Page 66 of Locked and Loaded

"When we came out of the Royal Mansour, and they shot at us, they missed."

"Well, you don't have to tell me that. I was there, remember?"

What was he getting at? She wished he'd get to the point. She was exhausted and irritable and completely discombobulated. One minute they'd been making out in the bathroom, and the next they were running across rooftops in Marrakech. Adrenaline was making her entire body jittery. She was even starting to shake.

He glanced over again. "It's the adrenaline."

"I know what it is." She cut him off. "You don't have to explain everything to me. I'm not an idiot."

He pursed his lips and stared out the front windshield.

Lennox realized antagonizing him wasn't going to get her anywhere, and if she didn't calm down, they'd just end up screaming at each other the entire way. Not that Dragan ever raised his voice, at least not the way she did. He'd certainly never raised it with her. She tried to regroup by reminding herself he just got shot for her.

"Sorry, it’s all been…" She paused, letting out a breath. "What were you saying?"

"Okay. Remember when that happened, Lennox, when they shot and missed?"

"Yes," she said, trying to keep her mouth from shooting off again. Fifteen thousand different sarcastic retorts came to mind.

"And then what happened?"

She ground her teeth. "Then you threw me behind the wheel of the SUV."

"Yes. And then what happened?"

"I ran down the sidewalk."

"Yes. Where were the bullets when you were running down the sidewalk?"

"They were hitting above my head. All the way down."

"Yes." He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Lennox, what does that tell you?"

"What do you mean? What should that tell me?"

She was about to get sarcastic yet again when suddenly what he was saying hit her. "Oh, my God. You think they weren't trying to actually kill me. Because they missed the whole way down." She stared at him. "They were trying to herd me."

He nodded, glancing in the mirror one more time. "Yeah. They were trying to drive you.”

She frowned. “But why didn't you follow me?"

"Because when I tried to move from behind that tire, they shot the curb next to me. Sent it right into my shins, took me a little bit to shake that off. They made sure I couldn't move. The thing is, I think thanks to the delay of me putting you behind the car, by the time you got to the end of the street, the cops were already on the way, and people were paying attention. I think they couldn't risk throwing you in a car then. Or maybe you ran a different direction than they wanted. I'm still not sure. Maybe they wanted you to run to the opposite block, but you went left instead of right."

The weight of what he was saying hit her like a freight train. She pulled in a little gasp of air.

"You think they were trying to kidnap me. But why?"

"Okay. If you believe me that the Lock and Key Society did not take your sister, then I want you to think of it from this perspective. They're trying to get you to tell the world it was the Lock and Key Society. They've given you information; they've given you the reporter contact, but you're not doing it. However, if they kidnap you, rough you up a little bit, but you overhear them talking about the Society, and then you manage to escape…manage being the operative word, they let you go, but you believe you've escaped, then you have firsthand experience. Then you're a believer. And once you're a believer, you're going to go to the cops and spill your guts about what you've heard and all the information you have. You're going to go to that reporter. You're going to go to everybody and scream from the rooftops. And they get what they wanted."

"They get me to spread the lies and take down the Lock and Key Society."

"Yes."

"And then I also get to be the target."

Dragan glanced at her. "What do you mean?"

"Well, from what you've said, the Lock and Key Society sent you to find me. If something like that happened, it only makes sense that they'd send you to kill me."