Page 17 of Tracing Her Stolen Identity (Secure Watch #2)

“Where the hell did these guys come from?” Reece yelled as he aimed for the tires on the truck as it passed them.

They’d drilled the back of his truck full of holes, and he owed them one.

On a breath, he squeezed the trigger, the bullet finding its target and blowing apart the giant tire of the lifted truck.

The operator lost control immediately. Before he could get off another shot, the truck went careening into the grass until it bounced off several trees and rolled, landing on its roof with the tires still spinning.

“Let’s go!” Reece slammed the door and ran to the driver’s side, throwing the truck into Reverse and slamming the pedal down as far as it would go, praying none of the bullets had hit any of his tires or the gas tank.

The engine roared under him, but the gas gauge didn’t budge, nor did the truck fishtail.

His truck might now be ugly, but at least it would get them to Secure Watch.

“Reece! What if that was Binate? Shouldn’t we check?”

He briefly cut his gaze to hers once they were on the road again.

“I let my guard down again with you and look what happened. There isn’t a chance in hell I’m doing it again by approaching that truck.

That leaves you open and defenseless, which is all Binate needs to grab you.

I’m not stopping this truck again, so push yourself up using my shoulder and buckle in.

Use my arm if you need extra leverage.” He held his arm out in a V for her to grab, and after a few attempts, she managed to get herself upright and belted in.

Rather than belt her legs together, she leaned over and wrapped her arms over them to hold them.

“You can’t ride that way for the next hour,” he said, glancing at her.

“The way you’re driving, we’ll be there in ten minutes.”

Her words made him laugh, and he eased off the gas a bit. “I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind picking up a cop right about now. In the absence of an escort, I’ll push this truck to its limit if it means less time on the road alone. I need to update Secure Watch.”

He went through every second of their drive in his mind, from leaving the safe house until they took that exit. No one was in the rearview mirror, especially not a truck that big. Where had they come from?

“That truck came from the wrong direction, Land,” she said, turning to look at him. “It came down the on-ramp.”

Reece blinked, forcing his mind away from the bullets to the moment the headlights filled the truck. He let out a breath. “You’re right, but how did they know we left?”

“I can’t answer that, since we left the bag and the tracker at the house.”

Frustrated, he used voice controls to contact Mina.

“Secure Watch, Whiskey.”

“Secure Watch, Riker,” he addressed his boss. “There’s been a situation.”

“This seems to be the theme of our calls lately. I can’t say I like it,” Mina responded. “Is anyone hurt?”

“Negative,” he answered, glancing at Sky, who looked like she’d fallen asleep on her legs.

The position was uncomfortable, but he suspected she was scared and didn’t want to be visible in the windows.

Honestly, that wasn’t an unfounded fear.

“A jacked-up truck tried to take us out at the rest stop on 371.”

“I like the use of the word tried .”

“They’re upside down in the grass with only three tires. My truck is full of holes, but otherwise, it’s fine. I didn’t wait around to see if it was Binate. I couldn’t leave Sky unprotected.”

“You did the right thing,” she agreed. “Why were you at the rest stop? You didn’t leave too long ago.”

“Sky needed to sit up. She can’t lie in certain positions for long or she starts to cramp up. Mina, when I tell you there was no one around us, I’m positive of that. The headlights were insane on the thing when it roared at us. Sky realized they came down the on-ramp.”

“They had to be watching the house. It wouldn’t take long for them to figure out where you were going and set up a trap.”

“That or I do have a tracker on my truck. I checked it before we left again and found nothing, but I suppose they could have hacked the GPS in the maps.”

“Impossible,” she said immediately. “I have full control of that. I’m inclined to believe that whoever this Binate guy is, he has friends who are willing to help him. In this case, they could kill two birds with one stone.”

“Take me out and grab Sky?”

“Yep,” she answered grimly. “You made the right decision. How far out are you now?”

“Sky says at the speed I’m going, less than ten minutes.” His words dragged a laugh from his boss. “About an hour. Sky is a mess, though—physically, I mean.”

“Get her here in one piece. The cabin has a nice accessible shower. She can soak in some hot water and then get some sleep. We can pick this nonsense up tomorrow. In the meantime, I’ll send a team of guys out to the rest stop on 371 and see what’s left, if anything.”

“I’m sure the guys will be long gone. That truck is going to take some work to get out of there, though.”

“That’s what I’m hoping,” she agreed with a snicker. “If our guys can take a gander through it, we might be able to track down a registration. Call if you need more backup.”

“Will do. Riker, out.”

He punched the speaker off and eyed his passenger again.

Knowing she couldn’t stay like that the rest of the ride, he pulled the truck to the side of the road and kept his foot on the brake while he helped her roll over onto the bench seat, using his lap as a pillow.

He lifted her legs onto the seat and tucked the seat belt around them so she could rest on her back instead of her side.

It wasn’t perfect, but as he pushed the speedometer toward one hundred miles per hour, he hoped to cut thirty minutes off the drive.

Once they were on the road again, she snuggled her head into his thigh, dangerously close to his groin, and sighed.

He might have made a mess of this night, but she was safe and under his protection.

That was all he cared about. After the little stunt they’d just pulled, Reece vowed to be the one to take Binate down.

* * *

S KY WOKE SLOWLY , her tired mind needing a moment to remember where she was until she glanced to her left and saw the man who still haunted her dreams. Last night, when they arrived at Secure One, the team had a UTV waiting to take them to their cabin near the lake.

It was dark, so she couldn’t see much as they meandered their way to the back of the property, but something told her the view would be spectacular when the sun came up.

She did notice the room was lightening, which meant another day had arrived.

A day that they would begin with a meeting of the Secure Watch team at breakfast, according to Reece.

One thing Skylar had noticed last night was that the property was a fortress in itself.

You weren’t escaping their security measures unless someone could scale a fence while invisible.

Appropriate since Secure One was a security company.

Reece had explained the harrowing story of Mina’s kidnapping from the compound when she arrived years ago and how Cal, the owner of Secure One, and her husband’s brother, took it as a personal affront.

Since then, he’s ensured no one could attack him in his home again.

Short of someone dropping something from a plane, no one was getting inside without an invite.

Since Secure One and Secure Watch worked together under the same roof, it was nice to be in the one place that could get her out of this jam.

She once again found herself grateful for the invite.

Once they were in the cabin, Reece had encouraged her to sit under the hot water to ease some of the tension in her back so she could get some sleep.

She’d never been more grateful than to find the cabin had enough modifications to keep her independent even during the worst time of her life.

The shower was a roll-in with a shower wheelchair, something she didn’t have the luxury of at home.

Once she’d showered and gotten ready for bed, she’d tried to convince Reece to let her sleep in the recliner so he could have the bed, but it had been a losing battle.

He already had the bed set up and ready for her when she came out of the bathroom, including a heating pad for her back.

Then he’d sat next to her and rubbed her forehead silently until she’d dropped off to sleep.

To say she was surprised to see him in bed next to her wasn’t true.

There was no other option other than the recliner, but Land would defend her until his death, and there was no way he’d leave her vulnerable, even on a property that was monitored from all angles by his colleagues.

Reece wasn’t wired that way. It was all or nothing for this man, and she had always loved that about him when they were kids.

He never did anything halfway and didn’t let anyone else get away with doing a job halfway, either.

The Land-sized gulf she’d had inside her for the last fourteen years deepened, and a tear ran from her eye.

“Hey,” he whispered, wiping it away gently. “Talk to me.”

That was the last thing she was going to do. Opening up about that gulf of pain she carried regarding him would change their dynamics, and they couldn’t afford to be anything but objective right now. It would be too easy for her to lose sight of why she’d pushed him away all those years ago.

“I refuse to drag you into this dumpster fire of my life,” she whispered. When he lifted a brow, she sighed. “Okay, drag you any deeper into this dumpster fire I call life.”

“I’m in it to win it, Sky,” he promised, running his knuckle down her cheek to catch another tear. “A few tears won’t scare me away if that’s what you think.”

“Tears never scared you away, Land.”

“Sometimes they drove me to do stupid things, but I always came back,” he said with a wink.