“What the fuck are you doing?” she shouted, her voice bouncing off the concrete walls. “I thought we were on the same team now?”
Nate took her by the upper arm and led her around the car, where he pulled open the passenger door. “Get in. Watch your head.”
Since he pushed her down by the head, she had little choice as she got in the front seat. He did the knee-on-legs, ponytail-grab maneuver while he buckled her into the seat belt. Then he held up some kind of nylon strap that he fished out from near her lower legs.
“This is in case you’re thinking of getting creative with your feet,” he said, and he buckled it firmly across her lower legs. “So sit still and enjoy the ride.”
He shut her in while she sat there, fuming and tugging at the cuffs behind her. When he leaned into the driver’s side, she shot him a vicious glare.
“What, you’re not stuffing me in the backseat with a cage between us? That’s what the cops did when they arrested me. Wrongfully, I might add.”
He reached in to flip a switch, and she heard the trunk pop open. “And have you behind me where I can’t see what you’re up to? I’d rather not get kicked in the head, thanks.”
Then he disappeared again. After a minute of rooting around, the trunk slammed and he climbed in beside her.
When he stuck a key in the ignition, she frowned. “I thought you said you left your keys behind?”
“I keep a spare set in the trunk.”
The engine fired up, and he wasted no time putting the car in reverse and executing a rapid get-the-hell-out maneuver.
“You lock up your spare keys?” she asked while he whipped around the corner. “Do you not see the flaw in that plan?”
“Did you not see how easily I got around it?”
He glanced nervously into the rearview mirror, and she took a peek at her side mirror as well. No one was running after them, yelling and pointing, and there were no suspicious cars behind them, either. Maybe they were home free.
She glanced at his profile while he focused on traffic. “And what if you’d lost your cell phone too, Einstein? What then?”
“I have a lock pick set in my wallet. Or I could break the window and hotwire the car.” He turned and gave her a quick, annoyingly sexy grin. “I’m a man of many talents.”
She rolled her eyes at him. “Stripping apparently not being one.”
“Why, are you disappointed that you missed that part of the show?”
“You wish. You made a terrible stripper, just so you know.”
“Good enough for you to let me in the door. Among other things.”
“I should have tied those balloons to your nuts and floated you off over the ocean.” The cuffs dug into her skin, and she tried shifting in her seat to take the pressure off. “Putting on handcuffs isn’t among your talents, either. These are breaking my wrist.”
“Just be happy I don’t use the zip-tie kind,” he said, craning his neck as they approached a line of businesses up ahead. “I don’t like them. They get damn tight and can’t be adjusted once they’re on. I’d have to cut you out of them and hope your skin didn’t come off as well.”
“I know,” she said, staring out the window. “I was recently treated to the fab new age of plastic police restraints.”
“Some things are better old school.” He nodded up ahead. “Is there an ATM in that shopping center?”
“How should I know? Do I look like Google Maps?”
“You live here now.”
“I was hiding here now. I didn’t exactly get out much.”
They turned into a line of chain stores and small restaurants, and Nate cruised through the parking lot until he found what he sought. He managed to use the walk-up cash machine without taking his eyes off Lydia, who made faces at him until he came back.
“I’ll say this much for you,” he said when he pulled out of their spot. “I can’t say I’ve had a skip who was more entertaining.”
“Why, don’t you always do a fuck-’em-and-suck-’em before dragging helpless captives down the fire escape?”
“Helpless, my ass.”
“You never did answer me about why you fought those guys. They’re bounty hunters too, right? Isn’t there honor among thieves and all that?”
The look he gave her sent a chill through her, and not the good kind she’d felt when she’d thought he was her birthday present.
“That’s the problem,” he said. “I don’t think they were bounty hunters. Not at all.”
Nate pulled out his phone while he felt Lydia’s eyes burning through him. “What do you mean, they weren’t bounty hunters? They had on all that gear that said so.”