Walker (Bowen Boys) by Kathi S. Barton Page B

where he
had parked, but if he parked in her driveway then his vehicle was toast too, or
soon would be. As soon as she told him to go, he gunned it out the now missing
wall in what was once the back. He moved along the debris covered yard like the
hounds of hell were after him.
    “My truck in on fire.”
    She glanced back and saw it was. Using
the small remote on her phone, she punched in another code and his truck
exploded in flames as it reached for the sky. As it came back down to rest on
the large hole that was once her yard, it exploded again, this time
obliterating the entire thing.
    ~~~
    Walker didn’t say anything. Actually, he
wasn’t sure what to say. Or even to ask. She’d blown up his truck as well as
her house. He glanced over at her and could see that she was in pain. And a
great deal of it. He wanted to let her suffer, but couldn’t. Reaching into his
pocket, he pulled out the prescription that he had picked up for her when Jane
had said her pain pills had been lost. He wondered, not for the first time, if
she’d lost them on purpose.
    She stared at it for several seconds
before she popped it in her mouth and swallowed it dry. He knew then she was
hurting more than he could see. He turned where she said and decided that he’d
been patient enough. “What is it you do for a living?” He thought that was the
best way to start. “I know you claim to be a school teacher, but I think that’s
bullshit now.”
    “I work for the United States
government. I also work with the CIA when they need me. The house was mine and
I will pay you for the truck.” He didn’t think it could get more surreal than
it was right now. “My boss, an operative for a group of people that the CIA
doesn’t control, just tried to have me killed. As I think on it, he is probably
the reason those other men were able to get into my house so easily. He had
helped them.”
    “The men who were chasing you.”
    She nodded.
    “And now that you have no house, where
do we go?”
    “ I go to my own version of a safe
house after I drop you off somewhere.” She laid her head back and closed her
eyes. “There’s a hotel up Route Forty that you can stay at until I make
arrangements for you to get another vehicle.”
    As she listed to the side, he wondered
if she thought he was actually going to leave her after this. When her head
leaned onto his shoulder he shifted on the seat and helped her lay across his
lap. He didn’t know what the hell was going on, but he was reasonably sure that
whatever it was she wasn’t going to tell him willingly. He decided that he was
going to keep her safe even if she shot him.
    Smiling, Walker pulled out his cell
phone and called his brother. Khan answered on the first ring. This was not
going to go well from his tone. At this point Walker was pretty sure he didn’t
care.
    “I’m with Caitlynne. And I won’t be
coming back there until you can be civil to her and treat her as my mate.”
    When Khan started cursing, Walker simply
hung up. He was ready to toss the phone out the window when it rang again. He
answered because the caller ID said his dad.
    “You pissed him off something horrible. You
tell him to fuck off or else?”
    Walker laughed at his dad’s humor.
    “I hope to hell so. Someone needs to put
him in a place where he needs to see reason.”
    “I won’t be coming home again until he
can promise me he’ll treat her respectfully.” His dad laughed again. “Do you
think that’s even possible?”
    “Yes. And as much as I hate to agree
with you, I think this is best. Keep me in the loop, son. I don’t want anything
to happen to… That girl, didn’t Jane say she lived on Blueberry Avenue?”
    “Yes. And yes, it was her house. I’ll
explain to you later.” As soon as he figured it out. “I’m going to stay with
her. I don’t know where yet, but I’ll be in touch.”
    He ended up at a hotel on the same route
she’d said, but not sure which one she had thought of. Walker had