Her plan? Scream and run.
He pelted across the roof at top speed and vaulted to the next, heedless of the distance to the unforgiving ground below, always keeping his quarry in sight. The slight form was only a short distance ahead of him, although down on the sidewalk, and he could see a purse dangling from one hand.
The fugitive pushed through the traffic of morning pedestrians, knocking down several and overturning a cart full of fruit in the process. Apparently frustrated with these obstacles, the thief ducked into a vacant alleyway and continued on at a good clip. Fraser changed his course in compensation without slackening his pursuit.
He took his eyes from the street for a moment to survey the upcoming terrain. The path he followed would peter out soon, so he had to find a way to reach ground level without falling too far behind. He spotted the truck right away, parked tantalizingly beneath an accessible fire escape.
While the purse snatcher paused to scramble over a fence, Fraser dropped onto the fire escape, hopped down to the top of the truck, and jumped from there to the ground. He looked up--
--just in time to see Caine step out of a shadow and grab the fugitive's wrist. With a smooth motion, the priest deftly relieved the figure of the stolen purse. The figure struggled, but Caine held its arm pinned securely.
"Let me go!"
Benton froze at the sound of that voice. He hadn't recognized her in the jacket and sunglasses with her hair shoved under a baseball cap, but her voice was seared indelibly into his heart. "Victoria?"
Caine released her and she stumbled forward two steps before regaining her balance. "Ben?" She smiled. "I knew you would come for me."
He could only stare, his mind numb. He had known she was in town, of course, but after the bust the previous night he had never expected her to show up. He had thought she would've been long gone. "Victoria? What are you doing here?"
"I came for you, Ben."
"For me? But--"
"When you were shot, when I thought you might die, I felt like an icicle had pierced me clean through. I knew I couldn't live without you. Ben, I want you to come with me."
"I can't..." He had to admit to himself that the idea was very tempting. He could leave town with her, right now. No one would be hurt this time. He would miss Ray, true, and Dief...
As if in answer to his musing, the wolf bounded over the fence, on the trail of what the others had assumed was a petty thief. His lupine sense of smell hadn't been fooled, however; Fraser recalled that he had responded to Victoria's scent even prior to the faked robbery.
And he was mad. He snarled at her, lips drawing back from his fangs in a clearly threatening manner.
Victoria paled and backed away, right into Fraser's arms. She had good reason to be scared; the last time she had been with Dief she had shot him. Not a situation likely to engender feelings of fraternity and goodwill.
"Dief, no!" Fraser ordered. "I said no. I'll take care of her."
The wolf stopped growling and sat, but he focused an expression of ravening hunger at her throat.
Benton looked up at the Shaolin, who stood silently. "What should I do?"
Caine shrugged. "You should follow your heart," he said enigmatically.
It didn't help that she felt so good in his arms. He knew that she was a thief and a murderer, and that if he went with her he would be drawn onto her path, but when she trembled and clung to him for protection he was hard pressed to bring himself to care about those disadvantages. He loved her so much...
But would he then truly have something to regret?
He sighed and bowed his head, bringing his lips close to her ear. "Victoria..."
"Yes?"
"There's something I have to say, before I decide. I'm sorry. I'm sorry that you had to spend so much of your life in prison, and I'm sorry that you believe it was my fault. But I want you to know that...I no longer regret not letting you go." There. He said it. And it felt right.
She tensed in his arms, about to protest, but he had finally realized what his heart called him to say and he could hold it in no more. "Just as I will not regret it now."
"What are you talking about?"
He tightened his grip on her. "Please come quietly. I am turning you over to the authorities."
"How can you?" she pleaded. "Ben--?"
Every word was like a shard of ice as it left his mouth, sharpened by the force of his conviction. "Consider yourself under arrest."