Page 47 of Line of Resistance

It was a decent observation. And a connection he wouldn’t have made, even without Eloise there to distract him. “You don’t miss much, do you?”

Eloise stepped into the pants, working them up into place before tucking in the shirt. “Paying attention is important. You never know what’s going to matter.” Her lips flattened. “Missing something important could be the difference between life and death.”

She grabbed the flannel and layered it on, buttoning the front before sitting on the mattress and rolling up the extra length on the pants. “Where are we going to go?”

Nate shrugged. “I don’t know. Where do you think we should go?” Eloise might not be as skilled in evasion as he was, but he wasn’t foolish enough to discount her survival skills. Whether she liked it or not, they were a team and using both their abilities to the fullest would increase their chances of coming out of this unscathed.

Eloise’s eyes jumped to his. “Well,” she rubbed her lips together like she was thinking it over, “where would you expect us to be if you were the one trying to find us?”

“If I was trying to find someone like me who was paired with a school principal, I would expect them to stay as close to safety as possible.” And if it was some random civilian with him that’s exactly what he would be doing. Trying to move within a small radius that would allow Alaskan Security the opportunity to get to them—hopefully before anyone else did.

But Eloise wasn’tjustan elementary school principal. She was capable and prepared. Skilled in ways the men looking for them probably wouldn’t expect. And he needed to use that to their advantage. “I would assume he wouldn’t feel comfortable taking her farther away, but we don’t have that problem.”

One of Eloise’s brows lifted. “We don’t?”

“I know your opinion of me isn’t particularly high,” Nate went back to the kitchen corner, snagging a mug and a container of instant coffee off the counter, “but I’d have to be a fucking idiot not to notice how capable you are.” He dumped a serving of granules into the cup and went to the stove, filling the mug with heated water before passing it off to Eloise. “I hope you take it black and stale, because that’s all we’ve got.”

Eloise took the cup, one side of her nose scrunching up as she stared down into it. “I’m normally a sweetened creamer kinda girl, but I can make this work.” She took a sip, wincing a little as she started to laugh. “This is just terrible.”

Nate made himself a cup and took a healthy swallow, fighting his way through the old, slightly burnt taste. “Definitely not a fucking latte, that’s for sure.”

Eloise took another swallow, this time without the wince. “I wouldn’t have guessed you were a latte drinker.”

“I didn’t used to be.” He downed the rest of his cup, setting the mug on the counter before opening the cabinets one by one. “Our office manager got a fancy coffee machine and it took her a few rounds to figure out how to use it, so we all ended up drinking lattes while she fine-tuned her process. I guess I got used to it.”

“I didn’t realize you were in the office that much.” Eloise stared into her cup a second longer before bringing her eyes to him. “I thought you were out doing things like this most of the time.”

“I used to be, but Alaskan Security has gone through a lot of changes in the past few years.” He snagged a few empty bottles from under the counter, uncapping them and giving each one a sniff before carefully filling them with melted snow. “A couple of our teams haven’t really been affected and are still out doing what they’ve always done, but the rest of us are kind of in this weird limbo where we’re no longer doing what we used to do, but what we are doing doesn’t seem a whole lot different.”

Eloise watched as he worked, inching a little closer. “Did you expect it to be different?”

“That was the whole point of not doing what we used to do. The majority decided they didn’t think it was right to continue down the same path.”

Eloise came a little closer, bracing her hip against the counter beside him. “I take it you weren’t part of the majority?”

“I was actually one of the few who didn’t give a shit. I’ve seen enough to realize the line between right and wrong isn’t as thick as everybody wants to believe it is.”

He hadn’t opened up to anyone in forever. Not like this. It offered a level of vulnerability he didn’t usually allow. It put him in a position of weakness. Set him up for disappointment at the least.

Devastation at the worst.

But he wanted Eloise to see he wasn’t what she thought. That he had reasons for acting the way he did. The only way to make that happen was to show her the parts of him no one else ever got to see.

“My dad was a veteran.” Eloise’s eyes fixed on a worn spot on the aged, but immaculate, counter. “He struggled a lot with what he saw.”

Nate turned to face her, putting all his focus on the sadness in her features. He didn’t have to ask to know her dad wasn’t around anymore and bringing it up felt like it would be adding salt to a wound that was still clearly raw and aching. “Is he the reason for all the blankets and water and food?”

A little of the sorrow pinching her features eased as a small smile curved her lips. “Yes. He wanted me to be able to handle anything the world threw at me. Thought it was the most important thing he could teach me.”

“It seems like he did a pretty good job.” Nate tipped his head toward the dress still draped across a chair in front of the fire. “I mean, your wardrobe could probably use a little work—”

To his surprise, Eloise laughed, her head tipping back. “I used to keep snow pants in the trunk too, but I took them out because it just seemed like overkill.” She huffed out a sigh. “I can almost hear him now, reminding me that you can never be too prepared.”

“If he would be disappointed in you, then he sure as hell would be disappointed in me, because I didn’t come with shit.” He reached up and snagged a bit of her loose dark hair, curling it behind the shell of one ear. Eloise went still, not even breathing as his fingers slid down the length of her silky strands. “When I heard no one could find you I might have panicked a little.”

Eloise’s dark eyes moved over his face, like she was looking for something. Hopefully she found it.

Her gaze dropped to the counter. “You did bring guns. Those turned out to be useful.” She pressed her lips together in thought as her eyes came back to his. “Did they take the moose too?”

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