Midnight Kiss (Men of Midnight #7) - Lisa Marie Rice Page 0,77

eyes were deeply sunk in his head and he looked exhausted. Almost unable to keep his head up. He reached out to the camera lens.

“Sorry. Had some internal bleeding. Oh God, how I wish I could see you, hug you, my miracle of a niece. So beautiful and so smart. An evil man changed the course of our lives forever years ago. And now,” he sighed, “I fear at some point you’re going to have to go on the run again. Use the money I left you. Remember that I love you and your mother loved you. You don’t deserve anything that has happened to you. You don’t deserve any of this. But my one word to you, if Court Redfield or Bard Redfield find you, is —” his bruised-looking eyes burned into the camera. “Run.”

Hope wanted to stay forever just the way she was. Wrapped in Luke Reynolds’ strong arms, feeling his heat and strength penetrate down to her bones. Chills were running through her body. Frank Glass’s words left her feeling raw, like the words had flayed skin away from her body. Oh how she’d love to stay right here, burrowed against Luke’s chest. She’d crawl right inside him if she could. Just crack his chest open and find refuge inside him.

But — that wasn’t the way the world worked, was it? As a child she’d managed to deal with her parents’ indifference by focusing on her studies and computers. Like finding a boulder in the road and walking around it. But however indifferent her parents had been, they hadn’t been physically dangerous to her.

It looked like the Redfield family was dangerous. Not dangerous in the rabid dog sense but in the snake sense. Lying in wait for her.

She wasn’t going to let them do that.

Luke kissed the top of her head, though she barely felt it. She heard his words more as a rumbling in his chest than as a voice. “Wow. That’s a lot to take in. I think we should find a safer place for you than here and — where are you going?”

Hope had slid off his lap and was making for her phone.

“Hope, honey.” Luke stood up and she marveled all over again at how tall he was. How strong. And yet all his strength wasn’t going to save her from the snakes. Only cunning would. And that’s where she came in. She didn’t have much physical strength but she did have smarts. He cocked his head as she pulled out her cell and made it even more impregnable and untraceable. Before it would have been really hard to trace her phone. Now it was impossible. All communications would be routed through three satellites and there would be a slight time lag but it was worth it. “What are you doing?” he asked.

She started her search.

“We have a name now. My –— my uncle told me to contact Jacob Black and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’m looking up his number right now.”

Luke’s hand enveloped hers, stopping her from her online research. He looked her in the eyes, seemingly walking around inside her head. Right now though what was dominant wasn’t what was in her head, it was what was in her heart.

Rage.

If you’d asked her, Hope would have sworn she didn’t have any anger in her. She was always even-tempered, forgiving, understanding. Never angry. A wuss, really. Luckily, she’d never been bullied because she probably would have caved in. Even with the Boss from Hell, she’d opted to quit and look for work elsewhere rather than to confront him. All she wanted was the quiet life. To be left alone to work without distractions. Certainly not the distractions of violent emotions.

Or so she thought. All of that was wrong. She was burning with rage. Her rage could blow up the entire city of Sacramento. All her life she’d felt something was wrong, that she didn’t fit the space life had carved out for her. She could barely articulate her feelings but once, over a lot of wine, she’d confessed those feelings to Felicity, who had completely understood.

Felicity’s past was an enigma, much of it to her, too. She’d been born under another name and had spent her childhood in Witness Protection, where no one could know the truth of her family. They’d changed names and identities twice. She too had felt completely unrooted, living her life at a distance.

Hope’s entire life was a lie. Someone — either Court Redfield or