guys are after?”
Who was this man? Gemma didn’t know, but for now he was better than her sister's killers. “Umm. I’m supposed to meet the police. A detective was on his way when they broke in. If you could just get me to him, that’s all I need.” Gemma didn’t know why, but she was suddenly protective of all her information. What if he was one of them? He kinda looked like them—big and scary when fighting.
Cy chuckled again. “You’re thinking I’m one of them, aren’t you?”
“No,” Gemma denied instantly, but then Cy raised just one eyebrow. “Okay, yes. But, my dog likes you, so I guess you can’t be too bad.”
“I’m not bad at anything, honey,” Cy said with a wink.
Gemma groaned. She escaped a killer but landed with a cocky stuntman. What was next? Being served by a dance crew?
“So, you were going to tell me about your sister,” he prompted.
“My twin sister is . . . was . . . Gia Perry.”
“The international reporter? She broke some huge stories. She must've stumbled onto something big. Is that what you have?” Cy asked.
“Yes, that’s Gia. She was working on something. I don’t know what, though. I didn’t have time to look. And I certainly am not doing this in the middle of an alley. Now, please, take me to Detective Greene.” Gemma looked around nervously.
“Sure.” Cy pulled out his cell phone and she started feeling anxious. She felt time ticking and all she wanted to do was get to Detective Greene and hide out in the police station until these men were caught. “Let me just make a quick call.”
“A call? To whom?” Gemma asked suspiciously.
“I’m in Hollywood. I have connections all over the place. Let me just check out this Detective Greene and make sure he’s clean.”
'Okay, that’s pretty smart,' Gemma said as she nodded her head while Cy walked off a short way to make his call. If only this would end, maybe she could be free of the pressure strangling her heart.
CHAPTER FOUR
Cy turned and gave Gemma a reassuring smile as he dialed the phone.
“Happy retirement. Are you calling so late to rub it in that you’re drunk and with some starlet?” his boss’s gruff voice laughed over the phone.
“Nope. But I did have this cute little number quite literally run into me. In fact, that’s why I'm calling. I’m walking home from the bar when I hear shouting. I check it out and look up onto the side of an apartment building where a woman is running down the fire escape with two professionals behind her,” Cy told his boss.
“Did you get a good look at them?” he asked, the teasing having left his voice.
“Sure did. Got a real good look at a tattoo one of them had on his wrist as well.”
“I’ll be damned . . .”
“You’ll be more than that. Her twin sister was murdered this evening and she’s holding the reason why in her purse. Her sister is Gia Perry.”
“Holy shit. Where are you? I’ll send St. John to pick her up.”
“St. John? He’s just a pup. No, I got her.”
“You’re retired.”
“And you can postpone that request with a push of a button.” Cy wasn't going to yield. No one was going near Gemma but him.
“I have a better idea. You’ll like it; it’s off the books. Take Gemma somewhere with you and keep her safe. I’ll assign the case to St. John and if anyone is looking in the files, all they’ll find is a note about her being in a safe house. They’ll find you soon, though.”
“I know.”
“There’ll be a jet waiting for you at LAX. I’ll call around and find a private air strip for you to land on so we can keep this off the books.”
“No problem. I know just the place,” Cy smiled.
Gemma watched Cy as he made his phone call. Fred licked her hand as she kept glancing around. Something wasn’t right. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but something was off with him.
He hung up the phone and she could see him take a deep breath. Did that mean Detective Greene couldn’t be trusted? “What did they say about Detective Greene?” Gemma asked as soon as he started walking toward her.
“Gemma, those men who are after you are very bad men,” Cy started.
“I think that's rather obvious, don’t you?” She was starting to lose her patience. He was hiding something and she wanted to know what it was right now.
“They are professional killers. They won’t stop until you’re dead and whatever evidence you have is destroyed. I need you to come with me.” He was so serious that Gemma just nodded.
“No. Wait. How do you know that? Where are we going? To the police?” Gemma fired off her questions as they came to her.
“They are part of a dangerous international criminal ring. The tattoo I saw gave them away. It was a Roman numeral X. I’m going to take you to my hometown in Kentucky. A plane is waiting for us at LAX right now,” Cy grabbed her elbow and started pulling her down the alley.
“You think I'm going to get on a plane with you and fly across the country to Kentucky? I don’t think so, bud. I don’t know you, and you certainly aren’t a stuntman,” Gemma said as she dug in her heels to slow him down.
“You’re right about one of those things. I’m not just a stuntman. I’m CIA and I’m taking you into protective custody. No one can know where you are. Not your friends, family, or even the police. These men will be coming after you and I’m trying to give us as much time as possible to find a way to stop them. Now, we have a plane to catch.”
“Do you think I’m an idiot? I don’t see a badge. I don’t know anything about you. CIA, my ass. What are you, some kind of undercover spy pretending to be a stuntman? Please, that’s so Hollywood.” Gemma laughed as she started to get angry with her rescuer. These tales were just too much.
“Actually, yes. That’s exactly it. Now, we need to move.”
“I don’t think so.” Gemma pulled back. There was no way she was putting her life in the hands of a total stranger.
“What do you think now, honey?” he yelled back as he dragged her down the alley, bullets flying around them.
Cy maneuvered through the web of alleys and side streets as he tried to lose the member of
As a teenager, he had been forced to sit back and watch his three brothers head off to the Army when all he had wanted was to join them. He was about to turn eighteen, but his oldest brother, Miles, had begged him to stay and watch over the family. Their younger sister, Paige, was just about to turn sixteen and their youngest brother, Pierce, was two years younger than that. And so Cy had stuck around.
In high school, Cy had been a nerd. He knew it. He took pleasure in outsmarting his older brothers—not an easy task for sure. He had developed muscles his senior year, but he wasn’t anything compared to his older brothers. He’d had a couple of girlfriends, but not the head cheerleader like Miles dated. And he didn’t have girls chasing after him like Marshall. But when his brothers left, he had taken his responsibility as the guardian brother very seriously. He took over all three of his brothers’ chores on their parents’ large farm. He tossed hay bales, mowed pastures, and then one day he decided it was time to try riding his dad’s old bronco.
