Savage Redemption - By Alexis Morgan Page 0,78
one thing she could say that might make it better.
“And if I don’t want to walk away, Conlan? What if that’s the last thing in the world I’d want to do?”
He slammed on the brakes and turned to face her. “Don’t say things you don’t mean, Kat. My friends think I’m a fool for helping you, and maybe I am. Believe me when I say that I don’t want or need your pity.”
“But, Conlan, that’s not what I meant.”
He drew a deep breath as if praying for patience. “Look, can we just concentrate on making it through the next twenty-four hours? Once we’ve retrieved the flash drive, we still have to run the gauntlet back to civilization.”
“Okay, but we will finish this discussion, Conlan,” she insisted.
They rode on in silence. Finally, she pointed ahead. “There’s the crossroads. Turn left and then into the driveway. We should be there within ten minutes.”
As he drove, Conlan was craning his head, looking in all directions. “It seems odd that none of these fields have been planted this year. Why aren’t there any other houses in this area?”
“All this surrounding land belonged to my brother-in-law, who was the last in his direct family line. When he died in a farming accident, ownership passed to my sister to hold for my nieces.” She bit her lip. “However, since I’ve kept them under wraps for three years, I heard the vampire clan that owns the rest of the estate filed a petition to claim ownership. The case must still be pending if they haven’t moved anyone in to work the land.”
Conlan was frowning big-time.
“What’s wrong?” she asked,
“Well, if there were other people around, it would make it harder for the mercs to have set a trap for us. On the other hand, it makes it unlikely that any innocents will get caught in the cross fire if they have.”
She didn’t want to believe they were walking into danger, but that sense of foreboding had only worsened as time went on. “How would they have had time to set up a trap? They only just found us back there.”
He glanced in her direction. “If we’d stayed on the road to the main entrance to the estate, how much faster would we have gotten here?”
She did a mental calculation. “About twenty minutes maybe. The roads are better, and the driveway is closer to that entrance.”
“So by forcing us off onto that dirt road, they slowed us down. If all they’d wanted was to kill us, they could’ve been waiting at the river or even shot through the trees. Instead, they waited until we were well on our way to your sister’s place by that dirt road and then pulled back.” He clenched the steering wheel with a white-knuckled grip. “I might be wrong, but I have a feeling someone is waiting for us up ahead.”
“So why are we still going there?”
Conlan slowed the vehicle down to a crawl and drove off the road, aiming for a ramshackle barn that looked as if it would fall over in a good stiff breeze.
“Because we need to end this one way or another. Besides, right now I’m thinking they’ve got someone watching the main entrance to the estate to see if we’re going to make a break for it in that direction, as well as still watching the road behind us.”
While he carefully maneuvered the transport through the open door of the barn, she asked, “Why are we stopping?”
“It would be smarter to make our final approach on foot. They already know we’re coming, and the transport makes for a nice big target.”
Conlan stared out the window for several seconds before finally turning to look at her. “I’ve got a real bad feeling about what’s waiting for us at the end of that driveway, Kat. I promised to keep you safe, and that means keeping you out of the line of fire. I want you to tell me where you hid the files and then wait here for me to come back. Then we’ll call Ambrose and tell him what’s going on.”
She gave him a measuring look. “I can’t believe you even suggested that, Conlan. This is my fight. Period. End of discussion.”
“Kat, please—”
“No, Conlan. I know we don’t know what we’re facing, but I won’t be left behind.”
He shot her a disgusted look and pulled out his phone, probably calling either Ambrose or Rafferty. She didn’t care who he talked to as long as he quit trying to leave her