East Bound by Nana Malone (best value ebook reader .txt) 📗

When I was free, I took East's hand again. It was warm and waiting. And it felt like coming home.

Stop it. You're not helping yourself.

I followed quickly behind him, nearly tripping through the clash of bodies. And then the relief of fresh air hit me in the face. I was free. East was tugging me with him. He walked briskly, speaking in a low murmur. "Bridge, have everyone check-in."

Ben swore he'd had a tail, but he'd lost him. Bridge too thought he might have had a tail, but he ditched him easily by hopping in a taxi.

Livy had better luck. She'd met up with Telly, did a girlfriend-hug thing, then ducked into a bar. "Yeah, whoever was tailing me ran right by the bar we were sitting in."

Ben breathed a sigh of relief. "All right, you two stay there."

"Drew. Drew, check in."

It took a long moment for Drew to answer. And when he did, he was out front. "Christ. I was still roaming about through the park. These assholes had me jogging for real. It's not even Tuesday."

Every Tuesday, the four of them tried to get together for a run. East had told me Drew was always finding some excuse to beg off. And just as we were about to duck onto a pathway that would have taken us to the next exit from the park, I saw him. Denning. And he was coming directly toward us. I didn't think he’d noticed us yet because he was busy cursing in his earpiece.

I grabbed East then and kissed him deep. He froze. And somewhere in my mind, I could tell myself that he kissed me back, but I couldn't be sure because as soon as Denning passed us, I pulled back. East’s gaze was lazy at first, and then it sharpened to hyper-focused. "What the—"

"Denning. They’re Interpol."

He muttered under his breath. I thought for a brief moment that we were free, and then I heard Denning's voice behind us. "Hey, you two, what are you doing?"

East wasted no time. He took my hand, and we darted down an alley. There were footsteps behind us, rapidly chasing. God, it felt like Monaco all over again.

Despite our pace, East muttered into the coms, "We're exposed. Denning Sinclair might have seen us. We won't make Long River’s point. We'll make the secondary rendezvous."

Secondary rendezvous. That was his penthouse. We made a sharp left and then another right.

We were along the river, when out of nowhere, a chip flew from a stone by East's head.

I shuddered as I gaped. "Fuck, was that a gunshot? What the fuck are they shooting at us for? They're not authorized."

"Fuck, authorized or not, you need to move your arse."

We made another sharp left down a darkened alley. It was another pathway that allowed people to get from pub to pub on that side of town.

"Jesus Christ."

"Come on, Nyla."

We were both moving as quickly as we could, neither of us willing to slow the other down, but we were still holding on for dear life to each other.

Into the coms, East muttered, "Liv, you and Telly should get out of there as quickly as you can. Get in a cab. Get to the secondary rendezvous. They're shooting."

Ben's curse was loud and clear. "Fucking hell. Who the hell is shooting at you?"

East’s breath came out in heavy pants. "I don't know. Go for the secondary rendezvous."

As we ran, we ducked. Then East pulled me to slow down. "Quick change."

He let go of my hand and we both shed our jackets and turned them inside out. My interior was red. His was a lighter blue. We both zipped up, no longer holding hands. I turned my hat inside out to match my jacket. So now, I had a bright red beanie over me. “I’m going,” I muttered as I made a move to go my own way, but East stopped me.

"Don’t."

"The plan is to go separately and meet at point two, right?"

"I don't like it. We should go together."

I knew what he was saying was only for the purposes of keeping Interpol off our asses. I knew that. But I still couldn't hide the warm rush of emotion it gave me. He didn't want me on my own. I nodded. "Okay."

There was a cluster of people up ahead. A street performer did a beautiful rendition of a song, and a crowd of onlookers settled around. East put an arm around my shoulder, nuzzling me. We moved into the back of the crowd to see if we could scoot around them, but they were too packed in. To my left, my gaze caught Bryant. He was an Interpol agent. We had been through training together.

"Up ahead, on your two o'clock."

East muttered. "Yeah, I see him."

Bryant searched out into the crowd, pushing people aside. There was another sharp crack on the stone above my head, and we ducked toward the crowd around us, So did the Interpol agent as he looked around in panicked surprise, wide eyed.

"I don't think it's Interpol that's shooting at us."

East dragged me into a doorway that had a vestibule just big enough to hide our bodies, and he covered mine with his. "Let's stay here for a minute."

The sounds of police cars in the distance sent the crowd dispersing. Everyone was running. Panicked. East looked down at me. "Breathe. We're going to get out of this."

Then Ben's voice was on the coms. "East exit?"

East muttered. "Yeah, east exit."

With his body, he acted as my shield, gave my hand a squeeze, took a deep breath, and then silently mouthed the words, one, two, and three. On the final number, I ran with him, joining the rest of the crowd. As we hit the east exit, there was a black Range Rover SUV waiting at the curb with Ben behind the wheel. The doors swung open, and East shoved me inside and followed right on my heels. Ben was already moving before the door slammed shut.