Sherrilyn Kenyon - Silent Truth

She hoped he wasn’t lying to her, that he really would help her meet her brother. Handling the computer phone device carefully, she clicked the file with her name, which opened, then tried a couple other files that refused to open. She tried her brother’s phone number. After two rings, she got his voice mail.

Abbie ended the connection and handed Hunter his phone. “His voice mail says he’ll be in meetings until two today. I knew you wouldn’t want me to leave a message so I just hung up. Sorry I snapped at you about going to Bloomington. Didn’t mean to sound so self-centered.”

Hunter put his hand over hers and rubbed his thumb lightly across her skin. “I know you’re anxious about your mother.”

If he kept being nice to her she was going to lose this battle to hold a part of herself back from him. She changed the subject. “What about the information you were looking for?”

“Got everything I could find and sent it to my people.”

“How long’s the drive to Bloomington?”

Hunter propped his head in his hand, elbow on the door panel. “Two hours each way.”

“You’re not handing me over to someone, are you?”

“No.” He hadn’t said “not yet,” which she’d find encouraging if he’d explain what he planned to do with her. And he clearly wasn’t sharing where they were going or why.

She should slide farther away to her side of the seat and keep a distance between them. But his thumb was still rubbing across her hand, soothing her.

Trust took time and someone had to try first.

She lifted his hand to her shoulder and snuggled against his side.

Hunter turned his head and stared at her, his eyes asking a question she couldn’t read. He kissed her forehead and tucked her close. She laid her head on his chest and hugged an arm around his waist, content to ride quietly, though not at peace.

She still had no idea where they were going or when he would deliver her to a bunch of strangers… or law enforcement.

Hunter came awake the minute Abbie touched his face. He took in the surroundings beyond the limo they traveled in.

“We’re in Bloomington,” she informed him.

He sat up and ran a hand over his face and hair, forcing the spiked ends to lie down.

She handed him a T-shirt from her shoulder bag and one of the waters from the side service console. “You can wash and dry your face with this.”

“Thanks.” He used a splash of water to wash up, then killed the balance of the bottle in one long swallow. He caught a street sign. The driver was heading east from the interstate and turned south on Center Street.

Evergreen Memorial Cemetery would be just down the road.

He handed Abbie the empty water bottle she put in the ice bucket, then told her, “When we stop, you stay in the car.”

She gave him her not-happy look. “Why? Where are you going?”

“Have to talk to someone alone, but I’ll have the driver keep the doors locked and you’ll be in my sight the whole time.”

She pushed away from him over to her door and looked out, not saying another word.

The car turned between stone columns on each side of the entrance to Evergreen Memorial Cemetery.

Hunter curled his fingers tight to keep from reaching for her. He’d slept hard with her in his arms, his body content when she was close by. The couple feet now separating them might as well be miles. He hated even the small distance, but she wasn’t his and he couldn’t keep her. Trying to stay free long enough to reach her brother would be a challenge and might very well lose him the small window he’d need to elude BAD, but he couldn’t turn his back on her.

He could tell himself he was sticking this out because they’d cut a deal, but that would be a lie. He couldn’t let her down. Or hurt her again the way his suspicions had slapped her emotionally.

God, he couldn’t stand thinking of how she’d been hurt.

She’d practically given her life last night. If he could fix things with BAD right now he’d do it just so he could stay with Abbie. But he’d forced Joe’s hand when he snuck her out of the Kore center. Joe had to be furious even after receiving the files Hunter downloaded into the online vault.

If he could believe Joe would continue to use him on the mission and not trick him into being caught, Hunter would do whatever BAD needed to prevent the anticipated bomb attack.

But he wouldn’t willingly give Abbie to them.

That meant he had to figure out what to do with her while he evaded BAD.

No call from Gotthard in the last hour meant Joe had probably unleashed a team.

When the car parked near the David Davis memorial inside the cemetery grounds, Hunter said, “Be right back.”

She lifted a hand in dismissal, face still turned to gaze out the window.

Hunter got out and told the driver, “Lock the doors.”

“Yes, sir.”

He walked around the front of the car, welcoming the cool breeze that woke him fully. Fresh air untainted by disappointment and suspicion filled his next breath. He glanced down at his wrinkled clothes and brushed at his jacket to no avail. When he reached the memorial, he moved around the far side and stopped where he could face the car.

A slender female, average height, in black pants and a gray hooded jacket approached from his left, walking through the historical markers splattered with sunlight slicing through the naked hardwoods.

As he always requested, Cynthia left her hood in place. Blond hairs escaped and flew around her face, which didn’t harbor venomous eyes for once. “I would have spoken over the phone if this was inconvenient.”

Her voice flowed gentle as the wind this time, not harshly like the last time.

“Not a problem.” He’d told her not to leave voice mails and only to speak by phone in an emergency since he couldn’t always ensure they were both on secure lines. He set up an e-mail and text program just for her to contact him and instructed her to send messages from somewhere other than home. Had to admit that she never scoffed at his security measures, just nodded and said Eliot had given her the same instructions.

“I’m moving to St. Louis,” she told him in her usual get-to-the-point manner, which he did appreciate about her. “I have a new position there.” She handed him a piece of paper. “This is the address where I’m moving.”

He took the paper, which was another reason this had to be in person. He wanted no electronic trail to her. “I need some time to recon your new location.”

“No, you’ve done enough. I can do this on my own.”

He didn’t want the irritation rising inside him to reach his voice, but he was too tired and had too little time to battle over this. “Eliot wouldn’t want you to move without me checking it out.”

She didn’t flinch at hearing her dead husband’s name, as she had before, and calmly replied, “Eliot would know that I’m capable of taking a new job, moving my home, and raising his son on my own. We discussed this when he found out I was pregnant. You’re the one who feels like you have to do this, the one who can’t get past his death.”

That verbal backhand stung.

“Guess you’ve gotten over his death then.” Hunter wanted to give himself a knuckle sandwich the minute he said the words. He hadn’t meant to strike out at her, but she’d hit a nerve by telling him to get over Eliot’s death.

He’d waited four years to find Eliot’s killer, only to meet the bastard, then let him escape.

She grumbled something low, shook her head, and looked at Hunter with steel in her gray eyes. “Eliot told me once that you can be the biggest asshole when you’re watching over the people you care about. I don’t know where I rank on your care meter, but I’ll let that slide.” She shoved her hands in the pockets of her jacket. “You’ve always been polite, but I knew you were angry with me. News flash: I was angry with you for a long time, too. I blamed you for his death.”