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“With benefits.”
I laughed and rolled onto my side to find him smiling at me. A full-on smile from Duncan Hawthorne was a rare sight. He was so handsome it stole my breath.
“I like your smile,” I told him, tracing my thumb across his jaw and lower lip.
The glee in his expression faded.
“What?”
His hands captured my wrists. He brought my hands to his mouth and placed soft kisses on my knuckles. I shivered at the feel of his breath on my skin.
“I know I should do the right thing and let you go, but I don’t want to. I never want you out of my sight.”
That could be a problem if he thought I was in so much danger.
I sat up in the middle of his bed, running a hand through my hair and twisting it around one shoulder.
“What are we going to do about The Pact?” I asked.
Duncan sat up, too. He wrapped me in his arms, and I went willingly.
“It’s Wolf Industries,” he said. “I don’t want to wait for them to make a move. I feel like we should act before Ulrich can, but I can’t find where he’s located. I have a P.I. searching, but he’s not having much luck. I haven’t heard any updates from him.”
“And we can’t go anywhere yet,” I said. “Your grandma’s party is coming up.”
His hands stroked my back. He gazed off. “You’re right. I have to be there.”
I placed my hand on his knee. “Then we go to her party. When it’s done?—”
“When it’s done, we’ll leave. We’ll take your dad with us, and I’ll devote everything I can to finding Wolf Industries.”
He didn’t finish the statement, but I heard the echoing threat regardless:
He’d devote everything he could to finding Wolf Industries…before they got to us first.
TWENTY-NINE
rosabel
I couldn’t sleepif I wanted to. While the kisses I’d shared with Duncan replayed in my dreams the entire night and woke me with a blast of adrenaline and stardust in my bloodstream, I couldn’t help the conflict knotting in my sternum.
I needed my run the next morning more than ever. The sun spilled in puddles of yellow and soft blue, lighting my room just enough. Hurriedly, I got dressed, eager for some fresh mountain air and to burn off this excess energy and sort through my thoughts.
If only Mom was around. I could use someone to talk to.
I had cousins, but I wasn’t exactly close to any of them. I could call Sarah, I supposed. She’d been sending me updates on Dad via text, but I hadn’t spoken with her for a few days, and talking to Duncan made me want to take that extra step in making sure everything was okay anyway. So, I dialed her number.
Light beamed off the surface of the lake. The usual fog shrouding its surface was gone this morning, and the light gleaming off of its blue surface was almost blindingly yellow in some places.
“How’s Dad doing?” I asked once Sarah answered.
Sounds on the other end of the line were muffled. She was packing her knitting into her bag, I’d guess. “He’s good. All set. My shift’s over so I’m about to take off, but Stacey is coming next.”
“Stacey?”
Before I’d left for Arkansas, I’d checked over each nurse’s experience in dealing with Alzheimer’s, and the name Stacey wasn’t familiar at all. Had she been on the list of in-home nurses, and I just hadn’t noticed?
“She’s with the In-Home Angels. The new health care. She’s been here a few times now.”
