Sin on the Run by Lucy Farago Page A

wanted her to hide? “What for? He didn’t see me and if he did, I didn’t look like me,” she said, shockingly grateful for the lavender dress. “Very, very few people see me looking different from this.” She indicated her black clothes and heavily made up eyes. “He wouldn’t be able to pick me out in a crowd. My hotel room was even registered under Maggie’s name. So I’m safe. Thanks, but no thanks.”
    After her father had died two years ago, Rhonda had gotten her life back. Actually, that was incorrect—she’d gained something she’d never had, and nobody, nobody, was going to dictate what she was going to do with her life. She answered to no one and was responsible for no one and that’s how it was going to stay.
    â€œRhonda—”
    â€œNo way. I am not in danger, but hide me and whoever wants Blake dead will think I know something. I’m not stupid. Someone, somehow will get wind of this. But put me where everyone can see me and they’ll know I saw nothing.”
    â€œThe feds won’t like that.”
    â€œScrew the feds. It’s Blake they have to protect. Not me.”
    â€œRonnie, maybe you should listen to Horace,” Maggie said.
    â€œSorry, but I’m done listening. I want home, shower and sleep.” She headed for the door and grabbed the handle. “Mags, can you drive me?”
    Maggie looked at Cooper. They exchanged a look that said neither was happy with her but resigned themselves to the fact she wouldn’t change her mind. Maggie knew her so well.

Chapter Five
    â€œY ou have someone watching her, right?” Blake tugged the white sheet off his face.
    â€œOf course,” Christian assured him, looking ridiculous in orderly scrubs and fake beard. He pulled the sheet back over Blake’s face.
    â€œBloody hell, if I’d known she was that stubborn . . .”
    â€œYou’d have asked me for her phone number the moment you saw her walking up the aisle.”
    True, he liked his women feisty, but refusing police protection was ludicrous, her logic flawed. It didn’t matter that whoever had taken a shot at him hadn’t gotten a good look at her. They’d know he’d been with a woman and they wouldn’t stop until they found out who she was. Once they got him out of the hospital and spread the word he’d died, Blake would tell her so. If there was the slightest chance they could identify her, then it was the slightest chance too much.
    He heard his hospital room door open and felt the gurney move as Christian and another federal agent rolled him out of his room. They’d gone all out to make this convincing. One hour earlier, the hospital had called a code blue and a team of trusted doctors and nurses had come running into his room with resuscitation equipment. They’d even removed the guards protecting him, as a dead man needed no protection. This plan of theirs might not work but it could give him a couple of days to disappear before anyone figured out they’d been tricked.
    Blake wasn’t done interrogating Christian about Rhonda’s safety, but now in the hall, he had no choice but to stay quiet. Even in the elevator he had to control his breathing. There were hospital security cameras everywhere and not until they made it to the basement, where the video footage would be replaced with one of their own creation, would Blake be allowed to move.
    The gurney rattled as they wheeled him into the elevator and several seconds later, out again. Once the doors swooshed closed, Christian removed the sheet.
    â€œShould be one hell of a funeral. All those women in black.” His friend smirked. “All your talk about relationships and here I am the one married.”
    â€œOdd, isn’t it.” Blake had nothing against getting married. He, in fact, had had several close calls. But since the day his grandfather had made his intentions clear, things had