Chapter 125
[ 516 words ]
Chapter 125:
As the SUV pulled away from the oppressive stone walls, Caroline leaned her head back against the seat and closed her eyes. The adrenaline from the confrontation began to recede, leaving a deep, bone-weary exhaustion in its wake.
“You were magnificent,” Jarrod said. His voice was a low, gravelly rumble that vibrated through the quiet cabin.
Caroline opened her eyes. She turned her head to look at him. The dim interior lights cast his face in sharp angles of shadow and light.
“I was surviving,” she corrected, her voice tight. “Your family is a warzone.”
𝖲𝗍о𝗋іеs 𝗒𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝗼n’𝘵 𝗽𝗎𝘵 𝖽o𝘄ո 𝗈n 𝗴𝗮𝘭𝘯𝗈𝗏𝘦𝘭𝗌.𝗰𝘰𝗆
“And you are a warrior,” he countered. His gray eyes burned with an intensity that had nothing to do with anger. It was a dark, consuming admiration that made her skin prickle. “My lie about the military channels will hold them off for a while. It will force them to dig through unofficial, slower routes. It buys us time.”
“Time for what?” Caroline asked, a bitter edge to her voice. “For them to find another way to destroy me?”
Jarrod didn’t answer immediately. He stared out the window as the opulent mansions of Georgetown blurred past. “Time for me to fortify your position until it’s unassailable.”
They drove in silence for several minutes. The city lights streaked by, a hypnotic, silent film. In the driver’s seat, K. C. Bell kept his eyes locked dead ahead, his professional focus absolute.
Suddenly, a rogue sedan with blacked-out windows blasted out from a dark side street, completely ignoring a red light and hurtling directly toward their passenger side.
Bell’s reflexes were lightning fast. He violently jerked the steering wheel to the right. The massive armored SUV let out an ear-piercing screech, tires burning against the asphalt as it narrowly dodged the collision and carved a sharp S-shape across the empty lanes.
Caroline gasped. The violent centrifugal force ripped her away from the door. She pitched sideways, falling directly across the center console.
Jarrod’s reflexes were instantaneous. His thick arm shot out, catching her around the waist. He hauled her effortlessly through the air and crushed her directly against his solid chest, absorbing the entire impact of the swerve.
The soft, tense atmosphere vanished in a millisecond.
Jarrod’s face turned into a mask of pure, homicidal rage. He glared at the back of the driver’s head as Bell slammed on the brakes and corrected the wheel, the SUV coming to a shuddering halt.
“Colonel, I apologize!” Bell barked, his voice tight with adrenaline as he checked the mirrors. “Rogue vehicle ran the light—”
“Report,” Jarrod snapped, his voice dangerously low.
“No plates, sir. It’s gone. Disappeared down the alleyway. That was no accident. It was a test of our response time,” Bell reported, his tone grim.
Jarrod didn’t even let him finish the sentence. He reached out and slammed his finger onto a silver button on the center console.
A thick, black, soundproof privacy partition instantly shot up from the floor, sealing the front cabin away completely.
The rear of the SUV was plunged into absolute, terrifying privacy. Caroline was trapped flush against Jarrod’s chest, her legs tangled with his, her heart hammering wildly against his sternum.
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