Page 102 of Forbidden Forget-Me-Not

My hands shook slightly on the steering wheel. Not from fear. From relief.

I had just crossed a line I could never uncross.

The question was whether I was ready for when my father came for us. I needed to be ready. That’s all there was to it.

In the rearview mirror, the property lights faded into darkness.

My father still believed he held the reins and that he could spur me into doing what he wanted.

He had forgotten I was raised among stallions that fought back.

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

GORAN

The road out of California felt too smooth and easy for what we had just done.

Kaylani drove the truck like she had been born with her hands on the wheel, keeping the lights low until we hit the main highway. I followed in the SUV, close enough that if anyone tried to pull her over, they would have to go through me first.

It was almost five in the morning, and the sun was kissing the horizon with its deep golden glow. For the first time, daylight felt far more dangerous than night.

Between midnight and four was the holy time for criminals. The world was asleep, and you could pretend you weren’t about to set it on fire. But the moment the clock crept past five, the world started to come alive. Everything shifted, and it became a whole new ballgame.

My phone sat on the console, face down like it was ashamed of the inevitable. I ignored every call and text.

I had done plenty of jobs for the Mikhailov family, but I had never done one that ended with Kaylani committing a felony.

Kaylani believed she had taken her life back. But Dimitri Mikhailov didn’t lose, not in cards, business, women, and especially not when it came to his family.

The SUV’s headlights washed over the back of the trailer ahead. No sway. No panic. Atlas stood steady, as he always did.

I drove with one hand on the wheel, my thumb rubbing over the ring on my finger, turning it again and again until it warmed against my skin.

My wife was a fugitive, and I was her accomplice. It was wrong and yet part of me thought what she did was hot as hell. And it had always been a turn on that she could drive the big truck and trailer. She was smart, determined, tough as nails and all mine.

My only worry was Dimitri. I’d seen him make one phone call and turn a man’s life into a cautionary tale. He didn’t need to get violent when he had the kind of reach he commanded.

We crossed the Arizona state line, and the large welcome sign felt like a sick joke.

Kaylani didn’t stop until we were three hours from the stable and on a stretch of highway that was empty enough to feel private.

She slowed and pulled into a small gas station with a flickering sign, rolling to a stop at the diesel pump. I decided it was as good a time as any to fill up as well.

We didn’t speak at first. We just stared at one another, as if trying to decide if this was real.

“I’ll go in and pay. How much do you need?” I called out to her.

“Eighty at least.”

The inside was in roughly the same shape as the outside. But there was a single pot of coffee brewing that didn’t smell burned. I poured two cups, grabbed some snacks, and enough water bottles to fill a bucket for Atlas, then walked up to the old man behind the counter.

“I’ll take these, and I need thirty on pump four and a hundred on the diesel.”

He nodded without saying a word.

I paid cash, not wanting to risk using my cards, and walked out. Atlas’s window was open, and Kaylani was checking the rig over like a seasoned trucker.