Part 19 (2/2)

went stone cold. ”s.h.i.+t!”

”What?” She swung around in time to see a man launch himself at her, his

long black hair flying behind him, a deadly look in his eyes. Then Archer shoved her roughly to the ground, sending both their paper cups flying.

”Stay down!” he ordered as he propelled himself over her and tackled the man

back into trees. They both hit the ground with a sickening thud, tumbling into the underbrush. Before Talia could react, Ringer raced in and she instinctively lunged and grabbed the little mutt, keeping him from entering the fray and getting himself hurt.

She looked wildly about, trying to hold the squirming dog in her arms, scanning the area for possible help, but everyone was packing up or leaving the park on the opposite side of the field. Archer swore, and she scrambled to her feet and started off into the woods after him. The attacker had managed to break free and was racing through the trees, deeper into the woods, Archer hot on his heels. Should she follow or stay back? What if the man were to circle around and come back for her? Ringer snarled in her arms, as if he'd read her thoughts. She held him more tightly and he stopped fighting to get down, his

agitation seemingly more protective than defensive.

Then Archer came busting back out of the undergrowth, panting hard, his face

scratched and dirty, his s.h.i.+rt torn in several places. ”You okay?” He looked hard into her eyes, the intensity palpably leaping off him.

”Yeah. I'm fine.”

She was still clutching Ringer, so he took her elbow in a firm grip and moved

them both quickly back toward the trucks and animal pens. ”Come on,” he said, hauling her with him so she had to stumble to keep up. ”We're packing up and leaving now.”

She couldn't have agreed more, but a delayed reaction to what had almost happened to her, combined with the very visceral results of what he'd done to prevent it had her yanking them both to a halt. ”Wait just a d.a.m.n minute!

What the h.e.l.l happened back there? Who was that guy?”

Archer swung around on her, eyes blazing. ”His name is Anteri. And I a.s.sume

he wanted to stop you from coming back with me.”

Talia tugged her arm from his grasp and let the wiggling dog leap into his master's arms. Archer grunted, but he scratched the dog's ears consolingly, which managed to calm both Ringer and Talia down. ”He wanted to go after you,” she said. ”I didn't think that was a good idea.”

”Thanks,” Archer said, his breath slowing, but not his irritation. ”Let's move.”

Talia matched his stride, looking back at the woods as a shudder crept up her spine. ”Where did he go? Is he still out there?””No. He went back home.”Home. Talia swallowed. To the future. Jesus. This was becoming way too real for her. She almost laughed. It was that or sob. It was already far too real for her, thank you very much. Now she had coldblooded killers leaping out of the

woods at her. And Archer had willingly, without hesitation, thrown himself at the guy. He wasn't armed, at least not like the other guy probably had been. She could tell herself that it was all about the money, that he'd only been protecting his paycheck... but the look in his eyes when he'd come back told her otherwise. He'd been angry and autocratic, nothing new there. But in that split second before he'd grabbed her elbow, when he'd demanded to know if she was okay... There was something there and she was quite certain he hadn't been thinking about the queen or his paycheck.

”Thank you,” she said quietly. Something in her tone caught at him, and he stopped and looked back at her. She didn't know what else to say. She reached a hand up toward him, then let it drop away, not sure he wanted to be touched at the moment. ”You didn't even blink.”

She thought he might give her an arrogant smile, say something c.o.c.ky. Maybe if he had, she'd have been able to brush the whole thing off, forget that she'd almost been attacked. But he didn't smile or say anything. He simply looked at her. Into her.

”You saved my life.”

He managed a nod, then took her elbow, more gently this time. She looked

over at him, wondering if she had actually embarra.s.sed him. ”Hasn't anyone ever thanked you before?”

He didn't slow down, only glanced at her. ”Generally, there isn't much cause

for thanks in my line of work.” When he looked away, she knew the subject was closed.

But that didn't mean she'd stop thinking about it. Or what he'd done for her.”I should have taken you more seriously,” she said. ”If anything had happened to Stella or the pups-”

”Yes, you should have and Anteri wasn't after Stella and the pups. But it is time to get the h.e.l.l out of here. In case you haven't realized it, the stakes just went up. This guy wasn't sent here to baby-sit you, Talia.”

She already knew that. Had known it the instant she looked into the killer's eyes. Still, a part of her wanted to cling to the fantasy that all this was happening to someone else. A childhood dream gone horribly awry that she'd awaken from at any moment. ”But you said they just wanted to observe-”

”That was when they thought only they knew about you. And trust me, sweetheart, if they'd known we were on our way, Dideon would have likely kept you from ever being found.”

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