Chapter Four
Alyssa
I reach over to close the open door and nearly have a heart attack when I see the concrete whizzing by me in a blur. With my pulse racing, I grab the handle and yank the door closed.
What the hell did I just do?
I kicked a member of my team in the balls and sprayed him in the face with the hose (which wasn’t in the manual, but I’m sure is a big industry-wide no-no). If that wasn’t enough, I blasted my boss in the chest and then fled an active fire with a strange man I’ve never met before.
I want to cry. I worked so hard to get to this point and I messed it all up in a few crazed minutes.
“Are you okay?” the man asks in his deep comforting voice.
I turn and look at him, seeing him clearly for the first time. My stomach turns in on itself and my eyes widen as I take him in. His clothes are soaked and they’re clinging to his big thick muscles. This man is enormous. Not quite as big as Grey, but still huge.
I swallow hard as he looks at me with an intense smoldering gaze. It sends a jolt of warmth straight between my legs and I shift in my seat when I feel the heat of desire pulsing down there.
His dark beard matches his dark eyes. Tattoos peek out from under his shirt on his biceps and on his chest. He’s intimidating-looking. The kind of guy who’d make you cross the street if you passed him at night, but I don’t feel any intimidation. Attraction yes, but intimidation, no.
“Are you hurt?” he asks again, his hungry eyes roaming over my body.
“No,” I hear myself say. “I’m fine. I think.”
My eyes zero in on his huge hands and bloody knuckles as he grips the steering wheel. We’ve been swerving through traffic and flying past cars at a rate that should only be experienced on a racetrack, but now he begins to slow.
“Are you hurt?” I ask with a lump in my throat. I don’t know why I’m so upset at the thought, but I am. I cringe when I think back to the memory of Quinton’s fists pounding into him.
“Nothing I can’t handle,” he says as he turns back to the road.
I suck in a breath as we pass another exit. “Where are we going?” I ask.
I’m so screwed. All of my things are at the fire station. My whole life is there, what little life I have, and I can’t go back. I can’t ever show my face there again or Quinton and Grey are going to make sure I have no life left.
He turns to speak, but he doesn’t answer my question. He just stares at me in awe.
“I was worried I was never going to find you.”
“Huh?”
“You’re more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. You’re perfect.”
Geez, how many punches did this man take to the head? He can’t even follow a conversation.
“What’s your name?” he asks.
I gulp, wondering just how much I should share with this strange man. Sure, he’s good-looking, but he must have a few screws loose with the way he’s acting.
“Alyssa,” I reluctantly say.
“Alyssa,” he repeats as if he’s savoring a fine wine. “Beautiful name.”
It’s starting to get hot in here. I unclasp my helmet and hold it on my lap, keeping it close in case I need it again. I’m not entirely convinced that this man is not unhinged.
“What’s your name?”
He looks at me with a sexy grin. “Jacob.”
“Nice to meet you, Jacob,” I say like I’m talking to a lunatic with a knife. “Where exactly are we going?”
“I’d take you back to my ranch, but it’s not safe there.”
Not safe? Oh, crap. What is this psycho going to do to me?
He shakes his head. “We can’t go to the Dixon ranch just yet.”
Dicks in? Dicks in what? Not me! I refuse!
I look at the concrete road whizzing by and wonder if it’s safe enough to roll out. I put my helmet back on just in case. Maybe I can run into the woods and hide from him.
“I say we lay low in a hotel for the night,” he says.
A hotel?!
“I’ll call my brothers. Tell them to be prepared for a lot of bloodshed.”
Oh my God. What did I do?
We may be going forty miles an hour, but I’d rather have every bone in my body broken on the highway than be chopped up by a psychopath and his brothers on the Dicks In Ranch.
I say a little prayer when he slows down in traffic, open the door, and leap out.
Ow, ow, ow, ow!
My body slams into the side of the dirt road and rolls and rolls and rolls and fucking doesn’t stop rolling.
I finally skid to a stop and stare up at the bright blue sky with a wince. “Ow.”
That fucking hurt. My elbow is throbbing, but I don’t think anything is broken. I do a quick test of all my limbs and they all move. Landing in the dirt shoulder of the highway probably saved my life.
“Oh no,” I gasp when I spot Jacob’s truck swerving to the side. His break lights come on and I know it’s time for me to start moving. I push myself up to my feet with a groan, adrenaline coursing through my veins.
I hear the door open and he calls out my name in a panicked voice.
He’s not catching me. I start running toward the dense forest. It’s thick with trees and if I have a head-start, I might be able to hide. This bright yellow jumpsuit is the opposite of camouflage but I have no time to strip it off. This man moves fast.
I barely make it past three trees when he catches up to me.
“Alyssa!” he says with panic in his eyes. “What are you doing?!”
He grabs my arms and stares at me in shock.
I have one trick. It worked on Grey, so I try it again on
