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“Really? You
gonna take a bullet for me?”
    “That’s what the government pays me to
do,” he replied dryly.
    Snorting, I replied, “Nobody could pay
me enough to take a bullet for someone else.”
    Throwing me a sideways glance, Duke
smirked. “Might break a nail?”
    “Very funny. I just don’t understand
how you do that job.”
    He didn’t look at me, but kept his
eyes on the mundane landscape as it blurred past. “Special Agent
with the FBI is a badass job. Don’t discredit it. I love my fuckin’
job.”
    “You willing to die for your ‘job’?” I
asked my arms folded over my chest.
    “Yes. It’s no different than the
military, really. I’ve belonged to the government since I was
eighteen years old. It’s all I know.”
    Wow. Freaking really? Has this guy
ever had any fun?
    His hand was still on his thigh so I
asked “What’s wrong with your leg? Cramp?”
    Without looking at me, he grunted,
“Something like that.”
    I huffed and gave up having a
conversation with this guy.
    But then he spoke again. “You didn’t
answer my question.”
    “You asked how I got myself into this
predicament, and I answered by telling you that I
didn’t.”
    He reached over and turned the A/C up
higher, and that annoyed me. Not only had he not asked if I was
comfortable with the temperature, I was already getting cold from
having it up so high. How could he still be hot? Was this guy a
werewolf? I shivered and caught him looking at me from the corner
of his eye.
    “Well, do you remember what you could
have done at their company that got them indicted on some very
serious charges?”
    I stared at him in horror. “What are
you implying? That I did something illegal to get them in trouble?
Because I didn’t.”
    He chuckled, and it was deep and
rumbly. I was pissed off at myself at how sexy it sounded in my
ears. “No, because if you had, you’d be indicted right along with
them. I just mean, what kind of shady financial business practices
were they involved in?”
    I felt tears build behind my eyes but
I didn’t want to cry in front of him. His question had hit a nerve
because it was the same question I had asked myself no less than a
thousand times since this nightmare started. “I don’t know,” was
the only thing I could muster up, and then I turned my head back to
face the window.
    He never responded after that, and
silence filled the car for hours. I remembered I had a paperback in
my purse and I pulled it out, attempting to get lost in some
historical romance that hopefully had a happier ending than the
horror story I currently found myself in.
     

     
    After what seemed like forever, we
finally reached the small town in Virginia. We'd nearly gotten lost
twice from having to use a paper map. The small road we turned on
was so tiny and dark, I could easily see how it might get missed.
Nighttime blanketed the clear country sky, a smattering of stars
overhead and a half moon the only thing illuminating our path. The
tires of the small car crunched and bumped over a gravel road until
the headlights of our sports car illuminated a small gray house at
the end of the path. My eyes traveled up to its worn-looking roof
and down to the chipped paint that once coated the entire thing.
The wrap-around porch did not look safe to step on, and its
yellowed and cloudy windows definitely looked in need of
replacement. I wrinkled my nose at the sight of it.
    The road leading to it had been lined
with large oak trees, and the house was no different. Large, gnarly
branches reached out and seemed to want to possess the house. I
suppressed a shudder and stared at the tiny dwelling.
    “We’re staying here?”
    Nodding, Duke put the car in gear but
left it running. I watched curiously as he pulled a handgun from an
ankle holster under his jeans I didn’t know was there. As he
checked it for bullets, he said, “Stay in the car.”
    I wanted nothing more than to get out
and stretch my legs, but I’d learned over the past