Page 13 of Kiss Me if You Can
Though she sighs, she nods. “I’ll concede, but only because I want you to have as much time as you need. We need to find a computer that’s still logged in because we don’t have a library card to use.”
She resituates her crutches and then leads the way, even though I feel like I should be the one taking charge. This is my problem we’re trying to fix, and we’re in my city. But I follow her anyway, trying to breathe in deeply like she said. Hopefully, I won’t need much time to get some more information, but I have to make sure no one realizes what I’m doing or they might alert someone. The last thing I want is for the feds to come storming into the library.
“If something goes wrong,” I mutter, stepping as close to Isla as I can while we walk, “you have to pretend you have nothing to do with me. The FBI can’t do anything to you if they don’t know you exist.”
She pauses, looking back with her eyebrows pulled low. “You want me to just leave you behind?”
“Yes.” No. I don’t actually want that. I don’t know why, but I want to spend as much time with her as I can, and that’s a huge problem. Even if I manage to evade the FBI long enough for Isla’s meeting to go smoothly, I can’t run from them forever. I’ve gotten lucky so far, and without some way to clear my name and prove my innocence—against what, I still don’t know—I’ll be a fugitive until I’m caught. Any time I spend with Isla is borrowed time, and I can’t afford to get attached.
Isla doesn’t respond to my request, instead keeping her focus on the row of computers at the back of the library. “Aha!” she gestures to one that isn’t on the login screen, though a little timer at the bottom says I only have fifteen minutes before I’m logged out. “Your sword, Sir Percival.”
I slip into the chair and open up the browser. It’s going to have all sorts of blockers and filters, which will take time to work around. “I’d call this more of my steed,” I mutter, losing myself in the process. I keep a small amount of my focus on the woman next to me, but I’m banking on her paying attention to our surroundings because I only have so much focus to go around. “My intelligence is my sword.”
Isla snickers. “Nice and humble, I see.”
“I’m good at what I do.”
She’s quiet for a few minutes, giving me a chance to start digging into surveillance footage of the street just beyond the park. There weren’t any cameras at that particular park, which is why Hadley chose it, but maybe I can find something beyond it. I’ll only hack into the FBI’s feed as a last resort because I won’t be able to hide my location if I get inside. They’ll be on me in minutes.
“Do you know what this reminds me of?” Isla asks after a while. She’s spinning back and forth in her chair like she’s bored.
I grunt.
“It’s like that scene in Captain America, you know? Where he and Black Widow are at the mall and trying to locate the bad guy.”
“I never saw that movie.”
“Boo. It’s so good!”
I flash a quick smile. “I haven’t seen a lot of movies lately. I’ve been too busy trying to protect the world against people like me.”
“What’s funny about the scene is one of the employees comes up to them, and they have to cover what they’re trying to do. Natasha says they’re looking for a honeymoon destination, and the guy totally buys it even though there’s no way he wouldn’t recognize Captain America.”
“Uh huh.”
“Wouldn’t it be funny if we had to do something like that? Of course, I would be Captain America in this scenario.”
She says that right as I pull up a satellite video of the park in the hopes of getting a sense of where everything was happening and what might be happening now. Though there’s not much activity in the park right now, I’m glad I pulled this up. My bench is there in plain view, but there’s a large bunch of shrubs right behind where I was sitting that I didn’t notice. The street is right behind those shrubs, but it’s not the street where the FBI van was. They were on the other side of the park. That feels like a serious oversight on the FBI’s part, when pretty much anyone could sneak up on me. Did they do that on purpose to make it easier to take me out?
But it was Fields who pointed his gun at me. In plain sight. The FBI aren’t known for flashing their guns unless they absolutely have to.
What if he wasn’t pointing at me after all?
“Do you two need help finding anything?”
I jump at the sound of a soft, feminine voice, heart stuttering in my chest and my breath catching in my lungs.
A middle-aged librarian glances between us before locking her eyes on my computer screen. It’s not necessarily odd to look at a satellite image, but because this is most definitely a live video, she seems to be putting pieces together as she looks at the other tabs I have pulled open. And when she looks back at me, recognition sparks to life in her eyes.
Suddenly, Isla throws her arms around me from behind and tucks her chin over my shoulder. “We’re trying to find a venue for our wedding!” she says loudly.
The librarian shushes her and takes a step back. “That’s a lovely park,” she says, her voice hushed to demonstrate proper library etiquette. “When is the big day?”
“End of November.” Still too loud, Isla presses a kiss to my cheek that leaves a burning spot behind. “I just about died when I saw that fountain. Can’t you imagine a bunch of lights strung around the place and the water splashing as a backdrop to the ceremony?”
I don’t know if she’s asking me or the librarian, but I have nothing to say regardless. I’m still trying to catch my breath again. Weirdly, Icanimagine it, though. And I can see Isla in a stunning lace dress that highlights her slender frame and leaves my mouth feeling dry.
“My Percy told me I could have whatever I wanted. Isn’t he just the sweetest?” She kisses me again, pressing her hands against my chest in a far too familiar way for someone I met only a couple of hours ago.
