Page 50 of Take a Hike
“Why do you stay in Simpson when everyone treats you like you’re going to bite their faces off?” she asked.Okay, so maybe small talk isn’t my forte.
Even in the dimness of the truck, she saw him flinch, as if she’d punched him. The reaction and his silence reminded her that not everyone was an open book like she was. She’d happily talk about just about anything, and her sisters often reminded her that other people had actual boundaries, unlike her. She didn’t mean to ignore people’s boundaries. She just forgot that they existed.
Feeling bad for conversationally punching him, she dug around in her brain for a whole different conversation, one that hopefully was less intrusive than her last attempt. “Did you know this big rock was here when you drove off the road? Or should I be grateful that you saw it before we ran into it?”
He didn’t respond for a few seconds, and Charlie had resigned herself to passing the time until the militia gave up searching for them in silent boredom when he finally spoke. “I knew it was here. I hike this area.”
“Yeah?” Relieved she wouldn’t have to entertain herself, since she wasnotgood with extended stillness, Charlie turned to face him, bending her left leg and pulling it up onto the seat in front of her. “National forest borders our backyard in Langston, so Fifi has us do most of our training in there. I can’t say that if I didn’t have my sister screaming at me like a rabid drill sergeant, I’d hike for fun, but running in the woods is much better than on a treadmill.”
“You live with your sisters?”
“Yep. All four of them—plus their assorted stalkers.” When he made an odd choking sound, she clarified. “Their husbands and boyfriends, I mean. We keep the actual stalkers outside. They can come into the garage when it’s cold though.”
His laugh still sounded strangled, but it was more clearly a sound of amusement, rather than a choke. It was as if his laughter muscles had atrophied from lack of use, and he was relearning how to use them correctly.
“I don’t know why I stay,” he said, and it took Charlie a startled moment to realize he was answering her first question. “Habit, I guess? I grew up here. It’s my home.”
Charlie understood having a home she’d never want to leave, but their house in Langston was a safe place, filled with people who loved her—well, at least it was now that their mom wasn’t there anymore. From her admittedly limited point of view, it felt like Simpson—although a fun, murder-y little town for most people—was a hostile place for Kieran, so she was struggling to get why he wouldn’t drive off into the sunset without a backward glance.
“Okay, but is it a home you actually like?” she asked, trying her hardest to be tactful but not sure if she was succeeding. “I mean,Ilike it here, but I have the skin of an armadillo.”
“Are you calling me sensitive?”
Charlie peered through the gloom, trying to tell if he was serious. It seemed unlikely that he was teasing her, but his voice was so deadpan that she honestly couldn’t tell. She decided to just be honest. “Well, yeah.”
This laugh came even more easily, encouraging her to keep talking.
“I know you’re an ultra-tough firefighter, since you’ve told me that about a thousand times—”
He interrupted her with a huff. “Twotimes, and I’ve neversaid I was ‘ultra-tough,’andI didn’t tell you I was a firefighter to brag about it.”
She continued as if he hadn’t said anything. “But I also know you have a squishy, soft middle.”
Air left his lungs in an audiblewhoosh. “Squishy middle? Squishymiddle? I had the second-highest score on our last fitness ability test.” Grabbing her hand, he pressed her fingers against his abs. “Does thisfeelsoft and squishy to you?”
“I didn’t mean that you wereliterallysoft and squishy,” she explained, even as the motion of his ab muscles flexing beneath her fingers distracted her from what she was saying. “Just that your emotions are…mmm. Sorry, what was I saying?”
“How not squishy I am?” There was a smug note in his voice that should’ve come off as obnoxious but instead turned her on—although that could’ve been the heat of his skin radiating through his shirt or just the entire package that made up Kieran Sullivan Byrne.
“Hmm…” It was almost impossible to make her hum sound skeptical, but she somehow managed it. “I don’t think I can conclusively determine that without further study.”
He went still under her hand, which she couldn’t seem to keep from stroking his abs—not that she really tried too hard. This time, his hiss of breath wasn’t caused by irritation, judging by the way he leaned closer to her. There was a click in the sudden silence and then a second one before she felt her seat belt loosening and retracting. She didn’t have time to ask what he was doing before he was sliding across the seat, lifting and turning her with a startling quickness and ease.
Suddenly, he was now where she’d been sitting, and she found herself on his lap, straddling him, their faces so close together that she could feel the warmth of his breath on her mouth. Her head spun from how quickly he’d moved her—or possibly from their close proximity.
“Wait,” she said, almost not recognizing her own voice. Surely that husky-voiced siren wasn’t her? “What about the guys searching for us?”
Without looking away from her, he lowered the passenger-side window, letting the brisk mountain air rush in. Instead of clearing her head in a chilly wake-up call, the sweep of cold air just made everything more exciting and real. Forcing herself to listen to the world outside the cab of the truck was a huge effort, but she managed—at least for a few seconds. There was silence, only broken by an occasional soft breeze. Otherwise, the night was still.
“Did they give up looking for us already?” she asked as Kieran closed the window. They’d broken into the compound and—if Charlie was interpreting the explosions properly—Fifi and Bennett had even blown up a goodly chunk of the armory. Couldn’t the militia guys have spent more than five minutes trying to find the culprits? “What kind of poor excuse for anti-government extremists are these people?”
“Doubt they even saw us leave the road,” Kieran said, still not breaking their locked gaze. All this eye contact was making her skin buzz with adrenaline and something else—something less familiar but that she still could identify as desire. “Probably still think they’re chasing us down Moose Peak Road. Once theyreach the highway, they won’t know which way we went. We’ll just need to wait until they return to the compound.”
“Hmm…” It was hard focusing on their conversation when the eye contact was all kinds of intense. “It’s still early. Should we meet Kiki and B for debriefing after all?”
“No.”
Her lips curved up at that flat negative, but before she could respond, his lips were on hers, and her entire body lit up like he’d set it on fire. Her fingers, somehow still resting on his abs, curled into fists, grabbing handfuls of his shirt in a futile effort to ground herself. He shifted under her, leaning closer, his fingers burrowing into her hair so he could cup her skull as if he was holding something precious and breakable. Despite his gentleness, he kissed her with a barely banked ferocity that should’ve scared her.
