arms around her legs, she rested her forehead on her knees. What had she been thinking by going out by herself? The answer was simple. She’d needed to put some distance between herself and the memories of making passionate love to Conlan all night long. She’d never experienced anything like it before. Even now, after a long, thorough shower, she could swear she could detect the scent of his skin on hers.
She touched the side of her neck. He’d healed the wound he’d left there. That didn’t matter when her overactive imagination could still remember how it had felt to take him deep inside her body at the same time he’d taken her life’s blood into his, etching a connection between them soul to soul.
Thinking a breath of fresh air would help, she’d stepped out onto the porch. It had been pitch-black outside, the heavy darkness relieved by the light coming from a lamppost a few houses down and the garish sign from the deli down the street. On impulse, she’d headed toward the promise of hot coffee and breakfast sandwiches. At least she’d been thinking clearly enough to keep the hood of her jacket cinched down close to her face.
So the question was, how had her pursuers recognized her? Now that her hands weren’t shaking quite so badly and her lungs had caught up on oxygen, maybe she could make sense of what had happened.
Several transports had passed by on her way to the deli. Nothing unusual about that. She’d kept her head down in the restaurant, only speaking when it had been her turn to order. The teenager at the counter hadn’t even looked up except to give Kat back her change. Her order had been only one of several sitting on the
counter when she’d picked it up. They’d called out her number, not her name.
Outside, she’d headed right back for the condo. About halfway back, she realized the same transport had driven past her twice before. At the last second it had swerved toward the curb, and the side door popped open and a man dressed all in black had jumped out and started straight for her.
Scared as she was, she still thought clearly enough to throw her scalding-hot coffee right in his face and take off running. The vehicle was parked between her and the condo, so she reversed directions and bolted down the closest driveway, hoping to lose herself in the shadows.
By the time she’d reached the backyard, she could hear several sets of footsteps pounding after her. She’d hopped the fence into the neighbor’s yard, depending on the soft grass to mute the sound of her running. When she cut over to the next street, she shoved a crate out of the way to crawl under a derelict truck parked next to an old shed. Once she was in place, she tugged the crate back in place and prayed they wouldn’t think to look there.
Her heart was pounding so loud in her head that she could barely hear the man walking by the truck. When he was out of sight, she resisted the temptation to take off running again and held her position. Sure enough, a few seconds later he walked back by and the transport pulled up beside him.
“Lost her.”
“The boss won’t like it.”
“Yeah, well, let him come out here and look for her, then. There’s no telling where the bitch went to ground.”
Then there was the sound of the door slamming shut. She counted to a hundred after the vehicle pulled away and then did it again for good measure before abandoning her hiding spot. Just because they’d given up on the search on foot didn’t mean they weren’t still out there circling the neighborhood.
She ran from shadow to shadow, stopping every so often to listen and to catch her breath. By her calculations, she was less than two blocks from the condo now. Once her pulse was back down somewhere in the vicinity of normal, she’d do one last sprint back to the safety of Joss’s home—and Conlan’s arms.
Poor man, he must be going crazy by now. At least she’d yelled in to him in the shower that she was stepping out for a few minutes, but he would’ve expected her back long before now. She took her time standing up, not wanting to draw attention to herself, especially now that the sun was chasing the shadows away.
The alley was clear in both directions. Would she be better off continuing down