Donna Young – The Bodyguard Contract (страница 8)
“Don’t you even want to know why I’m here?”
“Nope. I’m angry enough that you are,” she snapped, not breaking her stride. “Any time you try to help me with my problems, I end up with worse problems.” Like an unwanted pregnancy. “So do me a favor and just go away, before I kill you.”
“Frankly, Red, I’d thought you’d be more appreciative,” he said, not bothering to follow.
“Why? Because the infamous Orion—” Lara sneered Ian’s code name “—let my one lead go?” She looked over her shoulder. The flames from the fire cast him in an eerie light, making his features all angles, sharp and hollow. “Drop dead.” She turned back and continued walking.
“I let him go to save you.”
“Thank you.” Lara waved a careless hand in the air. “Don’t do me any more favors.” She glanced at the stars. Thought briefly about wishing on one for the first time in her life. Then automatically discarded the idea as nonsense. “Could my day get any worse?”
“If you’re heading for your SUV, you’re wasting time.”
Slowly, she swung back. “Why?”
“It has four flat tires.”
“Four flat—” Definitely worse.
“Good thing for you, I just happen to have a Hummer sitting about a quarter mile away. Interested?” he invited with a lazy arrogance.
“Of all the dirty—” She bit off the words, and for a moment stared into the darkness, forcing herself to draw in three long, deep breaths. Only after—when she’d calmed down a bit—did she answer. “Do I have a choice?”
“No, you don’t.”
Her nerve ends crackled while her mind ran through the complications Ian brought with his appearance. With reluctance, she started back toward him. “How did you know where to find me?”
“I followed you from the church. Then after, when you hightailed it out here.” He paused, considering. “And with no Katts Smeart, or am I mistaken?”
The fact that she hadn’t made his tail irked her more than the flat tires. If she hadn’t been distracted with the baby—his baby… “You’re not. There was a hiccup in the plan.”
“Some hiccup. The desert is a long way from Norfolk and headquarters, Red.”
He’d said headquarters. A muscle twitched in her jaw. “Cain told you about my operation?”
“That’s not all he told me.” The bonfire lit the area, giving Lara clear sight of Ian’s gaze, pausing deliberately on her stomach.
“Cain has a big mouth.” And she’d deal with it later, she vowed. “It’s not your baby.”
“Liar.”
Realizing her hand lay protectively over her belly, she jerked it away, balled it into a fist. “Damn it, Ian. This is exactly why I didn’t want you to know yet.”
“Then you were going to tell me.” Sarcasm saturated the air between them.
His attitude, his problem. She had her own to deal with. “Yes. But only after I had a chance to absorb it and figure out what I’m going to do.”
“You sound like you have a choice.” Two quick, masculine strides ate the distance between them. He grabbed her by the shoulders, his grip flexing with indecision on whether to shake her or not. “What are you going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Lara snapped back. “Adoption maybe. Considering our lifestyles.”
“Let me tell you something,” he snarled. “I don’t like this pregnancy any better than you do. But never once did I consider walking away.” He brought her closer until only millimeters separated them. “And by God, neither will you.”
“What I do is my decision. I’ve had a little over twenty-four hours to deal with this. And it’s not like this baby was conceived in love.” She paused, absorbing the ache that slipped through her. “It was in anger, Ian.”
“Your anger, not mine.”
“Either way, this baby should’ve never happened.” Fear filled her—not the natural adrenaline rush that came with risk, but the instinct for survival. It was sheer terror that rose from her toes, poured out her skin in a cold, clammy sweat.
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