But Blake was a f**king ATM. The man turned leaves from a tree into hundred dollar bills.

And Neil took on the man’s security.

Working helped heal some of the pain.

“I remember,” Blake said on the phone. And then he was silent.

“Then you’re going to have to trust me. And you’re going to have to stay there. Keep your family safe.”

“Gwen is my family.”

“I know.” But to Neil, she was so much more.

A hand covered her mouth when she woke. The room was pitch-black.

Gwen started to struggle, kick, and scream.

“Gwen! Shhh, it’s Neil,” he said in a hushed whisper.

She stopped struggling, but stayed on alert.

“I need you to listen when I let you go. Can you do that?”

She nodded.

He released her mouth slowly and spoke quickly.

“We need to leave the house. We have to go now.” Neil was dressed in dark colors much like a midnight thief.

“Why?” Gwen matched his tone, keeping her voice low.

“No time to explain. You need to trust me. Do you trust me, Gwendolyn?”

His eyes were hard, searching…

“I trust you.”

“Good girl.”

He lifted his weight from the bed and picked up a small gym bag from the floor. “Here.” He shoved some clothes into her arms as she left the bed.

“Why are we whispering?”

“The house is tapped.”

She hesitated. “Tapped?” If her heart beat any faster, it would be a problem.

“Not now, Gwen. Don’t turn on the lights. Get dressed, hurry.”

She sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on the black pants he’d handed her. “Exercise clothes?”

“Easier to move in.” He went into the connecting bathroom and rummaged around for less than a minute. She kept her back turned to him as she pulled a spandex bra over her head and followed it with the skintight shirt. She remembered packing the clothes earlier when she left the Tarzana house, thinking that she could use a little yoga to help ease her mind.

Neil returned, tossed a few things into her bag, and followed them with the nightgown she’d just taken off.

A hundred questions inundated her mind. Why were they running? Who was after them? Where were they going?

If someone had penetrated the secure fortress that Neil created for her brother and his family, then the enemy must be formidable.

She glanced at the clock. It was two thirty in the morning and something told her that life was about to change forever.

In less than a minute Neil swung her small bag over his shoulder and pulled her to her feet. “Not one word until I say.”

She’d never seen Neil like this. His eyes appeared to see everything, even in the dark. The intensity of his stare and the taut muscles twitching under his snug shirt proved he was more alert than a cheetah ready to strike.

Neil kept to the shadows inside the house and out. They skirted through the courtyard and quietly made it into the garage. A second town car sat beside Blake’s with Dillon behind the wheel.

Even standing right next to the car, Gwen found it nearly impossible to see the driver. She narrowed her eyes as they moved to the second car and he shoved her in the backseat. He took her head in his hand and gave a gentle nudge down to the seat.

Gwen took the hint and lay flat in the seat. From then on, the only thing she saw was the back of Neil’s head.

He pulled on a stocking cap…all black. They backed out of the garage along with Dillon in the other car. Both of the cars inched up the drive in the dark.

Neil drove on a winding road, taking the turns faster than normal. Gwen braced herself to avoid being tossed around.

Adrenaline pumped as quickly as the car’s speed. Gwen had to admit, if only to herself, it wasn’t fear that charged her. It was excitement.

Even without an explanation, she knew Neil was protecting her and doing it so fiercely it sparked an unexpected flame of desire.

She shot her hand out as they rounded another corner.

Bad time to get turned on, Gwen!

It didn’t help that before she woke up, she was dreaming of him. He held her with those arms of steel and leaned into her with parted lips. Then Neil woke her.

They hit a bump on the road and Gwen fell to the floor with an “Oomph!”

“Are you OK?” Neil asked as the car slowed.

Gwen scrambled back onto the seat. “Yes.”

“Just a little farther,” he said. “Then we’ll switch cars.”

“Can I sit up?”

“No. Not yet.”

She stayed down and matched his silence with her own.

A lifetime passed in the backseat before Neil slowed the car down and pulled it off the road.

Neil slammed the car into park and jumped out. He opened her door and reached for her hand. Her stiff muscles protested as she stood and moved to a different vehicle.

What felt like forever was less than an hour. While Neil opened the trunks of both cars and transferred objects between them, Gwen sat in the front seat and stared into the night. They were parked in a commuters’ park and ride lot with a dozen cars surrounding them.

Gwen waited until they were on a narrow highway without a car in sight before she uttered a word. “Neil?”

He glanced at her and then looked back at the road.

“What are you doing?”

His fingers gripped the wheel and for a full minute he didn’t say a thing.

“Backing off wasn’t an option.”

At first, Gwen didn’t understand what he meant. Then she remembered her ultimatum in the bar.

Gwen folded her hands in her lap and rested her head back on the seat.

All of her questions and more importantly, all of Neil’s answers, could wait.

Chapter Thirteen

Heat-sensitive night vision goggles captured the cars as they crawled out of the Malibu driveway.

Both cars indicated the heat of the driver and heat in the backseat.

He scrambled from his perch, tossing the candy from his hand, and jumped into the front seat of his car.

Looked like MacBain was taking matters into his own hands.

“Wouldn’t be good if you rolled over on your back and gave up, now would it?”

Both cars were identical, the license plates removed. His tracking was down.

Even a stupid man knew not to turn on his cell phone if he wanted to hide. Sooner or later he had to turn it back on. But the man wasn’t in a hurry. In fact, he could do this all year.

The cars split up, going in separate directions. He took a chance and followed the car going east.