“I’ll get her.” She jerked around, her eyes wide, arms tightening protectively around her little girl. Dash watched her somberly. For once, his gaze wasn’t demanding, wasn’t glittering with heat and anger. It was still, understanding, as he gripped Cassie beneath her thin arms and lifted her easily from Elizabeth’s.
“Don’t hurt her.” She couldn’t stop the plea. For the moment, she had no choice but to trust him. She knew it and it was like a blade digging into her heart. “Please don’t hurt her.”
Gentle arms cradled Cassie’s body against his broad chest as savage eyes stared down at her with a hint of compassion.
“Get the stuff from Mac that I bought, Elizabeth. I got Cassie a stuffed bear to make up for the one that was destroyed. And some chips, in case she gets hungry before we get to our destination. We need to leave now.” His voice wasn’t gentle. It was cool, dark, deep. It stroked over her shattered nerves, surprisingly enough, stilling them.
She moved carefully for the counter, watching him, terrified he would simply leave her and take Cassie to the monster searching for her. Her body was tense, every muscle poised to jump and fight when she reached the bar.
“Trust him, little girl.” The waiter handed her the sack, his hazel eyes kind as she glanced at him. “He’s a good man.”
Elizabeth flinched in surprise. How could he know? How did he know anything? But there was nothing else forthcoming. She took the bag and moved quickly back to the man intent on taking over her life. Her life and her child.
Stepping into the swirling snow was like entering an isolated vacuum of icy beauty. It was nearly a white-out condition, with at least six inches of the thick, slick crystals built up on the ground.
“We can’t travel in this storm.” Elizabeth shivered as Dash quickly unlocked the rear passenger door. He deposited a sleeping Cassie into the back seat before jerking a blanket over her. He then unlocked the front and urged Elizabeth in.
“Get in.” His order was less than polite. “I figure those boys you have chasing you aren’t too damned stupid. They’ll guess the best time to catch you is during a snowstorm with a four-by-four. We have just enough time to pull out of here and get ahead of them.”
She jumped into the seat, staring at the unfamiliar interior in confusion. It was the most advanced vehicle she had ever laid eyes on. She had seen the military vehicles before, of course, but had never been inside one. She doubted she could even reach across the console between the passenger seat and the driver’s seat to hit out at her new captor. She glanced back at her sleeping daughter then. Cassie had been strapped into the single, wide bucket seat in the back, her head resting on a pillow that lay on the wide bench beside her.
“Buckle up.” He jumped into the driver’s seat and started the ignition.
“This is a blizzard, you know?” She did as he ordered, though, and buckled the seatbelt securely. He stared out the window, considering, then he shrugged. “I’ve seen worse.”
Dash reversed the vehicle, a pensive look on his face as he exited the diner’s parking lot.
“Mac, the owner of the diner, is ex-Special Forces,” he told her quietly as they hit the deserted interstate. “Most of us stick together. I’m pretty certain he’ll cover for us, give Grange’s men a bogus vehicle and directions to follow, but just in case, we won’t be on the interstate long.”
“We won’t?”
Elizabeth gripped the edge of her seat as he picked up speed, making better time than she could have ever imagined on the snow packed road. The windshield, amazingly, had night vision, giving the driver a clear view of the world outside without the betraying beacon of the headlights. It was much more technological than she would have liked. She suddenly felt as though she had been thrown into a twilight zone. It made her off-balance, made everything around her seem a bit surreal.
“Who did you steal the Hummer from?” She rubbed her arms nervously as she fought the weariness dragging at her mind.
He flashed her a surprised look. “I didn’t steal it. I borrowed it. There was an Army depot close by. The Major in charge allowed me use of it to get where I needed to go. We won’t be keeping it long.”
“Isn’t that rather unusual?” She turned, bracing her back against the edge of the seat so she could watch him more closely.
The dashboard lights reflected back on a hard, primal expression. He didn’t glance over at her, though she had no doubt he could tell every move she was making.
He shrugged lazily as he pushed the vehicle faster through the thickening snow.
“Not normal, but not unusual exactly. I’m inactive for the moment, but still part of the services. My record speaks for itself and the Major at the depot had heard of me. There was no risk to loaning it.”
Silence stretched between them once again. Outside, the world was a blanket of white, piling against the large eighteen-wheelers parked here and there. Thankfully, it seemed most people had heeded the warnings about the coming blizzard and weren’t out on the roads. So far, they had passed no stranded motorists.“Why are you here? And what the hell do you want with my daughter?” Elizabeth couldn’t stand it any longer.
She was trapped in a blizzard with a man she didn’t know and had no idea if she could trust. A hard, dangerous man.
His hands tightened on the steering wheel.
“I didn’t lie to you, Elizabeth. I came to help. I got Cassie’s letter the day I was returning stateside. When the letters stopped coming I had my Major check into it.” He paused for a moment, breathing deeply. “I thought something died inside me when he told me what everyone thought happened to you and Cassie. I lost something I didn’t know I had. When her last letter came, nothing could have kept me away.”
Elizabeth heard the throb of pain in his voice, a fury that confused her. She didn’t know what her daughter had written in her letters. Cassie had sworn she wouldn’t tell the soldier the danger she was in, and Elizabeth didn’t have the heart to refuse to allow her to write him. It was during one of the rare times she had managed to get Cassie into school. She had bought illegal records, had nearly gotten herself arrested and spent countless nights pacing the floor in fear so Cassie could attend classes once again. So her child could have some sort of normalcy while her mother fought to make sense of the danger they were in.
The teacher had given the children a list of service men who didn’t receive mail and a permission slip to allow the kids to write. Cassie had been excited over the name she chose. The fairy said this one, Momma. She had giggled as she waved the piece of paper with the name and address on it. He’s got a nice name, Momma. I bet he’s a good daddy. She was fascinated with the idea of good daddies. Daddies who didn’t hit their little girls, who didn’t bargain with their children’s bodies, then get killed in front of their eyes. The fairy, Elizabeth wasn’t sure about. Cassie had been talking about the fairy since her father’s murder. Elizabeth never pushed her about it. She never questioned her. Just like the elves and the unicorns and the other fantasies that played a part in Cassie’s vivid imagination. Elizabeth didn’t have the heart to take it away from her.
“You don’t owe us your life, Mr. Sinclair.” She shook her head at that thought. “I don’t think I can bear being the cause of any more deaths.”
He was a strong man. A determined man. But even he had his weaknesses and a bullet didn’t make allowances for any man.
“I owe her more than my life.” He finally shrugged. “Might as well give in, Elizabeth. You aren’t going to win this one.”
Elizabeth shook her head. She was tired, dazed. How could she be expected to fight him when she knew how desperately they needed him? She was living on nerves alone now rather than a clear mind and well rested body. It wouldn’t be much longer before she made a mistake and when she did, she knew Grange would be there waiting.
How had her daughter managed to find someone like Dash Sinclair to exchange letters with? What instinct had guided the child to choose his name above all others? Cassie claimed it was her fairy. Elizabeth was terribly afraid it was just another joke fate was playing on them both.
“She cried for a week after I refused to let her write anymore,” she finally said tiredly. “I didn’t know she had posted that last letter to you. I don’t know how she found the chance.”
“Good thing for you she did,” he grunted, though he still hadn’t looked over at her. “If she hadn’t, you’d be in a hell of a mess right now.”
She was already in a hell of a mess, though she held back from pointing that out. The snow was getting thicker and she didn’t want to distract him, didn’t want him to become angry and possibly lose control of the vehicle. They were still running much faster than she thought was safe.
“Relax.” He was sitting comfortably in his own seat, gripping the steering wheel confidently, his big, lean body relaxed. “It’s just a little snowstorm.”
Just a little snowstorm? She refrained from an unladylike snort. It was almost a complete white-out. But as dangerous as she knew it was, she couldn’t help but admire the sheer power and beauty of the storm. It enclosed them within the Hummer, insulated them from the rest of the world in an intimacy that left her mouth dry.
“You should try to nap.” His voice was quiet, deep. There was nothing dangerous or threatening in his tone. It lulled her mind at a time that she knew she should be even further on guard. The dark velvet roughness of his voice had her longing to reach out to him, to be enfolded in the strength of his arms, to lean on his strength. She was tired. Elizabeth had known for weeks that she was approaching a point where her body would soon begin faltering. The thought of that had terrified her. The fact that this big, dangerous man was suddenly encouraging her to do so, at once made her nervous as a woman, even as it stilled the fears that often swept through her mind.
“I will. Later.” She wasn’t about to go to sleep yet. Not until she was certain of what was going on.
“Where are we going anyway?”
“An army buddy owns a ranch across the state line,” he said. “We’ll stay there a few days until I can get further with another contact I have. I’m hoping to have you and Cassie in a secured area within a week. We’ll decide our best course of action then.”
“We will?” she asked him archly. She had a feeling she wouldn’t have a lot of opinion in whatever decision he made. Dash Sinclair didn’t look like a man who shared anything well, least of all responsibility.
His lips quirked. It was sexy. That thought slammed into her system like a thunderbolt. Dear God, how long had it been since she had noticed anything about a man other than whether or not he was the enemy?
That little smile was incredibly sensual. A firm, decisive shift of his lips that looked erotic, making her wonder how they would feel against her own. And that was something she definitely shouldn’t be thinking about right now. Not while her daughter’s life was hanging in the balance. Not while the man she was lusting after could be either friend or foe. Until she knew which, she had no business allowing her body to heat for him.
“We will,” he finally allowed with an edge of amusement. “As long as the two of you are safe, then you can help decide.”
Elizabeth rolled her eyes at the conditions. As if she was going to accept that one. But she couldn’t stop the grin that tugged at her own lips. “Now that’s not nice.”
“I wasn’t trying to be nice.” But he was restraining a grin. She could see it. It made her wonder what he would look like if he smiled.
“Well, you weren’t succeeding, either.” Her eyelids drooped as she relaxed against the seat, but they didn’t close.