Chapter 3
Savvie had spent the past two hours moving around the location she’d texted to Kyla, praying her friend would get her text and respond soon.
Taking a taxi to the mainland was out. Police had swarmed the island.
She’d overheard a couple as they’d walked along the hotel’s garden path, talking about how the roads leading off the island had roadblocks set up, checking all vehicles exiting.
That had happened soon after she’d escaped the Setai.
She’d walked along the edge of the beach, looking for other means of getting off the island. A paddleboard would take too long and expose her to the police helicopter flying over the island, shining a floodlight down on the beaches, streets and ocean.
Her best chance might be to hotwire one of the wave runners chained to an excursion hut further down the beach.
She’d hotwired old cars before, but a wave runner?
Knowing she’d need bolt cutters to free one of the chains anchoring them to the hut, she’d picked the locks on several storage buildings and found a set of bolt cutters and stashed them beneath a bush.
With the hours passing and her window of opportunity to escape in the dark narrowing, she’d given up on hearing from Kyla.
She’d taken the bolt cutters to the chains holding down the wave runners and managed, after several attempts, to cut through the metal links.
As she knelt beside one of the machines, her burner phone vibrated in her pocket.
She ducked low and cupped her hand over the display screen to keep the light from shining too brightly and giving away her position. She held her breath as she read the text.
Kyla: Pizza delivery. Thirty minutes. Two pies.
Help was on the way.
Savvie released the breath she’d held, hope swelling in her chest.
Thirty minutes gave her enough time to get back to the coordinates she’d given Kyla and find a good place to hide where she could observe anyone who might come looking for her. She would expect two people.
She’d chosen to hide in the gap behind the paddleboards. She would be able to observe anyone coming through the garden or from the beach.
She’d settled into her position with fifteen minutes to spare and waited.
A couple had appeared not long afterward, coming from the hotel, holding hands.
Savvie studied them, wondering if they were the two pies Kyla had mentioned. Two people could be a man and a woman.
They stopped in the moonlight and kissed, their hands roving over each other’s bodies. The man slid his hand beneath her dress and squeezed her ass.
Savvie’s pulse quickened. They weren’t the pies Kyla had sent. But damn, they were into each other, making Savvie’s body heat while observing their passion.
Finally, they turned and headed back to the hotel, leaving Savvie thinking back to the last time she’d been with a man.
A damned long time. Maybe when she settled into her new life, she’d find herself a man-friend with benefits. She wasn’t interested in anything as permanent as marriage.
Having been in her line of work, she had too many secrets to let a man that close. Sex was okay. Happily-ever-after was out of the question.
A friend would be nice.
Minutes passed with no movement in the garden or on the beach.
Savvie remained alert, her senses homing in on every sight, smell and sound.
She heard the crunch of footsteps on gravel before a dark figure wearing a hooded jacket appeared on the edge of the path, moving in the shadows, unlike the couple on a romantic stroll earlier.
The snap of a twig sounded somewhere further away.
She tensed.
If Kyla sent these guys, they’d mention something about pizza. She wouldn’t reveal herself until they did.
The man in the hoodie moved through the stacks of lounge chairs and around each kayak. He looked around until his gaze landed on the paddleboards behind which Savvie stood.
She shifted slightly, bracing her legs, the fight or flight instinct kicking in.
Suddenly, the hoodie man lunged toward her. Then, another man appeared from around the side of the hut.
Savvie waited until they were close enough and then shoved the paddleboards stacked against each other, sending them slamming into the two men rushing toward her.
With her backpack slung over her shoulder, she used the distraction to leap out of her hiding place and run.
The beach would leave her too exposed, so she ran into the garden, heading for the hotel.
Once inside, she could lose herself in the many corridors or race out the other side and onto the grounds of the neighboring hotel.
She’d visualized a number of options, walking the paths over the past few days, preparing for worst cases scenarios.
First, she had to make it to the hotel.
“Get her!” a voice rasped behind her.
Footsteps pounded the gravel behind her. More sounded in front of her.
Before she could change directions, another man leaped out of the shadows.
She plowed into the solid wall of his chest, the wind briefly knocked from her lungs.
His arms came up around her.
Another man raced past where she stood in the man’s arms, and the sound of fists hitting flesh ensued, yanking Savvie out of her temporary breathlessness. She tried to pull out of the man’s grip, but he held on.
When she kicked him in the shin, he cursed.
“Damn it, woman. We’re here to help,” he muttered. “Fuck. What was it she said?”
Savvie didn’t trust him. He could be lying. Not willing to take a chance, she thrust her hands up and out, breaking his hold on her arms. She balled her fists, cocked her arm and prepared to take him on.
“Damn it,” he said. “We’re delivering goddamn pizza.”
She’d already swung her arm when the word pizza registered. Too late. Her fist connected with his jaw, and his head snapped backward under the force.
Pain shot through her hand and up her arm.
The man stepped back and shook his head, rubbing a hand over his jaw.
“Look out!” a voice called out.
The guy she’d hit shoved Savvie aside as a man barreled toward them.
Her pizza delivery guy bent low and charged into the aggressor like a football lineman, arresting his forward movement and knocking him back several steps.
Beyond Pizza Boy and his opponent, two other men were locked in hand-to-hand combat.
With all four men occupied, Savvie debated running while she had the chance.
Pizza Boy’s opponent regained his footing and came back fighting.
Hell, the man had come to her rescue, and she’d punched him in the jaw. She couldn’t run away and leave him to his own devices. What if he was knocked out or killed?
At that moment, Pizza Boy took a hit to his gut.
Anger roiled in Savvie’s gut. She looked around for something she could use as a weapon.
The groundskeepers did a good job of cleaning up sticks and debris.
There weren’t any rocks or benches that weren’t nailed to the ground.
Her gaze landed on a decorative metal planter filled with petunias hanging by a chain from a wrought iron pole.
She lifted the chain loose from its hook.
Then holding the planter by the chain, she waited for an opening.
The men fought, trading punches, moving fast. When Pizza Boy’s opponent ended up with his back to Savvie, she swung the planter hard.
The metal pot connected with the back of the man’s head, sending him flying forward into Pizza Boy, knocking them both to the ground.
Savvie dropped the pot and rushed toward the two men.
The man on top lay still.
Pizza Boy grunted and struggled, finally shoving the guy off him. He leaped to his feet and went to his buddy’s defense.
Seconds later, they’d subdued the man in the hoodie, discovering a couple of zip-ties in his back pocket.
Savvie helped the pizza guys secure the other two men’s wrists behind their backs, and they tied their shoestrings together in knots and dragged them behind the hut.
Her pizza guy removed his socks and stuffed them in their captives’ mouths.
They wouldn’t be going anywhere fast or raising a ruckus that would alert others to their predicament.
The pizza guys straightened.
Her guy, the man she’d punched in the jaw moments before, pointed to the other guy. “As I said, we’re the pizza delivery guys.”
Savvie nodded toward the two men. “If you’re here to deliver pizza, I can guess who those two are. And if they could find me, there will be more behind them.”
“We have to get you out of here,” her guy said.
“How?” she asked.
“Good question.” Her guy hooked her arm. His partner moved ahead of them, leading the way out of the garden and through a row of bushes onto a driveway.
They emerged onto the main road that ran in front of the hotels.
The two men flanked her as they hurried with her.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“We have a car nearby,” her guy’s partner said.
“You can’t just drive me over one of the bridges.”
“We know. They’re blocked,” her guy said.
“We’ll think of something,” his partner said.
“Either one of you good starting small engines?” she asked.
“I am,” her guy answered. “Why?”
“I have a better idea,” she said.
Footsteps behind her made her look over her shoulder.
“We’re being followed,” her guy said. “One guy.”
“And there’s a vehicle not far behind him,” Savvie said. “How far to your car?”
“Less than a block,” her guy answered.
“You won’t get me off the island in a vehicle.” She touched her guy’s arm. “I have another idea.”
“Which is?” her guy asked.
“Wave runner,” she said. “Back on the beach. Just have to get it started.”
Her guy’s lips quirked. “I could do that.”
“That might work,” his partner said. “I can distract our tail while you two make a run for it. But you need them to think you’re with me in the car.”
“The old in-one-side-out-the-other routine, huh?” her guy asked with a grin.
“Yup,” his partner spoke softly. “When I get off the island, I’ll head south.”
“Great,” Savvie whispered. “We’ll text our location when we make landfall on the mainland.”
“Ready?” his partner prompted.
“Ready,” her guy answered.
“As I’ll ever be,” Savvie agreed.
Her guy touched her arm and whispered, “Run.”
As one, they took off.
When they reached the car in the parking lot, her guy’s partner flung himself into the driver’s seat and started the engine.
Savvie yanked open the back door, dove in, and crawled to the other side. She pushed open the door, rolled out onto the ground and ducked through a row of oleanders.
Her pizza guy was right behind her, kicking the car door closed.
As soon as he made it through the oleanders behind Savvie, his partner spun out, leaving the parking lot.
Savvie lay low to the ground, peering through the bushes at the parking lot.
The man who’d been on foot ran into the parking lot, turned and waited for a vehicle to come to a stop beside him. He jumped in, and the vehicle took off after the decoy car.
“Will he be all right?” Savvie asked.
“Stone is a smart man. He’ll lead them right to the roadblock. When the police search the car, the guys behind him will see you’re not in it.” He stood. “Come on, we need to hurry if we want to beat the daylight.”
After one more glance, Savvie rose and led the way back to the beach, where she’d cut the chain securing the wave runners.
She knelt on the beach beside the man as he pulled open the engine compartment. “Stone’s your partner’s name. I can’t keep thinking of you as the pizza boy.”
He chuckled. “Pizza boy, huh?”
She shrugged. “Or the guy I punched.”
He worked his jaw back and forth as he ran his fingers inside the engine compartment. His hand stopped. “Well, talk about luck.” He pulled his hand out. On the end of a string was a key. “This will be easier than I thought. Now all we have to do is push it to the water.”
He rose to his feet. “You want to steer while I get behind it and push?”
She leaned over the machine and grabbed the handgrips.
“My name’s Hunter,” he said softly as he passed her to crouch behind the wave runner. “Ready?” he said in a hushed tone.
“Yeah.”
He pushed from behind.
Savvie steered and pushed. Together they got the machine to the water.
Hunter held it steady. “Ever drive one of these?”
She nodded. “Once. On a lake.”
“Unless you really want the pleasure, I’ll drive.” He slung his leg over the seat and waited for her to get on behind him.
She slipped onto the machine, her legs and body sliding up against his.
He was all hard muscle and strength.
With her lady parts pressed against him, something stirred inside Savvie. This was a man who could hold his own against her. She wouldn’t easily intimidate someone like Hunter. She wouldn’t consider many of the men she’d met as her equal or even close.
He paused with his hand on the key. “You know my name,” he said. “All I know about you is that you’re a friend of Kyla’s from her trainee days. And yes, we know what she did and what you were trained to do. Should I be concerned?”
Her chest tightened. He’d just reminded her that her past would always be a barrier to living a normal life. Her heart hardened. “Are you concerned about Kyla?”
“Not at all. She’s one of the team.”
“Is she still working her old job?”
He snorted. “Not hardly. She’s full-time with the Brotherhood Protectors, working with their computer guru. And she’s very pregnant.”
“She left the organization because she wanted to start over.”
“As so many of us have,” he said.
“I quit my job tonight,” she said as she wrapped her arms around his waist. “My name is Savvie. All I want is to start over and live as normal a life as possible.”
“Well, Savvie, when you figure out what normal is, let me know.” He started the engine. “I’ve been chasing normal since I can remember and still haven’t figured out what the hell it is. Hold on, sweetheart. It’s going to be a rough ride.”
When she’d quit her job, Savvie had fully expected it to be a rough ride and had anticipated doing it alone.
Reaching out at the last minute to Kyla had been spontaneous. She hadn’t planned on involving anyone else in her transition. Her training with the organization had taught her to rely on herself. No one else.
She believed one of the main reasons she’d been recruited in the first place was because she was a loner—a loner who had killed her stepfather in self-defense and in defense of her mother.
Yes, she’d been acquitted, but anyone who’d known her and what she’d done would always wonder if she had it in her to do it again. Having killed a man changed a person forever.
The agency had figured she had nothing to lose that she hadn’t already lost.
So, she was in for a rough ride?
All she had to say to that was…
Define rough.
Savvie tightened her hold on Hunter’s middle and hung on.