I don’t share.
“Anyway, am I under arrest?” She wiped dirt off her knees from me dragging her into the street.
“No. Of course not. I’m trying to protect you.”
She kicked me and came very close to my nuts. “I don’t need you to protect me. My men aren’t trying to kill me. I have to find Giancarlo.” She ran off down the block.
Pushing past the pain, I chased after her. My gut instinct wanted to yell as my life flashed before my eyes fearing she would run right into a trap. Instead, I bolted and tackled her. Dragged her into a dark alley between two apartment buildings.
“Scream and people will hear you.” I covered her mouth again. “You say it’s not your guys, fine. Someone else could be locking in on your tracker’s signal right now.”
“Right,” she said, sounding muffled behind my hand which I dropped when she spoke softly. “Gian’s waiting for me.”
“No. He’s not. He’s strutting through his hotel smiling at donors,” I lied.
“Stop saying that,” she cried out and slumped against me.
My body went rigid at the soft feel of her body. “Rebecca, I have a car at the end of this block.”
“Your car will be tracked,” she argued. “Give me some credit to know—”
“The FBI has the kind of resources your boyfriend Gian would cut off his dick to get his hands on. He’s talented. I won’t deny him that. But I have a team of cyber experts just like him. We have unmarked cars. And you know what this is, right?” From my pocket, I pulled out a phone.
“Looks like a burner phone. Gian has them too.”
“This one is pinging off a cell tower in Delaware, it’s so powerful. It’s military proprietary technology. I can even cloak it from the FBI servers if I think there’s a mole. I can get you out of this city better than he can. Me, Becca.”
“Why are you doing this?” She pushed me away and sat up against the wall.
Because I might be in love with you.
Which was crazy. Since that kiss in her limo a month ago, I haven’t been able to get her out of my fucking mind.
“You’ve been targeted. You’re innocent.”
She held her hands out. “Then take me into protective custody.”
“That’s my plan. Sort of.” I brushed her cheek. “Don’t make me put my handcuffs on you.”
Or do... Fuck, I had to get under control.
“Where?” she asked. “Where are we going?”
“North of here. Real north.”
She shook her head. “Give me a phone. Giancarlo told me if I couldn’t find him to call a room at his hotel that he uses to get messages. If I leave a message there and he doesn’t show up, I’ll go with you.”
“I can’t let you do that. I don’t know that he’s not behind this. My team is looking into it.”
“Julian Russo.” She grabbed my collar and pulled my face right up against hers. That kiss I’d laid on her flashed in my memory again, stinging me with lust. “Give me your phone. Let me prove to you Giancarlo doesn’t want me dead.”
“Fine. We’ll try it your way.” I pushed her hair behind her ears and pulled her rainslicker’s hood up. “Let’s go to my car to use a fresh burner phone. It’s at the end of the block.” I just had to get her near the car.
“Okay,” she said, sounding ready to break down.
I hated destroying her faith in the men she thought loved her. I couldn’t let her be humiliated by leaving a message for Giancarlo. A plan to expose her if I ever heard one. “Let me...” I tucked her under my arm and a vision flashed at me.
Back in high school, she and Sebastien would walk the halls of St. Mary’s Prep arm and arm. How happy he looked. Sure, he had the prettiest, sweetest girl at school.
I hated him for that.
Still hated him.
Anthony was just a douchebag. I had no idea how that manwhore tricked her into thinking he loved her. All three of them obviously swooped in and took advantage of her when she was most vulnerable. And that was my fault for going after her father.
I never dreamed she’d hide him in another country.
I never dreamed she’d assume control of her father’s business and then try to undo the drug deal. That landed her in trouble with the Messinas, the Darias, and the Byrnes. She tried to put their fathers in jail.
Their sons seized control of her first.
All because of me.
Giovanni Domenico had been considered untouchable for decades. No one at the bureau dared to recommend an indictment. He had every politician in his pocket. Every police commissioner. But when the DEA came to me about the date rape drug deal Giovanni openly made with a foreign manufacturer and brought in Anthony Messina Sr., Richard Daria, and Patrick Byrne, that broke me.
I’d put my ass on the line to take him down. Then Becca hid him on me. Made me look like a complete ass to my station chief.
I breathed in relief seeing my car. “It’s the maroon sedan on the right.” My burner phone vibrated in my pocket. Glancing at the incoming number, my heart landed in my throat. I’d told Tamryn to call me only if there was a problem. “Yeah.”
“You’re exposed.” Tamryn’s voice sounded eerie. “Bennett is talking to Fowler right now. After you left, he cast a wide search net of messages on all kinds of platforms. It pinged back really quickly. We picked up messages sounding like the hitman telling someone he’s driving around the Bronx. I’m tracking your phone. You’re in the Bronx. I assume you have her.”
“Fuck.” I pulled Becca against my chest.
“I suggest you get back here.”
Worry crawled through me and for a moment I felt confused. I hated that I didn’t trust Bennett or Carroll, or fuck, Fowler. Did someone in my section tip the hitman off?
“I can’t do that, Tam.”
“Fowler will find the requisition for your burner phone, have Bennett turn off the cloaking option from here, and then find you. In the same area we know Becca is in. Then the hitman can hack into that...”
“Jesus Christ.” I hurried to the car. “What about this Chevy?”
“Same thing. What are you doing, Julian?”
I clicked the fob unlocking the doors. “What I have to.” I hung up and brought Rebecca to the back of the car.
“What’s the matter?” she asked me, and I felt the tension in her touch. She would run from me again. Find someone to give her their phone to make that call she thinks Giancarlo was waiting for. Or say screw it and call his cell directly. I heard the desperation in her voice.
“Nothing.” I opened the trunk.
“Then why are you so flushed?”
“Because I’m about to do something very stupid.”
“What?”
From a concealed pocket inside my suit jacket, I eased out a syringe. With it in my hand, I kissed Rebecca. Slow and deep, distracting her. God, her mouth. Her tongue. How I wanted it licking my cock. And dear God, I felt her body call to me. She had to have wanted me just as much as I wanted her the way she was kissing me back.
Now I had to fuck that all up.
“I’m sorry, Becca,” I whispered in her mouth and plunged the needle into her neck.
She struggled, but slumped in my arms a second later. I picked her up and laid her in the trunk, gently. I took off my suit jacket and bundled it to cushion her head. God, how angelic she looked. Her face so sweet, her eyes so soft. Sleeping peacefully.
The drug would knock her out for about eight hours.
Enough time to get to the Canadian border.