“It’s hard to relax knowing men with guns are out there wanting to kill me.”
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you.” He patted the cot. “Come on, Lily. I’m worried about you. You’re pale. Lie down for a few minutes.”
Under any other circumstances Lily would have refused. She didn’t want to be here. Didn’t want to be with him. She wanted to go home where she would be safe and the world was predictable. But she could no longer ignore the ache in her back. She’d been on her feet far too long. At this stage of her pregnancy, she didn’t want to push her luck.
“What about you?” she asked, her gaze flicking to the bloodstain on his shirt. In the darkness it appeared black.
“I’m fine.”
“It’s a bullet wound, isn’t it?”
“It’s a graze.”
She shook her head, disbelieving he could be so flippant about something as serious as a gunshot wound. “God, this is so you, Chase.”
“I’ll take care of it as soon as we’re safe.”
“And when will that be?”
Grimacing, he lowered his eyes, but only for a moment. “Have you eaten?”
Back at the hospital, she’d been famished, but the terror and adrenaline had stolen her appetite. “No, but I’m not hungry.”
“There’s a soup kitchen in the back,” he said. “Let me see if I can rouse a volunteer and get you something to eat.”
Too tired to argue, Lily sat on the cot.
Before she realized what he was going to do, Chase leaned close and lifted her feet onto the thin mattress. “Lie down.” One side of his mouth curved. “Might be your last chance for a while.”
She looked at him as he leaned his tall, sinewy frame over her, his long, unruly hair framing his face. She couldn’t see it in the dark, but she recalled the jagged white scar above his left eye. He looked even better than she remembered.
His voice sounded so sincere, so concerned, she did as he said. The moment she stretched out, all the adrenaline that had fueled her for the past seventeen hours ebbed. Her muscles went slack as exhaustion staked its claim on her body. She didn’t want Chase to leave her, but she’d rather cut off her right hand than admit he made her feel safe.
He must have noticed her uneasiness, because he hung back. “You’ll be all right here, Lily.”
The way he said it almost made her believe it. Almost. But almost wasn’t good enough. “It’s not just me I have to worry about now.”
She felt his gaze drill into her with an intensity that left her breathless. “At some point we’re going to have to talk about that.”
Not now, was all she could think. She was too exhausted to face his questions and the truth she’d hidden for seven-and-a-half months. It wasn’t going to be a pleasant conversation. Lily had decided the moment she’d found out she was pregnant that she would never let Chase Vickers know his child.
Chapter Three
Aidan Shea couldn’t believe they’d gotten away. He’d been so close he could smell Vickers’s fear. He could see the terror white on the woman’s face. He’d reveled in both, and hoped he could make good on all the things he had planned for them.
So far, those carefully laid plans had done nothing but blow up in his face.
He’d been meticulous in building his strategy. Months of planning and hundreds of hours of work had gone into this operation. He’d paid tens of thousands of dollars for the explosives blueprint. He’d dealt with men he wouldn’t turn his back on, lest he risk a knife between his ribs. He’d spent six months building two utterly flawless bombs—devices powerful enough to take out both power plants in the city and inflict enough damage so that it would be days before electricity was restored.
Every aspect of the operation had been analyzed to the last detail, every variable countered with a constant. Every second had been synchronized so that the timing was perfect.
What the hell had gone wrong?
The question nagged like a migraine. But Aidan knew the answer. Chase Vickers was what had gone wrong. Evidently, the son of a bitch had nine lives and the luck of a gambler. Aidan had heard the man was good. Still, he’d underestimated him. He wouldn’t make the same mistake twice.
Disappointment ate at him, but he wasn’t unduly worried. Not yet, anyway. The game was still in its early stages. And he was, after all, a driven man—and with good reason. This mission was his life’s work. He had an old score to settle—for himself and his father. Come hell or high water, he would see it through to the end.
The cell phone clipped to his belt vibrated. Glancing at the display window, he smiled and hit Talk.
“Did you get the woman?” He recognized the voice on the other end. His father. Liam Shea.
“She escaped.”
“How did that happen?”
“Vickers showed up.”
“Interesting development.”
“I thought so.”
“Watch him. He’s very good at what he does.”
“Yeah, well, so am I.”
A tense silence ensued, then Liam asked. “Where are they now?”