“Just drop me somewhere and leave. For real,” I said, hoping my voice sounded stronger than I felt inside. I’d created a clusterfuck for Carter and it made me hate myself more than I already did. “It’s me they want not you. If I’d known it would go down like this, I never would have gotten you involved.”

“Little too late for that,” Carter said, expertly navigating the winding back roads we were traveling.

We’d hit North Carolina about thirty minutes ago. Carter was driving fast.

“I’m so sorry,” I said, picking at my fingernails and trying not to cry. “I swear to God I didn’t think I was going to get a government bounty put on your head.”

He nodded curtly and then glanced over with a lopsided grin that made my tummy flip. God, he really was Beauty—inside and out. He might not believe it, but I could see it clearly.

“I kinda like being a fugitive. Keeps the boredom at bay,” he said.

“I guess that’s one fucked up way to look at it,” I muttered with a small giggle. “You’re nuts.”

“Pot, kettle, black,” he shot back with a laugh.

Being alone with him for forty-eight hours was going to be a challenge. I wanted this man more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life. He thought my scarred body was beautiful. Of course he wasn’t quite right in the head, but then again… neither was I. We were two severely broken beings. Maybe…

“Just follow my lead when we get there.”

“Get where?” I asked, pushing aside the pathetic romantic notions I had about Carter Davis. He was just being kind when he kissed my ruined arm and I was a fool to hope for more. Hell, we might not even live to see tomorrow.

“To where we’re going,” he answered cryptically.

I was aware he still didn’t completely trust me and I wasn’t sure if he believed I turned into a version of an animal, but I couldn’t fault him. I was a disastrous tornado of trouble that had shown up out of nowhere, bitten him and put him on the government’s hit list. Not exactly trustworthy material.

“I can do that,” I told him.

“That’s my girl.”

God, if he only knew how much I wanted that to be true—his girl. I knew it could never be, but a girl can dream, right?

* * *

“Oh my God,” I said with a surprised laugh. “There are three of you?”

“There is only one of me,” Carter said in mock insult. “The other two are just cheap imitations.”

“What the fuck?” the male who looked identical to Carter yelled from about three hundred feet away. “The prodigal son comes back from the dead.”

We’d arrived at what I could only describe as a fortress built into the side of a mountain. It was rustic and beautiful—all stone with sweeping teak wood porches. It was surrounded by enormous trees and expertly manicured grasses and shrubs. We’d driven for what felt like five miles along a rutted out dirt road and then it opened to this. Magical, majestic and definitely in the middle of nowhere.

Carter got out of the car, came over to my side and opened the door. I stepped out and stayed slightly behind him.

Due to my enhancements, my vision was incredible. If the effects of turning into an animal were leaving me, my eyes were still bionic. The man stood with a woman who was also the spitting image of himself and Carter, but definitely feminine and gorgeous. There was no missing that they were all related and most likely triplets. Even down to the dimple in the left cheek that the three of them had when they smiled.

“Turn off the landmines,” Carter yelled. “I only have nine lives and I’m down to two, you ugly son of a bitch.”

The woman hadn’t spoken yet. She stared at Carter as if she was seeing a ghost and her eyes kept skipping over to me in shock. Pulling a remote from her pocket she typed in a command and then glanced back up. With my eyesight, I was able to make out the combination. I was a freak of nature—a killing machine with skills to survive almost anything. If the remote was made up of numbers, the combo was 66633. If it was something else, I’d seen the pattern and could figure it out.

“Drive in,” she instructed. “If I know you, and I suspect I still might, we need to hide or destroy that car.”

With a nod and a salute to his sister, Carter led me back to the car and restarted the ignition.

“They have landmines?” I asked, wondering what kind of normal people planted explosives all over their property.

“Yep. This is what you could call a real safe house—as in a very safe house.”

“Are they fugitives too?” I asked, wondering what I was walking into. Not that I had a problem with fugitives since I was one myself.

“Umm… no,” Carter said with a laugh. “Although I’d pay money to hear you ask them that. My brother and sister are what you might call insane with conspiracy theory issues.”

“You’re triplets?”

“We are. However, I’m the oldest and therefore the smartest, best looking and the wisest.”

“And the most humble?” I added with a laugh.

“Most definitely,” he replied with a grin.

“Are your parents here too?” I asked.

“No. They’re dead.”

“I’m sorry,” I said.

“I’m not,” he replied without emotion. “There’s a reason I spent too many years as a SEAL who took the sure death assignments repeatedly and these two are living like prisoners of their own making. Normal upbringings don’t produce the kind of fucked up we are.”

I just nodded, unsure how to respond. My childhood had sucked. I was the freak no one wanted, but I wasn’t abused—at least not physically. However, I was pretty sure I could give all of them a run for the money in the fucked up department.

“My brother’s name is Caleb and my sister is Nancy,” he said as he slowly maneuvered the vehicle to the garage on the side of the house. “Caleb is a computer genius and likes to detonate things.”

“Things?” I questioned with a laugh.

Carter looked at me with a grin. “Buildings, cities… bad guys. He started when we were young—messing with refrigerators and microwaves before he graduated to larger scale material.”

“Cars?” I asked, trying not to laugh. It wasn’t really funny, but at the same time it was.

“Definitely cars,” Carter confirmed with a shake of his head. “He makes me feel almost normal.”

“And your sister?”

“Nancy is a doctor—or she trained as one. She didn’t do too well with the authority figures in the medical system and left to do research on her own. She’s paid the big bucks. Her mind is as brilliant as Caleb’s is destructive.”

“What does she research?” I asked.

“Whatever strikes her fancy,” he replied.

“Okay,” I said, taking the information in. “If Caleb is destructive and Nancy is brilliant where does that leave you?”

Carter turned off the car and moved his body to face mine. “I don’t exactly know, Georgia from Georgia. Why don’t you tell me? Where does that leave me?”

He leaned in. His lips were inches from mine and his delicious scent made me dizzy. Was this certifiable man coming onto me? God, I hoped so. I was definitely out of practice at this game since I’d been living in a cage for the better part of a year. The timing was a little off as his brother and sister were sure to be here any second, but…

“Are you flirting with me?” I whispered, longing to close the distance between us and taste his lips.

“And if I am, Georgia from Georgia?” he questioned in a voice that sent happy chills all through me.

“If you are,” I said with an unsteady giggle. “You’re really good at it.”

“So it’s working?”

“Yep. It’s working,” I replied with my eyes glued to his full lips. “But I’m not a real good bet.”

“I’m a worse bet. We get one life and one heart,” he said. “Even if it’s just some stolen moments with you, I’ll take them.”

“Why aren’t you taken already?” I asked.

“Hold that thought,” he said, with a quick peck to my lips as his siblings entered the garage. “I’d like to revisit it later.”

Nodding without saying a word, everything inside me tingled. Maybe it was because we could die tomorrow and I was the only girl available, but I didn’t care. Even if I’d had the choice of a million men, I knew without a doubt I would want only him. I wasn’t a great deal at all, but again I didn’t care. If he didn’t care, then I was going to pretend he truly wanted me.

“You staying?” Nancy asked her brother, still looking at me strangely.

“For forty-eight hours,” Carter said. “Is that a problem?”

“No. We haven’t seen your sorry ass for five years, but you’re always welcome. Does your friend have a name?” she asked.

“I’m Georgia,” I said, extending my hand to her. “Thank you for letting me stay.”

Nancy’s smile was slow but grew wide. “Any friend of Carter’s is a friend of mine. Although I’ve gotta say that I’m shocked he has any friends. Carter’s a dick.”

“No, he’s not. He’s a good man,” I said, miffed that she was insulting her brother. And he was a good man. He could have dropped me off a hundred times, but he hadn’t.

Nancy’s laugh matched Caleb’s as they stared at me with wonder and delight.

“You either have her fooled or she’s as crazy as you are,” Caleb said, whacking his brother on the back and handing him a shirt to put on.

“I’m crazier—completely insane,” I told them with a small smile. I was sad that Carter would be covered up, but it would be far less distracting. “Pretty sure I would beat all of you, hands down.”

“Is that a challenge?” Nancy asked with a twinkle in her eye.

“It’s the truth,” I replied.

“Hmm,” she said, still staring and grinning. “We’ll have to see about that.”