Page 36 of Wicked Sin

He curls his hand around my upper arm and propels me toward the terminal. “Let’s go.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’ll tell you on the other side of security.”

“What?” Panic rises in my chest, fast and furious. “Luke?”

“You’re okay. Breathe.” He’s moving fast now, cutting across a lane of traffic. We dart past the minivan unloading passengers, then through the sliding doors and into the terminal. “There’s the airline counter, come on.”

He ignores the regular line and takes the empty queue for people who have rewards cards. That’s the queue I would usually take, except that none of my cards currently work.

At the desk, he flashes his badge and slides his credit card across the counter. “Your next two tickets to L.A.”

“I’ll need ID from both of you,” the clerk drones, like this is no big deal.

Maybe it’s not. I dig out my wallet and hand over my driver’s license.

Luke isn’t even looking around, but he’s aware. He’s listening, he’s thinking. As soon as she prints the tickets, he grabs my hand and drags me to security, flashing his badge again to get around the line.

I take off my shoes. While Luke is ducked down, doing the same, I surreptitiously check the pager Wilson gave me that I stashed in my bag when Luke went to get salads. No message there. Whatever has happened, he doesn’t know about it.

Was it a mistake to trust him? Every fiber of my being tells me he wouldn’t do anything, and yet…

Maybe I should get rid of the pager.

On the other hand, it may be the only heads up I get if everything goes sideways.

Resolutely, I zip up my bag and put it on the conveyor belt. Then I walk through the metal detector.

On the other side, I turn and watch Luke follow. His face is still tight.

“What’s going on?” I demand once we’ve collected our belongings.

He leads me to a private corner then looks me right in the eye. “There was a threat. A letter. It was pinned to the front door of the safe house the FBI had picked out for you.”

The bottom of my stomach falls out, and I want to collapse. I can feel my insides twisting like I might puke, but I press my hands against my chest, my mouth, willing myself to keep it together.

No.

“What kind of threat?”

He doesn’t waver. Doesn’t look away. “If you don’t come back to the fold, things will only get worse. I don’t want to hurt you, Taylor, but this has to stop.Do you know what means?”

My brain screams. It’s primal and silent and awful. No, I have no idea what that means. But I have my fears, and they’re worse than I ever could have imagined.

Everything I did was for nothing.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I count to ten. Then twenty when my pulse doesn’t come back down.

“Taylor,” Luke murmurs. “It’s okay. We’re safe. We’re going to get on a plane and get back to L.A. in one piece. I promise. And at the other end, we’re going to have a police escort.”

What good is a police escort when the enemy is invisible and two steps ahead of you, though?

13

Luke

Los Angeles

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