Gail Barrett - A Kiss to Die for

“Then he’s a member of the Ridgewood gang. That’s one of their signs.”

Sully grunted. He checked the gang member’s pockets, unearthing a wicked-looking knife, several magazines for the handgun and a cell phone. He tucked the weapons into his pockets and rose, then turned on the phone and checked the calls.

Suddenly, he went stock-still.

“What is it?” Her apprehension rising, she searched his face.

His gaze cut to hers, the sudden suspicion in his eyes jolting her heart. “What did you say your name was?”

“Haley Barnes.”

“Not Burroughs?”

Her lungs stopped dead. Burroughs. No one had called her that in years. Fifteen years, to be exact. Fifteen terrifying years spent running for her life. But how would the gang know her name?

“I...I go by Barnes now. But Burroughs...” She tried to swallow, but failed. “That used to be my name. Why do you ask?”

Sully’s gaze stayed on hers. Several charged seconds crawled past. Dread pounded inside her, so fierce she could hardly breathe.

Then Sully held up the cell phone for her to see. “This guy got a text message. There’s a reward for the capture of Haley Burroughs—and it’s double if you’re brought in dead.”

Chapter 3

She had a price on her head.

Haley jogged down the alley beside Sully, the revelation making her reel. That shooting hadn’t been random. They’d targeted her specifically. Her. Haley Burroughs.

They knew who she really was.

And they’d put a bounty on her head. Now every criminal on the east coast would be gunning for her to claim the prize. And if that weren’t bad enough, she was more valuable dead than alive.

Sully slowed to a walk and she followed suit, trying to come to grips with that awful thought. “So what’s going on?” he asked.

She glanced at his steely face, knowing she had to explain. He’d rescued the girls. He’d risked his life for her. Twice. She’d swept him into this lethal mess, painting a gang target on his back—and all because he’d tried to help.

“This can’t be a typical turf war if they’re after you,” he added.

She pressed her hand to her belly to quiet her nerves. “You’re right. It’s not.” It was far, far worse. Her past had come back to haunt her. Her worst fear had just come true.

“It’s complicated,” she hedged.

“Try me.”

Hesitating, she looked away. She never revealed her past. She’d concealed her identity and stayed on the run for years. And even though she’d thought the danger had finally passed, that it was safe to return to the mid-Atlantic area, she still used a pseudonym and stayed out of the limelight in case someone recognized her.

But she could trust this man. He’d leaped into the path of danger, putting his life on the line on her behalf. And she owed him the truth after all he’d done.

But first they needed to find a place to hide. They couldn’t stay on the street, exposed. Her shelter would do no good; the gang would have it staked out. And neither could they join the teenagers and risk leading the danger to them.

She caught Sully’s gaze. “All right,” she said. “I’ll tell you. But we need to find a taxi first. A friend of mine lives in Baltimore with her fiancé, and I need to let them know what’s going on.”

“Baltimore? That’s forty miles away.”

“I know. The fare’s going to be through the roof. But they’re involved in this, too. And my friend’s fiancé is a cop. We can talk while we’re on the way.”

He frowned at that. She didn’t blame him if he wanted to bolt. He probably regretted setting eyes on her considering the disaster she’d mired him in.

“A cop, huh?”

“Yes. His name’s Parker McCall. He’s a detective with the Baltimore Police Department.” A sudden thought gave her pause. “Is that a problem?”

His gaze snapped to hers. “You think I’m a criminal?”

“No, of course not.” She trusted her instincts about people. She’d had to as a runaway if she’d hoped to survive. And whatever tormented Sully was inside him. Deep inside. If he was fleeing, it was from himself.

He plowed his hand through his shaggy hair. “All right. I’ll go with you.”

“Good.” She started across the street. “We can catch a taxi at the Colonial Hotel. It’s just a few blocks from here.”

Inhaling, she tried to regroup. She eyed the traffic whizzing past, the people standing across the street, waiting for the metro bus. The normality of the scene felt bizarre. They’d barely lived through a gun battle, and yet the world went on unaffected with people continuing their usual lives.

But she couldn’t let the peacefulness fool her. She had the Ridgewood gang hunting her down. Someone was determined to see her dead. But was it really that long-ago killer? How could he have discovered her name?

“If I’m right,” she finally began, “this goes back to when I was a teenager. When I ran away from home.”

Sully turned his head. “You were a runaway?”

“Yes.” She picked up her pace, as if walking faster could help her escape the past. But she could never outrun that painful time—pregnant, her parents insisting on an abortion, her boyfriend unwilling to help raise the child. So she’d run away, determined to keep the baby, convinced she could make it on her own.

She’d been wrong. Her baby had paid the price.

So had she.

But Sully didn’t need to know all that. And it didn’t matter now. She’d come a long way since then. She was no longer that naive girl. “I was fifteen. It was tough.”

“I’ll bet.”

She slanted him a glance. He’d obviously seen enough of the streets to know. “I got lucky, though. I met two other girls. We stayed together for protection and became best friends. We still are.”

They stopped to wait for a red light. “Go on,” he said in his rusty voice.

The light changed to green, and she stepped into the street. “One of those girls was Brynn, the friend we’re going to see. She had a camera she always carried around. She wanted to be a photographer, even then. She’d decided to take some pictures of an abandoned warehouse. We tried to talk her out of it. Baltimore didn’t have many gangs back then, but there was one, the City of the Dead, and they ruled the neighborhood where the warehouse was. But we couldn’t convince her to stay away.

“Nadine and I went with her, but I was scared so we waited on the street outside.” A mistake she’d regretted ever since.

She swallowed hard, her belly tightening at the memory, but she forced herself to go on. “We were right to worry. She stumbled across a crime scene, a gang execution. She caught it on film.”

“They saw her?” Sully guessed.

She nodded. “They chased her. They chased us all.”

“So you saw them, too?”

“No. Brynn came flying out of the warehouse, shouting at us to run, so we did. I didn’t look back. And then I heard shots....”

Lost in the gruesome memory, she tripped. Sully lunged over and steadied her arm. She glanced up at his face, intending to thank him, but for an instant, his dark gold eyes held her riveted, the sheer maleness of him arresting her thoughts. And once again, his incredible appeal rolled through her, making her breath back up in her lungs.

He dropped her arm and stepped away.

Her face burned. Embarrassed at her reaction, she looked away. Lovely. This was all the poor man needed. They had their lives on the line, a vicious gang hunting them down—and her hormones chose this moment to go berserk.

Steering her thoughts back to her story, she cleared her throat. “Anyway, another runaway we knew was nearby. Tommy McCall. He was Parker’s younger brother. He got in their way, giving us a chance to escape. He saved our lives.”