Page 3 of Heartbeats Amidst Chaos: Part 3

With a good night’s sleep behind them and a solid plan taking shape before them, Elio thought he felt a cautious return of the harmony that had existed between them before they had both started overthinking things the previous evening. He felt a rush of hope and elation at the prospect of spending an uninterrupted stretch of days and nights with the woman sitting beside him on the bed, studiously eating everything but the papaya chunks from the fruit cup in her lap.

He didn’t know what exactly he was hoping for—just that Dr. Rissa Mahoney was somehow at the very center of it. Picking up his bagel, he took another large bite, knowing it would not satisfy his body’s real craving.

Chapter two

Rissa tapped the “reserve” icon and looked over at Elio, who was driving. His window was all the way down, his tanned arm propped along the frame. The warm wind whipped through his hair so that it stood straight up as they sped toward their lakeside retreat and undercover reconnaissance mission.

A bubble of excitement bobbed within her chest, although she almost wanted to laugh aloud at the sheer bravado of what they were doing. She felt. . . She didn’t know what she felt. The closest comparison she could come up with was the mixture of terror and delight that filled her as a child when she stood with her toes at the end of the high dive board at the public pool, hesitating just a moment longer than necessary before hurling herself into a spine-tingling freefall.

“All right,” she said. “Our cabin is reserved.”

Elio looked over at her and grinned, his white teeth flashing. Rissa grinned back; it seemed she couldn’t help it.

“Perfect,” he said. “Now, you should probably order us some clothes. Have ‘em delivered to that address.”

Rissa nodded, glancing down at her wrinkled blue dress. The garment that had felt super cute and edgy when she put it on the night before now looked very much like it had seen better days.

A run through the streets, hideout in an abandoned car, and sexy romp in an abandoned office building will do that to an outfit, she thought.

Elio probably would have preferred her to have just left the dress and gone along in her underwear. She recalled the way his admiring eyes tracked her across the hotel room as she stood from the bed to fetch her dress so they could head out.

She didn’t mind Elio looking at her—far from it, she found it quite enlivening.

Butterflies erupted in her stomach as she mentally ran through the crazy string of events that brought her to where she was now, cruising down the highway in the passenger seat of a car driven by a wanted man. She was on the run, unsure of what lay ahead or how badly she had fucked her entire future. Yet, all she seemed able to focus on was the fact that it was a beautiful day, they were headed to a lake, and she had never felt so alive.

She shifted her attention from her clothes to Elio, who still looked great in his chinos and a sleeveless white undershirt. Her eyes were inevitably drawn to the intricate half-sleeve tattoo on his right bicep, a striking filigree of leaves, flowers, and cacti with a hawk bursting upward in flight from the center of it all. Although he had been shirtless almost the entire first day she had known him, her attention had been entirely focused on his wounds—well, and occasionally his abs—and she had never before given the tattoo the scrutiny it deserved.

“Remember, the clothes you order have to fit the persona you’re donning,” Elio said.

Rissa arched her eyebrows at him. “Which is?”

He shrugged, glancing at her slyly before returning his gaze to the road. “A little flirty, maybe,” he said. “Cute, sexy, looking to have fun.”

Rissa dropped one eyebrow and narrowed her eyes. “Are you saying I’mnotthose things?”

“No!” He laughed as he caught sight of her expression. “I’m just saying that we’ve got to look like we’re on an engagement trip. They’ve got to be vacation duds.”

“I think I know what you’re saying,” Rissa said, scrolling through the phone. She tapped an image and held it over so he could look at it. “Something like this?”

Elio dropped his eyes briefly to the image and then did a doubletake, whistling softly under his breath as his eyes shot over to Rissa and then back to the photo.

“Yes, and double yes,” he said.

She giggled, tapping “add to cart.”

“You want me to pick out your stuff, too?” she asked, and Elio nodded easily.

“Sure.”

“All to go on the same credit card I used for the cabin reservation?” She held up the card he had so casually handed her as they’d gotten in the car, along with the phone she was now using. It was a burner phone, he explained, telling her to take the battery out of her old one and toss it.

“Yes. Put your stuff on there, too,” he replied.

“I can buy my own clothes,” Rissa said, pulling herself quickly back to reality. She had to keep herself from starting to feel like this was an actual romantic getaway. She had to stay alert to the fact that she wasn’t even sure she trusted the handsome, mysterious man in the driver’s seat.

Elio glanced at her again, his face sobering.

“Better not to use traceable cards or accounts right now,” he said. “Besides, it’s my fault you’re caught up in all this. Let me pay for them.”

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