably already waiting at the restaurant door. Picking him up won’t take long.

Get out of here, guys. Get out of here now.

I’ve already fucked up by revealing my identity to Wren. Everything else has to go smoothly tonight. But what else was I supposed to do? Hurt Adam? What if it got pinned on Wren? And I certainly wasn’t going to leave her there.

“Wait.” She turns to me. “What were you doing here? And why were you wearing a mask? You scared the living hell out of me!”

I give one last glance to Adam and Thomas. Thomas has his phone to his ear, and he’s speaking rapidly. Shit. Did he call the cops? At least it looks like they’re heading back to the restaurant.

“Turn your phone off. To them, it looks like you got kidnapped, and we can’t have anyone trying to track you.”

She huffs, obviously annoyed, but at least she listens.

Once Adam and Thomas are out of sight, I turn on the car and pull out, heading the direction that Williams’ car went.

“Were you following me?” There’s a hint of fear in her voice.

“No! More like a... wrong place, wrong time situation.” After a pause, I say, “Or maybe right place, right time.”

“I’d say I was managing fine on my own, but I guess I wasn’t.”

“Never thought I’d see a book used as a weapon.” I smirk at her.

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