Above Protection (Imperfect Heroes Book 1) (6 page)

Just talk to her, you
dumbass,
my subconscious barked at
me.

Go fuck yourself,
the logical part of my brain rebutted.

Shaking my head at the ridiculous
internal battle, I slid my hand into my pocket and pulled out my
can of chew. With one hand on the steering wheel, I shoved a big
pinch of the snuff into my bottom lip and smiled as the nicotine
did its job to quell my twitchy withdrawal.

Chapter 8

Rayanne

My teeth ground together
as I stared out the window. Breathing in deep and then blowing it
out without trying to sound like a drama queen, I watched the
landscape pass in a blur.
Ten days,
Rayanne
.
Ten days
to endure this asshole and this inconvenience and disruption of
your life, and you can go back to it.
I’ll
testify against the Watsons and then have a life again. I’ll just
try to ignore this Neanderthal who’s been sent to babysit me. He’ll
be gone as soon as the trial was over.

I chanced a glance at him as I thought
about his gruff attitude. His right hand was on his thigh and when
I looked closer, I could see him gently massaging the area. I found
this strange, and I became a little bit curious about him. My eyes
traveled up to his belt where a black T-shirt hugged his flat
stomach. The shirt’s arm holes were stretched against his massive
arms, the material looking like it might rip under the strain. His
neck was also muscular, his Adam’s apple the prominent prelude that
led to a strong jaw covered in that dark, sexy beard. I’m not a big
fan of beards but it was just clean enough to where I found my
fingers twitching, wondering what it would feel like beneath my
fingertips. His cheekbones were strong and led to untrusting eyes
that cautiously watched the road. I sort of felt like asking him a
question so he’d look at me and I could see into his eyes again,
but my pride wouldn’t allow me to. I wanted to laugh at my own
ridiculousness.

A few more minutes passed, and
suddenly he spoke, that infuriatingly low, smoky voice permeating
the car. “Why don’t you tell me about how you got yourself into
this predicament.”

It wasn’t a question, but rather, a
demand.

Feeling offended but not sure I really
should be, I huffed and said, “I didn’t do anything. I went to work
and came home every day. Collected a paycheck and did what my
bosses wanted. I didn’t ask for any of this.” I hadn’t bothered to
move my face away from the window, even though I had wanted
to.

Duke chuckled. “Okay, Blondie. Let me
rephrase. Why do you think you’re under the government’s protection
right now?”

What the hell kind of question was
that? Did he not know? I answered, sarcasm dripping all over my
tone. “What? You don’t know? Someone’s trying to kill
me.”

He shot back quickly. “You
mean, someone has allegedly been
hired
to kill you. There is a huge
difference. You know that, right?”

I let his words sink in and realized
the bastard was sort of right. “Okay, you have a point. So why are
you here, then?”

Taking a brown and white paper cup
from the cup holder, he spewed some brown chew into it, and I
wrinkled my nose. “Just in case that coward makes good on his death
threat, sweetheart.”

I quirked an eyebrow. “Really? You
gonna take a bullet for me?”

“That’s what the government pays me to
do,” he replied dryly.

Snorting, I replied, “Nobody could pay
me enough to take a bullet for someone else.”

Throwing me a sideways glance, Duke
smirked. “Might break a nail?”

“Very funny. I just don’t understand
how you do that job.”

He didn’t look at me, but kept his
eyes on the mundane landscape as it blurred past. “Special Agent
with the FBI is a badass job. Don’t discredit it. I love my fuckin’
job.”

“You willing to die for your ‘job’?” I
asked my arms folded over my chest.

“Yes. It’s no different than the
military, really. I’ve belonged to the government since I was
eighteen years old. It’s all I know.”

Wow. Freaking really? Has this guy
ever had any fun?

His hand was still on his thigh so I
asked “What’s wrong with your leg? Cramp?”

Without looking at me, he grunted,
“Something like that.”

I huffed and gave up having a
conversation with this guy.

But then he spoke again. “You didn’t
answer my question.”

“You asked how I got myself into this
predicament, and I answered by telling you that I
didn’t.”

He reached over and turned the A/C up
higher, and that annoyed me. Not only had he not asked if I was
comfortable with the temperature, I was already getting cold from
having it up so high. How could he still be hot? Was this guy a
werewolf? I shivered and caught him looking at me from the corner
of his eye.

“Well, do you remember what you could
have done at their company that got them indicted on some very
serious charges?”

I stared at him in horror. “What are
you implying? That I did something illegal to get them in trouble?
Because I didn’t.”

He chuckled, and it was deep and
rumbly. I was pissed off at myself at how sexy it sounded in my
ears. “No, because if you had, you’d be indicted right along with
them. I just mean, what kind of shady financial business practices
were they involved in?”

I felt tears build behind my eyes but
I didn’t want to cry in front of him. His question had hit a nerve
because it was the same question I had asked myself no less than a
thousand times since this nightmare started. “I don’t know,” was
the only thing I could muster up, and then I turned my head back to
face the window.

He never responded after that, and
silence filled the car for hours. I remembered I had a paperback in
my purse and I pulled it out, attempting to get lost in some
historical romance that hopefully had a happier ending than the
horror story I currently found myself in.

After what seemed like forever, we
finally reached the small town in Virginia. We'd nearly gotten lost
twice from having to use a paper map. The small road we turned on
was so tiny and dark, I could easily see how it might get missed.
Nighttime blanketed the clear country sky, a smattering of stars
overhead and a half moon the only thing illuminating our path. The
tires of the small car crunched and bumped over a gravel road until
the headlights of our sports car illuminated a small gray house at
the end of the path. My eyes traveled up to its worn-looking roof
and down to the chipped paint that once coated the entire thing.
The wrap-around porch did not look safe to step on, and its
yellowed and cloudy windows definitely looked in need of
replacement. I wrinkled my nose at the sight of it.

The road leading to it had been lined
with large oak trees, and the house was no different. Large, gnarly
branches reached out and seemed to want to possess the house. I
suppressed a shudder and stared at the tiny dwelling.

“We’re staying here?”

Nodding, Duke put the car in gear but
left it running. I watched curiously as he pulled a handgun from an
ankle holster under his jeans I didn’t know was there. As he
checked it for bullets, he said, “Stay in the car.”

I wanted nothing more than to get out
and stretch my legs, but I’d learned over the past 12 hours to not
argue with the guy. I mean, I wanted to argue because he was just a
big asshole, but I was too tired. Plus he’d sounded a little
stressed as he said it.

With the headlights still illuminating
the small house, I watched as he stealthily walked up the three
front porch steps and made his way to the front door. He checked
the knob and then pulled a key from his pocket.

Duke entered quickly and was out just
as fast. His eyes locked on mine as he left the house and a look
passed over his face that I could only describe as relief. He made
his way to the trunk and pulled out our bags, closed it, then went
to the driver’s side to turn the engine off. As he was doing this,
he grunted, “You can get out now. Go inside the house.”

I wanted to salute him and say, “Yes,
sir,” but he didn’t seem as though he wanted to be messed with. He
locked the car and sort of ushered me into the house, closing and
locking the door behind us before he flipped on the lights, and
typed numbers into a small keypad set next to the door I assumed
was a home security system.

Holy mother of
crap.
If I thought the outside was bad,
the inside was just… scary. Even though the furniture was covered
in white sheets, and everything was relatively clean, I could see
that nothing in this house was from this century. The carpet was
multicolored gold and green, and lifting my eyes to the doorway
that led to the kitchen was a huge mistake. Suddenly, I was in an
episode of
The Brady
Bunch
. Oh, my God… 70s décor
everywhere.

I turned to say something smart to
Duke and saw he was looking at a small hallway off behind the
kitchen. He went and made his way toward it, and I followed. I
gasped in horror to see two bedrooms, both with sheets covering the
furniture.

“Pick a room, princess.” Was all he
said.

One room had a double-sized bed and
the other had a king… or maybe it was a queen. Being the nice
person I am, I chose the double because Duke was, well, like twice
the size of me.

“I’ll take this one,” I murmured and
wandered into it. I pulled the sheet back and coughed as a plume of
dust billowed into the air. I was greeted with a blue and purple
bedspread with a zigzag pattern across it.

Shaking my head, I set my bag down and
went to find Duke. He was in the kitchen, pulling open the oven,
and then the little microwave set on the counter like he was
searching for something.

“You’ve got to be kidding me with
these… accommodations,” I spat, my arms folded over my
chest.

He closed the oven door and stood up
straight. Piercing me with his dark blue eyes, he said, “I’m sorry
it’s not a 5-star hotel, but keeping you alive isn’t all about
comfort. So get over it.”

I bristled as his words, but I had
already learned not to let him see me upset. “Duke, what is this
place? I mean, it looks as though nobody’s set foot in it in
decades.”

He walked toward me and got within
inches of my face. Looking down at me with those eyes, he said,
“It’s a safe house. Bureau keeps them all over the country. They
literally choose one at random and this was your lucky draw,
Blondie.”

Now he was pissing me off. “I have a
name. It’s Rayanne Mari Lynch. You could at least try using it. You
can even call me Ray, if that’s easier for you.”

“What the hell kind of name is Rayanne
anyway?” he asked.

“Dad’s name is Ray, mom’s name is
Annebelle.”

His eyes still locked on mine, I saw a
small amount of amusement dancing in them. Scrubbing a hand over
his beard, he smirked at me. “Charming.”

Stomping my foot on the cracked yellow
and white linoleum of the kitchen floor, I huffed and turned
around, storming off to my room.

Chapter 9

Duke

Holy fuck, this prima-donna was
already on my nerves. “Accommodations” – who was she kidding? She’s
got a hit out on her damn life and she’s worried about some dust?
It’s gonna be a long 10 days.

With a grunt of annoyance, I set my
bag on the floor of my room and pulled the cover sheet back. Some
psychedelic-looking bedspread all yellow and red greeted me. I
threw it to the floor and set my bag on the bed. I rifled through
it until I found my toothbrush and paste. Walking down the small
hallway until I reached the house’s one and only bathroom, I cursed
when I saw a light illuminating the cracks around the closed door.
Of course it was locked.

As I was about to turn around to go
back into my room, Rayanne came out wearing nothing but an
aqua-colored night shirt that definitely did not leave much to the
imagination. Because I’m a dude, my eyes went straight to her
chest, where her hard nipples were on display, poking through the
shirt.