Page 30 of Mercenary
She shakes her head.
“Any favorite places your family liked to vacation? Texas? Corpus Christi?”
“When we were younger, we’d go camping at Lake Eufaula.”
“Arrowhead or Fountainhead Park?”
She bites her lip and gives me a funny look. “Arrowhead. You’ve been to Eufaula?”
I shake my head, and she arches an eyebrow at me. It’s my job to know my surroundings and I’ve spent way too much fucking time in Oklahoma. “Where else?”
“Nowhere special. Summer camps. Mostly science camps run by Oklahoma State University. My sister is a bit of a chemistry nerd. Always mucking about with different mixtures, causing chemical reactions and such. She loves to explode things and figure out how to make things work. Or used to, anyway, before Pop died.”
Yeah, that sounds like Kylie. The reason Hayden had taken her in was because of her experience with chemicals. Traceable and otherwise. My stomach isn’t soon to forget the trick she played on us her first day at Hell Camp with a laxative and the bottled water.
“And you?” I hear myself ask. Goddamn it.
She smiles, and I do everything within my power not to take my frustration out by smashing my fist into the unused pillow on the bed. “I’m a marine biologist. I’m interested in the wonderfully complex natural system of things. Biology is grounded and rooted within every living thing. And in understanding it, we have the ability to cure things. By comparison, chemistry shakes things up. You burp? There’s a reaction behind it. Still, they go hand in hand. Chemistry can’t exist without biology.” She pauses, and a sweet blush fans out across the swell of her chest. “You’re staring.”
I blink. I guess I am.
“I can go on and on. I forget that not everyone geeks out over science like I tend to do.”
I place my knife on the mattress, lean in, and slide my hand across her stomach. Her skin warms as her abs flex every so slightly beneath my touch. She gasps and falls silent, and I immediately realize my mistake. Business. This is business.
“Where else?”
“Nowhere.” She exhales sharply. “My father died. My sister couldn’t deal with it. She started wandering off, days on end . . .”
Admirable how goddamned loyal she is. Shame her sister isn’t cut from the same cloth. I withdraw my hand, instead focusing my attention onto the bottle in the other hand, which I bring to my lips to take another long swig.
I feel tired. Fucked up from the bender I’ve been on since her phone call. The liquor finally catching up to me. “Anything else?” I order, wanting to get this over with. Watching her face carefully, I do my best to take mental notes on her expressions, hoping I’ll remember when the alcohol fog lifts. The way she bites her lip, how her eyes hold a blank, vacant look as she tells me the truth. Logging the subtle gestures into my memory banks for when her truths change to lies. Though nothing she’s told me so far has been a lie. Or hasn’t been something I don’t already know.
“Yes.”
I nod. “What?”
“Why are you asking me these questions about where she might be? Are you looking for her too? What exactly is your relationship with my sister?”
Jesus. If I set out to win her trust, I fucking blew it.
I bend forward, place the bottle on the floor, and return my hand back on her stomach. Deliberately, this time. Watching her expression change from curious to sweetly flustered.
Life’s riddled with choices. Some good. Some bad. Most best kept secret. In this case, I’ve got no choice. And nothing is going to interfere with me seeing it through.
“I’m waiting on the one question you haven’t asked me,” I murmur.
I lightly move my thumb, back and forth, back and forth. Curbing my itch to take things farther. Ignoring my misplaced lust for her along with professional common sense. Struggling not to react as I spot the heat in her eyes.
“I don’t have a lot of experience with—”
Damn it. Goddamn it.
“—I’ll help you find your sister.”
Her eyes flash wide. “You will,” she replies, breathless. I watch a smile spread across her face, clearly pleased with my offer. “I’m grateful you answered my call. I needed someone like you to help me.”
“Like me?”
