to swear at him when her skirt caught on a sharp point at the edge of the sill and he wrenched the dress free, tearing the fabric as she fell into the bushes below.
And she was still too stunned to feel the rocks scraping her palms and stabbing into her knees as anything more than an irritation.
The dress pooled around her thighs, dirty and torn. He was out the window on her heels, pulling her to her feet just as conscious thought returned and she was about to ask him what the hell was going on.
She didn’t have a chance.
Light flooded the room behind them. Voices—several now—grew louder. He grabbed her hand and hauled her with him. “Run!”
Her protest disappeared as her adrenaline surged. The air was cold on her bare arms and back. She tried to keep her feet in the stupid heels she’d worn as they darted across the yard and into the cover of the trees at the edge of the estate.
Dogs barked somewhere to their left. She heard shouts and the rumble of an engine.
A muffled popping sound echoed behind them, but it was drowned out by the blood pumping in her ears. Rafe jerked her sideways. She tripped on a root sticking out of the ground and her hand slipped free of his. She hit the dirt facedown.
“Lisa!” He was on his knees at her side in a flash, pulling her to him. “Where are you hit?”
“What?”
“Mierda, you’re bleeding.” His hands raced over her body, hovered on her bloody leg. Above their heads, a sharp thwack resounded, followed by wood cracking and splintering.
Her eyes grew wide with realization as he shielded her with his arms. “They’re shooting at us!”
“Yeah, I got that. Pissed off the wrong person, I think.”
She saw the fear in his eyes as he searched her body for wounds. Though he sounded calm and collected, those damn eyes gave him away, even in the dim moonlight. Alarm bells shrilled in her head.
Dried leaves crackled. Branches rustled behind them. She struggled against his hold and tried to stand. “I’m not hit. I’m not. I…I tripped. It’s just a scratch.”
Relief swept over his features as he pulled her to her feet. “Thank God. Can you run?”
“Yes.”
He peered over her shoulder through the dense forest to look back at the lights of the house. The voices were now coming from two different directions. Their pursuers had slowed down and split up, obviously unsure in which direction they’d gone. “Let’s get the hell out of here. Stay close. And quiet.”
He had her on her feet in a swift second. She kicked off her shoes, grabbed them by the straps. They stayed in the shadows and darted into the cover of the woods. She could still hear muffled voices somewhere off to the left, but for the moment it seemed they’d lost their pursuers.
She was sweating by the time they reached the road at least a mile from Landau’s estate. Cars whizzed by on the busy street. No sound echoed from the woods at their back, but that didn’t mean their thugs were far behind.
Leaning forward, she braced her hands on her thighs to draw air into her blazing lungs. One good breath. That’s all she needed. Just one.
“Here.” He slipped his jacket over her shoulders and took her hand again. “There’s a bus.”
Her feet were killing her. She’d broken the heels of both silver strappy sandals somewhere back in the trees, but slipped them on anyway. When the bus stopped and the door whooshed open, she followed Sullivan through the stench of exhaust and up the steps, then settled into a seat on a long breath. Ignoring the questioning looks from the few passengers seated around her, she let her head hit the window, closed her eyes and tried to calm her racing heart.
She had to look like hell, in a ripped and filthy evening gown, sweaty and operating on the dregs of an adrenaline rush. But she didn’t care. At the moment, she was thankful to be alive.
When he nudged her some time later, she finally opened her eyes. The bus had stopped and city lights beat in from the outside. He helped her to her feet, gently this time. “Come on. We need to keep moving.”
She hadn’t paid any attention to where they were headed, but they’d obviously left the posh suburbs and were back in the city. The El rumbled by somewhere close. For the first time since she’d seen Rafe at the