Page 8 of Duke
He glared at me over his shoulder. “Okay, then. Temple, please,shutthefuckup.”
“Well that was uncalled for.”
His growl in response was feral enough that I paled, backed up a step, and promptly shut my mouth. “Okay, then. Shutting up.”
Duke was just looking out the window in the door, as if the quiet, lower middle class suburban neighborhood was going to suddenly erupt in gunfire in the middle of the morning. Which, now that I thought of it, wasn’t entirely out of the realm of possibility, given the events thus far.
And then, as abruptly as he’d halted, he jerked open the door, shoved the storm door out of the way, pistol whipping up and then sweeping side to side as he stepped through, the motion done in one smooth glide. Satisfied that the street was clear, he reached back, grabbed my wrist, and yanked me out of the house. I tripped forward, lost my balance as my toe caught on the transition plate of the doorway, and landed flush against Duke’s chest. My hands automatically shot out and wrapped around him as my cheek flattened against his hard chest. And, totally by accident, obvs, my hands might have possibly grabbed onto his ass.
“Not the time for hanky panky, Fancy,” he said with a laugh.
I shoved away from him. “I tripped.”
“Sure you did. And I’ve got a Nobel peace prize.” He didn’t push it though, just trotted down the three short steps of the porch, gesturing at me to follow him. Waiting for me, his eyes flicked up to the eaves of the house, and his expression darkened. “Shit. That complicates things.”
“What does?” I asked, turning back to see what he was looking at.
He pointed, and I followed his gesture to see a home security camera pointing down at the front porch. “That.”
“Are you going to shoot it out?”
He snorted. “It already saw us.”
“Maybe it’s not recording?” I suggested.
He sighed. “Unlikely. From what I know about Cain, he’s not the type to waste resources. Putting a security camera on a dump like this, in a neighborhood like this? Not only is it definitely recording, but it’s probably transmitting to a remote server somewhere that Cain’s tech monkeys can monitor the feed.” He grabbed my arm and hauled me into a trot. “Which means we need to get scarce, pronto.”
“Who even says pronto anymore?” I asked, trying to keep up with Duke’s long strides, which was tough seeing as I was at least a foot shorter and wearing Louboutin wedges. “And who, exactly, is this Cain you keep mentioning? Also, can you please slow down? I’m not exactly wearing the right shoes for a run.”
“Then take ‘em off, princess, because running is what we’re doing.”
“I’m not running barefoot in a neighborhood like this! Not only will I ruin my brand new pedicure, I’ll probably step on a needle or something.”
Duke halted again and whirled to glare down at me. “Ruin your pedicure? Are you not hearing what I’m telling you? Did you miss what just happened in that basement? I don’t go around killing people for shits and giggles, sweetheart—I kill when I’ve gotta remove a threat to myself or the person in my care and, in this case, it’s both. You’re about as helpless as a kitten, which makes you my responsibility, for one, and you’re only here because of me, for another. Those guys would have likely raped you six ways till Sunday, and once they found out who you were, it would have only gotten worse. And then, after they killed me in front of you, they probably would’ve raped you a few dozen more times. Andthenthey would’ve given you to Cain, and Satan himself only knows what would’ve happened to you then.” He put his face up close to mine, and his expression was dark, grim, and scary. “Listen to me, Temple Kennedy. All jokes and bullshit aside, this situation I’ve gotten you into is life or death. Meaning, if I can’t keep you alive, you’ll be very quickly and very painfully dead.”
“How’d you get me into this? I’m not following.”
“Told you already, I went outside after you, back at that bar. I was planning on puttin’ the moves on you, see where things led. They wanted me; you were there, so they got you too, thinking having a piece of ass around is never a bad plan. Right? They got their target, but they can’t leave witnesses behind, so they knew they’d have to get rid of you eventually, which meant they could do whatever they wanted before putting a bullet in your head.” He shrugged. “I couldn’t have prevented them snagging you, but you’re still here because of me.”
“You’re out of a bad movie, Duke, seriously. You were going to put the moves on me? Let me guess, you have a tried and true pick up line, too?”
“Don’t need pickup lines when you look like me, sweetheart.” He pulled a frown. “And you seriously focus on the wrong parts of what I’m saying.”
“Yeah, well, call it a coping mechanism.” I gestured back at the house. “How else would you like me to handle what I saw back there? Either I’m going to dissolve into a sobbing mess, or I’m going to pretend I didn’t see anything. And probably channel all my fear into extreme sass.”
“I guess that’s fair,” he said with a shrug and a nod. “As long as you don’t lose sight of that fact that listening to me is going to keep you alive.”
He grabbed my hand and pulled me into a trot again, so I kicked off my wedges and held them in one hand by the straps. What followed then was a good thirty or forty minutes of barefoot jogging on cement sidewalks through a run down neighborhood. Block by block the houses got shabbier, the yards smaller and more overgrown, the cars older and more rusted.
Eventually my feet were throbbing, and I had a stitch in my side. I hauled on Duke’s arm to stop him. “I need a break…tough guy,” I panted. “Running…barefoot here…remember?”
He halted immediately, gave a quick look around at the deserted neighborhood, and then nudged me off the sidewalk and into a clump of trees at the edge of a run-down park a few steps from the curb. “Sit.”
The asshole wasn’t even winded.
I sat, and he crouched in front of me taking my feet in his hands, and proceeded to give me the single most incredible foot rub in the history of the world. It would have been thrillingly erotic, had I not been in pain.
“Okay, so maybe I’m missing something here, but why are we running? Even if that camera was live and transmitting, how soon can this Cain get here to catch us? I haven’t seen a single person in the last half hour, let alone signs of pursuit. Which reminds me, you never told me who Cain is, and why he’s after you.”