Page 3 of Fear the Reaper
He exhaled dramatically. “That car has an onboard computer.” A wide grin spread his face. “I don’t know how much firepower they have, so until I do—technological warfare, baby.”
Yep, he was right. I didn’t want to know. Hopefully, he’d set the damn thing to explode.
Scooting from the table, I dug an extra twenty from my wallet. I collected his keys and the hat from the table, picked up his larger jacket and hurried over to my waitress. After shrugging into the coat and rolling my hair up for the hat, I folded the money and pressed it into her palm. She grinned and I looked back at Swede who was now standing at his full height.
“Too bad he’s married.” The waitress confided. “That man is….” She trailed off to fan herself dramatically.
I was used to that reaction to Swede. No matter what injury he’d sustained in deployment, women still went gaga over him. Unfortunately for them, Swede was now with a woman who would cut a chick for messing with her man.
“Yeah—too bad.” I winked at the waitress.
With a final look at Swede, I dipped out the door and hurried in the direction he’d told me. My heart hammered inside my chest and I worried for my friend. I didn’t want anything to happen to him because he was protecting me. What would I tell Allie? How would I explain it to her?
Though I wanted to look back, I knew I couldn’t.
When I arrived at the large, black truck, I quickly hauled myself into it and slammed the door. By the time I managed to drag my seatbelt on, and glanced toward the restaurant, Swede was standing at my car. Though I started the ignition for the truck, I waited until Swede was in my Rolls Royce, with the headlights on before I, activated the GPS.
“Home.” My voice trembled.
“Processing…”
Soon, the address was set and I pulled from the spot. I took the chance of glancing back to see Swede heading out the opposite exit. The men from the black Lexus were out of their car and kicking at the tires.
Whatever Swede had done had disabled their vehicle and they couldn’t follow him even if they wanted to.
I smirked.
I owed that man a beer—or four.
Arrivingat the location the GPS brought me, I didn’t understand what it was. It wasn’t the ranch they used as the office for Brotherhood Protectors, but it was a ranch. Though it wasn’t as sprawling as the others around it, the place still gave off a home feeling. There was one vehicle in the driveway, but I could tell this wasn’t Swede’s home. He wouldn’t have sent me where his Allie was if he thought danger would follow.
Before I could climb out, the front door opened, and a German Sheppard barreled out ahead of a large man with a limp. I smiled and pushed open the heavy door. Gripping the handle, I lowered myself to the dirt and instantly hunched down to scratch Six behind the ears. “Hi!” I chirped. “You remember me?”
Six licked my nose and I laughed.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” I hugged his neck before kissing the dog between the eyes.
“Hello, Star.” Joseph Kuntz said.
“Kujo—hey.”
I wasn’t sure if I should shake his hand, hug him or walk away. We hadn’t really been in touch. I spoke to Swede more times than anyone else. It wasn’t that I didn’t like the rest of the team. I did—they were great men and women. It was just, Swede had always been my friend. I met him when I was sent to shadow another team on deployment.
Kujo, pulled me into a hug and I grinned and returned the squeeze.
“Come inside. Swede gave me the head’s up.”
I nodded and as he pressed a large hand to the small of my back to lead me toward the door, Kujo whistled for his dog to follow. With all three of us inside, Kujo checked his watch and closed the door.
“Do you know where he is?”
“He’s coming. He just had to make sure he’s not being followed first.” Kujo explained.
I’d always wondered about that—them giving him a name after a deranged, serial killing movie mutt. Though, from what I knew about the guys, Joseph’s nickname was spelt differently—Probably had something to do with his name.
He offered me food, but I couldn’t take another bite. I did accept coffee. It was always a good time for coffee.
It didn’t take much longer for Swede to arrive. We sat down to talk shop. They even called their leader, Hank to discuss what would happen with me. They didn’t have a man to spare but as Hank insisted, they wouldn’t turn their backs on family. I couldn’t imagine feeling any more loved than I did then.
