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She frowned. Mitch made no sense. “How can staying in a motel put me out in the open?”
“You’ll be exposed. Unprotected.” His deep baritone sent a shudder through her. She glanced over her shoulder at the lookie-loos clustered on the curbs. Her assailants at the cemetery had failed to kidnap her. Were they lurking here now?
“Come home with me.”
She turned back to Mitch. “What did you say?”
“You’re going to be looking for your brother.”
She retreated and leaned against the building behind them. Like another foot is going to keep him from reading your mind?
Right now, she didn’t care if he did. “You’re right. I want to get him back into the justice system. That’s the best thing for him now.”
“I need to find him too. Why not join forces?”
Her egg salad sandwich hardened like limestone to marble. Mitch planned to use her, and she never put herself in a one-down position. Not when she could help it. You can’t help it now.
“I can protect you.”
He’d demonstrated that already several times. She wouldn’t be working at top capability if she had to look over her shoulder every minute. A dangerous sexual energy crackled between them, but she had managed to ignore that today. For the most part. She knew what she wanted, and it wasn’t entwining arms and legs with a gorgeous bounty hunter.
She scraped her cloverleaf charm along the chain. Mitch had a hearing-impaired brother who meant a lot to him, from what she’d seen. He had the experience to relate to her brother’s loss and her own fear for him. Of all the bounty hunters in all the world, she’d lucked out with Mitch. If lucking out and bounty hunter could ever be used together.
Another thing. If she hung around with him, didn’t she have a better chance to make sure he wouldn’t hurt her baby brother once they found him?
Chapter 7
“This place feels like a prison,” the woman in his passenger seat said.
“That’s where we take our fugitives. Not where we live.” Mitch watched the street gate close behind them and drove toward the light at the end of the driveway.
Gravel crunched under his tires and the night sounds of New Orleans faded, but he could not relax. Today’s assaults had been premeditated, and Cath had shared little about her suspicions. Or even if she had any. She remained an enigma. Was he asking for trouble bringing her home when he still had misgivings?
“It feels so spooky.” She swiveled to take in the tall magnolia trees and the front of the rambling two-story. The kitten in the back seat gave another mournful cry. Cath glanced through the barrier separating the double cabs. “Tiger thinks so too.”
“It’s just nighttime. I guarantee you’ll be safe here.”
“I’d be safe in jail too.”
Mitch stopped the truck. “I can always take you back to your bus and you can go wherever you want.”
“No.” Her hand twisted the top of the plastic garbage bag containing some of her things. They’d dropped off the rest of her salvaged clothes at a laundry. “I’ve made the decision to work with you. I know it took me long enough, but I’m not in the habit of changing my mind.”
“Neither am I.” He rounded the back of the house and parked beside his brothers’ SUVs. “Here we are.”
Big Easy Bounty Hunters headquarters.
The azaleas next to the back steps fluttered. He put the truck back in gear, waiting for someone to burst from the bushes. No one did, but another gust of wind brought the scent of rain.
“This is where you live?”
“For the time being.” Until his brothers threw him out because he couldn’t perform to their standards. That might only be a matter of time.
She stared up at the house, clutching her necklace charm. “How many people live here?”
This woman could stare down a rattlesnake, and he would not believe she dreaded meeting his brothers. “Me. My aunt. Three brothers. You met Hal already.”
“In a matter of speaking.” She glanced at him. “How am I going to apologize to him for what my brother did?”