Downtown Los Angeles

 

Orion opened the passenger side door of the SUV and pushed Jane inside.

“Try to stay out of trouble till we get to the house, huh?”

“Keep me away from assholes and fools, and maybe I will.”

A part of him wanted to smack her, but another part was so proud of her that he could almost burst. He’d never seen a woman stand up for herself quite the way Jane had just done. He leaned in and kissed her roughly, unable to help himself.

“What was that for?” she asked, clearly surprised.

“Just trying to shut you up.”

She slapped his shoulder, and he laughed, slamming the door before she could do anything else.

Traffic was always crazy in Los Angeles, but it seemed particularly heinous today. He pulled out of his parking spot after waiting for a break in traffic for what seemed like forever. He was only a few blocks away when he got a text.

‘Looks like you have a tail,’ it said.

Orion looked into the rearview, but he couldn’t see anything.

‘Want me to stick around?’ a second text asked.

‘No,’ he carefully typed as he drove. ‘Probably just a coincidence.’

“You want to stop for something to eat?” he asked Jane as they headed toward the onramp for the highway.

“We were just at a diner.”

“I know. And the burgers smelled damn good!”

“Maybe we could hit a McDonald’s, or something.”

“McDonald’s?” He shook his head. “You have such low expectations.”

“What would you rather have?”

Orion glanced into the rearview mirror, studying the traffic that had lined up behind him. There was a red sedan a few cars behind them that had been behind them before the highway. But so had that black Prius and that dark blue Ford. He really didn’t think they had a tail.

“In and Out is pretty good.”

She shook her head as she groaned. “Tell me you’re not one of those people! In and Out is such a gimmick!”

“The food’s good.”

“McDonald’s is the father of all fast food restaurants. The Big Mac is the best burger ever made.”

He shook his head, his eyes flicking to the rearview again. The Prius was gone, but the Ford was still there. That red sedan, too.

Could they have a tail?

“What about something else? Tacos?”

She shook her head. “I only like those fish tacos that you can only get from a food truck, and I get the feeling that you”—her eyes moved over the length of him—“don’t do food trucks.”

“Nope. Never. Can you imagine the kind of food poisoning you could get from one of those roach wagons?”

She sighed. “But all this talk about food is suddenly making me very hungry.”

“Maybe Durango’s got a couple of steaks in his father’s freezer.”

“Do you cook?”

“You better believe it.”

“Hmm, hot body, and he cooks, too. Do you install dry wall?”

“I’ve been known to do a little carpentry.”

She clicked her tongue, her eyes raking over him again. “You are the whole package, Orion Jamieson.”

He laughed, never having been told something quite like that before.

“You still have family back in New York?”

He nodded. “My mom. She moved back up to the little town where she grew up, just outside Albany. My sister lives near there with her husband and three kids.”

“A sister? Do you have any other siblings?”

“A brother. He’s still a member of the NYPD.”

“That’s cool.”

Orion shrugged. “He’s got blue in his blood.”

“I don’t have any siblings,” she said, tucking her hair back behind her ears. “I think my parents were kind of traumatized by having me.”

“You think so?”

“My mom’s a neurosurgeon, so it’s not like she had a lot of time for raising kids, anyway.”

“And your dad? Is he a doctor, too?”

“Personal injury lawyer. He’s one of those guys who makes the commercials that promise to get the victim of a car accident every penny they deserve without having to give up one red cent unless they win their case.”

“What an interesting couple.”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

Orion glanced in the rearview again. Red sedan was still there. Black sedan had backed off, but it was still there, too.

Coincidence. Right?

“You close to your parents?”

“I thought I was. But then they disowned me two years ago when they found out I wasn’t a political science major like I told them I was.”

“They don’t approve of the art thing?”

“Not really. They say it’s impractical.”

“Cutting you off was more practical?”

Jane giggled a little. “Yeah, well, it brought me here and to this mess, so I guess practical is in the eye of the beholder.”

Orion glanced in the rearview mirror once more. This time he knew for sure there was no such thing as coincidence. Both the red sedan and the Ford were inching up toward his back bumper, driving closely together so that no other cars could get between them. As he watched, the red sedan hit the gas and headed straight for his ass.

“Hold on!” he called out just a second before impact.

They jumped forward, the tires squealing and the steering wheel attempting to jerk out of Orion’s control. He managed to hold on, keeping the SUV straight on the road. He could hear the honking of some of the cars around them, feel the angry stares as he hit the gas and gunned the engine.

“What was that?”

Jane sat up higher in her seat and twisted around, trying to see who or what was behind them.

“Sit back!”

He reached over and jerked her arm forward, forcing her to turn back around.

“What’s going on?”

“I think Trueblood’s hitman found us.”

That was enough to make her sit still for a moment. Orion glanced into the rearview again, watched as the Ford took its turn at them. It rushed up at them, going at least ten miles an hour faster than Orion was going. He looked around, found an opening, and switched lanes just an instant before the car would have hit them.

A miss.

“We have to get off this road.”

“Where are we going to go?”

Orion shook his head. He sped around a couple of slow-moving cars in front of them, gunning for an exit a mile up ahead. He knew where he was, but he wasn’t familiar enough with the side streets to know where he might be able to go to find some sort of cover. They were too exposed here on the highway. He needed a different sort of traffic, something he could put between him and these cars.

“We need a buffer,” he said, glancing in the rearview just in time to see the red car coming in for another attack. He couldn’t switch lanes this time. He reached over just in time to press his arm across Jane’s chest. She flew forward against him at the same time he jerked forward, his chest slamming against the steering wheel. Somehow he managed to keep control of the SUV, but just barely.

“Take my phone,” he said, gesturing with his elbow toward the phone where it was poking out of his pocket. “I need you to call for help.”

“911?”

“Mastiff.”

She grabbed the phone and followed his instructions, managing to place the call. Then she pressed it to the side of his face.

“Yellow jacket,” he barked into the phone. “We’re being chased by a couple of perps. We need some sort of rescue.” He listened for a second as the operator on the other end punched a bunch of things into her computer. “We’re on the five headed south.”

“We’ve got an operative in the area, but it’ll be eight minutes before he can reach your location, yellow jacket.”

Orion cursed. “I need a route. I need to get off this highway!”

“I’ll locate a map and direct you.”

“No,” Jane said. “We don’t have time for all that.”

She’d already picked up her own cell phone and was typing quickly into the text app.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting us some help.”

The Ford rushed them again, slamming into the side panel, sending the SUV careening toward the concrete wall on the side of the road. Orion managed to get the car under control, but something was broken this time. The steering was suddenly rough, dragging to the left.

“Whatever you’re doing, do it quick,” he said, his own phone lying on the floor where it’d dropped during that last impact.

He tried to hit the gas, tried to put some distance between them and the smaller vehicles, but the SUV wasn’t accelerating now. He was lucky to get what speed he did have.

Second option: he began weaving through traffic, trying to keep other cars between them and the two assault vehicles. He kept glancing into the rearview, suddenly feeling a touch of déjà vu. That morning in New York came back in a rush—not that it was ever very far away—and the look of trust in Caterina’s eyes each time he met her gaze in the mirror.

This could end badly. This could end very badly.

He glanced at Jane. She was staring down at her phone, her long hair like a veil blocking his view of her pretty face. He found himself wondering how he could have thought she wasn’t his type. She was one of the most beautiful women he’d ever met. And when she looked up, her pale skin revealing itself as that veil lifted, all he could think about was how badly he needed to save her.

And then there was another impact.

Orion cried out as his arm was wrenched free from the wheel, and they began to head straight into a retaining wall. He managed to get control again—barely—catching a glimpse of Jane hanging onto the arm rests on her seat with all her might. He pulled the SUV back onto the highway at the last second, skidding across two lanes of traffic. Several cars honked at them, one taking a little hit on his back bumper when the SUV couldn’t quite clear it.

The last thing Orion wanted was to take out some minivan full of kids. They had to get off this highway.

They’d missed the exit he’d been aiming for, but another was coming up. He jammed his foot on the accelerator, trying to get up a little more speed. He could feel the back end of the SUV dragging, could feel the broken vehicle trying to pull to the left and give up the ghost. But he held on, pumping the gas, urging it forward.

“This exit!” Jane cried even as he turned the wheel at the last minute.

They made the exit, storming onto a small residential street that worked its way slowly uphill. The SUV was chugging, not wanting to put out the extra effort. Both the red sedan and the Ford had followed. They were staying back for the moment, looking as innocent as two damaged cars following a limping SUV could look.

“That way,” Jane said, gesturing to a left-hand turn that was coming up.

“Where are we going?”

“Trust me.”

He turned, not even bothering to question her any further.

Jane directed him through several turns before the red sedan decided it was time to take them out. He could hear its engine straining even before a glance in the rearview told him they were about to take another hit.

“Get down!”

He reached over and pushed Jane’s head down, images of the windshield shattering and cutting her rushing vividly through his mind. The impact came, pushing the SUV forward. Thank goodness they stayed on a fairly straight path. They were going at slower speeds now, so the damage was lessened somewhat.

But he wasn’t sure the SUV would take much more.

“I think the back axle is broken,” he said, giving voice to the fear he’d been trying to ignore for the past few minutes. “We won’t get much farther.”

“We just have to get around the next corner.”

Orion could see the black Ford making a run at them. He held tight to the wheel, bracing himself for the next hit. But it didn’t come.

Four or five cars suddenly surrounded them, buzzing around them like bees buzzing around a hive. He glanced at Jane, and she smiled, twisting in her seat to watch them.

“What is this?”

“Friends.”

The cars managed to keep themselves between the SUV and the two attacking cars, but the Ford and the red sedan weren’t quite ready to back off. Orion swung around a corner and found himself suddenly out on the edge of a residential area, open space exploding around them. He sped up a little, as much as the SUV would do, and tried to keep distance between them and everyone else. But he could see that the red sedan was inching up between two of the new cars, keeping a straight course even though the two cars on either side of him kept making motions to box him in.

“Someone’s going to get hurt.”

“Better hurt than dead.”

Orion glanced at Jane again, wondering if she knew what the hell was happening here. Once these cars got them off the road, they’d be vulnerable. He had his gun, but if he was injured, he couldn’t guarantee he could protect her.

“Who are those people?”

“Piper and her crew.”

He glanced into the rearview with renewed interest. Sure enough, he now recognized Piper’s car leading the charge behind them.

The road became curvy, forcing them to slow down a little. The red sedan took advantage of that fact and gunned his engine, moving up ahead of the two paparazzi cars in one more attempt at attack. There wasn’t much Orion could do to stop it.

At the last second, he let go of the wheel and leaned over, throwing his body across Jane’s.

It was a choice, one he probably would have made again. He had to hope the paparazzi would get in the way enough to slow the red sedan down. Ironic, praying to be saved by the paparazzi. But when the impact came a second later, it didn’t feel like anyone had slowed anything down.

The SUV jumped forward, something shattering in the back end that created a terrible squeal that seemed to envelop them. They careened into a ditch at the elbow of another curve, the front end of the SUV slamming into soft earth that shattered the front windshield and the two side windows, glass flying everywhere. Orion felt his body jerk forward away from Jane, felt himself hit the console. Pain flared through his chest as he jerked back again, everything inside the SUV rocking back and forth for a few seconds. And then silence.

“Jane?”

She didn’t answer. She was slumped forward, and when he pushed her back, there was blood all over her face. A sickening sense of déjà vu once again burned through him. He slipped his gun from the glove box and released his seatbelt, his body screaming with all these separate aches and pains as he got out of the SUV.

He was prepared to take out anyone and everyone who appeared to have even a mildly disrespectful thought toward him or Jane. Instead, he found himself staring at two men who were completely surrounded by tall, short, fat, and skinny photographers, each flashing photos of the men every second, the click of the shutters filling the air.

He wasn’t sure the two men ever saw him. They retreated in a rush, holding their arms up over their faces. The last thing they wanted was to be identified by something as inarguably solid as a photograph.

“Jane?” Piper asked, rushing to Orion as soon as the coast was clear.

They both turned back to the SUV just in time to see Jane staggering out onto the street, blood gushing down over her face.

All Orion could think was:

Not again.