Deep Trouble: A MacKenzie Family Novella (The MacKenzie Family) Read Online Free PDF

at his side, but no way could they just sit here and wait to get blasted.
    “Devon.” She pushed the word out as calmly as possible, but his body tensed all the same. His free hand lifted to her mouth, his forefinger and middle finger applying just enough pressure to keep her from adding to the convo. Kylie noticed then that he’d moved so his mouth was only inches from hers, his breath slow and warm between them, and she scraped for an inhale despite the cold shards of fear spiking all the way through her.
    We’re not going to die . Devon’s voice echoed in her head. His stare pierced the changing shadows, calculating, watching, taking in every shift and nuance. The headlights approached at a steady pace, ratcheting Kylie’s heartbeat faster and faster as the interior of the car grew brighter.
    Devon’s fingers curled against her lips just a fraction harder as if to say, steady…steady…
    And then the car passed by without any fanfare, not even braking as it continued down the side street and off into the dead of the Montana night.
    “Kylie. It’s okay. We’re safe.”
    Her breath escaped in a dizzying whoosh. Afraid that if she opened her mouth to respond, she’d do something stupid like start to cry, Kylie simply nodded, but holy crap, she wasn’t going to be able to keep it together much longer.
    Her boss was dead. Murdered. Fagan was after her; he knew who she was. He wasn’t going to stop until he found her, and when he did, he was going to—
    “Kylie, look at me.”
    Under any other circumstances, she’d probably have bristled at being bossed around. But somewhere between the blood and the bullets and the bad guy, everything had hurtled out of her control, and God, why couldn’t she breathe ?
    “I…I…”
    Nope. No go. Her chest squeezed, constricting as if all the air had been sucked out of the car and replaced with liquid cement. A tremble worked its way up from her very center, and the ripple effect made her shiver and sweat at the same time. Devon’s fingers slid from where they’d been resting over her lips, hooking gently in her hair as he put his face directly in her line of vision.
    “Hey. Hey.” His whisper was soft, so unlike the one that had come before to quiet her and so very unlike his rock-hard demeanor that Kylie blinked, her panic slipping just an inch.
    “There we go, yeah,” Devon murmured. “Look at me.” His thumb found the spot on her jaw just below her ear, smoothing a slow circle over the skin there, and the movement snagged enough of her attention to keep her shaking in check. Sort of.
    Devon leaned in, his chest covering hers in strong, steady warmth. “Whoever was in that car was just passing by, okay? See—no lights. No sounds. Nothing out of the ordinary. It wasn’t our guy.”
    Kylie’s heartbeat continued to slam, the white noise whoosh of her blood pressing hard against her eardrums despite her desire to be tough. “F-Fagan could still be coming. He could still find us.”
    “He could. But we wouldn’t be sitting here for a second if I thought he would .”
    This time, Kylie’s blink was one of slow realization. “So…are we safe? Can we get out of here now?” Please, God, she just needed to get out of here, out of this car and this state and this whole situation.
    “I think we’re okay,” Devon said, although he didn’t let go of her. “But I want to give it a few more minutes, just to be on the safe side.”
    Her throat knotted. “Devon, I can’t. Please, I need to—”
    “Breathe,” he finished, and funny how her lungs got on board with that quiet, commanding voice. “I need you calm, Kylie. I need you with me.”
    With him. Right. She could do this. She could . “Mmkay,” she murmured, although she still wasn’t convinced she was anywhere close to okay.
    Which must have made two of them, because Devon didn’t budge. “What’s your favorite thing to eat for dinner?”
    “What?”
    The question was so ridiculously out of place,