Savage Love (Savage Trilogy #3) - Lisa Renee Jones Page 0,51
call and I hang on every word I can make out, which is not much. All I know is that he’s talking to Rick. He disconnects and I expect an update. He offers nothing. He simply keeps on driving. I can’t accept nothing. Not right now.
“What did he say?”
“He’s on his way to meet us at the airport.”
I rotate to face him. “What about Tag?”
“He’s dead.”
“What else?” I push.
“Nothing else.”
“We both know that’s not true. What did Rick tell you that you aren’t telling me?”
He turns us onto a dark narrow road and with that maneuver the small airstrip that is our destination comes into view, beaming lights illuminating the single field. “Adrian, what—”
Adrian curses and scrubs his jaw. “Alejandro killed the police officers and escaped. Tag has some sort of death price on your head.”
I rotate back into my seat and ball my fingers into my lap. “He killed the police,” I whisper, trying to process what I’ve just been told.
“Holy shit,” Smith murmurs, drawing his weapon.
The weapon’s a trigger, my trigger. Through all of this tonight, I never reached for my weapon. Why? Why was I not properly ready to defend myself? My purse is across my chest, and at my hip, a part of me to such a degree that I have forgotten it right along with the gun. I grab for it now, and open it, pulling out my handgun.
“Oh fuck,” Adrian growls. “Do you know how to use that thing?”
“Very damn well,” I assure him. “Do you want me to shoot you like my daddy taught me or like Rick taught me?”
To my right, Smith is on the phone. “We’re coming in. Code Four.”
Code Four must mean “about to be killed by an assassin.”
Meanwhile, Adrian replies, “Either way you shoot me, sweetheart, I’m dead,” he says. “I always wanted to die at the hands of a pretty girl. Kill me.”
“That’s sick,” I growl.
He laughs. “I guess that was one of my better jokes.” He turns us into the airport, and I glance in the rearview mirror afraid of being followed but there is nothing and no one there. I breathe out in relief that is short-lived. Code Four. We’re coming in and it’s a Code Four emergency.
We’re on a dirt road and barreling toward a plane that sits on the runway. As much as I want to be inside that plane, ready to take off, my mind conjures images of being trapped in that small space and killed. There would be nowhere to go if that monster showed up with a gun. Lights flicker behind us and I whip around to eye the car behind us, as the headlights flick off and on three times. “Chill, baby girl,” Adrian coos. “That’s Savage.”
Relief washes over me, a firestorm of so much relief. Rick is here. We’re getting on that plane and getting out of this city. A city I have always loved, but right now, I do believe I’ve learned to hate it. The truck stops right beside the steps of the plane. Smith exits and by the time I’m at the edge of the seat, Rick is there, big, dangerously perfect, Rick Savage, dressed in all black, and smelling like spice. He takes my gun. I don’t know where he puts it and I don’t care. How can I? He’s pulling me to him, wrapping me in those powerful arms of his and dragging my head back to inspect me.
“You okay?”
“Once we’re on that plane in the air I will be.”
“Then let’s get on the damn plane and get out of here, baby.” He calls over his shoulder to someone. I can’t hear what and I don’t even care either. He lifts me and sets me on top of the steps leading up to the plane, but he stays close, right behind me. I’m just about to enter the plane when I pause, pull Gabriel’s ring off my finger, and twist to show it to Rick, right before I toss it away. Approval darkens his eyes and only then do I turn and enter the small but luxurious cabin, where I quickly inventory my surroundings. To my left are two cream-colored double leather seats. Behind them are a good half dozen single recliner-style seats that lead to the back of the plane. Rick comes up behind me, his hand on my waist, that possessive wonderful touch, everything. He’s everything.
“Get comfortable, baby. It’s a four-hour flight. I need to talk to Adrian and Smith.”