Page 33 of The Queen's Vow (Ruthless Games 2)

SIXTEEN

JULIAN

I drove for hours,stopping every thirty minutes to check on Rebecca. Noting the time on my dashboard, I swung off the thruway to find a place to stop. A big box store parking lot in Swanville, deep in the Catskills region presented risks, but it was well lit.

I knocked on the trunk. “Becca?”

Exhaling, I wiggled the key and opened the hatch letting it spring up. I prepared to reach in, stroke her forehead, and check her breathing, but Becca pointed a gun at me.

“You put me in a trunk?” She sat up, both her hands cupping her Ruger, her aim alarmingly unsteady. She wasn’t fully awake and could pull the trigger by accident.

“It was for your own protection so no one would see you.” I reached my hands up so she wouldn’t think of me as a threat.

Although I drugged her, kidnapped her, and shoved her in my trunk.

“Where are we?” she asked, her gaze darting wildly from side to side then back to me.

“Why?”

When her eyes landed on me again, she narrowed them. “Step back and toss me your phone.”

“No.” I inched closer. “You’ll only tip your hitman off.”

“I don’t care. I need to call...” She choked up.

“Who? We’re miles out of the city. Miles away from Giancarlo.”

She waved the gun. “I’m getting out of this car. And you’re letting me walk away.”

I scoffed. “Here? In the middle of nowhere? Where were you hiding that gun by the way?”

“My ankle. I usually have it strapped to the inside of my thigh.”

Great, now I pictured that. Pictured me reaching under her skirt for it. Although, the heat of her sex would no doubt throw me off. “Becca, please listen to me.” I tented my fingers. “I can keep you safe.”

Her head began to shake. With her hair all straggly in front of her eyes, she looked like a starved homeless person. Yet, so fucking beautiful.

Mine.

Mine to protect.

“I don’t want you.” Her words tore through me like shrapnel, but I knew she was just confused and angry.

“I’m afraid I’m all you got now. My team is tracking down who the contract went to.”

“So is Gian.” Her right hand gripped the rim of the trunk.

I watched her carefully, every move her body made. Mostly the gun still pointed at my head.

She climbed out, but lost her footing and fell to the ground. When I rushed to help her, worried she’d hit her head because the drug was still in her system, she lifted the gun and pulled the trigger.

Searing pain erupted from my left deltoid, knocking me back a few steps. I held my arm and stared down at her. “You shot me.”

“I... I didn’t mean to. I can’t see straight. What did you do to me?”

“I didn’t shoot you! Damn.” I stomped to her and grabbed the gun which she released into my hand. With my good arm, I lifted her up.

I brought her to the driver’s side of the car and shoved her gun in my waistband. “Open the back passenger door.”

“No.”

“I want you to sit so you don’t fall again. I won’t keep you in the trunk anymore.”

“Where are we?”

“Becca, can you please just sit in the car, so I can check my goddamn arm?”

She spun around and opened the sedan’s back door. When she sat in it, I grabbed her hand. Pushing past blinding pain, I pulled out a pair of handcuffs, and latched her to the ring hanging from the car’s interior roof.

“Hey!” She yanked and pulled.

“You’ll only hurt yourself.” I backed away and looked around. “I need bandages.”

“You’re not leaving me here. I’ll scream.”

I exhaled, considering how it would look to have a beautiful woman handcuffed to a car. “Give me a minute.”

I twisted my shot-up arm to get a look. The searing pain nauseated me. The bullet took out a nice chunk of flesh, but as far as I could see, the bullet wasn’t lodged in my skin. My shirt sleeve was soaked in blood already. Grunting, I unbuckled my holster and tossed it with my Glock in the front seat.

When I took my button-down shirt off, Becca watched me, her eyes caressing my skin. “Undershirt, huh?”

“They make good bandages in an emergency.” I stepped toward her. “Be a good girl and use your free hand to lift it over my head.”

She folded her free arm. “Who said I’m a good girl?”

“You’re the goodest bad girl I know.”

“Your teachers at St. Mary’s would slap you. Goodest.”

“Becca. We’re hours outside the city. I have your gun. You have no money or credit cards on you. Someone is hunting you. You can’t go snapping your fingers to get people here to make calls that will tip off where you are. You need to lay low. Do you not see that you kind of, sort of need me right now? If I bleed to death, you’re screwed.”

She nodded and reached her hand out. “Come here.”

“Thank you.” I leaned over and let her grip the back of my shirt over my head. Standing up, my crotch was in line with her mouth.

Lust shot through me. I stayed close to her and used my teeth to rip a piece of undershirt off. All while she stared at my torso.

“You’re in good shape for a Fed.”

To my complete and utter shock, she grazed the back of her hand along the planes of my abs. Only, that would make me rock hard. I didn’t need an erection at the moment making my decisions for me. With a strip of cotton in my hand, I sank to my knees in front of her. “Help me tie this around my bicep.”

She looked up at me and her blue eyes melted my insides. “Say please.”

“Please.”

“Move closer.”

Fuck, this was going to be more excruciating than I thought. I leaned into her, giving her full access to my injured arm. Where she could dig her nails and send me to the ground writhing in pain. With her one free hand, she tied the fabric around my shoulder to absorb the bleeding.

“Give me the other piece of fabric,” she said, looking determined and happy to do some real life-saving work.

“Here.”

“It’s bleeding pretty bad.”

---