Chapter 2 #2
“Ow! Oh, my God, get off of me.” The woman’s chest, which was now all sorts of up close and personal with Devon’s, expanded with a brewing scream, and he reached out to clap his free palm over her mouth before she woke the dead.
“Kylie?”
Her wild stare widened, unnaturally blue beneath the neon and moonlight, but she didn’t stop struggling.
Jesus Christ. “Kylie, hey, take it easy. Your brother sent me. He—”
Searing pain shot through his middle finger, and he whipped his hand back from her mouth as a low oath launched past his own. “Did you just bite me?”
The venomous look on her face answered his question, lickety split. “My brother didn’t tell me he was sending anybody.”
Damn it, Kellan must not have been able to reach her after he and Devon had gotten off the phone. “Cell service is for shit out here. Most of my texts don’t go through, either. He called me forty minutes ago, right after he got off the phone with you. I guess he couldn’t get you again.”
“And you just happened to be in the area? I don’t buy it,” she snapped. “Who sent you?”
Devon’s brows shot upward. “You do realize that I’m holding you, right?” He squeezed the arm he still had on lockdown, not hard enough to hurt her, of course, but with enough pressure to punctuate the message.
“I can still scream,” Kylie said, her breasts lifting against the stupid-low neckline of her T-shirt.
His hand—which was bleeding, for fuck’s sake—clapped back over her mouth in an instant. “If I wanted to hurt you, I’d have done it six times by now. So, do you want to do me a favor and let me help you like I promised Kellan I would? He said he sent me to deliver the jelly donuts.”
At the sound of her brother’s name and the code word he’d clearly given her, she stilled, her dark brows drawing in tight. “How do you know my brother?” she asked as soon as he lifted his fingers again.
“We were in the Army together. Afghanistan. Uruzgan Province. He’s a hell of a sniper.” It was an understatement, but the details worked to keep her from screaming her head off. “I actually met you five years ago in San Diego.”
Half their team had done that R and R together, and they’d only spent one night of that around Kylie, throwing back beers at the local bar where she’d worked. It was a last-ditch to expect she’d remember him.
Even though Devon sure as hell remembered her.
“Wait…” Kylie’s eyes took a tour of his face, narrowing to near slits before springing wide. “Devon? Holy shit, is that you?”
He eased his hold on her at the same time her muscles loosened beneath his grasp. “Yeah. It’s me.”
“Oh, my God, I didn’t even recognize you. You look…” She straightened, clapping her mouth shut instead of finishing her sentence. Not that Devon couldn’t fill in the blanks.
He knew damn well how much harder around the edges he’d grown since the last time he’d seen her. Just like he knew damn well what had caused the change.
He looked like a ghost, because that’s how he felt. Every fucking day.
Kylie wrapped her arms around herself, taking a step back on the pavement. “When is Kellan coming?”
“I happened to be close by, but he’s not as lucky. It’s going to take him at least half a day to get out this far. Until then, I promised to keep an eye on you.”
“Thanks, really, but I don’t need any help,” she said, hiking her chin despite the waver in her voice, and yeah, whatever paces Fagan had put her through tonight were clearly bad enough to come with an adrenaline letdown.
Still, Devon needed to keep her safe, and that wasn’t going to happen if she went around trying to be all Brenda Badass in dark parking lots.
“Uh huh. You’ve obviously cornered the market on assaulting people with”—he paused just long enough to spare a glance at the weapon he’d heard fall to the ground when he’d grabbed her, and seriously? This shit was too crazy to make up—“a Maglite.”
“It was all I had in my car,” Kylie groused. “Anyway, you’re lucky it’s the smaller version, or I’d have cracked you over the head with it.”
Guess she had a point there. “Do you want to tell me why you’re jumping people in the parking lot of the No-Tell Motel at three in the goddamn morning?” Devon asked, releasing her arm and taking a step back to look at her.
“First of all, I didn’t jump you. Secondly, you’re the one who was poking around my car. Of course, I was suspicious.”
Kylie bent down to scoop up the discarded flashlight, stuffing it into her oversized purse and knotting her arms over her chest as she pushed back to standing.
A swath of dark hair had fallen loose from the disheveled ponytail at her crown, cloaking her eyes in shadow.
Her high cheekbones and lush, sassy mouth were on full display though, and as Devon slid his gaze lower to take in her skimpy T-shirt, the flat slope of bare skin between the red cotton and the top of her jeans, and her legs that went on for days, he swallowed hard in realization.
Kylie might be Kellan’s little sister, but she was one hundred percent grown woman.
“Okay, fine,” Devon said, blanking the heat in his veins before it reached his cock. Yeah, Kylie was fucking gorgeous, but she was completely off-limits, not to mention in danger. “That still doesn’t tell me why you’re not locked inside your room like you should be.”
Guilt streaked over her face. “I…I haven’t eaten since lunch, and I was starting to get the shakes.
Kellan’s always harping about how adrenaline screws with your blood sugar, and I knew I wouldn’t be any good if I passed out.
I was on my way to the gas station over there because it’s close.
But then I saw you messing with my car, and… well, you know the rest.”
Smart girl. Right up ’til that last part, anyway. “Taking a potshot at a guy you don’t know when you’re at a tactical disadvantage isn’t a very good move.”
“Thanks, Captain Obvious. I get that now.”
Kylie dropped her chin, squeezing her baby blues shut despite her fiery comeback, and aw, hell. She’d obviously been through the wringer tonight. No sense in dragging that out.
“Okay, look. Let’s get you something to eat. Then you can grab some sleep and when your brother gets here tomorrow, we’ll get everything to stand up straight, alright?”
“O-okay,” she said, backpedaling as she added, “Sorry I, uh, bit you.” Her stare darted to his hand, her bottom lip catching between her teeth—God, help him—and Devon stuffed back the heat in his veins.
“It was smart. You didn’t know me. Anyway, you’ve had a hell of a night.”
She nodded. “Thank you. You know, for coming out here while I wait for Kellan.”
“No problem.” He tried on a smile to put her at ease, realizing a beat too late that she’d return the favor, and fuuuuuuuck, as tentative as it was, her smile was still a stunner.
Devon nodded, forcing his shit-kickers toward the spotty fluorescents lighting up the gas station half a block away.
Christ, he was an asshole of the highest order to think about Kylie’s smile even for a second.
He busied himself with surveying the area, but the darkest part of night in the middle of Wyoming didn’t really offer much by way of riveting shit.
They made it to the Gas and Go without any fanfare, Devon sticking close enough to Kylie’s side to keep her safe while still giving her enough breathing room to keep her calm.
He added a large bottle of water to the bag of pretzels she’d plucked from the shelf, giving the clerk a tight smile and a ten spot to cover the bill.
“You need to stay hydrated,” Devon said, handing over the water as they crossed back into to the parking lot.
Kylie’s lashes fanned up in surprise, but she cracked the bottle open for a couple of healthy swigs without argument.
For the first time since he’d stumbled upon her, Devon noticed the shadows beneath her eyes, the lines of worry etched over her pretty face.
“So, do you want to talk about what’s going on here?” Devon asked, although he damn near regretted the question before it was all the way out. She’d witnessed something nobody should ever have to see. She’d probably give her left arm to forget the images that must be burned into her brain.
Just as he opened his mouth for a full retraction, Kylie said, “I guess telling you what’s going on would help, right?”
“It might.” At least, that’s what all the doctors and therapists had told him after his debacle in Afghanistan. Not that he’d taken that little nugget to heart. “But only if you want to.”
Kylie bit her lip, her boots beating out a steady crunch-crunch-crunch against the roadside gravel. “I, uh—I was at work tonight and something…really bad went down.”
Even though Kellan had briefed him on the phone, Devon didn’t interrupt, only nodded. Better to let her tell the whole thing if she was looking to unload some stress.
“I’m a bartender at this place called the Corner Tavern, in Coyote Flats.
Or I guess I was, because…” She clutched the bag between her fingers hard enough to make it crinkle.
“I…I…my boss always said to keep my nose out of the basement, especially the office, but we ran out of cocktail napkins, and he’s such a pain in the ass when I don’t restock everything before I leave, and I knew I wasn’t really supposed to, but. ..”
“Kylie.” Devon’s bad-things meter kicked up a notch, but she barreled on, either not noticing his attempt to keep her grounded or not caring.
“I just went down there for a second, you know? For one stupid box of napkins. I must have been in the walk-in pantry when Xavier came in. I didn’t have a clue he was even in the bar until…until…” Her voice bottomed out to a thin whisper as she finished. “Until he shot my boss in the head. Twice.”
Although Devon hated his next question, he had to be sure. “And you saw the whole thing happen—you didn’t just hear it or see your boss dead, after the fact?”
Kylie’s head moved up and down, her dark hair swishing against her shoulders as she and Devon crossed back into the motel’s parking lot. “I, uh…yeah. I saw the shooting happen, and then Fagan tried to kill me, but I got away, so…”
Devon’s blood turned subarctic in his veins. More questions swarmed his brain, but truly, his number one priority was to hustle Kylie inside so they could wait for Kellan in safety before she said another syllable.
He scanned the parking lot. Three pickups. Two SUVs. The rusted-out Toyota. Kylie’s Mustang. No people. “Okay. Let’s go up to the room and get you out of sight. Then—”
Devon stopped short.
Two SUVs. Not one.
“We need to move.” He slung an arm around the strong line of Kylie’s shoulders, leaning in to drop the words in her ear.
“Slow and easy, Kylie.” His hand found his SIG in exactly that fashion, fingers closing around the butt of the gun as he steered her toward the back of the motel.
“Don’t break stride. Just keep walking, away from the building. ”
“But I thought you said…oh, my God.” Her entire frame went bowstring tight, her head whipping toward the SUV. “The guy getting out of that Escalade. That’s him. That’s him.”
Yep. Time to freaking get gone. “My car is behind the motel. It’s a black Dodge. Don’t look back. Just go.”
Kylie turned the corner, her breath hitching with audible relief. “I see it. I think we can get there in time.”
They were four paces from freedom when the first shot whizzed past Devon’s ear.