Free No Time to Hide by Karen Troxel Page A

take him to the infirmary just in case.”
    Dom turned his back on the mop-up scene. He really hated it when he lost control. It wasn’t acceptable. Neither was incompetence. Obviously things within the organization had grown lax in his absence. He had a lot of business to take care of when he was released in less than three days. And people would pay for their incompetence.
     

CHAPTER 4
     
    Saturday, 7:00 P.M.
    Cutter looked over at his latest case and watched as she rocked, then held herself still, then rocked some more. The rocking was oddly reassuring. Her voice had been calm and collected when she’d asked questions about what they were doing. In fact, her demeanor through this whole ordeal had been much too calm. But the rocking, which she’d done in the mall when he first met her and was now doing again, was a sure sign things on the inside weren’t quite the reactions of the calm, cool veteran of this kind of action she presented on the outside.
    He felt his heart soften toward her a little and wished he could tell her something to reassure her.
    He went over his mental file on her. She was twenty-five, but at a glance, wearing the tee and leggings with those amazing, shapely legs, she didn’t look a day over sixteen. Jailbait.
    Her blue eyes and startling strawberry blonde hair were like a beacon claiming “bohemian—trouble here.” All together it made an enticing, way-too-noticeable picture that told his body to stand at attention and howl at the moon.
    “You won’t do.”
    “I’m sorry?” Kerry said. “No, I’m confused. What am I supposed to do? I know I don’t look the best, but all my clothes are at my apartment. These are all I have to wear. If we can stop somewhere, maybe I can rinse the blood out of the shirt.”
    Cutter shook his head. “That’s not what I mean.”
    “Now I’m even more confused.”
    “You stand out like a sore thumb. Didn’t they tell you not to do anything to call attention to yourself? Look at that hair. It’s like a signal.”
    “Well, what am I supposed to do? My hair is naturally blonde. In my last town, they had it black. In the town before that, I had brown hair. Dom found me anyway. I’m running out of hair color possibilities here.”
    Cutter sighed. She was right. But… Keeping one hand on the wheel, he reached over and felt the long curls. They were soft and shimmering. He had an instant picture of him wrapping that hair around his wrist, pulling her hair back, and savaging her neck and more as she moaned her pleasure.
    “What you need is to get rid of the curls.” He paused, remembering the time his sister had come home from school with bubble gum in her hair. “How about a pixie?”
    “A pixie?” Kerry’s voice and face were a study of horror. But she was so cute Cutter could barely stifle his chuckle.
    “But I haven’t done more than trim my hair for nearly five years.” Before he could respond, she sighed and added, “But if you think that’s the only way… Maybe I could get a wig.”
    She started fingering a necklace that had been hiding under her t-shirt as she considered the options.
    Again, he felt the tug of attraction he ruthlessly suppressed. He had to concentrate on the important aspects of this job. First, he had to keep both of them alive. That job had suddenly gotten more complex.
    So far, she hadn’t connected the most crucial and glaring fact of this whole thing.
    The safe house they’d left was so safe it wasn’t on any property or tax books in the world. There wasn’t power going in there to follow electrical lines. No record of utilities or anything, despite having all the modern amenities.
    There were only three people in the whole western New York region that knew its location before they arrived. Four after they got there. Since one of the foursome was himself, Cutter knew he had more of a problem than just keeping them safe. As he drove them down Route 62 to Niagara Falls, his mind worried three options. Was it