Free NaturesBounty by J. Rose Allister

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.”
    “I’m not the only guy who can put on a costume. Now be quiet
a minute.”
    He ran through the whole scenario again, from the minute
they kicked in her door to the way they had targeted him . As though he,
not the bond jumper, were the actual threat.
    He dialed Asa’s number and waited for him to pick up.
    “There’s a whole lot of something fucked going on,” Nate
said. “This was supposed to be a cake job. Go out easy with a decent severance,
you told me.” He glanced at Lydia in time to catch the look of disgust.
“Instead it’s turned into a clusterfuck. I should raise my fee.”
    “What do you mean?” Asa asked. “You didn’t get her?”
    “What I got was a pair of wannabe cowboys rammed up my ass.
What the hell’s going on, Ace? Who were those assholes who just crashed my
farewell tour?”
    “You’re not making any sense. What assholes?”
    “A couple phony bond agents just broke down the door where
the jumper was holed up. They tried to put a bullet in my parade.”
    He heard Asa swear. “They showed up there?”
    “Yeah. And who’s ‘they’? Do you know those guys?”
    “I’m sorry, man. It wasn’t supposed to go down like that.
They must have followed you there.”
    Nate, who was still staring at