Chapter Eleven
Annalise
“I’ll get it,” Caine rumbled, straightening up to his full, imposing height.
For her part Annalise squeaked like a mouse and ran for cover, ducking behind the couch, wishing she was a tenth of the size and easily able to hide herself from the world.
Caine glanced over at her, and she tried to wave him away from answering the door. It shook again in the frame. Whoever was on the other side was either very big, or very angry. Knowing who it might be, she figured it could just as easily be both. The trip out to Barton City would have taken some time, and they would have had to travel through the night. Nobody would be happy about that.
She frantically worked to stop Caine from opening the door, but he seemed determined. Annalise pulled herself back behind the couch and out of sight.
“Can I help you?” That was Caine, his voice easily recognizable, the deep throaty bass that rumbled like an approaching train.
“I’m looking for someone.”
Icy terror slid its cold, slippery tendrils into her nerves, freezing Annalise to the spot. She knew that voice. Things had just gone from bad to worse! Lincoln was not a nice man at all. He was also quite possibly the only person she knew who was bigger than Caine.
Peeking out around the corner of the couch, she couldn’t really see through the doorway, but the shadow Lincoln cast and the angle of Caine’s head told her everything she needed to know about the situation.
“Are you going to tell me who?” Caine asked dryly. “Or make me guess?”
Lincoln didn’t respond immediately, and she could just imagine the glaring contest going on between the two titans. Lincoln obviously knew that she was in the house. He wouldn’t have approached if he didn’t. Pure professional, that was Lincoln. Her major worry was that Caine wouldn’t recognize that, and that he would push Lincoln too far. The big man was not a person to cross. She’d learned that the hard way.
“Her name is Annalise, though she may be going by an alias.”
She watched Caine, but he was a better poker player than she gave him credit for. His face didn’t twitch at the mention of her name.
“I don’t know an Annalise,” he replied. “Got a picture or something?”
Lincoln snorted, showing his obvious disbelief, but she heard something rustling and then a thick-fingered hand shoved a cell phone through the door at Caine. She watched him take it, and then study it.
“This the only one you have?” he asked. “Can I slide left or right? Or will that bring up your nudes?”
What the fuck was he doing?! Annalise was forced to clamp a hand over her mouth so she didn’t laugh out loud and give away that she was less than fifteen feet away. Lincoln was not a humorous fellow, and taunting him wasn’t the smartest move by Caine.
“You know her.”
Caine rolled his eyes. “I told you, no, I don’t. Never seen her before that I can recall.”
“So you may have seen her before?”
“You ever walk down the street before, pal? You pass tons of people that you see, but you don’t see. Understand what I’m saying?”
“This girl would stand out. If you did see her, or know her, it would be best to let me know about it.”
“And why is that? So you can come to my house and pester me some more?”
Caine was growing angry, but she wished he wouldn’t. Lincoln wouldn’t hesitate to use force, potentially even deadly force, if it meant retrieving her for his master. Caine didn’t know what he was getting himself into by going toe-to-toe in the macho department. She just wished he would close the door and save himself any further trouble. The last thing Annalise wanted was to see the big guy get hurt. She’d never be able to forgive herself.
“Listen,” Lincoln growled. “This person has run away, and needs to come back home. So just tell me where she is.”
“Something wrong with your ears, son?” Caine barked. “I already told you, I don’t know the girl. But I’m beginning to feel like if I did I still wouldn’t tell you what I knew, because I don’t think I blame her for wanting to get away from the likes of you. It seems pretty obvious to me now why she took off. Your manners are atrocious.”
Lincoln chuckled. The building tension between the two muscleheads was palpable even halfway across the room. Annalise didn’t want to be anywhere near the two if fireworks went off. It would be hazardous to her health, that was for sure.
“It’s not quite like that,” the unseen man at the door explained. “You see, she’s actually legally obligated to come with me. There are…shall we say, ties, to my boss. Which means that by not coming with me, she’s a criminal. And anyone caught harboring her, or aiding her, is also a criminal.”
Caine laughed, making her cringe some more. He was so completely nonchalant about it all that she was beginning to think that she should just speak up and expose herself, to save Caine from the trouble he was getting himself into. It would probably be easier that way.
“Listen buster, nobody is legally obligated to do a thing unless law enforcement says so.” He peered out the door, craning his head around. “I don’t see any law enforcement with you, and I know you aren’t a police officer. They have intelligence quotas they have to meet. Are you a police officer?” There was a short pause. “That’s what I thought. So get the fuck off my property and don’t ever come near me again.”
Annalise gasped at the blatant insult and attitude from Caine. What the hell was he thinking? He stepped backward and moved to close the door. Before he could, however, an even bigger person stepped over the threshold and stopped the door from closing.
Furious, Caine moved to block him. “You’re lucky I’m feeling nice today,” he growled, and then clamped his hands around Lincoln’s arms, pinning them to his side.
She watched in open-mouthed astonishment as Caine simply picked Lincoln up and moved him outside. She couldn’t believe what she’d just seen. Caine had lifted the massive body as if it were a clothing store display mannequin and simply deposited it back outside the house. Then he stepped back inside and closed the door, locking it swiftly.
“There,” he said, speaking softly as he came over to sit on the couch. “Now you’re safe.”
She gaped at him. “Safe? I’m anything but safe. That was Lincoln. He knows I’m here now. He’s not about to back down just because you manhandled him like he was a ragdoll. He’s going to be pissed at that treatment. He’s not afraid to use guns, Caine. He’ll shoot you, trust me. He has the power to get away with that.”
Her self-appointed protector looked down at her, his face wrinkling in confusion. “Just who the hell have you been pissing off?”
“It…it doesn’t matter, okay? Look. The truth of it is that you’ve now put a target on your back. You need to get out of here. You need to run! Far away! Just get in your car and get out of here. Leave me. It’ll be better that way. You don’t need to save me. Get out, Caine, run, just go away and—”
“That’s enough,” Caine rumbled, picking her up off the ground and setting her on his lap.
“But Caine you just—”
Her panicked ramblings died off as a strong hand cupped the back of her head and pulled her in to him, covering her lips with his.