Page 49 of The Scenic Route
Once she finally settled and caught her breath, she asked, “Do you get the feeling we’re cursed?”
“Nope.” He paused before continuing. “Think the universe is trying to tell us something though.”
She smirked at him. “The universe made us get married?”
“No. I blame Ronan for that.”
“Me too!” She sat up straighter. “Who brings two people—both obviously off their asses—not only to get a marriage license but to the chapel? He helped us pick awedding package! You saw our pupils in that picture. We looked like aliens!”
Bennett laughed again.
“I mean,” she kept going, warming to her subject. With everything else happening, she never had a chance to really think about Ronan’s part in their impulsive marriage. “We would’vehappily kept telling each other how beautiful we were while eating pancakes if Ronan hadn’t come along and enabled us.”
“I did text him,” Bennett said, sounding a little guilty.
“True, but we’d just been shot at. We were feeling an immediate need for backup.”
At the mention of being shot at, all the residual laughter left his expression.
“I’mfine,” she stressed, guessing at what caused his quick switch from amused to stone-cold serious. “When you see the teeny-tiny mark on my leg, you’re going to realize how ridiculous you’re being. It barely touched me.”
“But it was too close.” He glanced at her for just a brief second, but the raw agony in his eyes took her aback. Needing to ease that pain, she reached over and squeezed his hard thigh.
“It was, but we survived.” Even though he was focused on the interstate in front of them, she still kept her gaze steady on his profile. “We watched each other’s backs and called in backup—who might have gotten us married, but that’s better than shot, right?” When he just gave her a sideways smirk, she moved her hand off his leg and whacked him on the shoulder. “Right?”
He laughed. “Much better.”
“Humph,” she grunted, sitting back in her seat. “You better say that, buster, or you’re getting locked out of the honeymoon suite tonight.”
His laugh rang out again, and she smiled at the beautiful sound, proud she was able to draw that humor out of him. “I’m really good at breaking in to locked hotel rooms,” he said.
Grinning, she met his gaze. “Me too.”
***
As much as she wanted to stop and spy on the militia for a bit, see if Dino had made it home yet, it was dark by the time they got to Simpson. There was no way to drive to their hiding spot without headlights, and keeping the car’s lights on during the drive up the logging trail to the copse they used as a spying point was just suicide. Even if they didn’t drive off a cliff in the dark, the militia—and everyone within miles—would know where they were headed, and they’d probably guess why as well.
Instead, Felicity and Bennett stopped at Levi’s for a late dinner. They’d just gotten their food when Bennett nudged her and lifted his chin toward the door. Felicity looked up and groaned. The murder club ladies and their assorted husbands were weaving through the tables directly toward them.
“But I’m sotired,” she whined under her breath. “They’re going to want all the details, and I’m going to have to admit that I let Dino slip through my fingers in Vegas. Why did I think it was a good idea to expand my bounty-hunting army?”
He snorted, shifting a little closer to her. “Should’ve just added your general and left it at that.” He’d taken up what had become his usual spot plastered against her side, both their backs facing the wall.
“Captain,” Felicity corrected absently. She saw the determined look on Lou’s face as she led the murder-lady charge, and she took a huge bite of her brisket so she wouldn’t be able to talk.
“Felicity! Felicity’s stalker! It has been two days—morethan two days—and none of us”—Lou made circle motions with herarms, indicating the group around her—“not a one has heard anything from you. Not a word. Not a peep. Not even a text. We wereworried!”
Felicity instantly felt guilty. She hurried to chew and swallow the bite of food in her mouth while the group pulled chairs around their small table. When everyone was seated, they were pressed shoulder to shoulder, leaning in toward Felicity and Bennett.
Resisting the urge to draw back from all the curious eyes, Felicity braced herself and opened her mouth to say…something. She was exhausted and had no idea what information she should share and what should be held back. The memory of the motel owner finding out about Dino lingered in her mind, and she didn’t want to give anything away in the middle of Levi’s that would cause them problems later. She closed her mouth and tried to order her thoughts.
“We got married.”
There was dead silence as Felicity turned her head to stare at the man who, yes, was technically her husband, but she didn’t think they’d be spreadingthatnews around. He lifted one eyebrow in a way that was both questioning and challenging, and the spark of humor in his eyes turned her bewilderment to amusement.
“Wait…what?” Lou was the first to speak. “Weren’t you just stalker and stalkee a few days ago?”
“Inside joke?” Felicity offered weakly, but Lou still looked skeptical, so she tried again. “Aren’t most husbands just legal benevolent stalkers anyway?”
