Run To Rome

“I’m saying, we can’t rush in there after Lapaglia’s goons showed up at my villa out of the blue last night. Somehow they connected you to me. Now how exactly do you suppose that happened?”

Her hand covered her mouth. “Ben’s phone.”

“Exactly.”

“But…I never said your name, and I didn’t leave your number because I didn’t know it. How could—”

“My guess is your brother and sister came back looking for you yesterday morning and found Lapaglia instead. After you left that message for Ben, and assuming his phone records incoming calls, Lapaglia easily could’ve run a check with his police contacts for the info on where the call came from.”

Her eyes burned. She squeezed them shut, but it did nothing to relieve the pain or the guilt. This was all her fault. Her brother and sister were in the hands of murderers all because she had to film a couple of swans that she’d known darn well were no different from the ones back home. How she wished she could go back in time and shut off the camera when Rachel asked her to.

Opening her eyes again, Halli pressed her cheek against the headrest, staring at Rachel. “She’s just sitting there.”

“Think about it, Halli. They want you. They want your video.”

“And if I’d have run out there…”

“They’d have you, too.”

His blunt statement skimmed another icy chill across her skin, leaving goose bumps in its wake. She was safe for the moment, but what about Rachel, sitting there like bait? And where was Ben? She turned to Trent, wishing she could see his eyes through the dark sunglasses shadowed even more by his baseball cap. One glimpse of the man who’d surprised her with the garden walk would really help right now, because this stranger left her cold.

She swallowed hard and willed her voice to work. “So now what?”

“I’m working on it.” He swung around in his seat again and shifted the car into gear.

Halli grabbed for the steering wheel in mindless protest. “We’re not leaving.”

Trent pushed her back in her seat with one hand, ducking his chin to check the left side mirror. “The longer we sit here the more dangerous it is.”

She fought against his strong-arm tactics with one hand and fumbled for the door lock with the other. “Rachel is in danger, too.”

He whirled around, locking his grip on her left wrist to pull her away from the door. When she swung at him with her right hand, he caught that one, too. Applied pressure brought her face within inches of his, but stopped just short of being painful.

“You’re not going anywhere right now so stop it before whoever put your sister out there sees this little scene you’re making.”

Helplessness overwhelmed her. “What do you care anyway? Just leave me. You can have the video either way.”

“Fuck the damn video, Halli.”

“No, fuck you!”

The moment she screamed the harsh expletive, tears flooded her eyes. How easy it would be to fall apart right now. Give in to the terror trembling in her limbs and let whatever was going to happen, happen. But something in his dark, granite carved countenance challenged her. She stiffened her spine. Sucked in a huge lungful of air and refused to let the tears fall.

“You done?”

Her gaze narrowed at his callous tone, but she gave a stiff nod.

“Thank God.” He released her as if she were nothing more than an irritating fly.

Anger rose up, engulfing everything inside her in fiery flames. To think just an hour ago, she’d actually believed she’d developed feelings other than dislike for the insufferable jerk.

Trent swerved back onto the street, talking as he drove. “As I see it, we’ve got a couple options here. One, we get into the building through a side entrance or something, then access the consulate, and enlist the help of the officers inside.”

“I like that option very much.”

“Problem with that is,” he threw her a reproachful glance, “we still don’t know where your brother is. We could put him in more danger.”

Grudgingly, she acknowledged that was the last thing she wanted. Silently, she recognized her current anger toward Trent would only be a hindrance, and released a frustrated sigh. Better to work together, especially given the fact he kept speaking in ‘we’s’ instead of driving back to dump her at the consulate so the US government could take over.