Page 26 of Own

He joined me with the cups of coffee. “Fifteen more and we need to move.” With that word, he passed me a cup and I savored the sweetness. It was nearly as good as the one we’d purchased at theboulangeriein Lyon.

“We can go now,” I offered. “If it’s important.” The hood protected my hair for the most part, but both Goblin and I were more than a little damp. “It was just nice to take a walk.”

“Agreed. We can take fifteen more minutes.” He paused and glanced at his watch. “Make that thirteen and a half minutes.”

The dry delivery pulled a snorting laugh from me. Goblin seemed to be enjoying the walk as much as I was, but Bones seemed far more vigilant. Maybe I hadn’t noticed it before, but he seemed to constantly survey the area around us.

To be fair, we hadn’t spent a lot of time in public spaces, just the two of us. Our interactions usually took place in private or in lockdown—or when he hauled me up to my room and locked me in there.

Jerk.

Oddly, the memory sparked a laugh in me and while Bones shot me a curious look, he didn’t ask. Yeah, I wasn’t going to tell either. That I could look back on it at all fondly was a boon to me.

He didn’t get to share.

Eventually though, we were back in the car. Goblin ate his bacon, eggs, and croissants greedily. “He’s going to be irritated by kibble if we ever get back to feeding him that.”

“He’ll be fine,” Bones said, getting us back on the road. “Foraging is a fact of life, as is eating a regular diet.”

I snorted and he shook his head.

“That wasn’t a dig.”

“I believe you,” I said, saluting him with my coffee cup. “But it’s still funny to think of croissants and bacon as ‘foraging’ versus kibble as a ‘regular’ diet.”

He was silent for a beat then grunted. “I concede the point.” A flash of smile warmed his whole expression, the sun coming out from behind dark clouds. But I barely got a chance to even register it before it vanished again.

The drive took a good portion of the day. He didn’t stay on the motorways entirely. France had a significant number of toll roads. We got off frequently and took country roads and routes.

It was how we ended up eating lunch in a field while Goblin played and we basically had a picnic. Also how we stopped at a quaint pub in an incredibly small town for coffee and chocolate tarts forquatre-heures.

Frankly, the chocolate was divine and it boosted my mood so I didn’t protest it one iota. The lengthy detours had to be keeping people from tracking us, or maybe to kill time. Since Bones didn’t offer any other explanations, I didn’t ask.

Three hours later, he pulled us into a hotel just outside of Villefranche-de-Rouergue, if I was reading the signs right. We’dbasically taken the most circuitous route ever to turn back south again.

This time, Bones checked us in and I stayed in the car with Goblin until he had the keys. He also wanted to check the room out. It was a sleepy area, with little foot traffic and not a lot of nightlife. I wanted to go and explore, but that wasn’t really an option at the moment.

Thankfully, we got to stretch our legs before he ushered Goblin and I upstairs. “I’m going to get us food and charge the car,” he told me. “Keep the room locked, tell Goblin to guard if you need to shower.”

That was fair, we weren’t really in a suite this time. Just a small hotel room with a single bed and a couple of chairs. Well, one rather uncomfortable armchair and another desk chair.

“Gun,” he said, touching the weapon he’d unpacked once we were in the room. “It’s loaded. Safety here. Flick it off, point, shoot.”

Yeah…

My stomach rolled at that one.

“Taser here.” He patted that and something far more like relief crept through me. “And your phone. Any issues at all, call me. Even if you can’t say anything, just call and leave the phone line open.”

An icy kind of sweat seemed to coat me. “How long are you going to be gone?”

“No more than an hour. That’s my plan. Anything in particular you’d like for supper?”

“Honestly?” At the question, he just gave me a bland look. Of course, he meant honestly. “I’d kill for spaghetti.”

Pasta. So. Many. Carbs.

Yes, I wanted all of them right now. I ducked my head as I ran fingers through my hair. It felt kind of grimy. Honestly, all of me did. A shower was a good idea.

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