Chapter 3
Crouched low as he crossed the open space near the entrance, Joe saw Mae reach the platform at the top of the metal stairs and fling the door open. Unfortunately, the clatter of shoes on metal stairs carried far enough for the men to hear and their attention was diverted back in her direction.Shit.
One of the men raised a gun in her direction as she went to open the door. It stuck for a beat. They didn’t know he was here yet, but he couldn’t let the man take a clean shot at her. No matter what. Standing, he took aim and shot at the guy’s gun hand. The man went down with a scream. Joe threw himself behind a stack of boxes as gunfire rained in his direction. Between shots, he heard two men run toward him. Damn. The good news was the men would be terrible shots because they were running. The bad news was that only two of the three men had been diverted. He had to assume the third man was going after Mae.
Joe moved fast, using the work station for cover, and took aim as the man rushed his position. Firing a rapid succession of shots in his direction, but not at him, the man took cover. Joe heard the third man clattering up the metal stairs. He had no time to wait around for a shoot-out. He rushed for the short hallway and made it out the front door before the shooter and his wounded friend caught up with him. Joe shut the door and barricaded it with a bench to slow them down.
He was about to jump into the Range Rover and swing around back to find Mae when he saw her rush around the corner of the building straight for the vehicle. He motioned her inside and kept his eye on the space behind her at the corner of the building, keeping his gun aimed and waiting for the third man in pursuit. Mae jumped into the passenger seat.
“Let’s get the hell out of here. I got the papers,” she wheezed.
Without waiting a beat and, keeping his gun trained on the corner of the building, aware of the noise and movement at the front door, Joe jumped into the driver seat. As the men pushed open the door, he backed up with a screech of tires and aimed his gun in their direction, but not to kill. He hated the rule, but the Zero Go Team was adamant. Leaving dead bodies behind was a no-no—unless you were in dire danger of becoming one of the dead bodies yourself.
It wasn’t like they were soldiers at war, and they weren’t law enforcement, so they didn’t have the luxury of official status. Instead, they had a concern about keeping a low profile. The two men at the front door dove to the ground without taking a shot, so Joe knew he’d made the right decision.
Executing a one-eighty onto the main drag, he shifted to forward and slammed the gas pedal to the floor. The stench of burnt rubber rose to his nostrils as he looked out his rearview to see the third man finally come around the corner of the building. The man didn’t bother to take a shot, probably because they were too far away and gaining speed, but he watched them run for their car. Joe turned his attention to the road, racing away from the freeway on-ramp. No sense leading them to the Zero Go Team hangar at LAX. General Rampage would have his balls.
Mae was turned around in her seat, unbelted, and giving him the play-by-play.
“They’re out of the driveway. They’re on the street about a hundred yards behind us in pursuit. They’re gaining speed. Step on it. You’ll need to lose them.”
“No shit.” He took a wild turn into a maze of warehouses, then an immediate left, punched it for a thousand yards, and then swung left again. “Did they see us take the turn?”
“I think so. They must have. I had them in sight.” She flung violently into him as he took the next turn back onto the main drag. She was soft and smelled of that exotic unidentifiable scent of hers that must cost more than gold, judging by the seductive quality. He braced his arm to prop her up and pressed the gas to the floor. She righted herself and he automatically held his arm out to keep her from lurching again. His hand hit smack on her right breast.
He pulled it away.
Her eyes snapped to his with an arched brow.
“Sorry.” It was hard to suppress his smile. It was even harder to suppress his hard-on.
The freeway on-ramp was fifty yards ahead and he kept a check on the rearview to make sure the men in pursuit weren’t behind him. With any luck, they were still driving around in the maze of warehouses or, better yet, driving in the opposite direction on the main drag.
At fifty miles-an-hour, with no sign of their pursuit vehicle in his rearview, Joe swerved the car right onto the ramp with a violent tug of the wheel.
He was prepared for her soft body to slam into him this time. Or at least he thought he was. He caught her and held her, keeping one arm on the wheel and his foot pressed on the gas pedal. Without slowing, they screeched around the curve in the ramp and up into the freeway traffic where he deftly merged with the speeding cars.
His heart pounded with adrenaline and he was hyper aware of the woman in his arm. She was practically on his lap, but not quite there. Not quite on top of his massive hard-on. Thank God. Or was he disappointed? She was so close, her scent filling him, her lush breasts almost under his palm on her ribs. The familiar vibration of lust running through him felt powerful enough to nudge his judgment from questionable to outright bad if he didn’t shore up his defenses.
There was no reason for him to still be holding her now that they were on the freeway melted into the traffic, now that the car was driving smoothly with no wild turns to toss her around. As another tick went by while he contemplated this, he loosened his grip with far too much reluctance.
“You can let go now.” She purred the words and when he glanced at her he wasn’t surprised to see the knowing smile on her luscious lips. Shit.
“Unless you’d rather hold on,” she continued.
He removed his arm in one swift motion as if she’d gone radioactive. His problem was that she’dbeenradioactive all along and he’d been ignoring that fact like some imbecilic testosterone-overloaded teenager.
“Sorry. Preoccupied.” It was true. But they both knew his preoccupation was not with their pursuers, where it should have been. He’d be preoccupied anywhere, anytime with Mary Ann’s curvy body pressed against his. He hissed out a breath, but held in the expletive that ran through his brain in a well-deserved self-beratement.
She looked in the side mirror and said, “I think we’re free and clear. Thanks to your wild-ass driving. They teach you that at save-the-day school?”
He ignored her mocking because it sounded a lot like flirting and he was too busy building up a defensive wall against her and her sex-kitten persona. He wished he could say he liked her businesslike persona better, but it would have been a lie. It was true that he was morecomfortablewhen she was businesslike. He found her interesting and even admirable. She’d been brave and ultimately unshakable even though she’d been scared.
With one last studied check of the rearview, he yanked the wheel to take the off-ramp to an airport access road that would lead them to the team’s hangar. She hadn’t fallen into him this time. She was now strapped into her seat belt and holding onto the door. The drop in his gut at the disappointed realization that she’d been uncomfortable enough with him to want to avoid his arms again floored him. Gritting his teeth, he drove the rest of the way in silence, ignoring her question about where they were heading.
* * *
Mae hadto be out of her mind.It must be the scare of the gunshots. The actual sound of a real gun blasting through her warehouse was too real. Perhaps she’d been crazy to minimize the reality of the danger until now. Perhaps her sanity had returned. But it didn’t feel like it. Otherwise how could she explain to herself the irrational quickening in her pulse at this hunk’s touch, her skittish and failed attempts at flirtation, her nervous star-struck behavior around a man who was as far from a celebrity as one could get—in his unassuming demeanor, an average Joe. In every other way, a super-hero.