Captured Boxed Set: 9 Alpha Bad-Boys Who Will Capture Your Heart (68 page)

Chapter
Seventeen

When they made it to the storage
facility, everything was surprisingly quiet. There was barely any security
either, aside from a single man sitting inside of a rectangular box made of
metal and glass. Jack passed him a card, and the guy checked it out before he
pressed a button and opened the chain link fence for them to enter.

It was all so damned easy that it
made Cindy nervous.

"You sure this is where you
want to go?" Jessica asked.

Cindy looked at the woman, trying
her hardest not to be jealous of her and what she and Jack had shared in the
past. At least it hadn't been enough for her to spill her secret to him until
just a few minutes ago.

"I've got a motorcycle and
some more cash in my shed," Jack explained. "I also know a guy who
can get Cindy and me some new IDs. We can get a car later."

Cindy was stunned. "Why would
you need to have those things tucked away?"

Jack shrugged. "In case of an
emergency."

It seemed like as good of an excuse
as anything else, so she was going to go along with it. Jack no longer wanted
to see her hauled off by the collectors, and if Cindy was reading this right,
he also still had feelings for her.

She was going to trust her gut on
this one, even though it was rumbling and twisting in pain from all the stress
of their hasty escape.

Jack opened the door when Jessica
stopped the car, and Cindy was stunned, and warmed, when he reached for her
hand and helped her out of the car, as if she was some delicate treasure he
needed to care for.

A little delicate, maybe, but
people didn't want her because she was a treasure. This almost felt like it had
when they were together in the beginning.

Jack looked at her and smiled
softly, and despite how messed up everything was, it was a bright smile. He
seemed so happy that her hand was in his, and love swelled up inside of her.
She squeezed his hand tightly, and any jealousy she'd had for what he and
Jessica might've had completely vanished, even when he leaned down to the
driver's side to speak with her.

"You sure you're going to be
okay?" he asked.

Jessica wasn't looking at him,
though, in fact she shushed him as she stared at the radio, then turned it up.

Cindy could hear the monotone
voices of the newscasters, but from her place behind Jack she couldn't exactly
hear what was being said.

Jack and Jessica, however, both
went pale in the face. Jessica more so, and she leaned on the steering wheel
and let out a long, pained sigh.

"What? What just happened?"
Cindy asked.

Jessica punched the steering wheel.
Then punched it again.

Jack was the one who answered her. "One
of the men she knocked out must've woken up. She's listed as a possible
paranormal now. The collectors aren't just after us anymore. They want her
brought in for questioning."

Cindy's entire body froze up, and
she looked down at the woman who helped her and Jack to escape. "What do
we do?"

Jessica was having trouble looking
at the both of them. "It's dangerous to be traveling together. I'll try
and get out of town on my own."

"You're going to have to ditch
your car, and soon," Jack said.

Jessica was reaching into her glove
compartment and pulling out several papers. She even had a Taser, though Cindy
wasn't sure what she would need it for, considering her natural powers. She put
it all into her purse.

"I know," Jessica said. "Hopefully
our friendly guard up front doesn't listen to the news."

"Doesn't seem like the type,"
Jack said. "I'm pretty sure I saw him playing video games when we pulled
up."

Jessica was still pale in the face,
but she nodded and shrugged. "Maybe."

"Wait one second," Jack
said, and then he let go of Cindy's hand, pulled out a set of keys and hurried
to unlock his storage unit. He was still cradling his injured arm and mostly
using his good arm to lift up the metal sliding door that opened like a garage,
but thankfully they were able to confirm on the ride here that it wasn't
broken. That was a good thing. Cindy knew how hard it was being on the run when
in need of medical attention.

It only took Jack ten seconds to
find what he was looking for and then come back out.

It was an old brown shoe box, but
when he opened it up, there were stacks of hundred dollar bills inside. Cindy's
eyes widened. "Do you not believe in banks?"

"You should be glad that I
don't," Jack said, and then he pulled out some of the bound stacks and
handed them to Jessica.

She looked up at him and then waved
them away. "You're not the only one who has an escape plan," she
said.

"Take them anyway, just in
case you can't get to yours. I doubt you're keeping your money in that car."

Jessica's lips thinned, and then
she reached out and took the money.

"It's about five grand,"
Jack said. "We'll be fine without it."

Cindy noted how Jack didn't tell
Jessica exactly where they were going, despite offering her so much money.

"Thank you," Jessica
said. "I should try and find my brother. Ethan always knew this was going
to happen. He's going to want to help."

"Really? He won't turn you in?"
Cindy asked.

Jessica shook her head. "We're
the only family we've got. He won't turn me in. He might not even get a notice
that I'm wanted for questioning, considering we're related. Head Office will
have to know that he's been helping to hide me, or at least they'll suspect it."

"You said he's chasing down a
paranormal right now, right? That means he's in the city. You should stay away
from there. Do you have a meeting place?"

"Her brother's chasing a
paranormal in the city?" Cindy asked, and though there had to be a lot of
paranormals in the city, a tingling sensation spidered up her spine.

"Someone with electric powers.
Apparently he's been causing problems, but if I call him then he should drop it
and come to help me out."

"No, don't call him,"
Jack said. "If you're suspected of being a paranormal then his calls are
going to be monitored for a while, at least until Head Office is sure that
you're not going to run to him. They'll probably wait a few days before telling
him what happened."

Even though Cindy owed Jessica her
life, she couldn't help but latch onto that one piece of information about the
electric paranormal that Jessica's hunter brother was chasing after. "Wait
a minute, Jamie is a paranormal who controls electricity. I told you that,
Jack!"

Jack looked right at her, his brows
raised high. "Yeah but...what are the odds it's the same guy? There's lots
of other paranormals with powers similar to each other."

Cindy's hands reached up to grab at
her hair, just because she needed something to grip onto before she flew off
the handle. "It's him, Jack! It has to be him!"

"I guess this paranormal's a
friend of yours?" Jessica asked. "You said his name was Jamie?"

Cindy nodded. "You're both
hunters, can either of you check and see if he's on your wanted list?"

"All paranormals are on the wanted
list," Jack said, though not unkindly. "We don't have our computers
with us, and it wouldn't be smart to access the database until we can get to a
tablet or phone, something that can't be traced. I can't just sign in with my
name and password after what I did," Jack said.

"If my brother's after your
friend, then I'm sorry but your friend is going to be picked up," Jessica
said. "He's good at tracking people down."

"Can't you ask him to stop?"
Cindy demanded, staring at Jessica. "If you can get word to him, call him
somehow without being traced—"

"Jack just said that his phone
is likely already tapped," Jessica said. "I can't just call him and
ask for a favor like that. He'll go to prison."

Jack touched Cindy's arm, and
though his touch was welcome, and a little soothing, it did nothing to calm the
fires that were burning brighter inside of her.

"Cindy, you're glowing,"
Jack said. "I'm sorry, I really am, but
please."

Cindy took in a deep breath, and
the fire went out a little. When she looked down at her hands, the glow
vanished.

"I'm sorry about your friend,"
Jessica said, and she put her car into drive. "but you both need to get
out of here now. Get as far away from the city as you can. Go on up to Canada
if you want. I hear they're a lot less strict with paranormals so long as
they're escorted by, you know, normal people."

The way Jessica said
normal
people
, as if she was apologizing to Cindy, was almost laughable
considering they were in the same boat.

Either way, Cindy didn't like it. "We
can't just let her brother pick him up, Jack. He saved my life."

"That was years ago,"
Jack said, and then quickly continued on when Cindy felt her body start to glow
with heat again. "Sweetheart, I'm sorry. I don't want to do this anymore
than you do. This sucks, a lot. I get it, but paranormals usually go off on
their own anyway. You don't owe him because he did you a favor way back then."

"He's been my best friend ever
since," Cindy said. "He was who I was going to meet when you picked
me up."

"I shouldn't be hearing
anymore of this," Jessica said quickly. "This is too much for me to
know already in case I get picked up."

Jack nodded to her. "Take care
of yourself," he said, stepping back from the car and putting his good arm
out, making sure Cindy was at a safe distance as well.

Jessica nodded. "You too,"
she said, and then slowly pulled out of the lot.

Cindy didn't hear tires squealing
or shouts for her to stop when she drove back to the gate. The man watching the
property let her out as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"We don't have a lot of time
here," Jack said as he took Cindy by the hand and brought her into the
storage shed. He yanked a big white cover off of what turned out to be a
motorcycle. Cindy didn't know enough about them to know what kind it was, or
what year. It looked a few years older, but still in good shape. It was black,
the type of bike she would have seen in a racing movie, or something. There
were also two helmets.

"Jack," Cindy asked,
watching as he packed up a small bag of things. He looked up at her. "Seriously,
why have all this stuff? Why prepare to leave? You're normal, you have no
reason to run."

Jack looked down at the backpack in
his hands, and Cindy noticed how his knuckles as had turned white as he gripped
it. Then he sighed. "I guess...at first I was telling myself it was in
case there was another accident. This would be to make sure I wouldn't have to
start from scratch again."

"You have two helmets with
your bike," Cindy said.

Jack smiled this time, a mirror of
that shy boy smile he used to give her back when everything was still open blue
skies and sunshine for miles. "Yeah, I'm thinking that had more to do with
my little fantasy of finding you and taking you away from all this. It wasn't
actually supposed to really happen like this, though."

"How was it supposed to
happen?" Cindy asked, intrigued.

Jack shrugged, and he seemed to be
having a hard time looking at her. "Basically that neither of us were
actually going to be running from the authorities. The ideal fantasy would've been
to find you and just, well, take you. If anyone had stopped us and asked, I
would've said I was taking you into Head Office myself, but I know that's not
how this is going to work."

Jack looked right at her. "We
might not make it to Canada, you know, especially if we go after your friend."

Cindy's heart stopped, and for a
hair of a second, she was terrified she'd misunderstood him. "You
mean...we're going back?"

"I owe you, considering I
believed those terrible things about you. I knew it never fit your personality,
but I just...it was too much, you know? The fire, the fact that you never
showed up, I never saw you again and—"

Cindy cut him off when she rushed
into his arms, threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Jack seemed shocked for a whole second
before his hands were on her hips and his mouth melted against hers, warm and
pliant, his tongue licked her lips and then thrust inside next.

Cindy's body buzzed. This was the
absolute worst time and place for this to happen, but her hands were pulling at
his shirt and his pants. There was definitely no time for that, but she had to
have him. Everything in Cindy's body demanded that Jack take her right then and
there.

He got the message loud and clear,
and as Cindy opened his pants, Jack started lifting her skirt.

Cindy felt his cock, hot and hard,
even before she managed to get his pants down. Her sex swelled and a rush of
warmth flooded her, making her slick.