Fugitive Heart

chapter Twelve


Ames sipped the coffee, surprisingly good stuff, though her stomach was close to rebelling.

Jake tapped a rhythm on his mug, got up, looked out the window. “So you trust this guy?”

“Yes.” She realized it was true. In one short day, she’d gone from suspecting Nick of harming Elliot to completely believing in him.

“Yeah.” Jake looked at the table where the cash and the rest of the stuff lay—a very strange decorative centerpiece in Alice Greely’s neat kitchen. “Doesn’t matter anyway. Who’d have guessed old Elliot would tangle with real bad guys?” His slow head shake seemed to be admiring. Jake would always admire her brother.

She closed her eyes and waited.

A few minutes later, Nick came in the back door, closing it softly behind him and then locking it. She wanted to run to him, burrow in close to feel his reassuring touch, but she couldn’t look like a weenie or he’d leave her here.

“We’re meeting tomorrow at the house.”

“House?”

He grinned briefly. “Your house. The place I’m staying.”

“Why didn’t he want to meet in the café?” Ames shivered and hugged herself.

“He must figure his people would stand out like sore thumbs or more like space aliens.”

“His ‘people’?” Oh God.

“Don’t worry. Bert wouldn’t travel anywhere alone.” He shrugged as if to emphasize how unimportant the extra men were. “His dad, Cesar, is even worse. The guy must have seen too many gangster movies or maybe too many rock documentaries. He likes to have an entourage.”

He pointed to the stuff lying on the kitchen table. “Got another garbage bag we can use?”

Jake went to a drawer and, after fumbling with a box for a while, extracted a big green bag. Ames wondered how often he had to take out the garbage.

Nick tossed the money and the book into the bag and slung it over his back. He shoved the drive into his pocket and walked to the kitchen door.

Ames jumped up. “Wait for me.”

“Me too.” Jake put his cup in the sink.

Nick looked at them, a sour scowl on his face. She wished he didn’t look at her with the same expression he used for Jake.

“All right. We’ll take two cars.”

Jake grabbed some keys from the counter and jingled them. “Ready to go,” he said cheerfully, as if they were going on a trip to Dairy Queen.

The roads were nearly empty.

Nearly.

Ames glanced over her shoulder. Jake’s truck was behind them, but another set of headlights soon appeared as well. Even if she hadn’t been entirely paranoid, she would have noticed another car turning onto the road out of town, especially at two in the morning.

She twisted in her seat. “We’re being followed. Do you suppose it’s your friends?”

Nick glanced in the rearview. “Shouldn’t be. Not yet.”

She expected him to do some kind of maneuvering and try to lose the tail just in case, but he just turned into the long gravel drive that led to the house.

Partway down, he stopped and waited. Only one set of headlights followed—Jake’s.



They pulled up to the front of the house, and Jake jumped out of his truck and headed to the car. He held something at his side.

“Oh no,” she breathed. “He’s got a shotgun.”

Nick put his hand on her shoulder for a moment. “It’ll be okay.”

They got out of the car, but Nick kept the keys in and headlights on. He nodded a greeting at Jake. “Thanks for coming along.”

“You didn’t sound so happy about it at my house.” Jake looked him up and down. “Anyway, I’m doing this for Ames and Elliot, not you.”

“All good,” Nick soothed, and Ames thought, he’s up to something. When he gets diplomatic, he’s got a plan. She wasn’t sure if knowing that made her feel better.

“Listen, Jake. I need you to go back into town and check around for that SUV that was behind us. Did you get a good look at it? Would you recognize it if you saw it again?”

“Yeah. Absolutely. I know pretty much what everybody drives around town, and that wasn’t a local. I can hunt for it. And then what?”

“Maybe take a look at the motel parking lot. If you see that car, call me and let me know ASAP. Don’t go near it.”

“Damn, I’ll go talk to Billy and see what he knows.” Jake went back to his truck and began rooting through the empty fast-food bags and other junk on the passenger seat.

“Who’s Billy?”

Ames sighed. “The night guy on the desk at the Middle Inn. He’ll want to know why you’re curious, Jake.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Jake ambled back. He had put on a ball cap and carried a phone. “Seems to me that the more people who know something is going on, the better.”

“You could be right,” Nick said—the last thing she expected from him. “But that’s only if you can leave out the details about Elliot and Ames and me. Just say something about some strange activity.”

Jake wrinkled his big nose. “No one will believe me if I go all vague. The details make the story.”

“Then keep your mouth shut.” Nick lost some of the calm, and his eyes held the dangerous gleam she’d seen in the garage.

“Boring,” Jake said.

Nick’s arm shot out; he twisted, and suddenly he had yanked Jake in a hold, arm around his throat, another holding his arm back. Big Jake the football player scrabbled ineffectually at the forearm across his neck. “If I pull any tighter, you’ll pass out. This is something I learned as a kid. The people we’re talking about know a hell of a lot worse than this.”

Jake gasped something like, “Hurt.”

Nick had transformed into a frightening man. She’d guessed this casual violence lived in him, but the sight of it made her breath catch as if Nick pressed his arm to her throat.

The next second, he pushed Jake away from him and took a few steps back. Jake glared, panting.

“What the f*ck?” His voice rasped as if his throat had been hurt.

“I need to get you to understand.” Nick sounded calm now. He might have just showed Jake an interesting dance move instead of attacking him. “If we do this right, we’ll be okay. But if we screw up, it’ll be a world of hurt. Got it?”

Jake fingered his throat and glared.

“Jake, listen. You could beat the crap out of me in a fair fight—and that wasn’t fair. But those guys you’ll be watching won’t be either.”

Nick could go from calm to seemingly angry to calm again in a matter of seconds. Or maybe he wasn’t really pissed off; he was a guy who had grown up in a world where viciousness was a form of communication. Ames shivered, wishing she hadn’t seen him in action. No, she should be glad, because she hadn’t truly understood until then. Could she trust him to touch her without that careless violence coming to the surface?

Jake picked up his cap that had fallen off and jammed it onto his head. Nick reached into his car and turned off the lights so the darkness took over the house and the gravel drive. Jake grunted something that might have been “F*ck you” before he climbed back into his truck and drove away.

Ames blinked, still adjusting to the dark. Nick must have had great night vision, because he walked across the driveway to the front door.

“Come on in, for a little while, anyway.” He didn’t even fumble with the key—he had the right one out immediately and opened the door without trouble.

“No way Bert’ll wait until ten a.m., of course.” Nick opened the fridge, stared inside and eventually pulled out some peanut butter, jelly and a loaf of bread.

“Why do you keep that in the fridge?” She was determined to shake off the shock of seeing him grab at Jake a few minutes earlier.

“Mice. I haven’t seen any, but the Realtor suggested I keep the food locked up.”

He spread peanut butter on two slices of bread and pointed the messy knife at her. “Want one?”

She shook her head. They’d just eaten, hadn’t they? And the thought of eating again curdled her insides. Bad men were coming for them. Men who thought nothing of killing, and Nick seemed so comfortable with it.

Nick licked the knife. She thought about how that tongue had touched her, and her sex contracted in giddy anticipation. Apparently, some of her hungers didn’t disappear in the face of danger.

He tossed the knife into the sink. “I bet he’ll wait until after dawn, so that gives us some time.”

“What are your plans?”

“Sleep.”

That struck her as even more impossible than eating.

He screwed the lids back on the jars. “I have a tent and some other junk, not that I know squat about camping. I think I should go to the woods.” He cleared his throat, glanced over at her. “And you should hike over to Mrs. Whatever-her-name-is. The one you said is about a half mile away?”

“Mrs. Landry,” she said absently. “Why are you so cheerful?” Why do you want to get rid of me?

He slapped the bread together and took a big bite of one of the sandwiches. “This idiocy is ending. I’ll get to go back to my old life, I hope.”

His old life away from her—but at the moment, the immediate future worried her more. “Aren’t you nervous?”

“Sure,” he said. “I wish I could get ahead of them somehow. Come up with a plan. Drop the stuff and not bother with a face-to-face. But I can’t, and the best thing is to just hand over the money and come to an agreement with good old Bert.”

“Won’t they want to talk to me? They know I live in Arnesdale. Won’t they try to find out if I know anything?”

“Maybe. But speaking of you, I really think it would be a good idea if I do this next bit on my own.” He spoke gently, as if addressing a truculent child.

“If you didn’t want me here, why didn’t you try to get me to go back with Jake?”

“I didn’t want to argue in front of him. I’m not willing to put you in a choke hold.”

The knot in her stomach drew tighter. “Yeah, about that.” She didn’t know how to ask if he beat up anyone who didn’t do what he wanted.

He folded his arms and waited. “Go on,” he said softly.

She wanted to go home, climb into bed and pretend Elliot was safe in his apartment in New York.

For a moment, she was ready to hike across the fields to Mrs. Landry’s house and knock on the door in the middle of the night. But she couldn’t throw away the connection they had, and she didn’t want to walk off when Elliot could be saved from himself.

He asked, “You’re thinking about what I did to Jake, right? How I could do it so easy?”

She nodded. “Yes, I am. The gun back in his garage too. I really thought you could shoot him.”

“Guess how many people I’ve beaten or physically threatened since I turned twenty?”

“Nick, listen. I’ve never seen—”

“Guess.”

Why was he insisting on turning this into a game? “No.”

“Two. Jake and the guy in my apartment. This situation, this crap from my past, isn’t me. It isn’t part of who I am. And I would never ever hurt or even threaten to hurt you. Never.”

She understood then the vehemence he showed now. Fear. He hated the moment he’d attacked Jake even more than she did.

Her instinct to comfort him might stop her from pushing this as far as she should, so she ignored it. “You seemed pretty calm right after.”

“I did what I had to do to get this situation right.”

Damn, that sounded like a justification, and he must have heard that too.

He rubbed his face with his hands. “I know guys who’ve been to war.” He fell silent.

“Go on.”

“Naw, that’s not right and I guess I can’t get you to understand, Ames.”

“Please try. Please?”

“Okay.” He folded his arms, leaned his butt against the table. “You get trained to respond to certain situations in a certain way. But I’ll do it only when I think it’ll work. Got it? I’m in control. Just because I can, doesn’t mean I will.”

He seemed to be waiting for her to talk, so she said, “Okay.”

“I hate that shit—might making right, physical domination, all that idiocy,” he said sadly and without a note of viciousness. “But this is a matter of surviving. I’m going to fight for your survival and mine. Even if I have to go around kicking every damn guy in Arnesdale in the balls.”

She gave a surprised laugh at the image.

His body seemed to relax at the sound. “You okay now?”

“Yes. Thanks for not telling me to suck it up and stop being a weenie about the violence.”

“Never,” he said vehemently. “You stop caring, and it would be just…wrong. Okay. Let’s get you out of here. We both could use some rest.”

“No. I’ll try to rest, but I’m staying,” she said adamantly. “This isn’t just about you. I understand that you know these people and how they operate. You’re in charge. But this is my town, my brother. I’m the one who alerted them to your presence here, and I can’t just run away.”

He drew in a deep breath, and she could tell he was trying to keep his cool again. “Your being here isn’t going to help.”

“Will it make things any worse?”

He scowled. “It could be worse for you. A whole lot worse.”

“If my safety’s the only issue, then I get to decide, and I’m staying. Is there room in your tent?”





They ended up walking to the very edge of the woods, where they could hear any approaching cars. He didn’t bother with the tent after all and only carried a couple of blankets. He gave her a pair of sweatpants that she wore under her stupid uniform.

“I don’t think I can sleep,” she whispered in the pine-scented dark from the little nest of blankets they made.

“Be back soon.” Nick walked out of the moonlit patch. She stared into the dark where he’d disappeared. A few minutes later, he came back to lie down next to her. He seemed too out of breath to have just gone for a pee.

“Where’d you go?”

“I hid some of Bert’s stuff in the woods. The flash drive.” He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her back against his warmth. She squirmed a bit and sighed.

“Now I really can’t sleep.”

He gave a breathless little laugh and nuzzled her hair. “Close your eyes for five minutes. Just let your body relax. You need to relax.” He sounded as soothing as a yoga teacher.

“Not going to happen.” She wiggled closer to his warmth. “I can’t help thinking that there’s a chance we could die tomorrow.”

“No. Don’t think like that.” He kissed her neck.

“Fine. I’ll just turn that off. Trying, trying… And nope, not happening. I’m still thinking. We might die.”

She pushed her back against his front and discovered he hadn’t relaxed either.

He gave a small groan. “We should rest.”

“Nick, we might only have tonight. We don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“We’ll be fine.” He drew her earlobe into his mouth and gave it a nip.

“Ow.” It didn’t hurt, but the sensation raced to her belly.

“I’ll keep you safe.” His hand slid up under her shirt, and his rough fingers found her breast. “You are so soft,” he breathed against her neck. His thumb circled and circled. “Except now your nipple is so hard. Mm.”

She rolled onto her back. “I need you,” she whispered. “I don’t want to think about anything but you.”

“Yes, all right, Ames.” His voice shook. His mouth came down on hers, hungry, demanding, and she understood he’d been holding back. Such a waste to hold back when they might have so little time.

They kissed and kissed. He lay over her but not on her—his weight rested on his elbows. She pulled him down to cover her.

“Not too much weight? Are there sticks under you? Or rocks?”

She didn’t want consideration. She wanted him eager and unmindful of anything but pleasure. “Screw the sticks and rocks,” she growled.

He laughed against her neck. “Nope, thanks.”

“Screw me. Come on, Nick.”

He stopped laughing, and she got her wish. He touched her everywhere. His hands reached her pants, and he delved into them, cupping her mound, rubbing her *.

She wanted his exploring fingers inside her, so she took off the sweatpants. The cool night air washed over her bare skin.

He groaned and slid down, his clothes rasping her skin. He wrapped his arms around her legs as his shockingly hot mouth touched her p-ssy. She bucked and thrashed, unable to hold still beneath his insistent lapping. He growled and tightened his arms.

The hunger for him grew so quickly she couldn’t breathe or think. Her body tightened, all the sensation focused on him. He thrust his fingers deep into her body, filling her and…her body twisted tighter around him. And then the explosion of pleasure rocketed through her.

She called his name and seized his soft hair. He still stroked her sex with his tongue but she needed more now.

He released her and pulled himself up to cover her. Yes, perfect. She raised her hips, urging him to fill her. Hunger gnawed at her. More Nick as soon as possible. Nothing but Nick in her, on her.

He twisted and moved, his hands busy at his jeans. He pulled away, and she whimpered and wrapped her ankles around his jeans-clad butt, desperate to pull him back to her.

“Ames,” he pleaded, and she stretched her legs wide. She ran her hands up his belly underneath his shirt, and he hissed in a breath as he stripped off his jeans and knelt over her.

She noticed he held a square packet up to examine it in the moonlight. “You must have planned for this, because you have a condom.” Something else occurred to her. “You’re acting like you’re sure we’re going to live.”

“Yes, we are.” His teeth flashed in the dim light, a reassuring grin that made that bad part of her tension relax. Meanwhile, the good part just kept mounting.

His voice broke off when she leaned forward and kissed the blunt end of his cock, determined to get a good taste before he covered himself. The thick hardness filled her mouth, her senses, her mind with Nick—only Nick. How was it possible that they’d only just met, yet she felt as if she’d known him forever. He groaned and thrust lightly into her mouth. He cradled her head, and his thumbs stroked her cheeks, his rock-hard cock a contrast to the soft touch of his hands.

“God. I want to come inside you.”

Oh yeah, those words reawakened the tightening, thickening heat in her belly. His hands trembled as he rolled the condom over his erection. Violence had left him steady-handed, but his eagerness for her body shook him. She smiled, loving that second fact.

She opened her arms, scooted herself closer and pulled him into an embrace.

He seized her and hauled her up, his hands on her bottom as he pulled her onto his lap.

They both fumbled, not yet used to the way their bodies fit together. His cock slid against her leg; then he pulled her up more and over him. As she sank onto him at last, they fit together perfectly.

He directed her with his hands clasping her butt, his body pushing up as she came down. Yes, so good. She moved slowly at first, then faster. He slammed her down hard, and she gave a squeak. He growled and stopped his thrusting. Her squeak had been delight that he could fill her so deeply—and not just her body but all of her. Nick’s unexpected arrival in her life had shaken up her world so much that now she couldn’t imagine his absence. Demonstrating how much she wanted him, she pushed down, seating him firmly inside her.

Her orgasm began to build again, less urgent now, giving her time to enjoy his breathy grunts and the way he filled her. Details like the hair on his legs brushing her inner thighs, his big hands gripping her ass, holding and controlling her, and that cock, huge inside her, scraping her deliciously all fought for her attention. And she wanted to be aware of every bit, every moment of their union, to file each precious detail away to take out and marvel at later.

“Ames,” he panted, obviously close.

She grabbed his shoulders and, instead of hot skin, felt the fabric of his T-shirt. She hauled it off him. Skin against skin, her nipples rubbing his chest, pushed them both over the edge.

A groan tore out of him, and the noise went straight through her. His need was her need and it exploded through her. Wrapping her arms tight around him, she held on as they came and came some more.

At last, she slowed, then stopped, pressed her face to his shoulder and kissed him. Nick squeezed her as if she were trying to escape his grasp.

“Ames.”

She smiled as he repeated her name yet again and she nipped his shoulder. “Nick. Sam. Allen. Rossi. Ross.”

He heaved a sigh and seemed to withdraw. She almost felt him pulling away—not physically but from the strange and sudden bond that connected them. “Aw, f*ck. I’m sorry about all of this.”

“This?” She realized he wasn’t talking about the fierce lovemaking. “Oh. That.”

She climbed off him, her bare feet hitting the damp leaves and not blankets. For the first time, she became aware of the chill in the air. Ames groped around for the sweatpants. He found them first and helped her turn them right-side out.

“Next time we do this, there’ll be no rush. No threat hanging over us, just long, slow lovemaking that lasts all night long,” she promised, as she pulled the sweatpants onto her shaky legs.

“Hell, yes,” he said

She smiled at the fervor of his agreement. If, God forbid, something terrible were to happen when they faced the mob, she couldn’t ask for a happier last memory than tonight.

They cleaned up the best they could—he’d brought along extra shirts so his old one worked as a rag. Then they settled again. Her back to his front. His arm wrapped around her and his face pressed to her head. This already felt familiar and cozy.

She tried to avoid the thoughts of the coming hours, but the reality returned too fast.

“I can feel you tensing up,” he murmured. “I won’t let anything happen to you.” He kissed her and hummed softly in her ear. It was a tuneless little chant of we’ll stay safe, Ames, I’m here, I’m here, hush, hush.

She felt safe at the moment, wrapped in his arms. That would have to do, she thought muzzily. And in so many ways that was more comfort than she’d ever had.





When she woke up, the first gray light of dawn sifted through the tree branches, but the world was mostly dark. It looked to be a dull, even ominous day, and she shivered alone in the blanket. Nick sat on a rock, a small pair of binoculars in one hand.

“Go on,” he said. She sat up with a start, then realized he was on the phone. “Thank Billy for me. Got it. A young guy with a lot of black hair, right. Dark clothes. And another guy who looks like who?” Pause. “Never heard of Telly Savalas, but if he’s bald—yup, yup, I know them. The one with the hair is Bert. Wait. What? They’re leaving the inn now? What the hell? Wait a sec.”

She tried to straighten her disheveled dress. “What—” She started to speak, but he put a finger to his lips and motioned for her to lie down. She obeyed without question. He whispered into the phone, “Someone else is coming. Another car. Gotta go.”

She heard it then. The gravel at first and then the hum of a car engine. Very close. Nick dropped to the blanket next to her. Lying on his stomach, he watched the car and muttered under his breath, “Jake says Bert’s on his way but they just left. So who the hell are these guys?”