Dangerous Lines (4 page)

“Shit,” he muttered as he came to a stop. “Ro,
baby, I need to stash you somewhere for five minutes while I go and get my
truck. I can’t risk walking out on the street with you in this condition. God
only knows who might actually notice.”

While she didn’t want that, since she liked where
she was, she gave another feeble nod.

“Five minutes, baby, I swear it,” he said. They
were moving again, to where she didn’t know
,
she
trusted Vincent so wherever he was heading would be fine.

Hard concrete replaced Vincent’s arms. Cold began
to seep through the scraps that were the remains of her shirt.

“This is a sucky hiding spot but it’s the best I
can do. Ro, look at me, baby.”

Cracking open her good eye, she tried desperately
to focus on him.

“Here,” he said, pressing something cold into her
hand.
A gun.
“The safety is off. It has a hair
trigger, just point and fucking shoot.”

She managed another tiny nod. Her head felt so
heavy. She was slipping into unconsciousness. She knew it, and he likely did
too.

“Five minutes,” he said once more. Leaning in he
pressed a kiss to her lips, so light, so gentle, so perfect, and then he was
gone.
The warmth of his lips having left a soft tingle on her
own mouth.

She could handle five minutes.
Nothing
to it.
Yup, she had this. Everything she could see through her one good
eye wavered, like the world had just been yanked off its axis.

Handle it? Not so much.

Hurry, Vincent.

Chapter Four

Screeching to a halt where he left her, Vincent
threw the truck into park and jumped out. She was still there, thank God, but
out like a light. The gun had slipped from her hand. He set the safety and
tucked it into his waistband before gently, so very gently, lifting her into
his arms.

Once she was tucked onto the seat of his truck, her
head in his lap, he got them the fuck out of there. He was careful though,
taking his time, sticking to the speed limit and obeying every single traffic
law there was. No way was he getting pulled over with a beaten-up police
detective in his front seat. Cops were more likely to shoot him first in that
situation, if they could even recognize her.

After a few minutes of carefully doing loops,
turns, double backs, and the occasion stop and wait he got on the road for
real. He didn’t have a tail, but he would keep watch, no way was he risking her
life. Digging out his phone he set it on the console and hit send to the number
ready and waiting.

“Vincent?” Shawn’s voice came through.

“Yeah, it’s me,” he said.

“Thank God,” his boss and friend muttered. “Did you
find her? How is she? What’s going on?”

“I found her, and I have her with me right now,” he
said, checking his mirrors again. “She’s in really bad shape, Shawn. They beat
her pretty badly with the intention to kill her from the looks of the setup I
found when I got to her. They were torturing her for information. Right now
she’s mercifully unconscious.”

“Fuck,” Shawn snapped out. “Well, you can’t take
her to a
hospital,
we don’t need anyone knowing where
she is. The paperwork alone, the cops...shit.”

“I know. I also can’t take her anywhere that Moreau
might think to start looking for her. So we need to disappear. I have to have
her looked at, though. She’s got broken bones for sure, I think her jaw was broken,
but I can’t say with all the swelling.”

“Shit,” his friend said again. “Drive around, make
sure you are completely clear, I’ll get back to you in ten minutes.”

“Copy that,” he said hitting the end button on his
phone. Dropping his hand to her tangled hair, Vincent stroked lightly. “Hang
on, baby, we’ll get you some help, and then I’m taking you somewhere nice and
safe.
Promise.”

He drove around in random circles for the next ten
minutes. When the phone rang, he quickly answered. “Where am I going?” he asked,
knowing his boss had something set up. It was the way the man worked.

“Denise called in a favor from a friend of hers
she’s known since they were kids. He’s a doctor over at California Pacific
Medical, the Davies Campus. He wants you to take Rhonda there. He can do the
x-rays and such easier there than anywhere. He’ll keep her off the books,
completely anonymous. He’ll have a nurse with him, one he trusts. I told them
that you were working undercover with Rhonda when things went sideways. They
understand the need to keep this all hush-hush. Neither of them
know
your names, but I gave them your description so they
know who they are looking for. The doc’s name is Mackenzie Vaughn and the nurse
is Victoria.
Don’t answer anything not pertinent to her
condition.
I know I don’t have to tell you that, but I had to remind you,
since this is Ro we’re talking about. Get her there, get her looked at and
cared for, get out. The doc understands you can’t stay beyond this look see.
He’s not happy, but he gets it, given I laid it on him a bit thick. I made sure
he understood that the guy that wants Ro dead is a psychopath of the first
order, with no qualms about killing anyone that happen to get in his way. Them
and everyone they’d ever known, or were involved with.”

Releasing a breath, Vincent turned toward the
medical center. He knew the place, hell, anyone that lived in San Fran knew the
place. “Where am I meeting him?” he asked.

“You need to be on
Duboce
Avenue and stop at the north tower building when you see the guy in the lab
coat. He’s about six feet, dark brown hair,
brown
eyes. According to Denise he kind of has a harried look about him with a hint
of forgetful scientist.”

“Uh, okay,” he said with a frown. Whatever the hell
that meant.

“Yeah, I know, but I’m sending you the pic she has
of him.”

A small vibration from his phone told him he had a
text message. Hitting it, he shot a quick look to the image that appeared.
“Got it.”

“Good. Call me when you get out of there. In the
meantime, do you need anything?” he asked.

“Yeah, I need someone to go over to the apartment I
was living out of and sterilize it. No hints that anyone lived there. Get there
before the cops go looking.”
Which they would when Rhonda or
he didn’t check in at their next scheduled time, in six hours.
They had
twenty-four after that before the cops would swarm. “I also need a go-bag for
us both. Clothes, toiletries, the works,” he said.

“Got it, I’ll get that rolling,” Shawn told him.

“I’ll need some groceries too, Shawn.
Enough for about a week.
Anything beyond that I’ll figure
out on my own, but that will help us
get
started. My
phone too, I’m going to scrub this one as soon as I make my next call to you.”

“Right, on my list,” Shawn said. “Where do you want
to pick everything up?” he asked.

Which was the next problem, he had to ditch his
truck too. “Shawn, I hate to ask, but I need a new vehicle. One not tied to me,
to Ro, to anyone we know.
Has to be clean.
Everything
should be put in there along with
all our
ID that’s
sitting at C&M. As to where...” He trailed off. Fuck if he knew where would
be safe.

“How about I do a switch out at the hospital?”
Shawn asked. “You’ll be there a couple hours at least, that will give me the
time to get everything together. I’ll bring the new vehicle to the hospital,
swap it out for yours, and then hide your truck out in my garage until this is
all done and cleared up.”

Nodding slowly, Vincent knew that would be best.
“Yeah, let’s do that. I’ll leave the keys in the rear tire well. No clue where
I’ll park but I’ll keep it as close to the building as I can manage.”

“Good enough,” Shawn said. “I’ll find it and switch
it out. Maybe with a SUV for some extra travel comfort, and in case you need to
stay in it for a night.”

“Thanks, Shawn. Dude, I owe you big for this.”

“Just get her looked after, watch out for her, and
both of you come home. That’s enough for me,” Shawn said.

Not sure what else to say, he got a rough goodbye
out and hung up. He’d look after her all right, and kill anyone that thought to
hurt her ever again.

****

Six hours after reaching the hospital, and a few
tense moments between him and the doc, he was wheeling Ro out to the parking lot.
Going straight to the spot he’d left his truck in he grinned when he saw the
heavy duty SUV in its place. Shawn was always good to his word, but this, even
for him, was above and beyond.

Vincent knew it had body armor—it just had a look
about it—which was a huge plus should they need it. It would be brutal on gas,
but it was better to have the added layer of protection with a guy like Moreau
out hunting for his girl.

Digging out the keys from the wheel well, he
disarmed and unlocked the truck. A quick look through showed all he’d asked for
and a shit load more. Above and beyond, he thought with a chuckle.
Thank you, Shawn.

When he had Rhonda tucked safely inside, reclined
in the passenger seat as close to horizontal as he could make it go, he got
moving. He did a few random turns to check for a tail, not wanting to take any chances
with Rhonda’s life, before he got them headed in the planned direction.

He’d had hours to consider where to take her. There
was only one place he knew no one could track them to, an old hunting lodge
still in his mother’s maiden name, near the California-Nevada border. It was
right on the edge of National forest land, which meant
it
was a bitch to find if you didn’t know where you were going. It would take them
a bit of time to get there, which was fine by him. More time for him to ensure
they weren’t being followed. Reaching over Vincent rested a hand lightly on her
knee. The trip was going to be long, but hopefully it wouldn’t tax her already
strained to the max body.

“Rest easy, baby,” he said softly to Rhonda. “I’m
going to get you somewhere safe for you to recuperate and plot revenge on that
little prick Moreau.” She’d be chomping at the bit to get back into the fight.
That he knew for sure. His girl was nothing if not tenacious and determined.
Only this time around, she wouldn’t be going in solo. Over his dead body would
she be going at Moreau again
alone.

Chapter Five

Rhonda hurt
all the
fuck
over. Letting out a whimper, she tried to move and then very quickly changed
her mind. Bad move. Really bad move that.

“
Shh
, Ro, it’s okay,” a
voice she knew said softly to her. “Don’t try to move around, baby. You have so
many bruises, broken bones, and other issues, you really shouldn’t try.”

Vincent, it was Vincent. She felt the tension
release so she could relax. Slowly she pried an eye open, the only working eye
apparently, since the other didn’t seem to want to budge, and took a peek
around. The first thing she saw was Vincent, looking worried, and sitting nice
and close.

“Hi,” he whispered with a smile. “Glad to see you
finally awake. Listen to me okay,” he said softly. “Your jaw bone was cracked,
not broken thankfully, but it is currently wired shut. That douchebag didn’t
break your cheekbone but it was a damn close thing, there are a couple of
hairline fractures. Your hand was broken in six places, currently residing in
some nice heavy duty plaster at your side. You have a total of six cracked ribs
and five broken ones, so breathing will hurt for quite a while.”

She gave a tiny nod before looking around and
frowning, well, she thought she was frowning.

“We’re at an old hunting cabin that’s in my
mother’s maiden name. It will take a lot for Moreau to track you here. Even if
he does, I have the place rigged to ensure he never gets close. No one, and I
mean no one, not even Shawn and Tamara know where we are. We are off the grid.
We have food, medical supplies, and drugs for you, so we’re good. I should also
mention I have you on an IV so you stay hydrated and I can give you your
medication. You also currently are sporting a catheter. Sorry.” He winced.

Damn, that fucking sucked ass! Talk about
embarrassing too. Had she had the strength she would have pulled the blankets
over her head so she could quietly die in shame. Nothing more non-conducive to
getting the hot guy than making him
change
out a pee
bag.

“We got here yesterday after a quick jaunt to the
hospital. Don’t worry, it was all off the books, Denise from C&M called in
a favor from someone she grew up with. He’s good, really good actually,”
Vincent said. “He looked you
over,
got you all taped
up, and ready to roll nice and fast. He won’t say anything, and as far as I
could tell, when we left Moreau’s place, he didn’t have a clue you were even
gone. He does now, but that’s not our concern.”