Page 17 of The Fixer and the Fugitive

“What kinds of things do you like to eat?”

“I’m not picky,” he said, but his tone suggested otherwise. It was definitely lethargic now and that made her feel bad, but why? For some reason she felt like she’d let him down with her food selection. Not enough vegetables? Maybe he was a health fanatic.

“Also pie,” she added, hating the plaintive note she heard in her tone. He was practically her captive; there was no need to impress him with her shopping prowess. But then his eyes lit again and he squiggled.

“Pie?”

“Yes, pie. A lady in town makes them.”

“What kind of pie?” he asked.

“Huckleberry.”

Now his eyes were blinking rapidly but not in disappointment, more as if he were processing the new input. “I’ve never had huckleberry before. Is it good?”

“I have no idea, but it must be because everything here is made from it. I swear if I see huckleberry kitty litter somewhere I’m moving back to sanity.”

He laughed and, in that weird way, it felt like a victory. But not really. Celeste didn’t want to be tied to him, not in any way, not in the slightest, simplest manner. She had survived her entire adult life with no attachments. Now was not the time to form one, not with someone temporary, someone untrustworthy, someone who looked a bit too like men she’d spent the better portion of her career hunting and eliminating.

When she gave herself a mental shake, Sam was staring at her in that way that was becoming familiar, as if he were assessing her the way she was trying to asses him. He definitely had questions about her. So far he’d kept them to himself, but she couldn’t hold him off forever, especially not if he stayed for any length of time. But of course he wouldn’t stay for any length of time. She forced a bit of sternness into her expression, hard to do when he was staring at her with his cow eyes, big and brown and fringed with long lashes.Kind eyes,she thought and banished it. She had no idea if he was kind, but she doubted it. Being in The Colonel’s world meant you’d done enough and seen enough to eschew kindness from your life, possibly forever. When you saw so much bad, it became hard to find the good.

“Tell me again how you got shot,” she commanded. All he’d had time to say before Elliot arrived was that someone local shot him when he was trying to find her house.

“I paid a coyote to bring me over the border from Canada, but it’s not the sort of service that extends door to door. He dropped me at the end of the road. Nothing is marked here, however. The Colonel gave me a description of your car, along with your license plate.”

Celeste hadn’t informed The Colonel that she’d gotten a new car, and she certainly hadn’t told him what it looked like. One of his hackers must have found out. She fought a shudder. It was no fun to be spied on, even if it was for a good cause. No matterwhere she went, even here in the middle of nowhere, she wasn’t far enough to avoid detection.

“I was creeping toward what I thought was the house, intent on looking for a vehicle, when a man stepped onto his porch and shot me.”

She blinked at him. “Just like that?”

“Just like that.”

“No warning?”

“No warning. One moment I was looking for a car, the next I was shot and scrambling for my life.”

“That’s insane. This isn’t Afghanistan. We’re not in a war zone. You can’t shoot someone without asking who they are or why they’re there.”

“There we agree. However, I do not think this is a place like any other. The land is remote, self-sufficiency a necessity. Perhaps he’s been robbed before.”

“Are…are you defending the man who shot you?”

His answering smile was wry. “I’m afraid I have the terrible habit of always seeing both side of an issue. It’s my fatal flaw.”

“Literally,” she said. Unconsciously she tapped the spot above his wound and then yanked her hand back.No touching,she reminded herself. It was much easier to keep herself in check if she followed all her rules. No touching was definitely at the tippy top.

Sam seemed not to have noticed the touch, nor her hasty retreat. “And what about you? What brings you to this wild and unsettled realm?”

She stared at her hands as she answered. “I recently retired. Thought I would try country living for a change.”

“A city dweller, are you?”

She gave a slight nod.

“Which city?”

“Most of them.”

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