Cowboy In The Crossfire(28)

She placed her hand on his leg. "I'm sorry."

"Me, too." He wanted to find a way to keep those consequences far away from Amanda and Ethan. The boy deserved not to be afraid. And he deserved the mother who loved him, who had sacrificed everything for him.

Blake couldn't resist touching her. He laced his fingers with hers and squeezed. Her fingers squeezed back, and Blake felt his heart ease.

Miles passed, but strangely, Blake didn't feel the need to chitchat. He couldn't remember the last time he'd been able to just be silent in the company of a woman. Amanda glanced at the landscape. He could practically see her mind whirling. Then she bit her lip and glanced once more back at her son.

"You're worried about going back to Austin."

"What if they catch us? What if I can't get back to him?" she said softly, her eyes never veering from Ethan as he whispered to Leo. "I promised myself I wouldn't leave him."

She was right to be afraid. If these guys were as well-connected as he believed, she'd end up one more border statistic, in a mass grave, one of hundreds of bodies never identified.

"You can stay," he offered.

"If there's a chance Ethan can have a normal life--" Amanda glanced at the road sign. "I thought you said Carmichael's place was toward Big Spring? We're going the wrong way."

"Not to throw the dogs off the scent." Blake pulled into an abandoned bar and retrieved his phone from his pocket. Quickly, he slipped the battery back in. "This can be tracked now."

She looked at the cell in alarm. "They know where we are, where we've been?"

"No. I'd removed the battery to the GPS. We were fine. Now, when I turn it on, it'll activate. If they're watching--and I'm certain they are--they'll head this way."

"You're using us as bait?"

"I won't sacrifice your safety." Blake removed her hand from his leg. Suddenly, her touch felt wrong. "I'd have thought you'd recognize that by now."

"I'm all Ethan has. I have to protect him."

He recognized the stubborn thrust of her jaw, but he couldn't deny the twinge of hurt her assumption left on his heart.

"If we find enough evidence in Austin, he'll be safe."

"And if we don't?"

"You may not have faith in me, but you believe in your brother."

Slowly, she nodded her head. He couldn't believe she still trusted Vince after he'd put her in danger. Biting his tongue against a scathing retort his former best friend deserved, Blake exited the SUV and took the phone into the abandoned bar.

He powered on the cell and dialed a number.

"What the hell's going on Blake?" Logan Carmichael didn't mince words. "You call me, but won't leave a message. Parris shows up with your mother and won't say squat."

"I need your help. Below the radar. Can we get into your place unnoticed?"

"Come to the front entrance. I'll man the cameras. Pull to the back of the house," Logan said, as if he'd planned for the question. "And by the way, get out of sight of that old bar. You're like a beacon."

Logan was good. Blake ended the call, wiped the phone's memory and set it on the hardwood floor. The inch-thick layer of dust scattered. The wood had rotted, disintegrating in patches, much like Blake's entire world.

Amanda pulled him in divergent directions. She'd restarted his heart, but how the hell could he let himself get emotionally involved with her? She was trouble. And in trouble. His heart could end up as hollow and crumbling as this old building.

He strode back to the SUV. "We're set. Ethan will be okay at the Triple C. Logan lives in a fortress. It's where Parris took my mom."

The news seemed to calm Amanda.

Blake restarted the car and pulled out on the road before taking the nearest all-dirt detour. "Back roads. Wouldn't want to meet our friends as they head toward that bar."

"You think like a criminal," she said, still staring out the window. "I might need lessons."

Blake reached for her hand and squeezed it. "Don't let yourself go there, Amanda. Once you do, it's hard to come back."

A haunted expression crossed his face. "I did some undercover time for the Narc unit before I made detective. No one should do that gig more than three to five years. It's easy to slide."

"Did you?"

"I wasn't in long enough. The assignment was the last straw in my marriage. I became a different person. Hours were crazy. I couldn't call her." He gripped the steering wheel and turned onto a dirt road. "She couldn't deal with not knowing where I was, what I was doing. She didn't trust me to be faithful...or not to get killed."

Blake shook off the memories as Ethan hummed in the backseat. "Point is, you don't want to live in fear. It changes you and impacts everyone around you."

"I may not have a choice."

It took another ninety minutes before he drove under a large iron arch adorned with a horseshoe and three Cs. He stopped at the locked fence and gazed into the camera. He didn't have to say a word. The gate swung open. Logan was as good as his word.

"Wouldn't want to try to break into this place," he said. "Logan's set it up like a fortress. Nothing goes on here that he doesn't know about."