His to Take (Wicked Lovers #9)(116)
Author: Shayla Black

He nodded. “I saw a twenty-four-hour pancake place on our way in. Will eggs do?”

Eggs sounded perfect. “Absolutely.”

Less than two minutes later, they were gone. Bailey noticed the man she’d seen yesterday still wearing his hoodie. Today, he hung out in the lobby as they passed, engrossed in his morning paper. If he wasn’t here to follow her or spy on the cheating wife she’d witnessed, what had brought him here? Could be anything. After all, people with their own business and lives filled this hotel.

Outside, the day was clear, chilly, breezy. They hopped into the SUV, and Joaquin maneuvered onto the road. Within moments, they blended in with the traffic, until they pulled into the mostly empty parking lot.

After nice plates of eggs, bacon, and fruit, they eased back into the vehicle and onto the road. Belly happily full, Bailey lost herself in thought. If they found Viktor’s research at this lake, then what? Would Joaquin send her back to her ordinary life and return to his own? Or were they simply too entwined now to part?

She glanced over at his strong profile, blade of a nose, full lips, enviously long lashes. He seemed focused on the road with an occasional glance back in the rearview mirror. Tension rolled through him. Joaquin had done an exceptional job of hiding it previously, but now she felt the gut-knotting tightness hanging in the air.

“Tell me. Best-case scenario if we find this research?”

“We turn it over to the feds. I don’t know after that. Maybe LOSS stops looking for you if they know you no longer have what they’re seeking. Maybe we have enough to convict McKeevy.”

“Worst case?”

“Witness Protection maybe. That’s if LOSS doesn’t find you first, of course. But I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

“I know.” And Bailey did.

When Joaquin had first abducted her, she hadn’t trusted him for a moment. He’d drugged her and taken her from the comfortable and familiar, then he’d forced her to look under the façade her adopted parents had given her and truly see herself. She’d hated him for it. How had everything changed in less than three days?

“I know those are terrible options,” he murmured.

They were, but they didn’t shock Bailey. “So there’s a very slim chance I come out of this with a normal life?”

He hesitated, gripped the steering wheel. “I’d love to say it’s both possible and likely, but I’d be lying to you.”

Now probably wasn’t the time to ask about this, but there might not be a later. “What if I’m pregnant?”

“We’ll deal with it, whether you have to testify against members of LOSS the feds can convict or we’re in Witness Protection.”

Bailey’s jaw dropped. “But if you came with me, you’d be giving up your family, probably for the rest of your life.”

“A week ago, that wouldn’t have fazed me at all. Now . . . yeah, it would bother me not to see my mother again or meet her new husband or hold Kata’s baby. But I’d still choose you.”

His words yanked on her heart until her chest felt ready to implode. In every way except verbally, Joaquin had told her that he loved her. The sentiment warmed every bone in her body.

I love you, too.

The miles and the minutes dipped by. Highway 15 became something else, then they dumped onto Interstate 81 on the outskirts of Harrisburg. From there, they continued northeast, through some deeply scenic territory. Even a few weeks ago, the trees would have looked nearly bare—the ravages of winter taking their toll. Now most spouted the makings of rebirth. Small and tentative and green, the leaves would soon grow and bloom, filling the trees with life again until the next season browned and felled them in preparation for winter once more. The circle of life, she supposed.

Bailey wished she knew where her circle was headed. Hopefully not for an early grave. Or decades of loneliness.

Joaquin veered onto Interstate 80 next, and she swore things were beginning to look familiar.

“We’re not far. Do you need a restroom break?”

“I could use one. And maybe more caffeine.”

“Ditto.” They exited and found a fast-food joint, now dead in the middle of the afternoon.

Bailey turned and saw a silver sedan. Had she see that same car at the hotel? Or was she being paranoid?

“See that car parked at the edge of the parking lot?” she asked him without looking at the vehicle in question, just in case.

Joaquin had the same idea. “The grayish one. Yeah. I’ve seen him a few times. He seems to stop when we do.”

A faint sense of unease became full-on fear. “Do you think—”