In Plain Sight (Stolen Hearts) (9 page)

Which left—not going there. Not until she’d run out of choices. And that’s what the bastard was doing, wasn’t he? Backing her into a corner until she had nowhere left to turn.

Her breath stalled in her throat. Omigod. What had she done? She had to get away from Rafe. She’d put his life in danger without realizing it. She slowed her pace, her feet suddenly feeling like blocks of concrete as she put her hand on her stomach and bent over, praying she wouldn’t throw up. She’d been so consumed with hate for Dejarnatt and how he’d crushed her brother and what he might be trying to do to her, she’d allowed herself to be blinded to other possibilities.

“Hey, there.” Rafe snapped the phone closed and crouched down by her side. “Are you okay?”

No. And she probably never would be again.

“’Course I’m okay.” She gathered the last bit of her energy and pushed herself up to her full height.

“I got us a ride out of here. A limo, no less. In five minutes, we’ve got to be in front of Max’s Men’s Wear just down the street.”

“Who?”

“An old friend who owes me a favor. You can trust him.”

“To be safe, we’ll watch him wait for us, and at the last minute when it looks like he’s ready to leave, we’ll run out and get in the car. Got that?”

She turned when he didn’t answer and wished she hadn’t. His beautiful eyes looked reproachful and sad. “You’ve done this before, haven’t you?” he said.

There was a time, so long ago she could barely remember, that her world had felt safe. She’d hoped that finally she and Darcy had managed to get back to that place of being ordinary—having friends, a job, the same apartment for more than three months.

She touched the back of his hand with her fingertip. “When I first met you I thought it was Dejarnatt trying to mess me up. But I think I’m in big trouble, and you have to get away from me, Rafe. You can’t help me. You’ll only slow me down.”

She pulled air in through her teeth, and it sounded like she was whistling. Anything to hold back the damned tears. “There is one thing I need you to do for me, and that’s why I called. I need you to go see Darcy in jail. He’s in danger, too. Tell him, I said he’s back.”

She grabbed his hand. “Promise you’ll tell Darcy.”

“Who’s back?”

When she didn’t answer, his frown deepened. “I think you need help, Bridget. Look, I know Gage is tough, but he’s a good man.” He grabbed her shoulders. “You have to trust someone.”

She smiled sadly at him and stood on tiptoe to kiss the corner of his mouth. “I do. I trust you. Don’t let me down.”

A siren started up at the end of the block, and Bridget dragged her gaze away from Rafe’s. There was a whole world to explore between them, but she’d never get the chance. She hardened her voice. “Let’s go. The limo could be there by now.”

“There’s a place we can go. A friend’s condo. She works out of town most of the time. You need rest and time to think things through.”

He was right. Now that she’d finally realized what kind of trouble she was in, she needed to rethink everything. “Did you phone her?”

“No, texted. She’s in California right now. I worked with her a bit here and there, but Boston’s her hometown, too. She hates my apartment, so, she offered…you know…here’s the key. Stay for as long as you want.”

A girlfriend, then. Not that it made any difference. She couldn’t afford to get stuck on the details of Rafe’s life. Just as she couldn’t afford to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“Is she a close friend? Would anyone think to look for you there?” Was she the lucky woman who had her hand on Rafe’s behind in all those Parisian ads?

“I doubt many people know Honey Duwell and I are friends. For one thing, she only dates millionaires.”

“Honey Duwell, the movie star?” And one of the most beautiful women in the world.

“Yeah. We’ve worked together a bunch of times on different shoots. She started out as a model.”

“And she just gives you the key to her apartment and tells you to make yourself at home.”

“Something like that.”

“You’re the worst liar I’ve ever met.”

A corner of his mouth quirked up. “Want to give me lessons?”

When a limo double-parked on the street in front of the menswear store, Rafe grabbed her arm, and without letting herself think of the consequences, she scrambled into the back seat of the limo.

“Y’all want to stay down on the floor for a while. This place here is lousy with cops. What kind a shit you step in this time, Rafe, my man?”

“The truth?” Rafe asked from the back seat across from her where he stretched out on his side. “Haven’t got a clue. Leo, did you know you can be tracked through your cell phone?”

Bridget wondered if Rafe was merely confirming what she’d told him or wondering if he was the last person on earth to learn about tracking tech on cell phones?

“I did know that.” Leo grinned over his shoulder. “You gotta work harder to keep up to the rest of us, Rafe. Good looks only get you so far. Where y’all going?”

“A few blocks further downtown.”

Bridget reached across the space between the two facing seats and tapped Rafe on the knee. She shook her head. She held up one finger, then two and pointed outside. When Rafe winked at her, she couldn’t stop the smile that spread across her face. She had to be insane to be grinning like a loon just minutes away from the FBI possibly getting their hands on her.

Not only did she have to dump Rafe for his own safety, but for hers as well. If the FBI arrested her, the people who she believed were after her, would stop at nothing to keep her from talking to the feds. If they couldn’t get to her, they’d use Darcy to leverage her.

The limo drifted along for another block. When it stopped at a red light, Bridget signaled time to go. They both sat up, took a quick look around for uniforms, and Rafe opened the door.

“I’ll call you soon, Leo. Thanks. Anything you need, let me know.”

Leo turned toward them to say something, but they were both out and running through traffic before he got out a word.

“Do you have any money?” Bridget asked as she slid her arm through his and walked briskly toward the department store across the street.

“Yeah. What do you need, Irish? A plane? A magical disappearing act?”

“A change of outfit for you, Model Man.”

He glanced down at the brown hoodie and blue jeans she’d chosen for herself before setting out. “How about you?”

She smiled, dragged the hoodie up over her head and casually draped it over a rack of jackets just inside the store she’d guided him into. Her navy blue T-shirt was as plain as they came. The only noticeable thing about her now was the wildly handsome man walking beside her.

“You need to get rid of that fancy shirt, and maybe buy a baseball cap. You stick out too much. When was the last time you wore clothing off the rack?” she asked as she herded him toward the men’s section.

“People give me clothes. If I like them I wear them. I hate shopping. Bridget, what’s going on? This is about something more than a handful of fossilized tree sap, isn’t it?”

“Really? You hate shopping?” Bridget halted by a rack of T-shirts on sale, blinking to clear the sudden tears in her eyes. It had been unbelievably stupid of her to involve Rafe. She had to dump him right away. She pulled two shirts off the rack and handed them to him. “Pick one. Put it on in the changing room over there. I’ll look for a cap.”

She watched him disappear into a changing room, turned to look for hats but went back and knocked on the door. “Rafe?”

“Yeah?” He opened the door in the act of taking off the shirt he’d been wearing.

Bridget felt a hard thunk in her chest, like someone had cut off her air supply. He looked even more gorgeous with his clothes off than on. Her mouth turned dry as she stared at the smooth skin that stretched tight over firm muscles. She hadn’t actually met anyone with an honest-to-God six-pack before.

Rafe glanced past her into the store. “What now?”

“What?” she asked, not able to tear her eyes away from the glorious sight in front of her.

He pulled the new T-shirt over his head and let it fall to his waist. “You’ve got a goofy look on your face. Are you okay?”

Of course she did. That’s exactly how she wanted the man she lusted for to see her.
Goofy
.

“Just…you know. Wear the T-shirt to the cash register. It looks…great.” She turned on her heel. “Meet you at the hats.”

Keep walking. Don’t wait for him. Walk out of his life right this minute
. The more time she spent with him, the more danger he was in. She could walk away. She had to. Not only her life, but Darcy’s as well depended on her holding it together. She’d made a tactical error by involving Pascotto. Get over it. Get tough, and get going.

It was better for both of them that she leave him behind. Blinking back tears, she headed for the door that opened on the opposite street from where they’d entered.

***

Rafe tried not to snap at the saleswoman as she rang up the sale of his shirt. It wasn’t her fault he’d let an intriguing woman slip through his fingers yet again. Plus he was worried that whatever little caper Bridget had gotten herself tangled up in wasn’t little at all. The clerk tried to engage him in senseless chitchat as he watched Bridget make a beeline for the door. Goddamn that woman, she was always ten steps ahead of him. Well, not this time.

He tossed a twenty on the counter and started after her.

“But your change, sir,” the clerk chirped behind him.

“Keep it.” He broke into a trot. No doubt Bridget would be appalled at the scene he was making. People stopped and watched as he started to run in earnest. It was her fault. She shouldn’t have tried to shake him. And he should have anticipated her doing exactly that. Did she ever take a break or was she always calculating the odds? What made a person act like that?

He halted outside the door and caught sight of her waiting at the crosswalk half a block up. Standing in a crowd of people on the corner, she looked smaller to him, like she’d pulled into herself. He didn’t like seeing her like that, like she was hurting inside. He wanted the confident woman with the brilliant red curls that he’d met in Paris back.

Rafe dashed across the street, narrowly missing two cars and strode up to the corner where Bridget had started crossing. He stood behind the lamp post until she passed him and fell into step with her.

“I decided not to go with the cap,” he murmured into her ear as he took her elbow to stop her from taking off again.

She stumbled, and he heard her gasp, but other than her small stumble, she showed no outward sign of surprise.

He kept his mouth close to her ear. “You didn’t really think I was that easy to get rid of, did you, Irish?”

She tried to jerk her arm away, but he held on tighter.

“You’re dead wood, Pascotto. You need to get a life and leave me alone.”

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe you called me this morning and asked to meet.”

“Did anyone tell you how snotty you sound when you’re mad? Pick up the pace. I need to get out of here.”

He’d give anything to pull her into a doorway and kiss her right now. Not a sweet kiss, either. A no-holds-barred, let’s-get-naked kiss. A kiss she wouldn’t forget in this lifetime. Instead, he slung his arm around her shoulders and swung them to face the street. He thrust his hand into the air. “Taxi.”

A cab pulled to a stop in front of them, and he held the door open while Bridget scrambled in. For a brief second, he considered not following her. She obviously didn’t want him trailing along, and for damned sure, he didn’t need the hassle. Just thinking about kissing her made him ache. All this for a woman who couldn’t wait to dump him. He wasn’t used to being rejected.

But then she leaned forward and peeked at him from inside the cab, and for the first time, he saw fear in her eyes. If he walked away now, not only would he drive himself insane worrying about her, she’d be alone and afraid. If she disappeared from his life right now, he knew when he was ninety he’d still wonder what had happened to her.

He gave Honey’s address to the driver and stared out the window in an attempt to ignore the woman beside him, which was as easy as ignoring the city that towered above them. Traffic was light and the cab pulled up outside the condo building ten minutes later. Rafe paid the driver, got out and strolled to the entrance, not once looking back to see if Bridget would follow. He suppressed a satisfied smile when he caught her reflection beside him in the front glass doors just before he opened them.