had grown up in a rural area, traipsed through her share of woods and mountains, but rarely at night, and never with five inches of bullet-grazed flesh playing a symphony of agony with each careful step. But, as she reminded herself in a silent litany as she followed Sinclair Solano through a tangle of underbrush, each step took them closer to civilization. Closer to a clean bandage, prescription antibiotics and painkillers.
Closer to the safety of numbers.
She had come to the conclusion that Sin was being honest about one thing—he didn’t intend to kill her, even if she tried to take him into actual custody instead of this parody of custody they were playing out at the moment. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try to stop her.
He’d been at this fugitive thing a long time. Clearly, he was good at it.
So the ball was in her court, she supposed. He might not be willing to kill her to maintain his freedom, but was she willing to kill him if he resisted her attempt to keep him in her custody? Was she willing to let Cade Landry shoot him? Or one of the local cops?
This shouldn’t even be a question, Trent. You’re an FBI agent. Taking criminals into custody is part of what you do.
But Sinclair Solano had saved her life. Put his own life at risk to do it. And when he swore he wasn’t the man she thought he was, he seemed to believe what he was saying.
Her boot tangled with a thick root somewhere beneath the mass of vines, scrub and decaying leaves underfoot, tipping her off balance. She stumbled forward, grabbing for something, anything to break her fall.
She slammed into the hard, solid heat of Sin’s chest as he moved quickly to catch her. His arms roped around her body, holding her close, lifting her back to her feet.
He didn’t let go immediately, his breath hot against her cheek. Despite the pain in her side, despite the adrenaline still flooding her body, she felt an answering rush of heat racing through her veins to settle, heavy and liquid, in the juncture of her thighs.
She wasn’t twenty and carefree, enjoying her last taste of freedom before law school and the FBI career she’d chosen for herself. These woods weren’t the cool, lush rainforest surrounding the soaring peak of Mt. Stanley.
And Sinclair Solano had long since ceased to be just some sexy, brooding fellow tourist who’d made her pulse race and her toes tingle with a few hot kisses under the Mariposa moon.
He let her go slowly, his hands sliding down her arms, his fingers brushing hers lightly as he released her. “You okay?” he whispered.
Her voice felt trapped in her throat. She nodded without attempting to free it.
For a long, electric moment, he continued gazing at her. Apparently, Poe Creek had not yet folded up its streets for the night, for faint light glowed in the west, edging his features with a hint of gold. He had tawny skin and dark, dark eyes, and eight years past their brief entanglement, his compelling magnetism still tugged at her unwilling heart.
“What am I going to do with you?” he asked, and she realized with a shiver those exact words were echoing in her own troubled mind.
“Tell me the truth.” She couldn’t stop herself from taking a step closer, as if he’d tugged an invisible cord between them. “If you tell the truth, I’ll know it. And I’ll know what to do. Why did you join El Cambio? And why did you leave?”
For a tense moment, he stared at her, his expression unreadable. Then, as he opened his mouth to answer, a loud crack sounded from close by.
She dropped, grabbing his arm and dragging him down with her. Adrenaline spiked, sending her heart into a wild gallop as she tried to find cover in the underbrush, her gaze darting around the darkened woods in search of the intruder.
“That wasn’t a gunshot,” Sin whispered, his face close enough that his breath tickled the tendrils of hair curling on her forehead.
“What was it?”
Before he could answer, a flurry of sound and movement broke the tense quiet of the woods. Thirty yards to the north, two men burst into view out of the underbrush, scrambling and stumbling as they went, throwing fearful looks behind them.
A few yards behind them, a large black bear loped after them, moving with surprising speed.
“I thought black bears didn’t attack unprovoked,” she whispered, watching the animal crash through the forest after the two fleeing men.
“She may have a cub around here somewhere.”
One of the men seemed to finally remember he was armed. He swung his gun hand toward the bear and fired a shot. It missed the bear, the bullet whipping through a thicket only ten yards away from where Ava and Sin crouched.
Sin grabbed her around the waist and hauled her with him behind a nearby tree trunk. The sudden movement pulled at her injury, and she hissed with pain.
“Sorry!” he whispered in her ear, sliding his hand up to her rib cage.
But he didn’t let her go.
Another gunshot rang in the woods. Another bullet missed the bear and whizzed harmlessly past their hiding place by a dozen yards. The next time Ava peeked around the tree trunk, the bear was circling back around, heading away from where they crouched. The men were two diminishing shadows in the woods, still on the run.
Ava released a long breath. “That was close. Let’s get out of here.”
“Wait,” Sin murmured, catching her arm as she started to move.
She looked up at him, jerking her arm free of his grip. “What?”
He met her gaze, his eyes burning with fierce intent. “We have to follow those men.”
Clearly, she thought he was crazy. Hell, maybe he was—those men were probably better armed and equipped than either of them, and he had no idea how many of them might be roaming the woods at the moment.
“We need to go back to the motel and report those guys,” she said firmly, starting westward.
He caught up with her, taking care not to touch her this time. “The bear scared the hell out of those guys. I’d bet they’re heading back to wherever Cabrera has set up camp in these hills. This could be our best chance to find out where that is.” His voice went raspy as emotion tightened his throat. “They might lead us to my sister.”
Her gaze softened. “They’re already out of sight.”
“I can track them. I’ve had a lot of experience in the past few years.”
Pinching her lower lip between her teeth, she gazed toward the darkness where the two men had disappeared. She released a huff of breath. “Okay, you’re right. We can’t let this trail go cold. But we don’t do anything but observe when we get there, understand? We find the place, then memorize the trail back for when I have reinforcements.”
He wasn’t sure he could agree to her stipulation, not with his sister’s life at risk. But if he didn’t agree, she would dig in her heels and make it next to impossible for him to tail those men. “Understood.”
She looked bone-tired briefly before her spine straightened and her chin came up to jut forward like the point of a spear. “You can track them? Then you lead.”
He suspected she wanted him in front as much to keep an eye on him as to let him lead the way. He didn’t care. He wasn’t going to run from her.
Not yet, anyway.
“Let’s pack up the tent. We may need to set up camp later.” He accomplished the task quickly, and they were underway in minutes. The men hadn’t covered their tracks while they were running, but about a mile from where they’d encountered the bear, they stopped blazing