Relentless Protector by Thompson Colleen

Author:Thompson, Colleen
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-10-31T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Sick with worry about Tyler and doubting every move she’d made, Lisa was still dimly aware of how lucky she had been to scoop up the rental lot’s last SUV and get away so cleanly.

After swinging by the ATM, she’d made one final, high-risk stop. Things there had gone smoothly, too, allowing her to leave town without any trouble. Unfortunately, her route took her out on Sunset, toward the river, the same road she had traveled three days before with Cole behind the wheel.

Flashbacks flickered across her vision like jumbled still shots from a horror movie, sending her heart rate into overdrive. The pregnant teller’s terrified face. Tyler’s attempts to be brave as he’d clutched at Rowdy and his octopus. Evie LeStrange’s hard glare before she’d slammed her gun into Lisa’s head. The blur of Cole’s dive as he’d fired at her.

Thinking back to Evie, her mind froze on the final image, zooming in on the angry sneer and blazing eyes that seemed almost too blue to be real.

What if they weren’t? What if the color was as fake as the matching streaks in the woman’s unnaturally black hair? Outlandish contacts, some even resembling the eyes of snakes or tigers, were only a click away for anyone with access to the internet.

Alongside a grassy field, Lisa pulled off to the shoulder. Clambering out, she sucked in mouthfuls of cool air, willing herself to drag in enough oxygen to think through the memories threatening to unhinge her, the cold voice repeating the words “Sweet Girl Baby” in her ear.

She forced herself to picture Evie with subtler blue eyes, then brown, then green, then black. But it wasn’t until she thought of a woodsy green-gold hazel combined with sandy blond hair that she clapped her hands over her mouth in a vain attempt to block the scream bubbling its way up from the depths of memory.

* * *

COLE SPOTTED LISA ALONG the roadside, down on her knees with her palms pressed to her forehead. He pulled up behind her, his marrow freezing at the thought that she looked like a woman who had gotten word that the worst had happened.

Impossible, he realized, since she had no cell phone. And no business attempting to drive herself anywhere in the state she was in.

Pocketing his keys, he exited the car and walked up behind her. Though he made no effort to be quiet, she didn’t even turn her head to see who was there. Didn’t acknowledge him in any way.

Despite what should have been a more-than-adequate denim jacket, she was shivering violently, as if she’d been dunked into a vat of freezing water—or a nightmare neither her body nor her soul could bear any longer. When he moved to see her face, her brown eyes were unfocused, the lashes sparkling with a heavy dew of tears.

Her misery breaking down every barricade he’d built, he ached to lift her from the roadside, to haul her into his arms and warm her with his body.

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