Page 41 of Silent Shadows

I freeze. I had no idea he was so close by—probably testing some thermal equipment.

Marissa bursts out laughing through the phone.

“Oh my God,” she wheezes. “Is that Miles? He heard that?”

“He hears everything,” I hiss.

“I already love him.”

“I absolutely do not.”

“Mm-hmm,” Marissa giggles.

“I’m hanging up now.”

“Love you!”

“Bye.”

I end the call before she can say anything else embarrassing and stare at my phone for a second longer than necessary.

Then I shove the insecurity down where it belongs and turn to walk towards the group.

Miles looks up from his tablet.

“You still coming out with us?” he asks.

I narrow my eyes. “You say that like you’re hoping I’ll back out.”

“I say it because you’ve never done this before.” His eyes flick down to the bag. “Why is it so large?”

“I packed supplies.”

“You packed what looks like a week’s worth of supplies.”

“You don’t know what I packed,” I say, trying to cover the actual nerves surfacing.

“You’re leaning sideways,” Miles observes.

“I like being prepared.”

“Oh, so now preparedness matters?” He smiles.

“That’s different,” I push back.

“How?”

“Because my backpack isn’t laminated.”

He laughs. Warm and easy and unguarded for half a second.

And stupidly, my stomach flips. Unacceptable.

I breeze past him toward the 4Runner.

The desert sun hits like an oven, but we’re headed up to a cooler elevation, so I have a flannel tied around my waist for later.

Taylor’s loading gear into the trunk while Jax launches a drone overhead, focused on maintaining line of sight while also making sure she’s loading his equipment right.