DONOVAN (Gray Wolf Security, #1)(41)

“Alcatraz,” Ash unexpectedly barked in my ear. “I repeat, Alcatraz.”

Tension immediately raced through me. Kate was talking to her manager from the bank, Mrs. Talbot. I moved up close behind her and hissed in her ear, “We have to go.”

She glanced back at me, irritation clear in every line of her gorgeous face until she saw my eyes. Then she stiffened.

“I apologize, Mrs. Talbot,” she said politely, “but it seems we need to go.”

Mrs. Talbot’s eyes narrowed. “Is there some reason why?”

“Yes,” I said in my most authoritative voice, but I didn’t pause to explain. I simply took Kate’s arm and led the way through the crowd to a preassigned door at the back of the ballroom.

“What’s going on?” Kate asked.

“I don’t know,” I said between clenched teeth as I guided her through a narrow hallway and into a busy kitchen.

“You don’t know?”

“All I know is that Ash gave the signal for imminent danger. We have to go.”

She didn’t argue any more. She simply allowed me to drag her through the noise and mess of the kitchen and out the back door where Joss was waiting with the back door to the limo already open. She slipped me my weapon as I passed her.

We were speeding through the alley behind the hotel before the door was completely closed. Joss opened the petition between the two sections of the car and handed me an iPad she kept somewhere nearby at all times to help facilitate communication.

“Safe house compromised,” was all it said at the moment.

“What’s going on, David,” I said into my phone in the silent car, hoping he was still monitoring our smartphones for communication.

“There was an explosion.”

“What?”

Kate was watching me, her face growing more and more alarmed as she watched the tension build in my shoulders.

“At the safe house,” David quickly explained. “The cameras were hacked and when I sent a team to check it out, there was an explosion as they approached.”

“Anyone injured?”

“No. But the house is demolished.”

“Fuck me!” I whispered under my breath. “What now?”

“Ash wants you on a plane to Austin.”

I nodded even though I knew he couldn’t see me. It seemed like our best bet at the moment. Whoever was after Kate seemed to be a step ahead of us, or at least beside us, since the night the security guard was killed. Moving to another safe house here in Santa Monica would just be inviting another disaster like this.

“What’s going on?” Kate asked, her chin trembling as she spoke.

I moved back to her side and took her hands in mine. “We’re going for a little trip.”

“What kind of trip?”

“Ash has a house in Austin, Texas.”

She started shaking her hands, panic rising to a boiling point in her eyes. “What happened? Is my dad okay?”

“Of course!” I ran my hand over her face and made her look at me with my fingers hooked under her chin. “If there was something wrong with your dad, I would have told you.”

Tears started to spill from the corner of her eyes. “Then what’s going on?”

“Someone hacked into the cameras at the safe house. And then…” I hesitated because I could see she was on the verge of hysterics and I really needed her to stay calm until we were on the plane and thirty thousand feet over the city.

“And then?”

“There was an explosion.”

“What kind of explosion?”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, baby. All I know is what David’s telling me.”

She nodded, taking a deep breath. “Okay.”

“We’re going to a small, private airport outside the city. We should be there in a few minutes.”

“What happens then? How long do we stay in Texas?”

“Until Detective Warren can figure out who’s behind all this and decides it’s safe for you to come back.”

“That could be months.”

I shrugged, dragging my thumb over her bottom lip. “It could be months…all alone. Just you and me and the woods of central Texas.”

She smiled despite the tears. “No cameras?”

“No cameras.”

She curled up against my chest, sniffed a few times, then pulled back to look at me again, the tears gone.

“Okay. I’m okay now.”

“I’m going to protect you, babe. I promise, nothing will happen to you.”

She leaned into me and kissed me gently. “I know.”

I cradled her against my chest and settled back against the seat.

We arrived at the airport a few minutes later. Joss pulled the car right up to the boarding ramp to the plane. She turned and reached her hand through the partition. I squeezed it.

“See you.”

She nodded.

I opened the door and stepped out, reaching back for Kate. We boarded the plane and the steward pulled the ramp up immediately. The plane began to roll toward the runway as Kate and I took seats inside.

“Who does this belong to?”

I reached over and pulled her belt a little tighter. “It’s Ash’s.”