“I’ll be back,” Chris said tightly as he turned to leave, only to pause and throw a look over his shoulder, hoping to find Madison coming to him. When she didn’t move away from Ephraim he felt his stomach twist. He loved her. She was his best friend and the most important woman in his life. He couldn’t imagine going a day without talking to her and hated knowing that he’d caused her any pain, but he didn’t have a choice.
He’d make it up to her when he got back, he decided as he grabbed his little mate’s cold little hand and led her outside.
“Which car are we taking?” Joshua asked as he headed for the driveway.
“Take whichever one you want. We have to take one of the unmarked to the airport.”
“If we’re grabbing one of the unmarked cars we should take Dad’s truck so we can take the shortcut,” Joshua said as he headed for their father’s black pickup truck.
As he helped Izzy into the truck he took one last look at the only home he’d ever known and prayed that he’d see it again, but if he didn’t at least he’d know he kept it and the family inside safe. It was the least he could do for them.
**********
“Let’s go, Munchkin,” Chris whispered in her ear just as she was starting to nod off.
“I’m tired,” she grumbled as she tightened her arms around her bag, but the damn man wouldn’t leave her alone. He picked her up and carried her out of the truck.
“You can sleep on the way to the airport,” he promised her as he carried her through an open garage door.
Fighting back a yawn, she looked around the large and tidy garage and counted ten vehicles, a hummer, a few trucks, an SUV and a few cars.
“Where are we?”
“We’re just switching vehicles,” he said, heading for the black SUV.
“Oh,” she mumbled, too tired to ask him anything else, not that he’d answer her anyway.
As soon as she’d climbed out of that pool he’d dragged her soaked, freezing butt into the house and shoved her towards his sister and Madison. Even though they went out of their way to be nice to her and assure her that everything was going to be okay, she knew they were lying. Whatever Chris had planned for her had both woman pissed off and she was guessing for good reason.
But for his family’s sake she would go along with this little plan now, but the second she thought they were in the clear and that nothing she did would bring attention to them she was making a run for it.
“I’m going to use the Florida plates,” Joshua announced as he walked over to the wall of red metal cabinets.
“That’s fine, but we need to hurry up,” Chris said, juggling her in his arms as he opened the back passenger door and deposited her in the car.
She hugged her bag tighter as she moved away from him, but he stopped her by gently grabbing her arm.
“I know this hasn’t exactly been easy and that you’re really pissed, but I just wanted to let you know that I really appreciate you helping me out,” he said, sounding as exhausted as she felt.
“I didn’t do it for you. I did it for your family,” she said tightly as she met his eyes.
“Thank you,” he said with a firm nod before he gently shut the car door.
For a minute she considered trying to sneak out of the garage and making a run for it, but she had no idea where they were and knew that wouldn’t help lead this Quinn guy away from his family.
The only thing she could do for herself right now was to get a little rest and a clear head so that she could figure a way out of this mess without making it worse. With that thought in mind she placed her bag at the end of the seat, laid down and curled up and within minutes she was dozing off.
“Come on, Munchkin, time to wake up,” Chris said in what felt like only a few minutes later.
“Stop calling me that,” she said as she tried to go back to sleep.
“Don’t even think about falling asleep, Munchkin,” he said as he grabbed her by the arms and pulled her out of the nice warm car into the cool crisp fresh air.
She forced her eyes open as he set her down on her feet and frowned. They were at the airport? How long had she slept for? However long it was wasn’t enough. Well, at least she could look forward to a nap on the plane, she thought as Chris said his goodbyes to his brother.
“You’ll be back by tomorrow night, right?”
“Sure,” Chris said and she knew he was lying and judging the look on Joshua’s face he knew it too.
“Chris-“
“Don’t worry about it, man. Just keep everyone safe and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Joshua glared up at his older brother from the car for a minute before he shook his head in resignation. “I know you won’t listen to reason so I’m not even going to bother trying.”
“And I appreciate that,” Chris said, reaching into the car to give his brother’s shoulder a squeeze.
“I just bet you do,” Joshua grumbled as he turned his attention to her. “Take care of yourself, Izzy.”
“You too,” she said, smiling. Considering everything that happened over the last two days she was actually shocked to discover that she truly meant it. She might not like the jerk next to her or the crap she went through, but she liked his family.
Before Joshua even managed to put the car in drive, Chris was pulling her towards the double automatic doors of the small airport.
“If I didn’t know any better I’d think that you like my brother more than you like me,” Chris said quietly as he led her to the customer service desk.
“That’s because I do,” she said with a small shrug.
“I see,” he bit out tightly.
“I’m glad that you do,” she said, not giving a damn if she was pissing him off. In fact she hoped that she was pissing him off and to make damn sure that he was pissed off she added, “Is there any way I can switch him for you, because I have to tell you your brother has the hottest-eep!” she ended on a high pitched squeal that thankfully went unnoticed in the early morning crowd.
Chris chuckled softly, not sounding particular happy as he gave her ass another warning squeeze. “Finish that thought and you won’t be able to sit for a week.”
“I was only saying-ow! Lay off my ass already!” she hissed out as they neared the customer service woman, who sent her a bored glance, but when her eyes fell on Chris they widened and turned calculating.
“Then stop trying to piss me off, Munchkin,” he said, pulling her to a stop ten feet from the customer service desk.
“I’m not,” she lied.
“Right now that doesn’t matter. What I need you to do is go ask the pretty woman behind the desk for a one way ticket on the next flight. I don’t care where it’s going. The important thing is to get you out of here quickly. Do you understand?” he asked and she just barely stopped herself from informing him that the woman was not that pretty, but right now that didn’t matter. Right now he was letting her go and she could actually kiss the man for that.
“Okay,” she said, trying not to smile as she pulled her ID and credit card out of her bag. She couldn’t believe this nightmare was about to end. Even the glare the customer service woman sent her when Chris didn’t join her didn’t diminish her good mood one bit.