LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

you get your tighty-whities?” Stephanie’s voice unfurled behind him.

      He spun with surprise, unable to see how the hell she got there without him seeing her. He gathered his composure as quickly as possible. “Decided to go commando.” That got a little laugh out of her and the convolutions complicated into a deadlier web. He pointed at the black bag she always carried and looked in her face, not at the cell phone store behind her. “Get what you needed?”

      “I did,” she said more cheerfully than he expected. “I’d forgotten a phone charger.” She opened her bag and showed a DC charger branded with the store name she’d left a few moments ago.

      A clean alibi, but maybe too deliberate. “Seems like something a planner like you would’ve thought of.” He kept the tone casual.

      “Not for the car.” She started walking toward the exit of the mall and he strode next to her. “Didn’t know we’d be on the move this much.”

      “Good point.” He hadn’t even thought to bring along a wall charger.

      “Don’t worry—it’ll charge two phones at once.”

      “You do think of everything.” But he wasn’t entirely convinced she wasn’t sketchy. But then again, in the light of day, they were both crooks.

      “Even had some time to buy some jewelry.” She held up her hand to show that two of the fingers were encircled with fine gold bands. One formed an X, the other crisscrossed, like the tracks of a planet orbiting her. “And...” Her hand disappeared into her bag before he stared at it too long. “I found something for you.” She produced a box containing a burly sport watch.

      He took it as she offered it, but he didn’t open the box. The watch was definitely his style. But he couldn’t figure out what the endgame was for her. Part of him burst with a small flare of pleasure at her gesture. “I can’t take this.”

      “It’s not from me,” she explained, holding out her palm in refusal to take it back. “It’s from the woman with the faulty piston pin.” A warmer light shined in her eyes, pulling him closer to her. “I know you didn’t do it to get paid.” Neither spoke for a moment.

      “Thanks.” He opened the box and put the watch on his wrist.

      Stephanie backed off a bit. He wanted to reach for the connection again, but he didn’t know if he could trust it. She fixed the edges of her hair. “Besides, Olesk has us on a tight schedule. I can’t have you driving and checking the time on your phone.”

      “Always planning.”

      “Exactly.” She reached into her bag again and produced a pair of black sunglasses, which she held toward him.

      He backed away, shaking his head. “But I’m all out of good deeds.” Yes, he didn’t have any sunglasses and she took the time to notice. Any pleasure in her thoughtfulness was overshadowed by the complex and deadly maze he found himself walking blindly within.

      “These are from me.” She stepped to him, sunglasses still extended. “If I’m riding shotgun, I can’t have my driver squinting into the sun.” Her face was serious, without a wry smile or irony in her voice.

      The labyrinth around him shifted and spun. He’d steeled himself with heartless resolve for this journey of revenge and hadn’t expected to find any good here. But Stephanie wasn’t good. He had to keep reminding himself that to combat the lightness in his chest she could evoke with the smallest gesture.

      “I’m your driver.” He took the sunglasses.

      For a moment, they seemed exposed. He was free from the lies and the crime and faced her as a man facing a woman. She stared back at him boldly, without artifice. And there was a heat in her eyes, a reflection of the attraction that pulled him closer to her. Her lips parted with a breath, and he wanted so much to know what she tasted like. What she would feel like slammed against him.

      Then the moment was gone. She stepped back and pulled her buzzing phone from her back pocket. “Olesk,” she explained, a slight huskiness in her voice. She cleared her throat and erased the warmth in her eyes. “We’re on the move. He says to get a full tank of gas and head east. More instructions to follow.”

      The labyrinth erupted all around Arash again. He strode with Stephanie into the parking lot, slipping his sunglasses on. “I’m your driver.” And he couldn’t let himself feel anything anymore because every turn ahead was deadly.

       Chapter Four

      Stephanie spun one of the new rings around her finger. She slowed her breath and tried to keep the building tension from breaking her apart. Arash pumped gas into the compact racer while she sat in the passenger seat. Her cell phone rested on her thigh, ready for the next move. She couldn’t read Arash’s eyes behind the dark sunglasses she’d bought for him, but she could see his jaw was clenched. Both of them knew something was coming.

      Whatever she was about to rush into, she had a sliver of confidence now that Frontier Justice had been updated on her situation. It had been a mad rush to get through the department store, then up to the cell phone place before Arash had made his way through his shopping. Luckily the young white woman set up the contract-free phone quickly, allowing Stephanie the time to call in her “stolen” car to her insurance company for the sake of verisimilitude in case Olesk was looking hard in that direction.

      Texting Ty and the others from Frontier Justice her flood of information while standing in a service hallway of the mall had tested all her composure. She was sure some words were jumbled or autocorrected improperly, but she had to get everything out before sending one last message: This phone is burned. She’d pulled the battery and SIM card out, scraped the SIM card against the wall until it was unusable, then threw it all out in a trash can behind Arash before he’d spotted her.

      But the man was sharp. As soon as he’d turned to her with suspicion in his eyes, she’d known he’d seen her at the phone store. She’d had all the excuses lined up, but still he’d remained cagey. Neither of them was on solid footing.

      Especially once she’d given him the gifts. What had started as an honest want to repay him for helping the woman in the parking lot, and Stephanie’s selfish need to have her driver not wrapping their car around a power pole because the sun was in his eyes, turned too damn intimate too quickly. His appreciation for the gesture gave her way more of a thrill than she’d expected.

      It had felt like they’d been speeding without brakes toward each other. Sometimes she longed for a reckless crash. This one, though, could have deadly consequences. Olesk’s text had come at just the right time.

      Arash finished fueling the car and leaned into the open driver’s-side window. “Any word?”

      She checked her phone, even though she’d looked at it two seconds ago. “Nothing.”

      “Food allergies?”

      “No, but I hate coconut.”

      “What a shame.” He sauntered to the gas station convenience store, shaking his head the whole way.

      Two seconds later her phone buzzed. Olesk texted them an intersection and a time frame. She was about to slide over into the driver’s seat when Arash returned, faster than he’d left. He tossed two bottles of water and a handful of candy bars into the back seat and rushed behind the wheel. The car was already out of the gas station and onto the street by the time he asked, “Where to?”

      She read him the directions from the map, then checked the time. “Seven minutes.”

      “I saw you going for the driver’s seat, but I couldn’t let you have all the fun.” His grin was wilder than his driving through the flow of traffic. She knew it wouldn’t take much for him to turn it loose. He pulled his phone from his jacket and handed it over to her. “Can you throw this on

Скачать книгу