Page 56 of Guarded Hearts

“I’m not privy to that information—he just dropped into a battle zone somewhere in the country.”

Her jaw dropped. No way was that little boy she’d known jumping out of planes now.

She shook herself. The real issue wasn’t merging her memory of the Malone family with her current knowledge of them—it was that it wasn’t safe here.

There was no place safe for her at all.

Whatever he saw on her face made him reach out and hook his arm around her back. He crushed her against his chest and buried his face in her hair. She felt the kiss he pressed there before he released her.

“Let’s go. The cab should be here.”

The next few minutes were a whirlwind of the flight crew bidding them goodbye and letting Carson know when the jet would be ready for their return flight.

He bundled her into the cab and it shot into heavy traffic. Streets were closed. There were several detours.

“I don’t like this.” Carson’s dark tone sent a shiver through her. His body seemed to hum with tension.

In fluent Italian, she asked the driver what was going on with all the detours and closed streets.

Carson glanced at her in surprise but said nothing.

The driver responded that he thought there was an accident ahead that had blocked several streets. He pointed at the flashing lights of emergency vehicles just beyond the barricade at the end of the street.

She continued to make small talk, hoping to put the driver and Carson both at ease—and distract herself from the nexus of fear in her own heart too.

First they ran from a stalker who had sent her two terrifying gifts now. It seemed they had jumped from a fire into an inferno by choosing a city in the throes of chaos.

Just as the driver turned a corner, a white flash preceded a deafening boom of an explosion.

In Italian, Carson shot off orders for him to drive. Fast. Now.

The driver didn’t even have time to react before something hard slammed into the side of the car. The crunch of metal and the shattering noise of glass made her cry out. She threw herarms up to protect herself, but Carson had already hurled his body over hers as a human shield.

She peeked out from under his arm to see the driver sitting up from where he’d been thrown against the door from the impact. Recovering quickly from the crash, he rolled down his window and shook his fist at the other driver who’d barreled into them.

“Are you all right?” he asked Layne and Carson.

“Yes. Just get us the fuck out of here.” Carson slowly unwound his arms from Layne. When she saw the blood streaming down his face from a jagged cut, the result of the broken side window, she cried out.

He swiped a finger over the wound slick with blood. With a wince, she unzipped her purse and fumbled for a small packet of tissues. She pulled out a wad and pressed it to his cheek.

“Get us back to the airport. If you can do it without getting into another accident, there’s another hundred euros in it for you,” he grated out to the driver in Italian just as fluent as hers.

Applying pressure to his wound to staunch the flow of blood wasn’t how she’d seen her dream trip to Lake Como going.

The city streets were clouded with smoke and debris from whatever had blown up. She tried not to be a backseat driver as their vehicle backed up from the tight spot between traffic and the car that just slammed into them. He reversed at a speed that was straight out of a movie. Then whipped the car forward and shot off into an alley so narrow that she braced herself for another impact when they inevitably would get wedged between the old buildings.

The tissue grew soaked with Carson’s blood. Hand trembling, she pulled it away. A fresh welling of blood made her dizzy, but she managed to press another wad of tissue over the cut.

True to his promise, Carson awarded the driver with the hefty tip once they reached the section of the small airport where the jet was waiting. She wasn’t terribly surprised to see Carson was steady as ever when he got out of the vehicle, and positioned his body to protect her from any unseen attacks.

None came. When they boarded the plane and their luggage was back on board too, she looked to the pilot. “I need a first-aid kit.”

He took one look at Carson and nodded. There wasn’t any alarm in the man’s eyes, which settled her own nerves. A moment later, he produced a box of supplies, and she made Carson sit in one of the plush seats so she could tend his wound.

Standing in the aisle, she got out the bandages and antiseptic she’d need. Hovering over him, she dabbed gently at the gash with a thick wedge of gauze.

“What just happened to us?” Her voice came out unsteady. Her knees felt like jelly, and she leaned against his muscled thigh for support.