Page 13 of Marked

“Do you have precognitive abilities I’m not aware of?”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“You can’t see the future, Noah. How could you possibly think what happened tonight was on you?”

“I let my guard down?—”

“Because we’re inmygoddamn house, Noah. Mine!” Ishouted, shoving my thumb hard into my breastbone. “It’s notyoursanctuary they breached, notyourflesh they filleted open, and notyourthroat he wrapped his fucking hands around.”

My anger melted away as quickly as it had appeared. Suddenly, I felt exposed and vulnerable, a position I swore I’d never be in again after my best friend disappeared when we were in high school.

They’d searched for Beth for months while I stood on the sidelines praying for good news, which never came. When her body was discovered and the atrocities she suffered came to light, I turned to the FBI in order to protect others from becoming a statistic. My badge was meant to shield me from the ugliness in the world, instead it led that shit straight to my door.

“Wounds heal, Lanie,” he sighed as his fingers worked deftly, applying suture strips to close the cut next to my eyebrow. “It’s the scars they leave behind which have the greater impact.”

“Where are your scars, Noah?” I probed.

Sapphire blue eyes snapped to mine. “I’ll show you one day.”

Right as we drove away from my house, Noah called Waverly as promised.

“We left a gift for you at Lanie’s,” he said in lieu of a greeting.

“Oh yeah? What kind of gift?”

“The Russian kind.”

If I thought I’d heard every cuss word in the English language, she proved me wrong with the ones she fired off.It was highly impressive, to the point where I took note of the more creative ones for later use. Once she finished her tirade, she assured us everything would be handled.

That conversation had taken place four days ago. We’d been on the road ever since, taking the scenic route to a destination I still hadn’t disclosed. Each morning, I plugged a new location into the GPS, and Noah drove us there without so much as a hint of irritation. It was very un-Noah-like. He thrived on control, though not in a bad way. Every move he made—both professional and personal—was calculated and well thought out. Maybe it was the reason I was still keeping him in the dark. Part of me wanted to see how the unflappable Agent Anderson would handle the culture shock he was about to experience.

By the next night, I was getting antsy. The time had come to stop screwing around. Instead of taking the anticipated seven days, we’d be arriving at our hideout the next afternoon. Truthfully, we could’ve made it there today, but I was being selfish. I wanted a little more time with just the two of us before all hell broke loose.

“I got you a mushroom cheeseburger and fries,” Noah announced as he pushed through the door of our latest hotel room.

“Thanks.”

There were two queen-sized beds taking up the majority of the space. I was sitting crisscross in the middle of the one farthest from the door and windows when he handed me the nondescript white paper bag. The smell of grease and grilled meat permeated the air, making my stomach grumble.

Tearing open the bag, I shoveled a handful of hot, potato yumminess into my mouth. Food had never tasted so good, considering my appetite went south around the sametime I’d been attacked in my own damn home. Even though the cut on my head was mostly healed, the lingering twinge of pain was a constant reminder of the fact I’d let someone get the jump on me. I was still salty over it and probably would be for a while.

The mattress dipped beside me, halting my self-deprecating thoughts.What was he doing?There was a perfectly good bed right next to this one he could stretch out on.Hisbed, to be more precise. Well, whatever. He’d paid for the room, so if he chose to eat his dinner in the bathtub, I wouldn’t stop him.

Ignoring Noah—who was a little too close for comfort—I chewed and swallowed until I’d devoured every last bit of my meal. When we were both finished, he gathered our trash, tossing it in the nearby can before returning to his previous position.

“I’ve given you five days, now it’s time for us to clear the air.”

I stiffened, my pulse skyrocketing. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Our kiss wasn’t the mistake, Lanie.” He shifted, using two fingers to tilt my chin up so we were eye to eye. “The fact we’d both had way too much to drink was. I didn’t want there to be any doubts when it came to my feelings for you. Looking back, my choice of words could’ve been better.”

“Ya think?” I choked out a nervous laugh. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You didn’t exactly give me the opportunity.”

He had me there. I’d immediately shut down that night, assuming he was rejecting me, rejecting us.How could I have been so wrong?Hindsight was a nasty bitch.

“You’ve had days to bring this up. Why now? Why the urgency?”

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