Maya Banks - Hidden Away

The look of unholy glee in Donovan’s eyes made Sam feel instantly sorry for Garrett before even hearing the situation. Whatever it was, he was probably already taking some heavy-duty shit from Donovan.

“Come on, give it up, Van,” Ethan said.

“Sarah Daniels has Garrett chasing his tail and not in a fun way. He’s been acting awfully strange about her. When I volunteered to take over the mission when he was home a few days ago, he damn near took my head off. He’s got that possessive caveman thing going.” Donovan looked at Ethan and smirked and then yanked his thumb in Sam’s direction. “You know, like lover boy over here got when Sophie landed in our backyard.”

Sam scowled. “Fuck you, Van.”

“I’m hearing that a lot lately,” Donovan said with exaggerated hurt.

Ethan rubbed his jaw in a thoughtful manner. “It’s not unusual for Garrett to get all growly over a woman. He’s extremely protective of Rachel. He’d take off someone’s head if they posed any sort of threat to her.”

“He didn’t like Sophie at first,” Sam pointed out.

“This is different,” Donovan insisted. “I’m telling you. There is something going on with Garrett this time. He gets awfully tense over Sarah Daniels. They’re heading to Alaska as we speak. I sent Steele and part of his team ahead. I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

Sam frowned. “Think we should go then?”

“I think the both of you are fine right where you are for the time being,” Donovan said. “Your wives need you. I still have Rio and his team on tap, and I’m free if he needs more. Steele, Cole and P.J. are there and are providing protection. I have every confidence that they’ll more than be able to handle anything that comes up.”

SARAH melted into the front seat of the black SUV and waited anxiously for Garrett to walk around to the driver’s side after he closed her door. Thanks to his caution, she was now fully convinced people were poised to jump out of the trees at every turn.

Garrett tossed her bag and his into the backseat and then slid into the front. He quietly shut his door then cranked the engine. As he put it in gear, he glanced over at her.

“You okay?”

She gave a nervous nod.

“We’ve got a drive ahead of us, so get comfortable, but don’t let your guard down. If I tell you to do something, do it. No questions.”

Again she nodded and he started forward, navigating around the heavy tree cover where he’d parked the SUV.

They rocked and bumped over the broken-paved road toward the small village several miles away. But he turned off about a mile out of town and took an even smaller, one-lane dirt road to the north.

As if sensing her question, he said, “I want to stay off the main roads as much as possible and out of towns if I can help it. If I found you, so can others.”

She grimaced. “I made it that easy to find me?”

“Sorry, sweetheart, but it wasn’t that difficult. There isn’t much my brother can’t find out about someone. He probably knows your bra size.”

She glared over at him. “I see. And did he share this information with you too?”

Garrett grinned. “No need. I plan to find out that one myself.”

Her eyes widened and then she laughed at the blatant flirting. Just when she thought she had him figured out, he always did something to unbalance her. He might appear to be the uptight, grumpy person he swore his brothers labeled him, but he was also fun and a huge flirt. He was also extremely sensitive though if she told him that, he’d probably shoot himself. Or her.

“I’ve been so careful. Or I’ve tried to be. I still don’t understand how anyone found me on Isle de Bijoux.”

He gave her a look that suggested it was a stupid question and didn’t require an answer.

“Clearly I’m not cut out for a life on the run.”

“Why Isle de Bijoux anyway? It was a good choice. An obscure location. You just didn’t cover your tracks well enough.”

“You’ll think it’s stupid.”

“Try me.”

“After I took a cab to the airport in Boston, I picked the first flight out that I could book, which happened to be a nonstop to Miami. On the flight there, I sat next to a couple who were continuing on to Isle de Bijoux. I thought it sounded like a good plan since it wasn’t an island I’d heard of. Since I’d made it easy to track me to Miami, when I arrived there, I hired a private Cessna and paid for it via a wire transfer from a bank account Marcus had set up for me years earlier.” She grimaced. “It was the first time I’ve ever used his money. The idea always made me uncomfortable before, but I was desperate and knew I didn’t have a choice.”

“It wasn’t a bad plan on the fly,” Garrett conceded. “Unpredictability is always an advantage. If you can keep the people looking for you off balance, you can stay ahead of them with better success.”

She swallowed and began her next question hesitantly. “Could you arrange a fake passport, birth certificate, driver’s license? All that stuff?”

He yanked his head around to look at her. “It’s a little late to be thinking of all that now.”

She growled in frustration. “Yes, I understand. Believe me I get it by now. I’m a fuckup. I suck at subterfuge. I can’t lie worth a damn and I don’t have a clue how to take care of myself. Well damn it, give me some credit for trying. It’s not like I want to be some helpless twit.”

His lips twitched suspiciously and he stared ahead at the road. “I was only going to say that it’s not necessary now. I’ll make sure you have everything you need, Sarah. I’m not about to give you the tools to ditch me again.”

“It’s not like it was personal,” she muttered. “I didn’t want you to get hurt. I didn’t want me to get hurt. At the time I thought you were some poor ex-military guy who’d been injured and needed a vacation. The last thing I wanted was for you to get caught up in my mess.”

“Hey I was a poor ex-military guy recovering from a wound,” he protested. “I didn’t lie about taking a bullet for my sister-in-law. It was a bonding experience for both of us.”

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Are you sure it wasn’t your sister-in-law who shot you? I have a feeling you’re an infuriating person to be around on a constant basis.”

He flashed her a grin that did suspicious things to her insides. “Well, now, I guess you’re going to find out, aren’t you?”

God help her but she was, and the fact that her insides lit up just a little at the thought made her smile. Then she frowned. “Oh my God. Patches! I didn’t even ask you about the cat. Is she okay? Did you take care of her?”

He looked startled by the abrupt change in topic. “Yeah, I gave her to the lady who owns the bookstore. I’m sure Patches is very happy.”

She sighed in relief. As ridiculous as it seemed to worry over a cat when she had so many other problems, the idea of the cat being alone and hungry bugged her endlessly.

“Thanks. That was a nice thing for you to do.”

He scowled as if the last thing he wanted to be considered was nice.

“Do you know where you’re going?” she asked as she stared dubiously into the night. There wasn’t much recognizable, just landscape blanketed in black. There weren’t even any stars out.

Fog hovered low to the ground and swirled around their headlights, making long-distance visibility impossible. It was spooky and only fired her already overactive imagination.

“I don’t, but the trusty GPS does.”

He tapped on the GPS mounted in the dashboard as he spoke and once again she felt like an idiot.

“I’ll just shut up now,” she sighed.

“Try to relax. I’d like to get out of Mexico as soon as possible. I hope you peed before you left.”

She chuckled and leaned back in the leather seat.

They drove for an hour, but they couldn’t have traveled very far because the road was impossible and visibility was so poor that he couldn’t drive much more than twenty-five miles per hour for the majority of the time.

She’d just closed her eyes when she heard him swear under his breath. The truck ground to a halt and she popped open her eyes to see the road blocked by what looked to be the local police, or whatever it was they called Mexican law enforcement.

Garrett reached hastily into his pocket, pulled out a small electronic device and then reached under his seat. His hand came back up empty. He glanced once her way but then focused his attention to the roadblock before them.

“Listen to me, Sarah. I want you to sit tight, and don’t say a word,” Garrett said in a low voice. “I’m outnumbered and I don’t want to do anything that puts you at risk. Which means I’m going to have to cooperate with these assholes.”

Dread filled her stomach and rose into her throat, tightening until it was hard to breathe. Cooperate? Outnumbered? This sounded bad. Really, really bad. Three police cars were parked at angles and at least seven men were standing in the road. They began approaching the SUV with automatic rifles held high. One man shouted in Spanish.

Garrett kept his hands on the steering wheel and Sarah flinched when one of the men jerked open her door. At the same time, Garrett’s door flew open and the officers motioned for them both to get out.

Sarah looked at Garrett, her heart damn near pounding out of her chest. He gave a short nod and then ducked out of the truck, careful to keep his hands up.

“No habla Español,” Garrett said when one of the men barked at him in rapid-succession Spanish.

To Sarah’s horror, the man drew his baton and rammed it into Garrett’s stomach. Another officer cracked his baton over Garrett’s head, dropping him to the ground. She screamed and tried to run for Garrett, to cover him, to somehow protect him from the unexpected attack.