Page 13 of Defending You

None of that mattered right now. Normally, he had no problem shoving his personal preferences to the back burner when he was on the job. Cici had his thoughts misfiring, his attention diverted.

“You don’t have to act like I’m some grunt in your army,” she muttered, her voice sharp enough to cut glass. “I’m not one of your lackeys.”

“I don’t have lackeys.” And if he did, she certainly wouldn’t be one of them. “Stop talking.”

His gaze darted to the mirror. A black sedan lingered two cars back, pacing them. Could’ve been nothing, but with their luck so far, he doubted it.

He took a hard left onto a side street, tires spinning against the asphalt.

Beside him, Cici gasped. He did his best to ignore her.

The sedan followed, keeping its distance. Another turn—right this time, cutting through a narrow stretch lined with industrial buildings.

A few more cars separated them from the sedan now, but it was still following.

Beside him, Cici tapped on her phone, the screen’s glow lighting up her face—pinched, annoyed, oblivious.

He should’ve ditched that thing the second they left the hotel. “Give me that,” he said, voice low and clipped.

She clutched her phone tighter, shooting him a glare. “You’ve got your own phone.”

He snatched it from her grip with a quick twist.

She yelped, lunging to grab it back, but he held it tightly, lowered his window, and sent the cell phone sailing into the twilight.

“Are you insane?” she shouted, her voice pitched high with shock and fury. “That was my phone! My life?—”

“We’re being followed.” The sedan was still there. “They’re tracking you.”

She twisted in her seat, looking behind. At the car, or at her lost phone? She turned her glare on him. “How do youknow they’re not trackingyourphone, huh? You’re not exactly invisible.”

“They don’t know who I am.” He refused to let his irritation loose in his voice. “You’re the one they’re after.”

“My phone has a VPN! There’s no way they were tracking me. You just threw out my entire contact list, my photos, everything—for no reason!”

That stuff was probably all stored on the cloud. All she needed to do was plop down another thousand bucks for a new phone. It wasn’t like it was out of her price range.

Anyway, a virtual private network might mask her IP address, but it would have no effect on her phone’s location services, nor would it keep it from pinging cell phone towers.

“We’re being followed,” he said again, slower this time, letting the words sink in. “Unless your phone is more valuable than that necklace in your bag—or your life—let it go.”

She huffed, muttering something under her breath. He missed most of it, but picked up on the wordsarrogantandjerk.

Not that he cared what she thought.

He had bigger worries at the moment, like the fact that killers were on their tail. His truck had become a trap.

“Plug in the address for the train station.” He nodded at his phone on the console between them.

She snatched it. “Maybe I should toss this one, too. Even the score.”

“Do it”—the threat was implied in his tone—“and you’ll find yourself on your butt on the sidewalk about two seconds later.” Which would get him fired, no question.

And get her killed.

No matter how annoying she was, she needed his protection.

She jabbed at his cell phone screen with more force than necessary, still muttering under her breath. The map on hisscreen changed. They were ten minutes out if the traffic didn’t choke them—and their pursuers didn’t corner them.