No Place to Run

CHAPTER 22

WHEN Garrett pushed into the cabin, Sophie saw that she and Garrett were the only two occupants. He closed the door behind them and shot her a look that suggested she not think of running again.

He gestured toward the table. “Have a seat. I’ll get you something to eat and drink.”

She sank wearily into a chair and folded her arms over the tabletop so she could rest her head. When Garrett set a glass of milk in front of her, she drank greedily and then returned her head to its perch. She closed her eyes and rested while Garrett rummaged around in the refrigerator. She was hungry, but she was too tired to eat.

A moment later, the door burst open, startling her from her lethargy. She bolted upright to see Sam stalk in, his eyes blazing. She barely had time to register her alarm before he was in front of her.

He yanked her to her feet, cupped one hand around her nape and then dragged her to him. He kissed her long and hard, his mouth molded so tight to hers that neither of them could draw a breath.

She inserted her hands between them and shoved as hard as she could. He didn’t budge. Instead he deepened his kiss, as if convincing her of his ownership.

His tongue flashed over hers. Warm, wet, tasting. His fingers rubbed firmly over the column of her neck and then up into her hair, tangling with the strands.

Finally he drew away, but he kept a hold on her nape as he stared down at her through half-lidded eyes.

“Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he said in a low voice.

She tried to pull away again, but he cupped his other hand to her cheek and smoothed his thumb over her swollen lips.

“I know I hurt you, Sophie. I’m sorry. Sorrier than I can say. I don’t have time to explain everything to you now. I hope you’ll understand that.”

With that, he turned and strode toward Garrett. She listened in horror as he told his brother that Frank had had a heart attack and that their mother had been abducted from the hospital.

She swayed and had to brace herself against the table. She didn’t chance looking at either man. She couldn’t bear to see the rage in Garrett’s eyes. Rage that would be directed at her.

Nausea boiled in her stomach like acid, and she gulped breaths through her mouth. Her chest heaved, and she closed her eyes before finally sinking back into the chair.

All she wanted to do was bury her face in her arms and weep.

“Sophie, we need to go.”

She raised her head to see Sam standing by the table, his expression grim. Beyond him, Garrett was already striding from the cabin.

“Where?” she croaked out.

“Back home. To my father. I need to see him and then we have to find my mom.”

She shakily rose, nodding her agreement. Of course they had to go. She went out ahead of Sam and nearly ran into Garrett at the bottom of the steps. He grasped her arm to steady her before Sam took over and ushered her to the truck.

The ride was silent and tense. The two men didn’t speak. Garrett stared moodily out the window while Sam’s gaze remained fixed on the road.

She alternated feeling guilty for bringing her uncle to their doorstep and feeling angry for feeling guilty. Her uncle going after Sam and his family was inevitable. Once Sophie had been caught, her uncle would have taken steps to eradicate the Kellys.

But now she needed to give Sam all the necessary ammunition to take the fight to her uncle and hopefully rescue his mother in the process. She prayed that Marlene would be kept alive. If her father were still in charge, Marlene would have already been killed and left for Sam and his family to find as a message. Her uncle wasn’t as ruthless as her father, though. Not that he didn’t try to be. He was just weaker. He wanted to be seen as someone who was strong and as capable of running a criminal empire as her father, but not many men were. Alex Mouton had had no conscience when he was living, and Sophie could only hope he was consigned to hell in death.

She pressed her lips together and inhaled deeply through her nose. Then she straightened in her seat and pushed away from the window so she could readily see both men from her position in the back.

“My father is dead.”

Sam’s head came up to look at her in the rearview mirror at the same time Garrett whipped around to stare at her.

“You’re sure of this?” Sam demanded. “This is important, Sophie. We have to know for sure. We can’t afford to assume anything.”

“Did you see his body?” Garrett cut in.

“I saw,” she said softly. “I’m the one who killed him.”

Sam braked suddenly and pulled onto the shoulder. He shoved the truck into park but left the engine turning. Then he rotated around so he too could stare back at her.

“You want to run that by me again?”

“I killed him. I shot him to be exact.”

“Holy fuck,” Garrett muttered.

Sam closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose in a gesture of frustration.

“You shot him.”

“Yes.”

“Christ, is that why your uncle is after you? Revenge?” Garrett asked.

“I have something he wants.”

She chased the tremble from her voice, refusing to wimp out now that she’d boldly made her confession.

Sam immediately became more alert. His eyes sharpened, then narrowed.

“What do you have, Sophie?”

“They key to my father’s vault.”

Garrett frowned harder. “And? That has significance why?”

“The vault houses my father’s wealth. Not only his wealth, but all the details of his business transactions, his contacts, prototypes of the weapons he has developed over the years. Your Mr. Resnick was concerned about the idea of him developing nuclear technology. If he has, the details are there with everything else.”

“And he just keeps this shit locked in a vault?” Garrett asked incredulously.

She almost smiled. “It’s not just any vault. It’s an underground, state-of-the-art, completely secure, climate-controlled vault. And when I say vault, don’t imagine some bank vault-type thing, something you could maybe fit a car into. This is a vast compound. It’s a huge chamber with only one way in and one way out. And once you enter, you can’t exit the way you came in. It’s all one way.”

“And you have the key to this. He just left this lying around for anyone to get,” Sam said.

Ignoring the sarcasm, she nodded once again. “I cut it from his neck with the knife you left in the hotel room. After I shot him. It was my insurance policy. It was my way of making sure I stayed alive. I knew they’d come after me for killing my father. They’d hunt me down and they’d dispatch me like they would any other enemy. But I wouldn’t die quickly. Because I’m blood and I betrayed my blood, they’d make my death long and painful. Because I turned on my father, I’d be made to suffer until I begged for death. That key prevents them from killing me. If they find me, they have to take me alive or risk never retrieving the only way into Alex’s vast underground network of wealth and business. Tomas can only temporarily take over as leader of the Mouton family ‘business.’ Soon he’ll run out of resources, money and support. Without a way into my father’s vault, Tomas will be nothing.”

“Christ,” Sam swore. “He keeps that shit in a vault? It’s insane.”

She raised an eyebrow. “How so? He deals in gold. Gems. Untraceable wealth. He doesn’t trust banks. He never leaves records of his transactions. Everyone else? He keeps meticulous accounts of everyone he’s ever had dealings with. In his books he has the names of countless world leaders, many from the West who would die were their crimes to come to light. Many would kill for this key. I never plan to give it up.”

Garrett blew out his breath and looked over at Sam. “Hoo boy, this just got a hell of a lot more complicated.”

“Can you drive for a while, Garrett? We can’t afford to get held up. We’ve got to get to Dad.”

In response Garrett got out and walked around to the driver’s door. He waited for Sam to slide out before he settled into the driver’s seat. Instead of going around to where Garrett had been sitting as Sophie had expected, Sam opened the door next to her and slid in beside her.

Garrett pulled back onto the road, and Sophie sat staring at Sam, dreading his scrutiny. Dreading the inevitable questions. And the change in the way he’d look at her from now on.

She slowly bowed her head and stared down at her fingers curled so tightly together in her lap.

“What did he do to you, Sophie?”

Her head came up in surprise. That wasn’t what she’d expected him to say or ask.

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you shoot him?”

“Because he needed killing.”

“I believe you killed him,” Sam said softly. “But I don’t believe for a moment that you killed him to rid humanity of a first-rate bastard.”

“Then you don’t know me very well,” she taunted. “I killed him for just that reason. He’s a bastard. He’s a cold, calculating sociopath. Life means nothing to him. Everyone’s but his. I took from him the one thing he valued. His own life. It was the only thing he was passionate about.”

She hadn’t realized that Sam’s hand had slid up her arm until he rested his palm against the curve of her neck, waiting until she hushed her tirade. Suddenly he was caressing her skin, soothing some of the horrible tension emanating from her.

“And I took the key because it meant no one could take over his legacy.”

“That was a pretty damn stupid . . . brave . . . thing to do,” Garrett said grudgingly. “More stupid, mind you, but still amazingly brave.”

“Where is the key now?” Sam asked.

He kept his voice as even as the light caresses he feathered over her skin. But she didn’t want to talk about the key. She wanted to know why he’d set her up with Resnick. If his father hadn’t had a heart attack and his mother hadn’t been abducted, would Sophie even now be on her way to some dark hole the U.S. government would put her in, where she’d never be seen or heard from again?

It was obvious Sam was going to need her now. Now that circumstances had changed so drastically and it was likely he was going to need to trade Sophie for the one thing that mattered the most to him.

She tried not to think about how much that hurt. It seemed everywhere she ended up, she was expendable.

“Why Resnick?” she asked hoarsely. “Why did you lie?”

“I didn’t lie.”

“You withheld information. Same thing.”

His mouth curled into a snarl. “Let’s not get into withholding information, Sophie. You’ve been holding out on me from the start.”

She bared her teeth and pushed forward into his space. “Exactly what was I supposed to do, Sam? Show up on your doorstep, say hey I’m pregnant, and oh by the way, you’re the father, and since I know how much you hate your potential father-in-law, I shot him down in cold blood and then ran like hell?

“I’m thinking you wouldn’t have been very receptive. I think you would have packed me off to Resnick even faster than you ended up doing. I think you would have backed off me so quick that you would have broken a leg doing so.”

She sighed and fought the exhaustion that beat at her so relentlessly.

“Just tell me why, Sam. Don’t answer my questions with accusations. I’m sure we have plenty to accuse each other of.”

“Goddamn,” Sam bit out. “Sophie, I had to agree to let Resnick question you. He wields a lot of power. I couldn’t say no. It was obvious you were holding something back. Something that scared the bejesus out of you, and Resnick was convinced you could give him information that would help him. Now I see why he thought that.”

He paused and slid both hands under her neck and delved into the thickness of her hair with his fingers.

“But honey, listen to me. Never. Never was there even a remote chance that I’d let him take you away from me. He was there to ask you a few questions. I was there to pacify him by cooperating. I didn’t lie to you when I said I’d protect you.”

His voice lowered until it was barely above a whisper and no one but the two of them could hear.

“I didn’t lie to you when I said I needed you.”

He leaned in until his forehead pressed to hers. Then he kissed the tip of her nose.

“You and I both know we have a lot to work out. But we can’t do it if we aren’t together, Sophie. We can’t do it if I can’t be with you to make sure you’re safe and that our child is protected from your bastard uncle. I need you to trust me and I know that’s asking a lot.”

She raised her gaze until she stared up at him. “I need you to trust me, Sam. You want and expect a lot from me, but you aren’t willing to give me anything in return.”

He brushed his hand over her cheek and smoothed away her hair. If he’d answered right away, she wouldn’t have believed him. She would have thought he was saying whatever it took in that moment to persuade her. But he stayed silent for a long moment, and then finally, he tilted her head so that their gazes were locked.

“I do trust you, Sophie. My gut tells me that I believe you, but my head is screaming I’m a fool. I’m sorry if that hurts you, but I’m being one hundred percent honest with you.”

“Just tell me you believe I never betrayed you,” she whispered. “That you know I didn’t whore myself for my father.”

His gaze softened and he kissed her, just a light smooch to the lips, and then he raised his mouth to press a kiss to her forehead.

“I believe you, Sophie.”

She wrapped her arm around him and burrowed into his chest. He held her tightly against him while she absorbed his warmth and strength.

“I’m scared, Sam.”

He rubbed her back and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. “I know, honey. I am too.”

“He’s going to demand the key. He’ll want me back. I have to go. If it had been my father, he would have already killed your mother, but Tomas will try to trade. He’s desperate. He just wants the key . . . and me.”

Sam tensed beneath her. His arms tightened painfully around her. “This is where I need you to trust me, Soph. I’m not handing you and my child back over to that bastard, but neither will I leave my mother. I’ll find a way. I swear it.”

She pulled away and braced herself against his chest so she could look into his eyes. All she saw was unwavering determination. She wasn’t as convinced as he was, but she knew he believed absolutely in what he was saying.

She put a hand on his face and smoothed her fingers over the lines carved deep into his brow. “I know you will.”

And she prayed with everything she had that he would.