Strong, Sleek and Sinful - By Lorie O'Clare Page 0,105
reminding her to search for her seat belt.
The smile he gave her when he glanced her way was cruel and determined. “He won’t get away from us.”
“What is this?” she asked, pulling the belt around her and finding the clasp to secure it.
“Nineteen sixty-nine SS Camaro, Z twenty-eight, five-speed,” he said, shifting the car into second but keeping over a block’s distance from the taillights in front of them. “It belonged to my brother-in-law.”
“Your sister’s husband?” Kylie again took in Perry’s strong profile, then glanced lower as his arm muscles stretched against his T-shirt sleeve as he gripped the stick shift.
“Yup.”
She wouldn’t ask him to elaborate. It was personal information, and discussing anything too close to their hearts would create more friction between them. She forced her attention to the road but knew he looked at her as she stared straight ahead.
“He died in the line of duty. Megan gave it to me. She doesn’t know how to drive a stick, and I helped David build it,” Perry offered.
“He’s turning.” Kylie pointed ahead of her. “Don’t lose him.”
“I won’t.”
She didn’t ask any more about the car or Perry’s family. Forcing herself to focus on the taillights ahead of her, Kylie knew protocol insisted she call in and let Paul, or whoever answered, know she was in pursuit of a car whose driver might be her perp. But that would mean informing them she was with a local police officer. She wasn’t ready to tell anyone Perry knew who she was yet. Not until she knew beyond any doubt that Perry wouldn’t betray her.
Something deep inside told her there wasn’t any way Perry would rat her out. That wasn’t his style. But he had ultimatums. And until they came to terms she could live with, she wasn’t ready to talk to anyone about this.
They rode in silence for a few minutes, the rumble of the engine vibrating the seat under Kylie and making it harder to keep her desire for Perry at bay. He turned again, and she watched roped muscle flex in his forearm and hand when he shifted and his grip on the ball at the end of the stick relax.
“We might have a false alarm,” he announced when he came to a stop before turning onto the quiet side street. The Suburban had turned less than a minute before, but Perry didn’t follow. “We’ll give the Suburban a minute to pull into whatever drive it’s heading for,” he added, edging toward the corner and cutting his headlights until they could lean forward and see brake lights come on. The black SUV slowed and turned as a garage door opened on a house midway down the block. “Crap. What I was afraid of.”
“What?” She looked from the Suburban to Perry. “What were you afraid of?”
“Franco.”
“Franco?”
“One of the cops on the force.” Perry turned the corner, driving with his lights off and crawling down the street. By the time they reached the house where the Suburban parked, the garage door was closed. “I didn’t know he drove a black Suburban. I wonder why he came by. Looks as if we just went on a wild-goose chase.”
Kylie wasn’t so sure. She nodded once, though, unwilling to share her thoughts with Perry. She didn’t know what he knew, but she suspected a cop on the force could be Peter and now she had a cop who drove a black Suburban.
“Too bad we didn’t get tag numbers,” she said instead of voicing her thoughts.
Chapter 18
Perry turned his lights on and shifted into second after taking the corner. He needed sleep, but the thought of taking his baby out on the interstate, cutting loose for a few, and feeling the power of his Z underneath him sounded really good. Something about Kylie sitting next to him just added to his craving to drive for a while instead of returning home. It would be light soon, though, and there was a lot of work to do, work that would be done a lot better with at least a few hours of sleep.
Kylie fought to hide a yawn from him, and he suppressed the urge to reach out and stroke her hair from her face. He wasn’t sure what pissed him off more, her cold reaction to him when he told her he knew she was FBI or that he hadn’t figured it out on his own sooner. Proof right there that being around her was fogging his thoughts.