Page 36 of Fighting for Scarlett

Again, the idea that she was being coerced flashed in his mind. It was obvious she cared about her team. If they were threatened, would she agree to give Raul the formula for the drug?

“Look, Scarlett,” he started, prepared to have a conversation with her if it got her to open up. Maybe if she confessed now and agreed to help them trap Raul Castillo, she could negotiate her sentence down. “If you just?—”

The sound of gunfire abruptly cut him off and he slammed Scarlett’s door closed, then dove across the hood of his truck and into the driver’s seat.

Someone was shooting at them.

Not any of the many agencies who could have been watching Scarlett’s house because they would talk first and shoot second.

Had to be Raul’s men.

As he tore off down the street, tires screeching, he had no choice but to believe Scarlett’s story that there had been intruders in her house. There had been no time for her to alert anyone that she was being taken in, and they were shooting at her as well.

He was beginning to hate himself for the lingering doubt. Just because he’d messed up with his dad didn't mean that he was messing up now. He knew how to read people even if he’d been wrong a grand total of one time. It was just the consequences of that one time were so severe that it was hard to let it go.

But he had to.

Because if he didn't then it was going to be the woman huddled in the passenger seat of his car who paid the price.

Taking off down the street, Tate didn't even make it to the next corner before he saw the black vehicle on his tail.

“Do you have your phone?” he asked as he took a corner so fast he almost lost control.

“It’s in my?—”

Scarlett’s words were cut off when a bullet hit his tires, and the car went careening sideways, throwing both of them about.

As they hurtled across the road, Tate tried desperately to regain some control.

But he couldn’t.

Briefly, he wished he’d put their seatbelts on.

Then they slammed into a pole, and the world was swallowed up into a pain-filled black hole.

CHAPTER NINE

January 15th

3:04 A.M.

Pain.

Why was that always the first thing to register?

Scarlett dragged open heavy eyes as she heard the sound of voices.

After all the abuse her body and her mind had taken in the last several days, it was hard to summon enough energy to do much of anything, but the first thing she caught sight of was Tate.

Lying as he was, slumped in his seat, half draped over the steering wheel, he looked so vulnerable. So not like the Tate she had met and spent the night with, or the Tate who had saved her life even if he believed her to be a traitor.

Maybe she shouldn’t care what happened to him, he’d been a jerk to her even before she’d been framed, but jerk or not, he was one of the good guys, just not a guy who was good for her.

If their positions were reversed, Scarlett honestly couldn’t say that she wouldn’t believe he was guilty.

Didn't mean his automatic rejection and willingness to believe the worst of her like they hadn't had sex and slept tangled in one another’s arms hadn't hurt. Because it did hurt. A lot. More than it should since she had already known he was a jerk.

Why couldn’t her stupid heart get with the program?

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