Page 85 of The Perils of Paulie
There are times when I’m surprised we’re still alive. Then there are times when I’m convinced we’re immortal. Fortunately, the latter isn’t my normal state of mind. Although I did have to admit that I was filled with nothing but admiration for Dixon after he’d disabled the men Dad had engaged to put the fear of god in me.
“That man was on the ground again!” I yelled when we bounced over the edge of the curb and onto the street outside the Moscow hotel. “You beat the crap out of him, didn’t you?”
“I wouldn’t say that,” Dixon answered, popping up from the floor of the backseat, where he’d been thrown when I gunned the car and crashed through the parking lot barrier. He looked back, his hair ruffled in the breeze. “We’re going to have to pay for that, you know?”
“For the guys who attacked us? I don’t see why. They must have some sort of insurance.”
“No, for the barrier.” He climbed over into the front seat, sliding down into it, swearing, rising up, and pullinghis goggles out from where he’d sat on them. He donned them, then turned to look at me.
I giggled.
“What?” he asked.
“It’s the goggles. They’re bad enough with your driving hat on, but by themselves they’re kind of...”
“Roguishly handsome?” he asked, lifting his chin.
“Steampunky.”
“Yes, well, I can’t help that. My cap is back in the hotel room.”
“I told you to leave it in the car like I did with my hat. Would you gather up some of my veil, please? It’s choking me.”
He obliged, pulling it from where it was streaming the length of the car and wadding it up onto the seat, sitting on it to keep it from billowing out again. “I suppose we’re going to drive all night.”
“We shouldn’t. We only had a few hours’ sleep, and we were sorely in sleep deficit before that, but I have to admit, this escape was super exciting! I kind of got my adrenaline going, and now I’m allRawr!Let’s take on the world!”
He flexed his fingers and examined his knuckles. A couple of them were scraped. “I’d rather not, if you don’t mind, although I admit the scene did wake me up fully. Roger won’t be pleased with our change of plans, though.”
“Probably not, especially since I saw Tabby and Sam’s car in the garage, which means they made it to Moscow and were probably sleeping.”
“I’ll text him and update him as to recent events,” Dixon said, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. A half hour later, he showed me the response.
WTH?the text read.Why are you trying to sauber the program?
“Sauber?” I asked, glancing quickly at the phone.
“Sabotage, I expect, is what he meant. Ah. Another one.Will you stop trying to drive me insane and wait for the film crew?Hmm. He seems to have disregarded the part of the explanation where I pointed out we were in danger of our lives.”
“Did you tell him you went James Bond all over those goons’ asses?” I asked, flashing him an admiring glance.
“Of course not. I’m British. We don’t talk about our James Bond episodes,” he said in a very correct voice, his expression prim.
I laughed, aware of a sensation deep in my stomach that was warm and squidgy and wonderfully exciting. “Dixon,” I said, not realizing I was speaking until I heard the words, “I think I’m falling in love with you.”
He said nothing for a minute. A very uncomfortable minute.
I slid him a glance out of the corners of my eyes.
“Well?” I asked at the end of the minute. “You’ve got to have some sort of a reaction to that statement. You can’t just brush off an ‘I might be falling in love with you’ comment. It’s a law that you have to reply. Please do so now.”
“Ah,” he said, and didn’t look at me.
I glanced in the rearview mirror and managed to get us to the side of the road without accident.
“Why are we stopping?” he asked.
“Because an ‘ah’ is not a proper response to what I just said. Dammit, Dixon! I said I was falling in love with you!”
