Sloane (12 page)

Flustered, I shoved my toothpaste into my suitcase.
“I… I need to focus. You need to go away.”

He licked his lips. “Well, am I going to see you
again?”

“I doubt it.”

He was quiet. Then he shrugged and relaxed. “Yeah,
okay. I guess you’re right. I should go.” He started for the door.
Then he turned. “Look, if you want—oh, there’s a guy waking up
behind you.”

I whirled, leveling my gun and shooting the guy.

“You sure you don’t want me to stick around?”

“Positive,” I said.

He pursed his lips. “All right.” He opened the door
and sauntered through.

The door closed, and I stared at it. I dragged my
hands over my face.

Man.

Why did he have to be such a good kisser?

* * *

I found another hotel on the other side of town and
paid for a room with cash. Once I was checked in, I flung myself
down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. I’d frozen up. I
couldn’t believe I’d let that happen. And if Axel hadn’t been
there, I would have been captured by the same people who had the
others. I’d escaped but narrowly.

I couldn’t freeze up again. I had to keep it from
happening, because I didn’t have anyone to count on. There was only
me. I sure as fuck wasn’t going anywhere near Axel Whitman ever
again.

And before I could think anything else, I fell
asleep. Apparently, I was exhausted.

I woke up still wearing the dress from the night
before. It was really gross now. I’d sweat into it and the filmy
fabric stuck to my skin. I tugged the thing off and got in the
shower.

The shower was going to help me think.

As the jets of hot water pounded into my skin, I
pondered why it was that the water pressure in hotels was never
quite right. And then I scolded myself for thinking about water
pressure when I didn’t even know if Leigh had any water. At
all.

I’d lost James Armstrong.

Which meant that even though I was lucky to be alive
and free, I really hadn’t accomplished anything.

Hello, square one. Nice to see you again.

I finished the shower quickly, wrapped up in towels
and went back out into my hotel room.

What did I know? I knew that Leigh and the others
were test subjects for Armstrong’s experiments. I knew that he had
a secret lab, and that it wasn’t in the main building.

And I didn’t know where that lab was.

That was what I needed to find out.

Because if I knew, I could figure out a way in, and
then I could rescue my friends.

How was I going to find out the location of that
secret lab? Jeff hadn’t known. I hadn’t gotten the information from
Armstrong. Who else would know?

Of course, I had to admit that the
grab-and-interrogate strategy I’d been using left something to be
desired. So far, it had only caused problems for me.

I needed to do this smarter. I needed to figure out
who knew, and get them to give me the information without holding
them at gunpoint. But who? And how?

I toweled off my hair, coming up with nothing.

My phone rang.

Jesus, who was calling me? Was it Christa? I hadn’t
talked to her in a few days, even though I’d noticed a few missed
calls from her. I hadn’t called her back because I had nothing to
tell her. But I should probably keep in touch with her. What if
something happened to her?

My God, this was too much to keep track of. I’d never
done this kind of thing on my own before.

I snatched up the phone. “Christa?”

“Who’s Christa?”

Shit. “Axel.” I’d forgotten that he had my phone
number.

“Good morning.” He sounded cheery. “What are you
doing?”

“Why are you calling me?”

“To see what you’re doing. So… what are you
doing?”

“I’m strategizing. I’m not any closer to rescuing
Leigh, which is what I’m trying to do here, remember?”

“Cool,” he said. “I’ll come over and help.”

What? Was he kidding me? “No, Axel, I think it would
be better if we went our separate ways.”

“Oh, come on, you need someone to bounce ideas off,
don’t you? Who better than me?”

“I don’t need—”

“Sure, you do. Everybody needs somebody. Where are
you?”

The hell of it was, I was thinking about it. Maybe it
would be easier to have someone to talk to. Maybe Axel could help
me strategize. Maybe if I laid out the whole thing for him, he’d
see something I hadn’t seen. It wasn’t as if I had anyone else to
talk to, after all.

* * *

Axel showed up in a pair of purple pants with a
lemon-colored sweater and a paisley scarf.

“Do you have any normal clothes?” I asked him. I was
back in jeans and a t-shirt.

He smirked and didn’t answer my question.

He’d brought over bagels from some shop in town,
complete with all kinds of spreads and toppings. We sat at the
table in my hotel room, munched on bagels, drank coffee, and I
explained everything to him. I told him all about Op Wraith, how
we’d all worked there. How Griffin and Leigh had destroyed the
place. How French and Thorn had managed to survive, and how we’d
blown up the Auxiliary Unit, and now they were both out of the way.
How Leigh had been captured, how we’d gone after her, and how
Griffin and Silas had been captured too. And finally, how I needed
to find the location of the secret lab to get them back.

When I was finished, he set down his
cream-cheese-slathered bagel. “This is your life? That’s
crazy.”

“It’s not always my life. Usually, I just go to class
and come home, and nothing out of the ordinary happens. That’s the
way I want it. I don’t like all the danger and violence.”

“Yeah, I can see how that could wear on a person. I
was so exhausted last night that I fell asleep without the help of
pills, and that never happens. I’m usually too wired from
blow.”

I stuffed the last of my black-olive-and-onion-topped
bagel into my mouth, chewed, and swallowed. “Why do you do drugs
anyway?”

“Because it’s fun.”

“Is it really fun? I mean, aren’t you actually
addicted?”

He considered. “Maybe.”

“Isn’t it going to cause lots of damage to your nose?
I’ve seen pictures of people that overindulge. Not pretty.”

He took a drink of coffee. “Well, I haven’t done
anything today. I’m completely sober. Sometimes, when I’ve had a
lot of blow, I don’t really give other people the chance to talk,
and I wanted to listen to you.”

I wasn’t sure how to take that. I was actually a
little bit flattered, but I knew I shouldn’t be, because he’d
basically just admitted that he was a shitty person. Still, the
thought that he kind of didn’t want to be shitty to me, well…

Argh. What was happening to me?

I looked at his lips again. I blushed. I was stuffed,
but I grabbed another bagel and started smearing jam all over it.
“Well, um, I do need a sounding board. So, what I’m thinking is
that I need to figure out who else might know where Armstrong’s
secret lab is.”

“Ooh, are we going to kidnap them at gunpoint?” He
looked eager. “I wouldn’t mind watching you handle a gun again.
Especially in that dress. You looked really good last night.”

I felt hot all over. Like my blush was blushing. I
set down the bagel and the knife. “Stop saying things like
that.”

“Like what?”

“About me looking good. I know you don’t really mean
it, and—”

“I don’t say things I don’t mean.”

I glanced up at him.

He had a very intense expression on his face. “I’m
not that kind of person. I hate that shit. When I was growing up, I
watched my mother and her friends have conversations in which
everyone spouted all kinds of polite bullshit. They were all lying
to each other’s faces, and it made them two-faced and cruel. I
could see right then that honesty was the better way to go. At
least that way, everyone knows where they stand. So, I might have
faults, but I’m always honest. I don’t see the point in lying.”

I drew in breath. He
was
honest, wasn’t he?
That was what made him so hard to take. He didn’t have any problem
saying whatever he thought, even if it was unpleasant. So, if he
said I looked good, he meant it. I let out my breath slowly. “Well,
you shouldn’t think things like that about me.”

He stroked his chin. “I don’t think you can control
what I think.”

“I’m only saying that I… hate you. And I don’t want
anything to do with you, so—”

“That’s why you invited me over to help you with
strategy? Because you hate me?”

I blushed
again
. Jesus, was this never going
to stop? I felt like my face was on fire.

“You know, Sloane, it doesn’t seem like you’re very
good at saying what you mean.”

Fine. I glared at him. “Why did you kiss me last
night?”

“I told you. I was glad you were alive.”

“Why do you care if I’m alive?”

He drew back, knitting his brows. “Well, I don’t want
you to die. I don’t want anyone to die.”

“You didn’t have any problem shooting that bodyguard
last night. You thought he was dead. You didn’t care about
that.”

“Well, that’s different. He was trying to kill you. I
had to shoot him to save you. It’s different if you’re protecting
someone.”

I didn’t say anything.

“It is,” he said. “Don’t you think it is?”

I went back to my bagel. “I guess so. But why did you
want to protect me?”

“Because you needed it.”

“So, you’d rush out and shoot anyone who was trying
to hurt someone else?”

He was quiet.

I looked up at him.

He was thinking hard. “I guess not.”

“So, why me?”

Axel laughed. He actually sounded a little
uncomfortable. “Is this really what you want to be talking about?
Shouldn’t we be planning out how we’re going to kidnap Jimmy
again?”

I wasn’t really sure why I’d asked him all those
questions anyway. It was only that he was acting differently around
me now. When I’d first met him, he’d been dismissive and rude, and
now he was nice-ish, and I couldn’t figure out why. It bothered me,
because…

Because I couldn’t trust him. Yeah, that had to be
it. I was trying to suss out his motives, because he was really
shallow, and I couldn’t work with him if I thought he’d betray
me.

Wait. Work with him? When had I decided I wanted to
work with him?

I got up from the table and went over to the bed. I’d
slept on top of the covers last night, so it wasn’t really all that
messed up, but I started straightening the covers. “Those guys
obviously work for Armstrong. They’re going to be looking for me,
so I need to play this smart.”

“What’s that mean?”

I rearranged the pillows, trying to get them
perfectly straight. “I mean that kidnapping people at gunpoint is
really obvious. I need something subtler. Something that avoids
putting me against a bunch of armed men.”

“I kind of thought we did okay against the armed
men.”

I yanked on the edge of the bedspread. “What’s with
this ‘we’ stuff? I said you could help me with strategy, that’s
all. I never said you could do anything else.”

Axel stood up. “I’m not sure, exactly. Honestly,
kidnapping isn’t really my thing. I’m more of a lover, not a
fighter. I know you said last night that I wouldn’t see you again,
but… well, I don’t think I like that.” He crossed the room to me.
“This morning, I woke up, and I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I
never feel that way. I can’t remember the last time that I found
anyone as intriguing as I find you.”

I let go of the bedspread and straightened up. There
he went again, saying stuff that made me flustered.

He stepped closer to me, so that there were only a
few inches between our bodies.

My pulse began to thrum at my wrists and neck. He was
too close.

He reached out and brushed the back of his knuckles
over my jaw. “It’s funny. When I saw you the first time, I barely
noticed you. It was as if you faded into the scenery. But now,
every time I see you, it’s as if you’re the
only
thing I can
see.”

I bit my lip. Who said things like that? And why did
hearing them make me feel weak all over? “But… you’re…”

His face tilted closer to mine. “What?”

“Awful,” I whispered. “You’re shallow and cruel and
self-centered and arrogant.”

A small smile played on his lips. His perfect, pink
lips. “That a problem?”

I swallowed. “Yes,” I said in a small voice. “Kind
of, yes.”

He cupped my face with his palm, and we were kissing
again. This time, the kiss was more forceful, more thorough, his
tongue sweeping inside and exploring me right away.

A shudder went through me, and my legs felt unsteady.
Without thinking about it, I grabbed him for balance.

He slid his arms around me, pressing the length of
his body against mine, and kissed me even deeper.

I clung to him, and I kissed back, letting the warmth
of our closeness wash through me. Axel’s touch was honey—sweet and
thick. I was stuck to him, transfixed.

He stroked my back, sending tiny ripples into the
center of me.

My breath quickened.

His fingers moved lower, worming their way under my
t-shirt. His hand grazed the bare skin of my waist.

I gasped.

And I broke away. “What the hell are you doing?”

He rubbed his thumb over his lower lip. His eyes were
dancing. When he spoke, his voice was low and urgent. “We should
fuck.”

I took two steps back. “What?!”

“Oh come on, you felt that, didn’t you?” He gestured
back and forth between the two of us. “There’s something there.
Something pretty powerful. I know you want it as badly as I
do.”

“I do
not
.”

He chuckled. “You’re really never honest, are
you?”

“Get out of my room. Go away. I never want to see you
again.”