The Protected

He flipped her off without looking over his shoulder. If he looked at her again, something inside him was going to turn to ashes. He’d thought . . . hell. Never mind.

He was behind the wheel of his car before she caught up with him. The look in her eyes might have meant something if he hadn’t picked up on the fear he’d heard in Vaughnne’s voice. He hadn’t realized it would happen like that, that a telepath could put that much emotion in her voice. It had been like she’d been right there in the room, screaming, and he’d felt every bit of the terror she’d felt.

His skin heated and he had to shove the rage down inside. He’d let it out once it was safe to do so, but now wasn’t the time. Now wasn’t at all the time. As he jammed the key in the ignition, Nalini slammed her hands against the window. “Roll it down, you moron,” she snarled.

He ignored her and shoved the car into drive.

“Listen, you dickhead. I’m already working a dangerous case. I can’t just drop everything for this. You don’t even know if she’s in danger.”

“Yeah, I do. I don’t think she screamed for help because she wanted to ask me about the weather. If somebody doesn’t go after her, she might die. The kid you wanted me to watch? She’s watching after him. So he could be in danger, too. But hey, that’s fine.” Tucker shrugged. “I know the FBI has its own sense of priorities.”

“I’m not FBI. I’m freelance.” She glared at him through the window.

Freelance. He ran his tongue over his teeth and shook his head. “That didn’t help the situation any, sweetheart. You don’t have a boss jerking your chain back to work? And you’ll still walk away?”

Her pulse raced in her neck, and for one brief second, he wished he would have kissed her. Just once. Just so he knew what she tasted like. Shaking his head, he looked away. “Stay away from me from here on out, Cole. You want to play the hero, but when it comes time to getting dirty, you pull back.”

He pressed down on the gas, and as the tires squealed, she just stood there.

* * *

THE car Gus had decided to take was one he’d seen an employee climb out of just moments earlier. Hopefully the kid wouldn’t come out for a smoke break or anything anytime soon.

Even as he urged Alex into the seat, he found himself looking back at Vaughnne’s car, though. Her head slumped against the door, the long tangle of her hair blowing in the breeze.

He’d stolen the fast-acting sedatives some time ago. He hoped they still had the kick in them that he needed. They’d expired six months earlier, but it was all he had and breaking into a medical facility wasn’t as easy as one might think. Or maybe it was every bit as hard as one might think, depending on the person.

He needed to replenish his supplies, but that was a problem for another day.

“Why did you do that, Ti . . . ah . . . why did you do that?” Alex asked, correcting himself as Gus slid behind the wheel.

“She was hurting you.”

“No. It . . .” Alex closed his eyes and curled up in the seat, looking so lost, so young and scared. “It was just hard. It’s a weight in my brain. And if I have to do it . . .”

“You don’t.” Gus set his jaw and focused on hot-wiring the car. That needed to be the focus because they needed to get out of there. Get on the road. Head west, he figured. Northwest, he was thinking. Oregon, if they could make it. Hell, if they could, he’d like to get out of the country. Maybe he could get in touch with one of his old contacts. Someone who could help them leave the States. It might take exchanging a favor or two, but if it would get them out of the country and farther away . . .

“What if she’s right?”

Gus put the car in reverse and wished the boy would just be silent. Twenty minutes of peace, so he could think. So he could plan. They had next to nothing. His bag of weapons and the stash of cash he’d always kept. It wouldn’t last them forever. He had several caches of money and weapons scattered across the country—the nearest was in Macon, Georgia. That was the destination for now, he guessed.

But he needed to think.

To plan.

And he couldn’t because every time Alex mentioned Vaughnne, he was hit with guilt for what he’d done. But she’d been pushing the boy, hurting him—

“Tio, what if—”

“It’s not Tio. You have to remember, I’m not your uncle, I’m your father, as far as anybody is concerned,” he snapped, glaring at his nephew.

Alex immediately dropped his gaze, staring down at his lap.

Gus spied a local highway sign and turned, heading north. They hadn’t been away from the interstate long enough for the traffic to have cleared and he’d rather not sit around in traffic anyway. Silence wrapped around him . . . the silence he’d been wishing for just moments earlier. But this tense, heavy silence was choking him.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped.” Guilt settled inside him, with sharp, jagged hooks. “But you keep messing up, Alex. You can’t do that.”

Alex nodded slowly and turned his head, staring out the window.

A few more moments ticked by, but the tension didn’t let up. Alex had never been the sort to stay angry with him. They’d spent too many years with just each other, and Gus knew, as unhealthy as it was for the boy, he was all Alex had. It wasn’t anybody’s sort of ideal, but Alex rarely reacted like a boy his age should. He didn’t get angry over silly things; he rarely got angry at all. But as the minutes bled away into almost an hour and Alex still hadn’t spoken, Gus wondered just how much longer he could force the boy into this hellish life without it taking a toll.

It already has. The boy lost his mother. He has no home. No friends. Let him be angry, he told himself when he finally took time to stop for lunch. It was just fast food. He was so tired of fast food. He missed real meals. A pile of hot tacos, some fresh salsa. A steak and a potato . . . anything but fast food.

As Alex bit listlessly into a chicken nugget, Gus pulled the amber bottle of pills from his pocket and shook one out. “It’s time for the medicine.”

Alex took it without comment and washed it down with his soft drink.

“How are you feeling?”

The only response was a shrug.

“Alex, I already apologized,” he said, sighing. “How much longer are you going to be angry with me?”

Alex turned his head, staring at him with dark, miserable eyes. “I’m not angry. I’m scared.”

Gus felt his heart break. He went to reach out, but Alex shrank away, leaning against the door of the stolen car. Gus had stopped at a busy outlet mall thirty minutes earlier and swapped out the plates. Hopefully, it would buy them more time, but by nightfall, he’d have to steal another car.

Sooner or later . . .

No. We will not be caught, he thought darkly. It wasn’t a thought that he could risk thinking about. He knew how to evade such things and he would. He’d never had to do it with a boy in tow, but Alex was smart and he knew how to listen.

Watching as Alex started to tear his food apart and drop it down without eating it, Gus tried to figure out what to say. In the end, he just went with the same lie he’d been telling himself for years. “You don’t have to be afraid. I can take care of you. I will take care of you. He will never get his hands on you . . . I swear that.”

Of all the things he said, the one promise he could be sure of was the very last. Because he’d do anything and everything to make sure the monster who had fathered Alex would never touch him. No matter what it took, no matter what it cost.

“You won’t be around forever.” Alex stared at him, fear in his eyes. “And I won’t be a kid forever. What happens then? When I’m grown up? Do I live my life running?”

It was a question that haunted Gus. It bothered him that the boy had already started to ask it, though. “Let me worry about that, m’hijo,” he said gruffly, tossing the rest of his uneaten sandwich in the bag and starting the car. “We need to go.”