The Alpha Male Romance Boxed Set (21 page)

When Lily hesitated in taking his offered hand, he took his eyes off the road long enough to read her nametag. "Ahhh, Lily. That's a beautiful name. My grandmother's name was Lily."

Her brow furrowed as she looked over at him in disbelief. Talk about a Jekyll and Hyde attitude change.
Maybe he's psychotic?Oh-my-God, that must be it and I'm stuck in a car with him!
She took his hand briefly and then snatched hers from his grip equally as quickly, though not quickly enough to avoid the warm sensation that flowed through her at his touch. She growled at herself for feeling attraction towards someone who was - quite possibly - mentally unstable.

"Well
Scott
, who are you
really
? And why were people shooting at you?"

Scott took another glance at the young woman sitting in the passenger seat and sighed. It was unfortunate that she was being pulled into the madness of his life. It certainly wasn't his intention, but... as the saying goes, ‘shit happens’.

What was he going to do with her? He had no idea. What did he
want
to do with her? He snickered at the thought; even in that hideous uniform she was a stunning woman. Her long blonde hair begged him to reach over and stroke it. Her bright blue eyes were the type that a man could lose himself looking into and her figure was nothing short of amazing; a nice little hourglass figure in compact form.

"Who are you really?" she pressed when Scott didn't respond straight away.

"I'm a freelancer," he shot her a smile that usually melted the ladies. To his dismay, it didn't with her. "Of sorts."

"Of sorts?" she raised a sceptical brow at him. "What kind of freelancer carries a gun and gets shot at in coffee shops?"

Damn
. He didn't want to scare her by telling her the truth, but considering she might be with him for a while, he didn't see that he had much choice. "Well. I sort of..." Again, he shot her his patented Scott Redding ‘guaranteed to make women melt’ smile and again she seemed unimpressed. "I sort of... kill people for a living." When her mouth dropped open, he held his hand up signalling her to hear him out. "But only
really
bad
people."

"You
kill
people?"

"
Bad
people. I kill
really bad
people." he felt the need to emphasise that point.

"So you work for the government?"

Scott couldn't control the bout of laughter that overtook him as Lily watched him in shock and disbelief. Once the amusement of her question wore off he shot her another smile. "Not for a few years. Fuck politics and fuck the politicians. Working for the government is so dishonest."

Lily's frown deepened and she shook her head. "You're kidding right? This has to be some sort of joke. This has to be. I want to go home, take me home, Scott!" Her eyes narrowed at him,
"If that's even your
real
name."

He shot her an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, I can't take you home."

She remained silent next to him, as he turned the car off the road they'd been traveling and onto an even more secluded gravel road. Thick forest lined both sides of the road and the only light was the dim glow of the car’s headlights.

The silence lasted all of five minutes before she started up again.

"Stop the car Scott. I want out! Stop the car," she demanded. Whatever fear and disbelief that had held her captive since the beginning of the fiasco seemed to lose its grip of her and be replaced by anger.

"I assure you Lily. This is for your own good. If you want to stay alive you're stuck with me."

She shook her head quickly, her blonde hair flying out around her. "No. No, I want out! I want out now."

He reached over and patted her knee, which she jerked out of his grasp as if his hand were on fire. "Look. I promise once we get where we're going I'll explain things a little better. You’ll just have to trust me.'

"Where
are
we going?" She turned in her seat to face him fully, her blue eyes shooting daggers into his.

"Some place secure. I promise you'll be safe."

She huffed and settled herself back in the seat; her arms crossed over her chest and she stared out into the darkened forest ahead of them.

All things considered, she seemed to be taking things about as well as he could have expected. He hadn't expected Herrera's men to have found him so fast. The men who'd tracked him to the coffee shop were good, a little too good for his comfort, which meant they weren't Herrera's usual goons. He'd hired assassins -assassins just like Scott. He muttered a curse under his breath at the realization.

It was close to an hour since they left the coffee shop and he would have bet that by now, they'd discovered who it was that was working that night and had already ransacked her home and left a man or two there keeping watch over the place - just in case. Yes, there was no way he could let her leave him now, not in good conscience.

****

When he stops the car, I can make a run for it!
Looking around her, the darkened forest looked menacing.
Make a run for it and go where?
She sighed. She'd end up getting herself lost in the wilderness, and mauled by a bear, or worse. Lily snuck a look over at Scott, who seemed to be content with not speaking for the moment. A freelance killer? So what he was telling her was that he was a hit man?

She frowned. Wasn't it the hit men who did the killing, not the ones doing the running? Perhaps she'd watched too many spy movies in her lifetime, it's not like she had ever met an actual killer before. Which led her to the question of what in the hell had he done to make himself a mark? An even more important question followed. Did she really want to be with him when they caught up with him again?

"Where are we going?"

Scott made a left turn onto a dirt road that she hadn't even seen until they were on it. After traveling for close to ten more minutes, he finally began to slow the car. "We're here," he announced as they came up to a small cabin nestled deep in the woods.

"Whose place is this?"

Scott waved a dismissive hand at her. "Home. Like I said before, it's safe."

Her eyes narrowed as she watched him slide from the driver's seat and slam the door shut behind him. With a heavy sigh, she grabbed her purse, which she was grateful she'd had enough sense to snatch as they rushed from the restaurant, and followed suit.

She found herself amazed at how quiet it was outside, aside from the rustling of leaves and the faint sounds of crickets chirping somewhere out in the night.

She turned her attention to Scott and watched as he strode up to the front door, removed his jacket, covered his fist with it and smashed out the lower pane of the door window.
What in the hell?

"Why did you just break out the window, Scott?"

He carefully removed the remaining shards of glass from the window pane, reached through the broken pane and unlocked the door from the inside. He glanced over at her looking unperturbed by her suspicious tone. "So we could get in."

Planting her fists on her hips she glared at him. "I thought you said
you
were the owner. If you are, then why are you breaking in?"

He pulled his hand from the window and opened the door wide. "If you must know I happen to have lost the key a few weeks ago." he motioned impatiently for her to enter. "Come on, and watch out for the glass on the floor."

She hesitated a moment, but a growl which she suspected was a bear pushed her body into action as she rushed past him and into the pitch black cabin.

"There's a generator out back, I'll turn in on and be right back." He spun around and hurried around the corner of the cabin.

What? Whoa. Hell no, he's not going to leave me alone here, not even for a minute!
"Scott?"

The darkened cabin sent a chill of fear through Lily. Born and raised in the city, she had never had exposure to the ‘great outdoors’, had never been camping, or even spent a night away at a cabin like this one so the forest seemed monstrous and intimidating. She was tempted to chase after him, but another low growl sounded from somewhere in the forest causing her to rush back into the darkness of the cabin, firmly closing the door behind her.

A shot of relief rushed through Lily when the sound of the generator roared to life and a number of overhead lamps burst into life displaying the interior of the four room cabin for her. When the lights came on she found herself in the kitchen area, to her immediate right was the living room which was sparsely furnished with a futon and plain wooden coffee table.

Walking across the kitchen which had a wood stove, a sink, pantry and a small table with two chairs, she peered into the bathroom. Again, simple in nature with a toilet, and old style claw foot cast iron bathtub and large closet; no shower. The bedroom was located off the living room and again was simply furnished, with a bed, a dresser and an end table. The walls of all the rooms were varnished pine and the floors covered with short brown industrial type carpet. It was what she'd expect a hunting cabin to look like.

It was far from the Ritz, but she supposed considering they had no other place to go, it would have to do. For someone who might enjoy ‘roughing it’ she figured it could be considered quite a desirable little forest getaway.

"It's not much, I know."

Lily jumped and yelped at the sound of Scott's voice as he spoke close to her ear, so close that his breath tickled her neck and send a shiver running down her spine.

She spun around to face him and, as her eyes swept over the length of his body, she fully appreciated just how large his frame was in comparison to her. His shoulders were wide and powerful, his chest broad and torso lean. Her eyes dipped to his groin and she took notice of the crease his cock made in his jeans. She looked away hastily for fear he'd notice her eyeing his dick, though she couldn't stop the flush that she could feel coloring her cheeks. "I...um…It's great."

He cocked his head and his eyes lazily worked their way down and then back up the length of her body, causing her blush to deepen. When his eyes finally met hers she saw they held amusement in them. "How old are you? Nineteen, twenty perhaps?"

"Perhaps... So how old are you. Thirty? Thirty-five?"

Scott chuckled as he shrugged off his jacket and tossed it onto a plain wooden chair by the door. Under his jacket he wore a plain black t-shirt that stretched across his massive chest and faded blue jeans. Again, she couldn't help the tremor of desire rush through her looking at him, or the heat forming between her legs.

"It wasn't an insult, I was just curious." He touched a strand of her hair and let it run between his fingers. "Cheerleader in high school, I bet."

"Class bully I bet," she countered, half angry at the fact that at the age of twenty-one she looked the part of a teenager to him.

Scott laughed outright. "I just turned thirty, and no, actually I was the school nerd. Got stuffed into a locker more times than I can count to be honest."

His arm grazed her left breast, as he walked past her and into the kitchen. A small electric jolt shot through her and she growled at herself in response.
Damn him!
"I seriously doubt that," she replied, following him across the room.

Shrugging, Scott opened the cabinet above the single sink. "I was in the chess club and a D&D enthusiast. But believe what you want... doesn't matter either way to me." Pulling out the flour jar he removed the lid, reached in and pulled out a key. Setting the jar on the counter, he reached back into the overhead cabinet and grabbed a bottle of vodka, twisted the cover from it and took a deep swig.

He walked over to her and passed the bottle to her. "Here take a drink or two; it'll take the edge off."

Lily accepted the bottle and looked down at the vodka a little uncertain about whether - given the circumstances - drinking would be such a great idea.
Fuck it!
She shrugged and tipped the bottle up, taking a long swig. The liquid burned as it raced down her throat, making her cringe and choke slightly as Scott looked on with amusement in his green eyes.

Deciding that perhaps drinking straight vodka wasn't her 'thing', Lily set the bottle on the small two person kitchen table and watched as Scott strode over to a large square ‘home sweet home’ mat just inside the front door. He pulled it up, slipped his finger into a knot hole in one of the planks and gave it a yank. A trap door of roughly four square feet opened to reveal a metal safe. He inserted the key in the safe and gave the handle a jerk, opening it to reveal a large black duffle bag and a laptop.

"Do you know how to use a gun?" he asked, removing the laptop and then grabbing the handles of the bag and also pulling it up out of the hole.

Lily shook her head. When he looked up at her with an eyebrow arched she realized she hadn't actually spoken her answer. Clearing her throat she replied, "No. But I can't. I…"

Scott's expression softened as if it was finally hitting him how overwhelming the situation was for her, "I'm going to teach you." Unzipping the bag, he pulled out a pistol and a large, scary-looking gun, and placed them on the floor beside him, with some ammunition.

"But…"

"Not tonight, I'll teach you in the morning." Zipping the bag he tossed it, along with the numerous guns still remaining in it, back into the safe and closed up the hatch, placing the mat back where it had been. Gathering up the guns he nodded to the laptop, will you bring that over and put it on the coffee table for me.

"Ummm. Sure." She picked up the computer, feeling secretly relieved that he hadn’t asked her to carry the guns and followed him into the living room where she placed it on the coffee table in front of him as he sat down on the futon.