Page 25 of Hidden Dane
This wasn’t over, but they’d survived, and she had the jewels.
It was a start.
And maybe she’d kiss Dane a few more times before this all ended.
She couldn’t deny whatever this was between her and Dane anymore. She’d always felt it—but tried to stay away because they could never be forever.
Chapter 8
Uriel didn’t mind being Dane when Emily held his hand
While underground, she didn’t panic or scream at the sight of skulls. Not that he expected her to, but he’d never realized how similar they were. She was prepared, with those fake jewels, but that went back to Michael. He’d taught Emily to survive and he owed his biological father for that.
Emily made the world brighter, not that he’d say so, but having her here with him made everything better.
He let the thoughts that she shouldn’t be here at all return as he handed over his credit cards for three separate hotel rooms. Brady was at a hotel near the bank, as previously planned.
He signed the credit card statement and waited for the keys.
The front desk clerk wrote down the three rooms and handed them electronic keys with a folded paper including a map of the hotel. He immediately handed it over to Emily, in her dusty black t-shirt that matched his own. Her room was in the middle of the other two.
Emily accepted the key and smiled at him despite the soot on her cheek. She clutched her blue pocketbook.
Once they were out of earshot of the front desk, heading toward the elevator, he slipped an arm around her waist. “Tomorrow, we go to Paris and the bank.”
She turned and stared at his profile while they walked. He pressed the UP button as she asked, “Isn’t that giving Ted time to steal your box?”
“I hope so.” The three of them stepped into the elevator together.
No one said anything until the doors closed. Emily shook out dust from her short blonde hair—she’d lost her baseball hat in the tomb—and said, “It also gives him time to set a trap for us.”
Henry nodded like he agreed with her, that Ted might set a trap, but their plan was hopefully bulletproof.
They’d used their collective brains, sending Brady toward Paris first. If their idea worked, they’d turn the tables on Ted. They just needed to follow the plan.
Emily stretched like she was exhausted.
Uriel kept his lips sealed. As the elevators doors opened, they shuffled down the white halls toward their room numbers. He quickly talked to Henry, who had the room closest to the elevator, about checking in with Brady. Henry agreed and went into his room with a wave at Emily.
Uriel and Emily paused before her door. He wanted to make her proud, to earn her regard, and hopefully she wouldn’t always think he was a sucker who’d almost killed his real father because his fake father had tried to frame a murder on him. If Emily hadn’t stopped him, perhaps he’d have been successful in that tragedy, but he didn’t want that to define him in her eyes. The truth was that she was perfect and he didn’t want to let her go, not again. He held her lower back. “You need a shower and clean clothes.”
“That takes a half an hour, max.” She stalled near her door.
He glanced around the hall, needing to ensure they were alone as his friends didn’t need to see his weakness.
She turned from him and opened her door, waving for him to follow her inside.
His heart beat a little faster as she switched the light on, but he stayed near the door and spoke in a low voice, “Brady is at a hotel near the bank and he’s going to report to Henry everything he sees. The Paris authorities are alerted to Ted, with his photo. And the bank is now aware he has fake identities. You did great, you know.”
“Thank Michael for training me so well.” She took off her sneakers that were not her usual name-brand style.
And her face had a smudge of dirt on it that she’d freak out about.
Right. He reached for the door handle to leave and said, “Grab a shower, then we’ll have a nice dinner, just the two of us.”
“Like a date?” Her face lit up like Christmas morning.
He held still though adrenaline raced through him. “Is that a problem?”
