Page 39 of Kiss Across the Universe
“No.” He didn’t seem upset about that. “When we stop, you get out and you head west, into the trees. There’s a fence. You climb it and you run like hell. I’ll follow you. Got it?”
She nodded, then realized he might not see that. “Yes,” she added. Then, “Youwillfollow me, right?”
He glanced at her. “Yes,” he said flatly, pulling his gaze back to the road. “Ready?”
“Yes.” She gripped harder.
The truck was in the left hand lane, and she fully expected Kit to move into the right lane. The verges were clear of snow, and there was enough room for the truck to pull right off the road.
But he instead turned left suddenly and sharply, using a minimum of brakes. A utility corridor, the gravel weedy and pale, ran across the twenty-yard wide median strip between the north-bound and south-bound lanes, shooting between pine trees and knee-high grasses waving in the afternoon breeze.
Kit braked sharply at the edge of the south-bound lane, and peered north for oncoming traffic. Then he stomped on the gas and the truck roared across the highway, onto flat, mowed green grass. It was the one place where the hip-high concrete barriers weren’t up against the edge of the highway. The truck bounced and rolled down the slope toward a public path. A hiking trail.
Kit swerved and brought the truck parallel with the path, and halted. “Out!” he ordered.
Alannah’s adrenaline was already running high. She slid out of the truck like an otter, rounded the hood and ran across the hiking path. Five yards farther on was the wire fence Kit had spoken of. She aimed for one of the support posts, intending to hurdle over the fence with a hand on the post.
But the fence was higher than she realized. She put a hand on the post and climbed it by shoving the toes of her flats through the square holes formed by the wire, then pushed herself off and over the fence.
She landed in a crouch, and thrust out a hand to steady herself.
Head for the trees.
But the trees were everywhere. There was no need to head for them.
Alannah pushed off the ground with her thighs and hand. Running was something she knew well, but these shoes wouldn’t help her. She couldn’t go barefoot, though. Beyond where the ground had been mowed around the hiking path, the grasses were thigh high, with no way to see what was underneath. Running at her usual pace was out of the question. She could put her foot in a rabbit or gopher hole and that would be it.
From far to her left, the direction they’d come from, she heard the snarl of a heavy, high performance engine, working hard.
The Mustang.
Alannah ran into the trees, trying to choose her footing. Her flats had zero grip and her feet slid almost every step. Down at ground level where the sun didn’t easily reach the roots, the grass and leaf litter was damp and slippery.
She wove around the trees, trying to make sure that they were directly behind her, hiding her direction. She could hear Kit’s heavier and slower steps. But he was catching up because he had better footwear and could trust his boots to support his foot if it came down in the wrong place.
I should jump away. The thought came to her as she curved around another huge pine, trying to avoid rubbing her bare arms up against the branches. They onlylookedsoft.
She couldn’t use the timescape to help her right now. Kit wasn’t in the family. Besides, jumping back home would leave Kit to deal with the man. And as competent as he seemed to be in this situation, that didn’t seem fair.
She would just have to deal with this in the human way. She and Kit.
And for a brief moment, she felt a warm reassuring sensation in her chest. She wasn’t alone in this.
Chapter Seventeen
Alannah was fast, which pleasedKit. She had a runner’s body and long legs, but her shoes were flimsy indoor things. Yet she made great time across the grasses. Kit kept his pace steady, and her back in sight and let her pick the direction. Sooner or later, the lake would force her north or south, unless she happened to angle through the narrow channel between the ends of the two lakes.
He kept his hearing turned behind them, listening for sounds of pursuit. The Mustang had pulled up sharply by the truck not long after Kit had got through the thick belt of trees that lined the fence. He moved quietly, but didn’t think that would baffle a man who seemed relentless about pursuing Alannah and catching her again.
Any self-respecting human trafficker would have given up back in Canmore. There were far easier and less risky pickings to be had, just about anywhere. So who was this dude?
It wasn’t the first time he’d asked himself that question, in the fleeting moments when spare thought could be had.
The brief glimpse he’d caught of the strange items inside the bag on the bed were troubling. They spoke of more sinister reasons for targeting Alannah.
Only…what reasons were they?
And the man had almost unnatural strength and speed of reactions. Kit had never had to tackle anyone who could move as fast as he.
