The Prey

“I’ve never found anyone I, um, fit so well with.” John looked at Rowan with questioning eyes and she sucked in her breath. She couldn’t miss the double meaning.

“Nor have I,” she said quietly, turning her eyes from his.

He forced her to look at him. “Rowan, after-after everything is over, I want to-”

“John, please, let’s not-”

He cut her off with a kiss. “Rowan, this isn’t going to end. We are not going to end. I don’t know exactly what’s happened, but you are a part of me in a way I can’t explain, and I’m not going to let you walk away.”

The pain she felt in her heart told her she loved him. She knew because the thought of him dying was the foremost thing on her mind.

Everyone she loved died.

“John, let’s talk about this later. After-everything is over.”

He stared at her for a long time and she couldn’t read his expression. Was he angry? Upset? She didn’t want to hurt him, but it would hurt more if she lost him. Yes, she was being selfish. But the great strides she’d made at putting the past behind her would be shattered if she cared too much and the worst happened. No plans for the future, nothing to wrap her heart around, not now. Maybe not ever.

In the back of her mind, a whispered thought murmured It’s too late. You care. You love him. But she didn’t-couldn’t-acknowledge it.

“I understand,” he said, then kissed her.

She believed he did.

The whore should be dead, but she’d beaten him.

The fucking slut fought like a cat, and Bobby sported two black eyes to prove it. They hurt like hell, and his vision was blurred in his left eye. If he had time-if he hadn’t been identified-he would go back and finish the job. He’d beat her to a pulp before slicing her throat and watching her bleed like a stuck pig.

But he couldn’t go back to Dallas. He was holed up in some fucking motel in the Arizona desert waiting for dark so he could steal some bitch’s car and get back to Los Angeles.

Lily was there. She was waiting for him.

And this time, the little cunt wouldn’t survive.

CHAPTER 23

Bobby trained his binoculars on the beach to watch Rowan run with Agent Peterson.

It didn’t take long for him to realize they thought he was stupid. The blonde was a fake.

Fools, all of them. They thought they could trick him. Find a Lily lookalike, make him think she was just living her life the same as always. But she’d run, hidden from him, just like when she was a punk kid who irritated him with her narrow-eyed glances and perpetual frown. As if she could scare him.

Right.

The woman who looked like Lily didn’t run like the bitch. When Lily ran, her arms were bent at perfect ninety-degree angles. Her strides were long, straight, and steady. No hesitation. And she watched directly in front of her.

Even though the fake blonde ran differently, it wasn’t until he saw her pause at the end of the beach before turning back toward the house that he realized the woman wasn’t his sister.

Lily never stopped. When she reached the end, she turned immediately and ran back, barely slowing her stride.

So he watched closely as she came back up the beach, stared at her face as she walked up the stairs.

She looked like Lily. Same hair. Same height. Same basic facial structure. But she wasn’t his stupid sister.

It was in the eyes.

He grabbed his rifle and snapped on the scope. He almost took her out right there, but it would blow his hiding place. While he’d kill the decoy, he’d lose the chance to find Lily.

Lily was too important. She would be begging him to kill her by the time he was through.

He put down the rifle and winced as his fingers brushed against his bruised eye. It had been three days since the stupid whore hurt him, but his left eye still hurt something awful. As soon as he’d served retribution on Lily he’d go back and take care of the whore in Dallas. Wake her up in the middle of the night so she knew he was going to kill her, then slash her throat and watch her bleed to death.

Then he’d take care of his father.

He should have eradicated him all those years ago, cut him up like his mother. And he’d missed the opportunity six months ago when he saw the weak bastard comatose and hollow. Security had been tight, and he didn’t want to draw attention to himself.

But he would go back. He’d get rid of the last remnant of his past. Then he would finally be free.

First things first. Lily Pad would die.

So he watched the house all day. And waited. And learned one very important fact.

The bodyguard’s brother was nowhere to be seen. Where the bodyguard was, so would be Lily Pad.

He knew exactly how to ferret them out of hiding.

“Are you settled in for the night, Ms. Flynn?”

Tess sighed and tried to smile at the bodyguard John had hired to sit in her living room, but she was too tired. Ever since Michael had been killed, disturbing dreams interrupted her sleep. She could be in bed for twelve hours, yet wake up as if she hadn’t slept a minute.

“Yes, Philip. And I told you to call me Tess.”

He shuffled his feet and shrugged. “Right. Tess. I’m going to check the doors and windows and make sure everything’s closed up for the night.”

“Thanks.” She walked down the hall to her bedroom and closed the door. She wasn’t used to having another person in the apartment with her, but she did feel better knowing someone was looking out for her.

John had been gone for nearly four days, staying at some safe house outside of Los Angeles. That was all he could tell her. It wasn’t enough. She was worried sick over him.

She realized she wasn’t cut out for security work. Not the hands-on work she’d thought she wanted when she first began helping Michael and John with their new company. Fieldwork, Michael had called it. Give her a computer and some research and she’d be happy. In fact, Agent Quinn Peterson was working on getting her into a training program for the FBI in their high-tech crimes unit. The opportunity was the only bright spot after two weeks of darkness.

Michael’s death had blown a hole in her heart that would never heal. She would live with his absence for the rest of her life. The thought made her weary and sad, adding to her inability to sleep well.

After taking a long, hot bath with lavender oil in a futile effort to relax her muscles, she slid into her pajamas and lay on the bed.

“God, watch out for John, please. I can’t lose two brothers.” Tears slid down her cheeks and she rolled over on her side.

John had come over before leaving for the safe house and introduced her to Philip, who’d be watching her along with his relief guy, some ex-Marine named Jim Jones. If that was his name. John had some strange friends.

She hadn’t wanted him to go. “Can’t the FBI take over? I mean, this is their case, isn’t it?”

John simply shook his head. “I have a responsibility to protect Rowan.”

“Michael’s dead because of her!” She knew she’d sounded childish, but she didn’t care. She grieved for her brother. If it wasn’t for this stupid job he’d still be alive.

“Tess, please don’t say that.”