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D amn if she didn’t have the most expressive face he’d ever seen.

“Is this where we’re going to… to nab a car?” Destiny faltered, her eyes huge when he pulled the helmet off her head after their arrival in the long-term parking lot.

“Sure is. You carry this.” He handed her the helmet before tossing his saddlebags over his shoulder and catching up her hand. He took one last look at his shiny black baby. After all the work he’d put into getting the new Harley just the way he wanted her, she had better show up in Denver in the same condition he left her here in Norfolk. “Come on.”

To Destiny’s credit, she followed him dutifully into the terminal and down the long hallway to their destination.

“Oh, thank God,” she murmured at his side as they approached the counter with the big green and black ENTERPRISE sign hanging over it. “You’re renting a car.”

It wasn’t like he really had much choice. They couldn’t get her through security onto the tarmac, let alone on a plane, without official photo identification. And he wasn’t willing to sit around here waiting for the Nuadians to sniff them out. He felt safer on the move, headed to an airport where both his company plane and the necessary identification would be waiting.

Unfortunately, with this storm system approaching, the best-case scenario would have them facing rain today and tomorrow. While he wouldn’t have stopped to consider that if it were just him, he couldn’t very well subject Destiny to the wet ride his bike would offer.

Right now, a car was the only reasonable way to go.

The thought had certainly crossed his mind that he was going to miss having her warm body snuggled up against his as it had been on the bike, her arms snaked around his chest, her fingers clutching his shirt. From that scenario, his mind quickly wandered to a memory of how she’d looked in bed this morning, and a mental picture sprang to life of those bare, curvy legs wrapped around him. Naked.

He caught himself and dropped her hand, moving away from her to stand in the short line.

Client, he reminded himself, even if she qualified as a client only in the loosest sense. True, Coryell Enterprises had no official idea of what he was doing with his time off, but that didn’t make it any less business. Being with Destiny was nothing more than being on the job, and thoughts like he’d just been having had no place on the job.

Besides, the last thing he needed in his life right now was another needy chick looking for a sugar daddy to pay her bills.

When the young woman behind the counter finished with her previous customer and smiled her welcome, he pulled out his wallet and showed her his license.

“I think you have a reservation waiting for me?”

A few keystrokes and she looked up from her computer, her smile more inviting than friendly. “Yes we do, Mr.—”

“Jesse. Please,” he interrupted, glancing down at her name tag. “Amber. Mister is my father. Just call me Jesse.”

“All right, Jesse. Thank you.” Her face colored attractively and she fumbled with the paper in her printer.

Perhaps it was stupid of him to keep the clerk from saying his last name out loud. So what? Destiny obviously thought he was no more than an employee of Coryell Enterprises and he’d just as soon keep it that way for now.

He’d learned the hard way, too many times, that women heard his name and saw dollar signs. Especially women who had no money. Things were going to get complicated enough over the next few days without adding that extra ingredient into the mix.

Amber dropped the key into his open hand, her fingers lingering perhaps a bit longer than necessary against his palm before he gave her a smile and turned away. The next man in line pushed up to the counter, leaving his suitcases behind, demanding the lovely Amber’s regard for himself.

Destiny had moved away, her attention focused back down the hallway toward the entrance to the terminal.

Jesse followed the direction of her gaze down the crowded hallway filled with hurrying passengers. He turned at her gasp, reaching out to grab her arm as she stumbled backward into a large suitcase.

“Whoa.”

“Look! It’s him,” she whispered, pointing down the corridor. “And he’s got my laptop.”

Jesse didn’t need to ask who the “he” in question was. If he hadn’t figured it out from the look of anger on Destiny’s face, he would have when he’d had to tighten his grip on her arm to keep her from heading out after the big Nuadian.

Scanning the corridor with intent, he spotted the man who had attempted to force Destiny into his car fewer than twenty-four hours earlier. This time he wasn’t alone. A second man accompanied him, and though Jesse couldn’t be sure from here, he, too, had the look of the Fae about him.

“Let’s go.”

Wrapping Destiny’s hand tightly in his, he pulled her along, forcing her to stay behind him as he followed their mystery Fae. Once they reached the main level of the terminal, he knew he’d need to stash Destiny someplace safe. He couldn’t afford to have her seen and targeted again.

At the same time the two men stepped on the escalators heading down, Jesse pulled his hand from Destiny’s.

“Go into that restaurant.” Out in the open, around a crowd of people, was the safest place for her. “Order lunch for us. I’ll be right back.”

“But…” She clasped his helmet to her chest, looking small and defenseless in spite of her anger. “That man has my shoulder bag.”

“Go. And if anyone tries to do anything but take your order, you scream your head off. Got it?”

“Like I needed you to tell me that,” she muttered, before disappearing into the seafood bar.

Quickening his steps, he made directly for the escalators. Before he reached the bottom, it became clear this was the ticketing area. Fortunately his prey stood out from those around them, Destiny’s hot-pink bag an out-of-place beacon hanging from the shoulder of the big Nuadian. Jesse slowly made his way to the line where the two men waited, doing his best to blend in with the crowd.

When they approached the counter, Jesse hung behind a large family carrying a full complement of luggage two windows away.

The uniformed woman behind the desk scanned the identification Destiny’s Psycho Blondie had handed her before keying information into her terminal. “Do you have any luggage to check for your flight to Phoenix today, Mr. Tyren?”

He nodded and placed a large suitcase on the scale, keeping Destiny’s shoulder bag with him. Since only Mr. Tyren took a boarding pass from the ticket agent, it appeared only he would be flying.

Jesse followed as far as the escalators, where the two men paused. Merging with a large group of giggling teenagers and adults, he moved closer, before kneeling down to fidget with his shoe. As discreetly as possible, he pulled his cell phone from his pocket and snapped off two quick photos while he listened in on their parting words.

“You have someone posted here watching the ticketing area?” When Mr. Tyren’s companion nodded, he continued. “Keep searching for her. Do not fail me in this. I need that woman apprehended.”

“As you wish, Dermond. We search for her even now.”

Fuck. Jesse’s stomach rolled. Someone he didn’t know and couldn’t identify was hunting for Destiny this very minute, maybe even right here in the airport, and he’d left her all alone.

“More coffee while you wait, miss?”

Destiny jumped, her empty cup clinking noisily against the thick white saucer. The voice at her shoulder was only the waitress.

Willing herself to stop shaking, she nodded her agreement and watched as the waitress refilled her cup before bustling away to check on her other customers.

No reason to be nervous. She was safe here. There were too many people around for that awful man to try to drag her out of this restaurant. And so what if she’d just ordered a full meal for two and didn’t have two cents in her purse. Correction… didn’t even have a purse to put her imaginary two cents into.

That big blond creep probably had her purse. He certainly had her laptop case, no mistaking that. Not too many hot-pink leather shoulder bags with gold roses stitched on them running around the country. Especially not being carried by a guy who looked like him.

“Here you go, honey. Anything else I can get for you?” Destiny jumped again when the waitress leaned across her to place the plates on her table. “You sure you don’t want me to wrap up your friend’s lunch to go?”

“No. Thank you. He should be here any minute.”

The waitress lay the dinner ticket facedown on the table, shrugging as if she’d seen it all before. Working as waitstaff in a restaurant at the airport, she probably had.

Destiny certainly hoped Jesse would be here any minute. She picked up the tab and fingered it nervously. That was twenty-two dollars more than she could cough up at the moment. What would they do to her if he didn’t come back? How long could she linger over this meal, pretending to eat before she had to deal with the whole “not one red cent to her name” fiasco?

She dropped the check and stared at her plate. Pretending to eat was about all she could do with her stomach threatening to turn itself inside out at any moment.

Where the hell was he?

She scanned the restaurant once more in vain before squirting catsup on her plate. Picking up a french fry, she swirled the crispy potato stick in the thick red sauce, flashing back through the years to another meal very much like this one.

That day had been burgers and fries at a local greasy spoon. She and her little brother, Chase, had been so excited to have a rare lunch out with Mommy, and on a school day at that. The only thing missing was Daddy.

It was after their meal as she swirled her last french fry in catsup, exactly the way she did now, that she’d listened to her mother explain that her daddy wasn’t coming home anymore. That was the same day her mother had come up with the story of the evil Faeries, the ones who were after their father, and that he had no choice but to leave them to keep them all safe.

On that day, Destiny had left their table, her mother comforting her crying eight-year-old brother, to make her way to the bathroom, where she’d locked herself in a stall and cried until she threw up.

When she’d washed her face off and walked out of that bathroom, she’d known her life would never be the same. And it certainly hadn’t been.

Within months her new sister had been born, and at twelve, Destiny had been forced to grow up quickly. When her mother’s illness had struck a few years later, followed by Rainbow’s hopeless decline into alcoholism, Destiny had felt as if the world often rested on her own pitifully incompetent shoulders. Always she could trace her feelings of panic back to that moment in the restaurant when she’d left the bathroom headed to her seat.

Her father had left them to make their way on their own.

Alone.

All alone.

Destiny could taste the familiar fear and desperation rising in the back of her throat now as she fought the need to escape to yet another bathroom. That same old horrible, all-consuming panic was rearing its ugly head, building, growing.

Once it took over, her ability to reason would vanish and she’d be that scared twelve-year-old again, reacting wildly, unable to see the logic that might be staring her in the face. There was no doubt in her mind. It had happened too many times before. Too many times she’d been left alone—when her mother had died, when her brother had left home, when she’d realized Leah was gone.

Even seemingly small events could trigger the panic, like being stood up for a date or having a boyfriend tell her he didn’t want to see her anymore. And this—what she experienced now—was no small event. Jesse was her best hope to find Leah.

If he didn’t come back, she was lost.

She fought it, tried to deny the icy tendrils of fear closing in on her.

I don’t need him or anyone, she told herself fiercely. She wasn’t twelve anymore. She’d manage somehow. She always had.

“Come on, we’ve got to get out of here.”

Startled, she looked up, shocked to find Jesse at her side. He’d come back for her.

“But what about the food? Should we have them wrap—”

“No,” he interrupted, pulling at her arm to rush her from her seat. “You okay?”

Embarrassed that he’d caught her crying, she snatched up the ticket, waving it in front of him. “I couldn’t pay.”

His jaw tightened in what looked like irritation as he pulled bills from his pocket, tossing two twenties next to her plate.

“That’s way too much,” she began, but stopped as he practically dragged her from the table.

“Forget it. No time to wait on these people. We have to go. Now.”

His urgency frightened her, so she said no more, almost running to keep up with his long stride. He didn’t slow down until they reached the rental car parking area and he opened the passenger door on a large white SUV.

She climbed in and fastened her seat belt, trying to catch her breath as he gunned the engine and screeched out of the parking lot.

“What happened in there? You didn’t get my laptop? Didn’t you find him?”

He didn’t take his eyes off the road when he answered. “Psycho Blondie is headed to Phoenix.”

Arizona. Just like the dream had told her. If Jesse had any doubts before, this should eliminate them.

“For the record, his name is Dermond Tyren and he has people looking for you right now.”

“People? As in more than just him?” Somehow the knowledge that this Tyren man wasn’t working alone was much, much scarier than the idea of his being an isolated psycho kidnapper.

“Exactly. And as soon as we get out of town and I can afford to concentrate on something other than the possibility of our being followed, you’ve got some explaining to do.”

“Explaining? What are you talking about?”

Jesse spared only a quick glance in her direction as he merged into traffic, his expression dark. “It’s time for you to tell me the truth about why Psycho Blondie and his Nuadian Fae friends are really after you.”