“Yes,” I tell her. “It was only the phone that was being tracked.”
“What’s that?” She nods to the envelope.
“A photograph of my parents, my mother’s wedding ring, a few bits and pieces like that.”
Her face softens and for a moment I think she’s going to burst into tears.
I move over to her, wrapping my arm around her shoulders and squeezing her close. It shouldn’t feel so natural to lean down and kiss the top of her head, inhaling the scent of her hair, but it feels like the most natural thing in the world.
“Come on,” I growl, breaking the contact before I lose control.
“I still don’t understand how we’re going to leave via the roof.”
“Use your imagination, princess,” I tease lightly, which is quite a feat considering the alarm is still blaring through the penthouse.
I open the door and lead her down the corridor, and then I feel her looking at me, shaking her head.
“Wait, are you saying what I think you’re saying?”
“Why do you think I’ve got a second cellphone, eh?” I smirk, reaching onto the envelope and taking it out. “I solved a big case for the chopper boys a while back and they said they owed me a favor, anything I could think of. I haven’t called it in yet, so let’s hope they’re as good as they’re word.”
“Yeah.” She laughs dully, as though she can’t believe this is happening. “Let’s hope.”
I sit across from my woman in the helicopter, the thrum of the engine moving through us as we ascend from the high-rise apartment block and surge over the city.
Despite everything that’s happening, I can’t help but drink in the sight of her body, the way the straps press against her breasts, shaping them beautifully for me.
I want to continue where we left off in my apartment.
I was on the verge of telling her how much she means to me.
But the pilot can hear us over the headset communications, and this is for my woman and my woman alone.
“This is crazy,” she yells, looking down as the city becomes smaller and more distant. She forces her head back against the headrest. “Okay, that was a mistake. Rule number one, Rider, don’t look down.”
I chuckle despite the circumstances, staring down at the ocean and the bridge and the approaching countryside.
“Didn’t you hear me?” she yells, with a note of amusement in her voice. “And what are you smiling about?”
“Just thinking about a certain person’s face when he realizes we flew the fuck out of there and he’s got no way to find out where we’ve gone. That motherfucker.”
I purposefully don’t name her uncle, the same way I told Ruby not to mention anything about the mob or the Cartel or her connection to any of it. Even if I trust the pilots – Max and Lorraine have both been solid in my experience – I can’t afford to take risks when the future mother of my children is concerned.
Fuck.
How does that feel so certain, so right?
I remember how she reacted when I said the words, my woman.
She didn’t cringe away. She didn’t look at me like I was crazy.
There was lust in her eyes, want in the way her lips fused to mine.
The pilot starts to descend about ten minutes after the journey began, lowering us down toward a forest, and then inching slowly to the edge toward a large clearing where the trees have been cut down.
“This is the closest I can get you, Rawson,” Max says in my headset, as the chopper’s blades begin to wind down.
“That’s fine,” I tell him.
In fact, it’s perfect. I don’t want him to know the precise location of my safe house anyway.
“Remember we’re here if you need us,” Max says. “Always, brother. Always.”
“I know,” I tell him. “And the same goes for you. You know that. But this is a delicate issue. I need to play it smart.”
“I get it. Good luck, whatever it is.”
I jump down from the chopper when the blades finally stop, and then reach up and grab my woman by her hips. I squeeze and feel the full curviness of her flesh, lowering her to the ground and then forcing myself to let go so I don’t press her against the helicopter and savage her with my lust.
I lead her away from the helicopter, under the protection of the trees, as it rises and surges toward the sky.
Then it’s just us and the forest, eerily silent after the alarm and then the sound of the chopper.
Ruby squeezes my arm, digging her fingernails into my bare skin.
“Okay, so we’re in a forest with a backpack, an envelope, and neither of us is dressed for a hike. Please tell me you’ve got a plan.”
“I do,” I tell her. “I just hope you’re not claustrophobic.”
“What?”
Chapter Nine
Ruby
I sit in an armchair with my hands cradling a mug of cocoa, listening to the sounds of Rider in the next room as he makes his coffee. My legs are sore from the trek through the forest, as well as from my escape this morning.