Long Gone Read Free Page A

to ring.
    Then it rang and rang.
    Just as she was sure her call would go to voice mail, he picked up.
    “Donovan. Hello?”  
    F our years of loneliness, fear, and regret strangled Skyler’s voice box. Clutching the receiver with both hands, she pushed his name through her tight throat. “Drake.”  
    His mattress creaked. “Don’t hang up.” He sounded suddenly wide awake. “Please don’t hang up again, you hear me, babe?”    
    “I won’t.” How quickly he’d recognized her voice!
    “Good, now tell me what’s wrong.” 
    Where to start? “C-centurions came for me again. This is the third time it’s happened.”
    “What’s the program doing about it?”
    “Nothing. I ran away. They’re not keeping me safe like they’re supposed to.”
    “Where are you now?” 
    “In a motel room in—”
    “Wait! Don’t say it. All I need is the room number.”
    “Um…” It took her a moment to remember. “314.”
    “Got it. Don’t go anywhere, babe. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
    “Wait, h-how will you find me?” Panic made her heart race. “When will you get here?” She was terrified of letting him go.
    “ Soon, sweetheart. Believe me, I could find you anywhere.”
    His answer assured her that there was no Mrs. Drake Donovan lying in bed next to him. Thank God . Drake was going to rescue her, just like he had four years ago when she’d been faced with an arranged marriage to her father’s peer, Ashton Jameson.
    “I’ll be here,” she whispered.
    Her only answer was silence. 
     

Chapter Two
     
    Drake forced himself to hang up. God knew he didn’t want to. Skyler’s voice was manna to his hungry heart, and she so clearly needed him, too. 
    But he couldn’t risk the off-chance that the mob was listening to his calls—not that he could see how. His cell phone had been issued by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uncle Sam had deemed it secure and untraceable. On the other hand, his affection for Owen Dulay’s daughter had been no secret to the mob four years ago. If Centurions thought Sky might contact him someday, they’d keep tabs on him for as long as it took.
    He should never have given her his phone number. But the thought of being apart from her had been more than he could bear.
    Luckily, she’d only called him a handful of times and, better still, she hadn’t even spoken. The only way he’d even guessed she was the caller was by the aching silence that echoed his greeting. One call had been from Omaha, another from Portland, and the most recent from Myrtle Beach.
    He checked his caller ID. She was still in Myrtle Beach. A special program on his cell phone pinpointed her coordinates.
    He leapt out of bead, stripping as he stalked into his bathroom in the basement of his mother’s house in Arlington, Virginia.
    Skyler’s words replayed in his head as he showered.
    How could Centurions have found her in the first place, let alone three times? WITSEC had a flawless record. No one in their protection had ever been targeted—until now. Obviously, something was amiss with the program. Once he joined her down in Myrtle Beach, he’d assess the situation and decide what to do.
    As he toweled off, he pondered the fastest way to reach her. Driving to Myrtle Beach would take about nine hours. A commercial flight, with all the hassles of airport security checks, would consume at least five. Skyler needed him now.   
    Damn it, he would have to ask his father for help. If Connor Donovan weren’t his boss in the FBI’s Undercover Division, Drake would have nothing to do with the man since he’d walked out on his wife after twenty-seven years of marriage. But Connor had a pilot’s license and he owned his own small plane.
    Swallowing his pride, Drake dialed his father’s number and set his cell phone on his dresser in speaker mode so he could finish dressing.  
    Connor answered on the second ring. “What happened?”
    Clearly there had to be a calamity for Drake to