Hidden Away (KGI #3)(103)

Rio turned in toward the smoke and then back in the direction of his house.

“Think it’ll take your house?” Garrett asked quietly.

Rio shrugged. “If it does, it does. Not much I can do. I can always rebuild.”

“We need to move out,” Steele said crisply. “I don’t want to be here when the locals show up.”

“You go,” Rio said. “My men and I will stay and take any heat. I have contacts here. We’ll be fine.” He looked up at Garrett. “You go with Steele and his team. Get the f**k out of the country. The boat will take you downriver to a waiting chopper.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Rio said.

Garrett gestured for Steele and his team to follow him to the dock. They hurried down and got into the last remaining boat. Rio rattled off a terse stream of Kriole to the young man operating the boat and then waved to Garrett as the boat pushed away from the dock.

“You just going to let her go like that?” P.J. demanded.

Startled, Garrett turned on P.J., his lips curled into a snarl. “What the f**k do you mean?”

“I saw the way you looked at her, and yet you let that ass**le Resnick walk away with her.”

“Back off, Rutherford. You don’t know what the f**k you’re talking about.”

“Men are such dickheads,” she muttered. “She just watched her brother die. Of course she’s upset. But she needs you with her, not hundreds of miles away while Resnick drills on her.”

“I have a few things I need to do before I go after Sarah,” Garrett said tersely.

P.J. snorted and turned her back. To Garrett’s surprise, Steele eyed him with a grimace as well.

“Not you too,” Garrett muttered. “You’re supposed to be a f**king machine. The last thing I need is you nagging my ass too.”

A glimmer of amusement flickered across Steele’s face, but he remained silent and turned his attention to the shoreline as he watched for any threat.

They traveled a mile upriver and veered off into one of the fingers that drifted farther inland. The water shallowed to a couple of feet as they slogged closer to a sharp bend in the offshoot. A helicopter came into view as they hung a sharp left and drifted into the cove.

Garrett scrambled off the boat with Steele and his team and they piled into the helicopter. As it rose and hovered close to the ground, Garrett stared out the window and wondered how Sarah was doing. Resnick had sworn he’d take good care of her, and Garrett knew he would. He wasn’t quite the ass**le he and his brothers liked to label him.

He may have taken the coward’s way out but there was a lot he had to sort out before he could face Sarah again. He couldn’t afford to f**k things up with her. First he had to remove any and all threats to her. Only then could he go to her and plead his case.

Maybe by then her grief wouldn’t be so raw, her pain not so sharp. Maybe by then she’d have a better perspective.

One thing he knew for sure, and he’d known it the moment that Sarah had looked at him with such pain and betrayal in her eyes. He loved her and he’d settle for nothing less than having her in his life. Until the day he died. He simply wouldn’t consider any alternative. If it took him the rest of his life to convince her, then that’s what he’d do.

CHAPTER 39

RUSTY trudged from the school building toward the student parking lot. Today was just another shitty day in what was shaping up to be a shitty year. Her senior year. So much was made of a person’s senior year. Magical. Time-of-your-life sort of thing. She barely held back a snort. The only good thing was that so far, Matt Winfree hadn’t opened his mouth. Whatever Sean had said to him seemed to have worked. At least for now.

Instead he and his group avoided her like the plague.

At least she’d gotten her car back. Almost like new. She’d been afraid that Marlene and Frank wouldn’t let her have it back after what had happened. But they hadn’t said a word. Just handed her the keys and said that no one was allowed to drive it but her. Fine by her. She wouldn’t make such a stupid mistake again.

She was so focused on her thoughts that she didn’t see the men standing at the front edge of the parking lot until she heard the murmur of voices around her. When she did look up, her mouth fell open and her first thought was oh shit. What had she done now?

The Kelly brothers—well, almost all of them—stood in a formidable line. Even Garrett was there, and he was supposedly off on some supersecret mission after everyone had worried he was up shit creek.

Sam stood the far left. Ethan was next to him and Donovan and Garrett stood together. They were wearing army-looking fatigues with boots and shit. Damn, they looked like they were ready to kick some serious ass. She sighed. Probably hers.

“Winfree, just the guy we’re looking for,” Garrett called.

Oh shit. This was even worse. Rusty squeezed her eyes shut as the brothers looked beyond her. Then she slowly peeked around to see Matt standing several yards away, looking for the world like he was about to wet his pants. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“Come over here, boy,” Sam said in a terse voice that you simply didn’t ignore.

“Yes, sir?” Matt asked as he approached warily.

“Heard you’ve been messing with our sister,” Ethan said with a growl.