“Whoa, princess.” Z appeared in front of me and pressed me back down. “You took quite a hit. Take it easy.”
“Where am I?” My voice sounded groggy, and I wondered how long I’d been out.
“You’re safe.”
“That doesn’t answer my question, Zachariah. Where am I? Where’s Caylen?” I swung my head in search of my son but ended up clutching the side of my head in pain.
“Damn it, princess.” Z quickly knelt and pried my fingers from the lump. A guilty flush spread over his cheeks as he checked me out.
“You hit me.”
He flinched and looked away. “I had to.”
“You had to hit me?”
“We were on a high-speed chase, and you were hysterical,” Lucas interjected. He was no longer on the phone, and he leaned against the paint-cracked wall.
“If you had left me alone, I wouldn’t have needed saving.”
“That’s neither here nor there. You’re dead without us now.”
I turned away from Lucas to face his more rational partner. “Where is Caylen?”
He took my hand and helped me up from the bed. It took a few extra seconds for me to trust my balance before he led me over to the second bed I hadn’t noticed.
Caylen was fast asleep on his blanket. I checked him over to make sure he was okay and turned toward my two saviors. “Why did you change his clothes? How long have I been out?”
“Only a few hours.” Lucas nervously scratched his chin before answering my second question. “We changed him because he threw up all over his clothes. I think he got car sick.”
“You don’t say,” I quipped. “A high-speed chase would do that to a baby.”
“It’s okay to hate us, girl, but we aren’t going away, so deal.”
I was across the room and in Lucas’s stupid, smug face before I had a chance to rethink it. “You led them to me.”
“Does it matter now? If we walked away, you’d be dead.”
“What do you want from me?”
“I don’t want anything from you. Angel does.”
“Then why isn’t he here?”
“Because he’s cleaning up your mess. That scrambled brain of yours refuses to see the whole picture. Staten was a client, not an enemy. If he walked away, and you and Caylen died, who do you think would have to live with that?”
“So, I’m supposed to thank him? What about Victor and his psychotic daughter? Was that my fault too?”
“But you already got your revenge in that warehouse, didn’t you?” The knowing look in his eyes made me back down a little. Had Angel told them I was the one who stabbed him? Lucas’s glare was full of accusation as if I were the one who did the betraying in that warehouse. I wasn’t sorry then, and I won’t apologize now.
“Not hardly,” I answered coldly. After all, Angel was still alive.
I didn’t expect Lucas’s grin. It was cold and deadly. “You’re a cold piece of work.”
“Likewise.”
“Are you two done?” Z finally spoke. He had been watching us argue from the far side of the room. “Princess, whatever happened in the warehouse is between you and Angel.” His glower was trained on Lucas as he spoke.
“You told me he didn’t know you were here.” They both froze as I stood back. They shared a meaningful look I wasn’t privy to before turning their attention back to me.
“He doesn’t.”
“Then who were you speaking to when you thought I was still sleeping?” Z’s reaction would take a microscope to see unless you’ve been lied to enough times to spot it. “You lied to me, didn’t you?”
“Princess—”
I held up a hand when he took a step forward. “Please just stop, Z. There’s nothing you can say to make me trust you. For all I know, you’re taking me back to him so he can finish the job himself, so give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you both the second I have the chance?”
“The answer is irrelevant. You’ll never get the chance,” Lucas answered. He brushed past me, and it was a couple of hours before either of them spoke to me again.
“Pepperoni or Sausage?” Z quizzed.
I hesitated, not wanting to accept their help, but I was starving, so I said, “Both.”
His grin was wide and bright, and I couldn’t help but think how I could have fallen for a smile like his if circumstances were different. “My kind of girl,” he praised before leaving the musty motel room.
Lucas rested his shirtless back against the headboard of the bed closest to the door and flipped through the channels. His jaw was hard, and his stare was steady, and I had the feeling he was trying to ignore me. I decided two could play his game, and I busied myself changing Caylen’s diaper.
“You tried to kill him, didn’t you?”
My hands paused from opening a fresh diaper. “You sound pretty sure of yourself. Why not just accuse me?” My lips were pressed tight as I turned my attention back to changing my son.