Hot Protector(6)

“I put nothing past him.”

The bad feeling in his gut was growing stronger. “Why didn’t you use a fucking pay phone then?”

She looked distressed. “I didn’t have a lot of time. I left Grigori’s place and went straight to the shipping office and then the train station. I didn’t even go home first!”

If she wasn’t just doing this for attention, if this wasn’t a joke—

The dog’s frantic barking ceased abruptly.

Fuck, that probably wasn’t good.

“You don’t have the phone with you, right? Please tell me you ditched it.”

She frowned. “Well, yes, I have it. I turned it off though. I thought you could wipe it for me.”

Chase erupted from the couch and stalked to where she stood. Her eyes widened and alarm skated over her features.

“Hand it the fuck over. Now.”

She dug into her purse and pulled out an innocent-looking Android phone. Chase snatched it and went down the hall to the bathroom, Sophie on his heels the whole way. She might be doing this for attention, making mountains out of molehills, but he wasn’t taking fucking chances.

You didn’t stay alive in his world by ignoring your gut when it started giving you funny vibes.

“What are you doing? Wait a minute, why—?”

Chase dropped the phone in the toilet and closed the lid. Sophie stood there with her mouth hanging open. Indignation crossed her face as he stalked past her toward the bedroom.

“Why did you do that? It could be debugged—every contact I have is in there! Everything I am—my photos, my texts—”

He spun on her, wanting like hell to grab her shoulders and shake her. Then he wanted to smash his mouth to hers and take her in a hard kiss.

Whoa, where the fuck had that come from?

“Androv is the big time, sweetheart. Turning it off—shit, you probably can’t turn it off. If what you say is true, then it’s very likely been recording everything and transmitting it back to your boyfriend.”

She gasped, her hand slapping over her mouth in horror. Not entirely stupid then. She knew what it meant if Androv had heard what she’d just said about the flash drive and Paris.

He shoved past her and went to grab his bugout bag with his weapons and papers. It might be a false alarm, but he was taking her to HOT HQ and figuring this shit out there.

Something pinged against metal. And then it happened again. Chase threw himself at Sophie and grabbed her, dragging her down to the floor as he did so. There was a whoosh—and then his apartment erupted in flame.





4


Sophie was too shocked to scream. The weight of Chase’s body pressed her into the floor for only a moment before he scrambled up and jerked her to her feet. The front of his apartment, where they’d been standing only moments before, was ablaze. Fire licked at the walls and glass shattered.

“Come on,” he said roughly, tugging her toward the back of the apartment and away from the flames.

Sophie’s heart hammered, but she did as he asked. This was not her area of expertise, that’s for sure. Chase grabbed the bag he’d dropped when he’d tackled her and then raced into another room. He jerked on a pair of boots, then fell to the floor and shoved an area rug aside to reveal—a trapdoor?

Sophie blinked. Who the heck had a trapdoor in their apartment?

Chase produced a weapon from somewhere, and then he yanked the door open and waited a few seconds. When nothing happened, he snagged a pillow from the bed and dropped it through the opening. Still nothing. He looked up at her.

“I’ll go down first, but you better be right behind me. If you’re scared of heights or the dark, now’s not the time to let that stop you. Your life depends on it, got that?”

Sophie nodded. Chase dropped his bag down the hole and then started down the ladder. Sophie scrambled over and found the rungs of the ladder with her toes. Her heart rocketed and her breath came in pants. Slowly, she let herself down, her legs and arms shaking. The heat from the flames was growing unbearable, pulling her breath from her body, wrapping around her throat.

A hand gripped her hip, and she nearly jumped out of her skin. But it was Chase, of course. He grasped her hips with both hands and steadied her as she came down the ladder. Before her feet touched the ground, he picked her up as if she weighed nothing and set her on the floor.

It was hotter down here. The room glowed orange with the flames licking against the exterior. A dark, low-slung car sat in the garage like a predator waiting to pounce.

“Get in,” he said as he went around to the driver’s side and opened the door. He tossed his bag into the back and dropped down into the seat.

“My purse,” Sophie gasped. “I left it in your apartment.”