Hide & Seek (16 page)

“We didn’t get much play in on that round. Want to go again?” He nudged her with his lips at the corner of her mouth as she moaned against him.

The grumble from her stomach flipped his switch. “Have you eaten at all today?”

She shook her head.

“Geez, Lexi. Why didn’t you say something?” He started to pull away, but she snaked her arms around his neck, locking him to her.

He recognized the tease of a smile and quick brow raise.

“I’ve been a little busy … pretty much all day.” She inclined her head to the side.

“You’re going to eat. Get dressed. We’ll hit the restaurant downstairs—”

“I want to go to the park.”

Tripp took a deep breath. The thought of the place led him back to the earlier activities of the day. How she could be so nonchalant grated on him when he still wanted to murder the bastard who hurt her.

He angled her chin up with a touch of his finger. “Are you sure?”

“I want the park to have a happy memory for me. It was beautiful this morning. I want that feeling back.”

“Okay. Alright.” He tried to sound positive.

“I have ways of blocking things out more than most people. This won’t … linger for me—”

“That’s also the way to get yourself killed, by letting your intuition guide you exclusively and forgetting what’s happened in the past.” The memory of Isabelle popped into his mind.

Lexi patted him on the chest. “Well, that’s where I’ll have to rely on you and Ian to teach me. If we’re going to be partners in this, I’m sure you’ve got a few pointers.”

Tripp smiled.
She wants instruction.
“Come on, lady cat burglar, let’s eat dinner and maybe, just maybe, I’ll let you accompany me to get the papers.”

An hour later, Lexi dragged him from the restaurant, out into the excitement of the square. Their meal had been simple, enjoyable and altogether too expensive for what came on the plate. Trumpets and light drums beckoned them from their window seat until Tripp gave in, scarfed down his steak and out they went.

She headed straight for a group of dancers, but he tugged back.

“What? Don’t tell me you don’t like to dance.” Lexi’s smile suggested she already knew the answer to her own question.

“Not like that.”

In the center, two couples spun, flipped and whirled in and out of each other’s arms. The women wore long skirts with rings of color swirled in circles, creating a rainbow effect. From the crowd, the two male and two female dancers chose bystanders for a quick pass as the musicians ramped up the speed or changed the pitch of the music.

Certain he would be one of those selected if he stood at the edge, Tripp stayed out of any line of sight but waved Lexi forward. He’d watch her the entire time.

She snuck her way to the front, clapped and whooped like the rest of the group. As the song came to a close, the party broke into applause and chants of ‘more’—Lexi included.

Tripp’s grin grew while he watched the woman he knew he’d fallen in love with tap her toe to the beat of a salsa. She’d selected a breezy skirt of brilliant gold and a shirt, tied behind her neck, in a lighter color. It reminded him of the getup she wore on the beach the week before.

A trombone broke through the sound as the dancers started up again. When a person retired to the side, another filled the empty spot. One of the men picked Lexi. She went straight to the center with him, held out her hand and spun into his arm. Her hair whirled around her, but the smile said it all. She tugged at Tripp’s heart like a climber to ropes.

The music shifted to a sultry ballad as couples turned to each other, swaying at their hips with arms entwined around each other. Lexi gave her dance partner a hug and trotted over to Tripp.

“Surely, this kind you can do.”

She dragged him back into the mix but stopped at the farthest edge. Extra lights flickered on above them as they moved back and forth to the slow beat. Her lips found his, giving him more than kisses. He took from them possibility, love, respect, kindness and understanding. He gave back the same as she laid her head against his chest. Tripp envisioned the life George and Marge suggested they could have, right down to kids and grandkids—all with the farmhouse as their base.

In the far corner of the square, Isabelle Reed stood, her arms crossed over her chest, and a smile on her face.

He tipped Lexi’s chin up, offered his lips, fearing what he would have to give up.

17

Lexi swayed against Tripp, timing her movements to the music as much as to the beat of his heart. The whirlwind of the prior twenty-four hours didn’t escape her, but she wanted to let some of the memories go. She held tight, accepting his lips against hers until the sounds of the instruments faded.

She urged him down for one last kiss before switching from pleasure to business. “I believe we have some paperwork to pick up, right?”

“You sure you want to get into this kind of stuff?”

They meandered back toward the hotel, her hand in his. “Depends on the project, I guess.”

“Luckily, this one’s easy. Care to double check the location of our goodies?” Tripp led them to a bench, slid out his phone. “Need this?”

Lexi shook her head. She visualized the papers Tripp had shown her and stepped her way through to their spot inside the safe. “Same place, same stack, same … well, everything.”

“Good. Let’s go, then.”

The hotel’s lobby bustled with late night activity. Park goers strolled in, and the bar’s band picked up where the outside group left off. Lexi and Tripp cut a path to the elevator through hallways lit with electric sconces reminiscent of the candles used in the original building. According to the brochure, the effect gave hotel patrons a feel for its first era but still met all the current-day commercial regulations.

Tripp guided her to the second floor offices, which he found tucked behind a faux wall.

“I thought this kind of stuff only existed in movies,” Lexi said.

His chuckle preceded a smile. “This is another way to modernize without taking away the atmosphere.” He stopped, his hand on the fake panel. “Can you see stuff outside of the object in question?”

“Sometimes. You know those virtual tours they give of beach houses or buildings? I can shove through that kind of stuff pretty easily, at least in the vicinity of the item.”

He tilted his head in her direction. “Cool. Want to do a double check no one’s inside?”

“Sure.” Lexi closed her eyes, visualized the papers again and backed out through the images.

Without lights to guide her, she navigated from the smaller room to a bigger one but found no people or security cameras.

“I don’t see anything.”

“Excellent.” Tripp pushed open the door.

“Um, how did you get us through that? It was locked.”

He drew one finger up and touched it to her closed lips. She followed him into the dark, lit only by the glow from computer screens. He inched his way through until he opened another hidden door behind a painting of the most recent hotel owner.

Lexi wanted to say ‘gawdy’ and ask who left the air freshener on high but kept silent as Tripp ran his hands over the safe and the combination lock. He spun it forward and backward, around a third time.

One click.

A swish.

The door opened with ease.

From his left pocket, he withdrew a flashlight, motioned her to take it while pointing into the depths of the safe.

With Lexi’s hold on the light, Tripp picked through the assorted papers.

As he slid the last one out, the faux wall door creaked.

Lexi tugged at Tripp’s shirt as he re-closed the safe and spun the lock, stopping it again with the white line just past the 8. He replaced the painting as a light in the front room flicked to life.

The desk in the room became their cover. Lexi’s body shivered as their predicament defined itself.

No exit—except the one through which they’d entered.

Whoever decided to come into the office had them trapped.

Dammit! Didn’t I say I shouldn’t get into this stuff?

The glow from the other room gave her enough light to catch Tripp’s expression.

A giant smile graced his face as if they could simply disappear and all would be well.

“Why do you look like you could burst out laughing?” She kept her voice below even a whisper.

He raised his finger to his lips, but the smile slipped into one of pure deviousness.

A vacuum hummed an incessant whir, shifting from loud to soft as it moved through the opposite room. When it quieted, Tripp peeked over the top of the desk.

He motioned with his hand for her to remain and stepped around their makeshift bunker. Within a few seconds, he came back, indicated with his hand that she should stay low but follow him. At a crawl, she inched her way to the office door behind him.

“On my signal,” Tripp said, “go straight back through and don’t stop until you get to the room. Don’t look back or wait for me.”

“Why would—”

He stopped her with a hand in the air as the sound of the machine drew closer.

“I mean it, Lexi. On my signal … do exactly as I said. Got it?”

She nodded.

When the sound of the machine faded again, he waved her forward.

Lexi jumped up, ran to the exit—which, at least on the inside, looked like an actual door—and pushed through it. She started to turn, to see if Tripp followed, but his explicit instructions ran through her mind.

At a creak, she spun back.

The cleaning lady poked her head out of the same door Lexi expected Tripp to walk through. With a tilt toward Lexi, the woman waved and returned inside.

Tripp did not emerge.

Lexi’s heart thrummed in her chest. Waiting at the door to their room, key card in hand, she shifted from foot to foot.

Still, Tripp didn’t appear.

The well lit hallway left nothing to the imagination. He’d either exited from the same place or remained inside.

Just as when they’d been trapped inside, no other way existed to leave.

Come on, Tripp. Where are you?

A touch to the back of her shoulder had Lexi jumping with a scream she quashed with pursed lips. “What the hell?”

• • •

With a push of Tripp’s hand, the hotel room entrance swung open.

Lexi didn’t walk through, though. “I’ve kept my eye on that door the entire time.” If she could have used a more disbelieving tone, Tripp expected she would have.

He gave her his best grin. “I know. Was kinda fun watching you.”

“Watching me?”

“I’ll explain … in private.”

Lexi brushed past him into their room. The moment the latch clicked behind them, she spun back to him, her eyes reflecting the look he’d seen in so many women: a need to yell while holding it in.

Before she could utter a word, he captured her mouth with his.

Lexi melted into the kiss as Tripp pushed her farther into the room and toppled the two of them onto the bed. The light slap across his shoulder only enhanced his desire for her.

She rolled herself off him. “What the hell happened?”

“Testy, aren’t you?” Tripp propped himself up on his elbow.

Lexi joined him back on the plane of the bed. “Please explain, Tripp, because … how did you—” She shook her head. “No … where did you come from?”

He tugged at her hair, twirling a strand around his finger. “When you go looking for things, you can see them, right? With your mental pictures?”

“You know that already. And you do something similar.”

He grinned. “I do, though I’m significantly faster than you, and I see little blips of the future … but only what leads me toward what to do next.”

“No shit.” Lexi sat up straight.

“None.” He slid her closer. “Let me ask you this … when you went looking for the pendant, was that the
first
time you used your gift for anything outside of ordinary, safe stuff—for something that required you to think beyond yourself?”

She shimmied out of Tripp’s hold.

“That’s what I thought. You really are the good girl, aren’t you?”

A spin back and a mock punch accompanied her small smile. “Just because—”

Hands in the air, he said, “I didn’t say it was bad. Hear me out.” A grasp of her hand had her closer with one yank. “I can’t just outright find stuff, but when someone tells me I need to get
x
,
y
or
z
, I can. Sometimes that’s picking a lock. Otherwise, breaking combinations or scaling a wall, turning invisible or waiting for the right time.”

“You did not just say you can disappear.”

“Of course I didn’t.”

She narrowed her eyes. “But you said invisible.”

He hoped his grin wouldn’t piss her off. “Yeah … that … I did.”

The second slap to his chest stung. She hadn’t backed down on that one. “Explain, please.”

“Ow.” He rubbed at the spot just above his heart. “I can only do these things when in the moment—when I need to. Like in the presence of a danger, or being pursued, for example. It’s an intrinsic thing.”

“So, you couldn’t … do it … right now?”

He shook his head. “Do you get images unless you focus and look for the answer?”

Her mouth opened as if to speak, but she closed it again.

“The myth says you can always catch—or with the way you seem to use it, find. And I can never be caught which is exactly how it works for me—it keeps me from getting caught. Same gift, different interpretation.”

“There’s more to it than the pictures? I always thought—”

Excitement built within Tripp, but he kept it tucked inside. “I love that this is new to you and I can talk to you about it. Ian knows everything—has since we were kids. Does Emma?”

Lexi shrugged. “As much as I know, at least, yeah. Uh … back to this invisible thing …”

Tripp sat up, leaned against the bed’s headboard. “Come here.”

On her knees, she scooted up to him, his arms wrapping around Lexi as she straddled him.

He kissed the edge of her lips. “I told you before, it’s like people can’t see me, right? That whole ‘under your nose’ thing?”

“Yes.”

“So it’s not that I disappear; it’s that I can’t be seen. I’m camouflaged, if that makes sense, along with whatever I’m touching.” He moved his lips along the other side.

“That’s ridiculous—”

“That’s how we stayed hidden on the balcony tonight.” He captured her mouth with his, teasing them open.

“Okay,” Lexi said without conviction.

“Is it?” he asked against her. “You said, in the car, I think … when you try to find something I have in my possession, you can’t see me, right? At least when I don’t want to be found.”

She pulled away. “Holy hell, Tripp. Even I’m a little freaked, and I understand the myth. How’d you learn that’s how it worked?”

“Ian and I had a lot of fun as kids.”

Lexi’s laugh burst from her.

Tripp’s own followed. “My sister thought I was the biggest loser ever. She refused to play games with me because I always won.” He chuckled, adding another kiss to her full smile. “You have to test the boundaries and let your body respond naturally. Same as you, right?”

Her curls danced as she shook her head. “Way simpler for me.”

“When you were on the beach with Robert, were you scared?”

“A little—”

“Did your body vibrate a little or shiver with a sensation you didn’t quite understand?”

“I figured that was just nerves.”

He chuckled. “Right, because you already had your prize tucked between those perky breasts of yours.” A touch had her trembling under his fingers. “So … if in the process of finding something, someone caught you or was about to prevent you from getting it, you’d naturally react and do
stuff
, whatever it might be, to succeed. Right?”

“Yeah … but you got back without me seeing, and I’m not the enemy. How?” Her eyes reflected confusion.

“I wanted to get you out first, so I sent you when the cleaning lady went the other direction. I had about a five second window then. The picture I had in my head left me stuck with her coming into the office right afterward. That left me no options, so my body reacted for me, and I walked right through the door while she held it open to push her vacuum in. Once I hit the hallway and saw her poking her head out, I just had to wait until she went back in to know we were both safe, so to speak.”

“So, then you
chose
to be seen, or did your reappearance happen naturally?”

Tripp nudged her chin with a finger. “In this case, because I wanted to see your reaction, I chose.”

“Anything else make you go invisible?” A curious glint in her eye accompanied an eyebrow raise.

He cocked his head. “Whatcha mean?”

“You ever use it with … your fiancée?”

Tripp ran a thumb down her chin. “Now why would I do that?”

She didn’t answer his question. “So … what would happen …” Lexi paused as if to think. “… if
I
asked you to marry me?”

She jumped from the bed, her hands at her mouth. “Oh, hell, Tripp. Where’d you go?”

“I’m right here.” His laughter rang out with her half sigh.

“I guess I know what you think about that, then.”