High-Stakes Affair Read Online Free PDF Page A

for a moment, peering at the commotion outside the casino, then gave up and went inside.
    Paloma exhaled. She’d dodged one bullet, at least. But then the shadows beside her swirled, and she whipped around. “It’s me,” Dante said, emerging from the darkness.
    She pressed her hand to her chest. “You scared me. I thought you were a guard.”
    “Sorry.” He stepped closer, moving into a circle of light, and she caught the tension lines bracketing his mouth.
    Her belly tightened again. “What happened?”
    “I’ll tell you later. Let’s get out of here first. My car’s at the edge of the lot.”
    Not seeing an alternative, she fell in beside him, but her anxiety ratcheted up a notch as they went across the lot. Something had put that worry in his eyes, but what?
    Still mulling that over, she wove behind him through the rows of parked cars. People streamed around them, chattering about the night’s events. Paloma ducked her head, hoping no one recognized her—a complication she didn’t need.
    Dante stopped beside a dinged-up hatchback. “Get in. It’s not locked.”
    Surprised at his choice of cars, she climbed inside. While she buckled her seat belt, Dante grabbed a knapsack from beneath a nearby shrub and tossed it into the back. Then he slid into the driver’s seat and fiddled with some loose wires under the dash.
    She blinked. “You stole this car?”
    “I was trying to stay anonymous.” He shot her a pointed look. “A lot of good that did.”
    She dragged her gaze to the windshield as the old car stuttered to life. She’d definitely fouled up. Getting caught on camera with Dante would create exactly the kind of publicity she’d hoped to avoid—and put innocent people at risk.
    Including him.
    Although innocent hardly described Dante Quevedo. She cast a glance at his profile as he drove through the gravel lot. She skimmed his dark, stubbled jaw, his big hands grasping the wheel, the heavy bones of his wrists. And that restless feeling quivered through her, that primitive, carnal awareness he’d evoked in her from the start.
    Determined to ignore it, she turned her gaze to the blackened forest as they left the grounds of the casino and whizzed down the mountain road. Dante disturbed her, all right. And she never should have enlisted his help. Now he was mired with her in this muddled mess—and it was up to her to get them out.
    He shifted to a lower gear. The car slowed abruptly, jerking her against the seat belt, the engine protesting with a high-pitched shriek. He hit the brakes, slowing them even further, and steered the car off the road. The beams from the headlights bounced across the trees as they bumped over the rocky ground.
    “What are you doing?” She braced her hand against the dashboard as the car lurched through a rocky ditch. “Why did you leave the road?”
    “They’ve set up a roadblock closer to town.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “I overheard some people talking in the parking lot.”
    She frowned. “You think they know that Gomez is dead?”
    “No. They’re looking for you. Your bodyguard got a good look at me before the lights went out. When he woke up and couldn’t find you, he probably figured I’d kidnapped you.”
    Oh, God. Dante was right. That was exactly what Carlos would think. She sank back against the seat, fastening her gaze on the passing timber as the implications sank in. Her father would act at once. He’d scour the countryside, mobilizing the military and mounting an all-out search.
    Her forehead suddenly throbbing, she pressed her fingers to her temples and tried to think. “I’ll straighten this out as soon as I get home. I’ll call my father and let him know that I’m all right.”
    “He’s not going to believe you.”
    “Why not?”
    Dante swerved again. “They saw us together in the hall, and we were running away from the guards. How are you going to explain that?”
    “I’ll say I was lost, that you were helping me find my way out.