Raging Heart On (Lucas Brothers #2)(94)



She gasps and then surprises me by grabbing my hand. I stand there trying to make out her face in the darkness. “Well? Get a move on! I think it only fair to warn you, Mad Max, that if I survive this, I will be telling the parole board that you should be denied.”

I haven’t smiled in years. A small one ekes out. It feels weird, and the muscles involved haven’t been used in so long they feel stiff. Hell, so is my dick. I don’t understand my reaction to this woman. It’s probably just because I’ve been without one for so long. When I get free, I’m gonna hunt one up and get laid, before getting locked back up. I can feel Tess tremble beneath my hold, and her breathing is ragged. I know she’s terrified of the tunnel, but her reactions remind me even more of sex. This keeps up, and I’m going to have trouble walking.

We get to the outside, and I look around. The sirens are loud, and you can hear guns and shouting, but it’s in the distance and off somewhere to the right. I pull Tess the opposite direction and just like the men discussed in the cell next to me, the hole in the fence is there.

“Slide through,” I order.

She looks at me, back to the small opening, shakes her head and then slides through. I push the fence out, knowing it will be a tight fit getting through. I’ve barely started when Tess takes off, running down the small grassy area between the hill and the fence. I growl out in frustration. I should let her go, I have no use for her, and she’s the reason I’m in this mess. For some unfathomable reason, I don’t. I rush through the fence. I grimace, at the pain I feel when the fence slashes into my stomach, but don’t give it much thought. Instead, I run to catch up to Tess, before she gets away. The simple truth is; I don’t want to let her go yet.

“I don’t think so, Kitten,” I tell her, wrapping my hand around her arm. She huffs when I pull her back around to face me.

“You don’t want to do this, Mad Max. I’ve read your folder. You’re not a bad man; you were most likely going to get your parole today. You don’t want to add kidnapping and attempted escape onto your record. Let me go.”

I ignore her plea and lead her the opposite way she was going. I pull us close to the building. If there are any guards left in the towers that the men didn’t overpower, I want it to be hard to spot us. The line of grass we have to walk on gets smaller as we reach the creek bank. We must cross it to get into the swampland beyond. As I direct her to the edge of the water, she pulls against my hold.

“What are you doing? We can’t go through that water, we don’t know how deep it is, and that’s swampland beyond it. You do know we’re in Florida right? The state, alligators freaking love? We’d have to be insane. We should hit the main road.”

“Hush it, Kitten. This is not a democracy. Now button it and go through the water.”

“I can’t swim,” She says, eyeing the water.

“Of course you can’t.” I sigh and then bend down and wrap my arms around her thighs, tossing her over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry. I feel a small, stinging pain from the cut I got earlier and a wet feeling where my shirt meets the cut. I ignore the pain because I feel her nails dig into my back, and that feels f*cking good.

“Wait, can we talk about this? I really, really don’t want to go into the water. I can’t swim! What if you fall? I’ll drown. I’m a rock in the water.”

“I’ll catch you,” I huff, letting the cold water cool my body. It’s October and for Florida it has been unseasonably cool.

“That’s great, Mad Max, a perfect plan, except you will have already fallen into the water?”

I ignore her and slog on through. She starts beating my back, kicking her legs. My prison-issue shoes have slick bottoms, and I start slipping. The water is up to my waist, and I’m doing my best to keep her under control.

“Max! I’m going to drown, switch me around! The water is close to my face!”

I don’t see how since she’s barely over my shoulder, but I shift her so that I am cradling her against me. I like having her weight in my arms. I bury that thought. My life is over. I can’t go back and wouldn’t even want to. I’m about to get her settled when she tilts too far to the right and my foot slides against the rocks underneath. I shift the opposite way, but can’t correct quickly enough, and we fall into the water.

It takes me a minute to get my bearings and before I can, Tess’s foot, still wearing the pointy ass heels, pushes into my side and she’s swimming back the way we came. I try to catch her, to keep her from getting away from me, but I fall back down. Fucking hell! I finally get back up and manage to grab hold of her leg and pull her back to me. Her head goes under, her arms beating against the water as she flails and tries to break free of me. Back over my shoulder she goes, and I don’t bother being gentle this time. I’m mad, and she’ll know exactly how mad as soon as we get to the other side. Can’t swim my ass! Afraid of the water! Damned little liar.

She squirms harder against me, and my anger is already amped up high. I brace my feet against the sandy bedrock of the lake. Then I shift her back against my chest, but not in a protective sense this time. I use one hand to grab her hair, most of which has fallen from the clasp she had it in. I wrap it around my fingers and pull her head back hard, so she’s looking at me. She inhales from the pain, her eyes open wide as she looks at me. Lucky for her, she keeps her tongue in her mouth.

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