“You can drive whatever you want. But give me the keys.”
She was stil reeling from the effects of his touch.
Automatical y, she obeyed his tone of command.
He glanced from the numbered key in his hand to the row of painted parking spaces. “Thanks.”
She watched, mystified, as he climbed into the number three van. The engine roared to life. The van backed across the cement lane and stopped. Justin got out, slamming the driver’s side door, and stooped by the front tire. His arm jerked. She heard a pop, a hiss, before he straightened, stil holding his dive knife.
“Get us a car,” he said.
Her brain sparked back to life. “What are you doing?”
He moved to the next tire. “Making sure nobody comes after us.”
Slash. Pop. Hiss.
She winced. “But—”
“Park by the doors. I need to block the other lane.”
She ran for a car at the end of a row, close to the ramp that led to the lower level. Through the windshield, she watched Justin make quick work of the remaining tires before raising the van’s hood. Metal banged metal.
9 6
V i r g i n i a K a n t r a
Oh,
Her mouth dried. Simon would be furious.
She rol ed down her window. “You didn’t say anything about destroying school property.”
“You got a better idea?”
“No, but—”
He raised his head and looked at her, his face hard.
Determined. Dangerous. “If I block the exit with a couple of these vans, I won’t have to touch the other vehicles. Now move the car.”
She released the brake, feeling vaguely betrayed, as if she’d befriended a stray that turned into a tiger. She maneuvered her car into the narrow space by the garage doors. In her rearview mirror, she saw Justin help himself to another key from the pegboard.
He drove the second van into place behind her, across the lane.
She gritted her teeth.
The passenger door opened and he slid in beside her, hot and male and overwhelming. The heth gleamed in the hol ow of his throat. “Let’s rol .”
Setting her jaw, she shifted gear.
*
*
*
Pain sank its talons into his skul . His eyebal s ached. His throat throbbed.
Justin glanced at Lara’s rigid profile. She was pissed, but she hadn’t panicked on him. Or bailed.
The red haze over his vision faded. He was pushing her, he knew. Playing the connection that sparked between them.
Trusting her innate decency and compassion to overcome her loyalty to Axton.
F o r g o t t e n s e a 97
She deserved better than that arrogant, ruthless prick and his stone-faced henchman.
Too bad he didn’t have anything better to offer.
Justin released his breath. At least they were free. He was free. For now.
The hot kernel of anger inside him eased.
She drove without headlights, knuckles white on the wheel, leaning forward to peer at the dark, winding road.
He could feel the moisture in the air, the rising wind of a gathering storm.
Something flickered through the trees. A fence. The black gleam of metal pickets fol owing the dip of the ground, the curve of the road. Ahead of them, a smal , square gatehouse rose out of the gloom.
Lara braked before they reached the metal barrier.
Justin tensed. “Guards?”
She shook her head, the shadows sliding over her face.
“Not at night. The exit gate is automatic.”
“Then why are we stopping?”
She turned to him, eyes wide in the dark. “Are you sure you want to go through with this? Once we’re outside the gates, I can’t guarantee your safety.”
She was worried about him, which was both convenient and oddly unsettling. Or maybe she was stil fretting over Axton’s probable reaction to his escape. Not to mention eight slashed tires and two busted timing belts. “I like my chances out there better than in here.”
“You don’t even know where you’re going.”
The bead at his throat pulsed in time with his heart.
They’d been down this road before. “You’re wasting your breath.”
She blinked once. “Probably,” she agreed cool y.
What did that mean?
9 8
V i r g i n i a K a n t r a
“Rockhaven is warded,” she continued. “The wards wil not stop us. But Zayin’s binding might. Crossing the barrier wil probably trigger the heth.”
“Trigger?”
She drew a finger across her throat.
He swal owed reflexively, feeling the raw skin pul at his neck. “I thought you fixed that.”
“I couldn’t remove it. I don’t think the heth wil kil you, but you’l need to stay in contact with me as we go through the gate.”
“You want to hold hands?”
That earned him a glance, brief and unsmiling. “I’m driving.
You’l have to hold on to my leg. I think . . . I hope that wil be enough.”
Enough to get them clear?
Enough that the damn cord or hex or whatever it was wouldn’t strangle him?
He didn’t ask. He could either trust her or they could turn back.
“Best damn offer I’ve had al day,” he said and laid his hand on her thigh.
