Page 18 of The Blonde Who Came in from the Cold
“But...”
“You stand out. And you’re reckless and dangerous and arrogant as hell, and you’re going to get someone killed someday. I just hope I’m far away when it happens.”
They were still too close. Her eyes were too big and her breath was too warm, but he couldn’t help but press against her—nothing but sweaty skin and stares like lasers and two pounding hearts in the shadows when he whispered, “Say mercy.”
But she didn’t.
Not for a long, long time.
Chapter Nine
Present Day
The Desert
Alex
The door was standing open, and outside, the night was quiet and still. After the darkness of the shack, it felt like broad daylight, the way the full moon shone overhead. They were surrounded by at least a billion stars, but absolutely nothing else. No trees. No buildings. Just a chilly wind and dry air and miles of rocks and sand and—
“Desert,” King grumbled. “Of course we’re in the middle of the desert.”
But that was hardly their only problem because Alex was looking around, and realizing—
“There’s no car? Seriously? Tweedledee and Tweedledee-er—”
“That’s not how that goes—”
“Couldn’t have left a vehicle conveniently parked outside?”
“Someone must have dropped them off.”
“Ya think?” She spun on him, but he went on, colder than before. Still put together. Almost unmussed and certainly unfussed, as if he had been pulled from a very important meeting and was eager to get back to the office.
“Of course, we would have known that if it hadn’t been for the yapping—”
Alex couldn’t help herself. She jerked her arm and felt the handcuff bite into her skin. It was worth it when he growled, “Ow.”
“Oops,” she said. Then she looked around. “I would say we should split up and vow to never see each other again, except...”She shook their joined hands, rattling their handcuffs and making her point. “Which is a shame. That’s the one thing we can usually agree on.” But something in his gaze made Alex look away when she asked, “How many times would that make? Cartagena? The Amalfi Coast? Scotland—”
“I didn’t say it in Scotland.”
It was the first time she’d ever heard him sound defensive, and it should have felt like victory. Instead, she just felt cold.
The moon was high overhead, and they had no way of knowing what was east or west. North or south. Safe or incredibly dangerous. The only thing that was certain was that they couldn’t stay there.
“I’m going that way.” She didn’t know why she pointed to her right. It might have been instinct, or maybe her subconscious had made some calculation that was so minute she didn’t know she’d even done it. But it didn’t matter, because—
“I was going to go that way,” King admitted.
“Then I guess I’ll let you come with me,” she said.
“You’re too kind.”
But what they really were was handcuffed together in the middle of the desert, possibly the only people for a thousand miles in any direction they could trust.
***
They must have walked for hours—a fact made worse by the fact that Alex was wearing a sundress and a pair of flimsy sandals. Her skin had gone sweaty during the fight and was now covered in goose bumps and sand.
