Beneath the Secrets, Part Two (Tall, Dark & Deadly) by Lisa Renée Jones Page B

activity looking honest.”
    “All right then,” Blake said. “A
drink at one of the restaurants works for me. I’d like to see how
they operate.”
    Ignacio’s gaze flicked back to Kara
and she saw the suspicion in his stare, the hate. “Will she be
joining us?” he asked, as if she wasn’t even there when he was
looking right at her.
    “Yes,” Blake said. “She
will.”
    “Excellent,” he commented. “Always
happy to buy a pretty lady a drink.”
    Oh yes, Kara thought. He was ready
to buy her a drink all right, and then find a creative way to drown
her in it. He’d decided she was a problem and he’d stay away from
her for now, but later, if he had the chance, he’d smash her like a
fly. But he wouldn’t get the chance, she reminded herself. She’d
smash Ignacio long before he smashed her, if Blake didn’t beat her
to the punch. She had a feeling he just might.
    “Pine Street’s the closest
location,” Kara said tightly, seeing this as an opportunity to get
inside the restaurant she’d been scouting for some time, and
perhaps inside the back warehouses the cameras kept her away
from.
    “Pine Street it is,” Blake said,
lacing his fingers between Kara’s. “We’ll meet you there.” He
didn’t give Ignacio a chance to reply. He pulled Kara with him and
started walking toward the parking garage. His pace was steady and
calculated, but she could feel the urgency building inside him, the
fire about to combust. It was as if the instant they stepped away
from Ignacio, something inside him snapped. Had something just
happened or had he been containing this back there with Ignacio?
And if he was, my God, how?
    “What’s wrong?” she asked the
instant she felt they were safely out of earshot.
    “Not now. Wait.”
    His tone was sharp, his grip on her
hand tight. “Blake—”
    “Not,” he ground out,
“now.”
    Tension crawled inside Kara and
took root, and her hand went to her purse to once again grasp her
weapon. She could only assume someone must be following them, close
enough that he feared they would be heard if they spoke, or worse.
That they were about to be attacked and he was trying to hear a
perp’s approach. Ignacio was as low as they came. It would be
nothing for him to kill them right here and now. And, as he’d said,
he was good at getting rid of bodies. She knew that for a fact.
Knew it in an intimate way she wished she didn’t.
    The entrance to the parking garage
came into view and Blake seemed to speed up, not slow down at the
dimly lit tunnel it resembled. Kara relaxed marginally, seeing that
as a sign he felt they were leaving the trouble behind.
    Once the truck was in sight, Blake
clicked the automatic locks and she rushed to her door and climbed
inside, pulling the door shut. She turned to Blake as he did the
same, intending to ask questions when he slammed his hands down on
the steering wheel. Kara flinched.
    “Fuck, fuck, fuck!” he exclaimed,
raking fingers through his hair, long, dark strands falling from
the tie at his nape and hanging around his face. His grip closed
into a vice around the wheel and Kara could see his muscles
quivering as he grappled with whatever had him in knots.
    She held her breath, waiting
expectantly, long seconds ticking by, while Blake clearly stood on
the edge of a proverbial cliff about to jump. Kara could feel his
tension and she actually felt herself tremble, her stomach knotting
with the pain and torment that radiated off of him. Whatever the
darkness was that she’d sensed in him the first time she met him
had been triggered. Something had reached in deep and dragged it to
his surface. It was crazy, but on some unexplainable level, she
knew this man, and understood him, knew he was motivated by some
deep hurt that carved him inside out. The idea that she could
understand an enemy and make him human rather than a monster was a
terrifying thought. She wanted to reject the idea. But she
couldn’t. Not with Blake.
    She didn’t give