Cut and Run (7 page)

Tori’s face blanched. “You saw something.”

“Yes.” Even now, the premonition flashed through his mind’s eye. The darkened apartment. Deadbolt breached. A killer stepping over the threshold. Nowhere for any of them to run.

Tori gave Ethan a small nod. Hoshi pinned Ethan with a suspicious scowl. “I’m not going anywhere. And neither is my friend—not with you, anyway. And what do you mean, you saw that my apartment isn’t safe? Not safe from what?”

“Hoshi,” Tori said softly, urgently. “If Ethan says we need to leave, then we need to believe him.”

“Why should we?”

“Because your life depends on it,” Ethan replied grimly. “The man who stabbed me today will be coming here, looking to finish the job. I don’t know when exactly. Could be tomorrow or the next night. Maybe in the next few minutes. But soon. Trust me when I say that you don’t want to be here when that happens.”

Tori took her friend’s hand in a firm grasp. “Please. We should do what Ethan says.”

Some of Hoshi’s steam seemed to ebb. Ethan could see the young woman considering his grave warning. She was stubborn, perhaps even more so than Tori, if that was possible.

But she was smart like Tori too, and where Hoshi didn’t fully trust the stranger standing in her kitchen, predicting bad things to come, she did trust her friend’s judgment where he was concerned.

“Where?” Hoshi murmured. “And for how long?”

“The farther you can get from Seattle, the better,” he said. “As for how long, a few days.”

She eyed him hesitantly, then gave a faint nod. “My parents live a couple of hours north, in Surrey. I could call them—”

“Don’t call. Just get there,” Ethan said.

Tori glanced to him, frowning. “What about me?”

He recalled what she’d told him earlier. “You said you were flying home to Maine tomorrow?”

“In the morning. Ten twenty.”

“Good. I’m going to personally make sure you get on that flight safely. Then I’m going to take care of the situation back here.”

“Take care of it?” Dread dulled her anxious gaze. She eyed him as if she was looking at a stranger. Someone she didn’t know and might have even feared in that moment. “You’re going to kill that man, aren’t you?”

He didn’t answer the question, but hell yes, that was precisely what he intended to do. Neither Tori nor he would be safe until the assassin was dealt with and eliminated.

Until then, he would keep her close.

He would protect her with every skill he had and every breath in his body.

First, he had to find someplace for them to go until he could put Tori on her plane home. It had to be somewhere secure. Very public, if at all possible.

For the man who’d spent three years living like a nomad and a pauper, now the most secure place for Tori and him to hide was somewhere they’d be surrounded by people.

“Collect your things,” he told the women. “Only the essentials. Nothing you can’t carry on your person. And make it fast. We’re leaving right now.”

9

“Let us out at the corner of Ninth and Pine,” Ethan said from the darkness in the backseat, after Hoshi, on his instructions, had driven Tori and him across town from her apartment.

Tori looked out the passenger side window at the busy nighttime boulevard and the tall glass and brick buildings that lined the street and crossroad.

At the corner Ethan indicated was an old theater, its vintage sign and marquee glowing with bright lights. A crowd of people waited outside, lined up to purchase tickets.

Tori slanted him a wry glance as Hoshi slowed to stop at the curb outside. “You’re taking me to the movies?”

“Just a pit stop.” His mouth quirked, and the fact that he was able to smile in the midst of what they were doing gave her an odd sense of reassurance. “We shouldn’t linger.”

When Ethan got out of the car, Hoshi reached over to clasp her hand. “Are you sure about this? Are you sure about him?”

Tori nodded, even though her heart was racing with the uncertainty of what awaited her in Ethan’s company now. “I’ll be fine. Ethan won’t let anything happen to me. I know it. And I…trust him.”

“Oh, shit,” Hoshi whispered. “It’s even worse than that, isn’t it? You still love him.”

Did I ever stop?
She knew the answer to that, even if she wasn’t prepared to admit her likely foolishness. She leaned over and pulled her friend into a tight hug. “I’m going to be okay. I’ll call you as soon as I can, let you know I’m safe.”

“You better.” Hoshi gave her a stern look as she let her go. “Someday you’re going to tell me what’s really going on with this guy, right?”

“I have to go,” Tori said, a less than artful dodge. Christ, she was getting as cagey as Ethan. But this was life or death stakes, and if keeping him safe meant keeping his secrets, she was prepared to take all of them to her grave.

Though hopefully not anytime soon.

Tori climbed out of the vehicle and met Ethan on the curb as Hoshi pulled back out onto the street and drove away.

“Come on,” he said, and led her into the theater.

The place was packed for the evening show, a grim art house film that had brought out about a hundred sullen teenagers. Ethan laced his fingers through Tori’s and brought her past the crowds, toward the restrooms in back.

“Go into the ladies’ room and wait five minutes,” he said. “I’ll meet you right here.”

She wasn’t sure what this little excursion was about, but she did as he asked.

When she came out, he was already standing where he’d left her. Fortunately in the dimmed lights of the theater lobby, amid the hipsters and Goths, the bloodstain and knife hole on his shirt looked like some kind of grunge detail.

“You were fast,” she said as she approached him.

He pulled her into a kiss that left her breathless. “I have what I came for.”

And with that, they were off again. Now, Ethan took her across the avenue and then down another side street. Up ahead was a large bus station. They entered, and he made a beeline for a bank of lockers inside.

He walked down to one of the last rows and took a sealed plastic bag out of his cargo pants pocket. It wasn’t anything Tori had found when she’d searched his clothes back at Hoshi’s place. The bag was crisscrossed with silver duct tape, still wet from where he’d retrieved it.

Inside was a folded up paper towel, and inside the paper was a tarnished locker key.

Tori arched a brow at him. “Don’t tell me you hid that in a public toilet.”

He grinned and discreetly opened one of the lockers.

A battered old backpack sat inside. Ethan rifled through the zippered compartments. Tori saw a change of clothing and a pair of shoes, more plastic bags that appeared to contain assorted toiletries, cash and credit cards.

As he took a quick inventory of his stash, she couldn’t help noticing he also had a pistol and three different passports in the pack, only one of them sporting the navy blue and gold colors of the United States.

He closed the locker and slung the pack up onto his good shoulder. “Ready?”

She could hardly stifle her astonishment. “Ready for what—a secret agent initiation ceremony, or the witness protection program?”

Ethan chuckled, but when he spoke, there was gravity in his low voice. “This is what I never wanted to expose you to, Tori. The secrets, the subterfuge. The danger. This is part of who I really am.”

“What about my bookish, slightly nerdy liberal studies professor?”

“
Associate
professor,” he corrected on a smile. “And what the hell do you mean, nerdy? I got skills. I’m a military-grade, government-certified badass, babe.”

“Yeah, you are,” she agreed. “And I have to admit it’s more than a little hot.”

“Yeah?”

She nodded. “Seeing you like this, so cool and capable in a situation that would have other men pissing their Dockers…let’s just say I’m glad you’re not hiding this side of you from me anymore.”

He moved in close, his hazel eyes darkening with interest. “I don’t want to hide anything from you right now, Tori. Not tonight.”

Because tomorrow will be the end.

He didn’t say it, but he didn’t have to either.

He would be putting her on a plane to Portland in the morning, and then he would go back to the life he’d been living these past three years. A life that didn’t have a place for her.

Ethan stroked her cheek, tenderly, heartbreakingly.

Then he reached down and took her hand in his. “Come with me. Tonight, all the rest of this shit doesn’t matter. It doesn’t exist. Tonight, it’s just you and me.”

10

Twenty minutes later, freshly showered and wrapped in a sumptuous white terrycloth robe, Tori stepped out of the bathroom of the five-star hotel’s penthouse suite to look for Ethan.

She wasn’t sure how much cash and charm he’d had to use in his private meeting with the manager of the property in order to get them into the massive, two-thousand square foot sanctuary on the fourteenth floor. But then, Ethan was full of mysteries and surprises that she was only beginning to see in action.

He had another surprise waiting for her outside the open double doors of the bedroom. She walked into the living area of the penthouse and found the formal dining table arranged with an elaborate room service dinner for two.

Gleaming ivory china. Elegant silverware and glittering crystal glasses. A centerpiece of thick candles glowing warmly against the city lights and moonlit water of the bay far below the floor-to-ceiling window.

Silver domes concealed half a dozen intriguing dishes, the aroma of spiced-rubbed, roasted meat and grilled vegetables making her mouth water instantly.

Next to all of this decadence, a tall, ice-filled bucket held an opened bottle of pricey-looking French champagne that probably cost more than Tori’s monthly rent on her bungalow back home.

She couldn’t help but be impressed by all of the finery and extravagance, but the real reason for the sudden spike in her heart rate was the sight of Ethan strolling over to meet her, wearing the mate to her white robe. His was untied and open. All he wore beneath it was a pair of black boxers.

She smiled, appreciating every flex of smooth muscle as he walked toward her. “So, this is why you wanted me to shower by myself ahead of you. You’ve been busy. I have to admit, I wondered if I was going to come out here and find you gone…like the last time.”

He gave a slow shake of his head. “I’m sorry for what I did to you, Tori. For everything. I never got the chance to tell you that. I never got the chance to tell you a lot of things.”

He picked up a couple of slender crystal glasses from the table and poured some of the champagne into them.

The bubbles sparkled like diamonds as he handed one of the flutes to her. She took a sip of the crisp champagne, practically tasting the expense in its effervescent dance over her tongue.

“You didn’t have to do all of this, Ethan. This room and meal…I’ve never been anywhere so romantic or special.”

His mouth pursed slightly, his brows lowering over his intense eyes. “I never got the chance to give you anything like this the first time around. I want you to have it now.”

She soaked it all in, the opulence of the table setting, the beautiful suite that made her feel as though she were in a fairy tale. “It must be costing you a fortune.”

He let out a quiet curse. “I don’t care about that. I can make more money. We’ll only have this night once.”

His fingers came up to stroke her cheek, his thumb brushing gently over her bottom lip.

Then he bent his head and kissed her, taking her mouth with a passion that was both tender and demanding.

“I should’ve made you go with your friend,” he murmured against her parted lips. “You’d have been just as safe at her parents’ with her. I just…ah, fuck. I just wasn’t ready to let you go. I wanted more time.”

“Me too,” she whispered. “There’s nowhere else I want to go. I want to be with you, Ethan. I’m not afraid of what you do, or who you are.”

“I know, babe.” He dropped his gaze then and didn’t lift it. It took him a long moment before he spoke. “When you get on that flight to Maine tomorrow, you’ll never see me again. I don’t want to let you think…or hope. I don’t want any more half-truths or lies between us, Tori. No misunderstandings.”

She knew, of course. As much as she wanted to imagine otherwise, or pretend the fantasy he’d created for them tonight up here above the city—above the real world—might not unravel in the light of day, Tori knew this was just Ethan’s way of finally telling her goodbye.

But she didn’t want to hear it.

Not if they were measuring their time left together in hours.

She set her glass down on the table and reached out to him. His cheeks were warm and bristly against her fingertips, his jaw held rigid, unwavering.

She slowly shook her head. “Let’s not talk about what happens tomorrow. It doesn’t exist right now, remember? Tonight, it’s just us. If you want to give me something, then please, Ethan…give me that.”

He didn’t answer, but the molten look in his eyes spoke volumes. He put his champagne glass down next to hers. Then he caught her face in his palms and descended on her mouth in another blistering, breath-stealing kiss.

He reached between them to unfasten her robe. Then his hands were on her bare skin, squeezing her breasts, rolling the tight buds of her nipples, rounding her back to palm her ass, dragging her toward him, into the hard ridge of his arousal.

He moaned as he ground against her, his breath coming hard and fast. One hand sought the wet heat of her core, his fingers slipping between her folds, teasing the tight bundle of nerves nestled there.

“Ah, Christ, Tori,” he uttered hoarsely. “I could come just from touching you like this.”

So could she. Her body wept for him, sensation lighting up her every nerve ending. He stroked her more boldly, and his kiss became wilder, deeper, filled with raw desire.

Tori felt that same rising desperation too. She was aching for him already, well beyond pretending that she had any control where this man was concerned.