Page 23 of Out of Sight

Claire

“How’s my hair?” I asked after beating Will into submission. His stupid smirk stayed in place, but he held up his hands in surrender.

“Perfect. Not a strand out of place,” Jim confirmed.

Then we were off. We made it to our new gate in time for pre-boarding and sat uneventfully until the plane took off without a hitch. A short flight later we landed in Portland, Oregon, ready to hide out for the foreseeable future.

Jim had us stop at a hotel to lay low until we confirmed that no one was following us before we headed out to our real hiding spot. I was worried when a package was waiting for him at the registration desk, but Jim was unsurprised. I exchanged a curious look with Will, but by this point we both knew better than to say anything about it in public.

We checked in under Daniel and Sarah Robinson (siblings, I was quick to assert, not a married couple) and Jim as our uncle John. Then we trooped up to our suite. When we got to thecorrect door Jim held a hand out, keeping us in the hall while he went in first. I didn’t hear anyone else in there, just some rustling as Jim moved around. After a few minutes he came back to the door, gesturing us inside. He held up a small black electronic device. “I just checked the room. No bugs. We’re free to talk.”

“Awesome,” Will yawned, flopping down on the couch and putting his feet up.

He made the little two-person couch look really comfy, but with his arms stretching across the back it would feel too much like cuddling to sit next to him. Jim plopped down in an armchair—the only other available seat unless I wanted to sit across the room in the kitchenette—before I could say anything, so I resigned myself to the couch after all. I sat on the opposite side of Will, only half a foot of space between us. I tried not to react to the warm heat of his arm just a few inches away from my neck.

“So here’s the deal, kids,” Jim said, looking us both over. “I know you’re all tired, scared, and apprehensive. It’s okay. All those things make sense. But I’m damn good at my job. I can keep the two of you safe if you work with me and do what I say.”

I nodded. He’d done a good job so far.

“Here’s the next part of the plan. I’m going to get our new identities finalized and secure a safehouse for us to stay in long term.”

“Long term?” Will raised his eyebrow. “I can’t… No. No one said this was a long term thing. I’ve got responsibilities, people to take care of.”

He had people? I didn’t see anything about that in his file. Who was counting on him? Was there someone waiting at home for him?

“I know,” Jim said. “Kaylie is just fine and she’ll stay that way.”

Kaylie? Was that his girlfriend?

“How do you know about her? I haven’t said anything.” Will looked uncomfortable, glancing in my direction. Yup, probably a girlfriend, and he felt guilty for flirting with me when she was back at his apartment waiting for him.

“No. Seriously. Jim Marshall: you need to give me your word that she’s safe and she’ll stay that way. I’m not there to pay the bill and she likes these caretakers. She can’t go to some random state facility.”

Caretakers? Okay, maybe not a girlfriend. A older relative in a home?

“I promise you, Will. She’s safe and well-looked after.” Will met his steady gaze and nodded, a burden seeming to fall off his shoulders. Wow, he really cared about Kaylie, whoever she was. “When I say long-term I don’t mean permanent. You just never know how long it’ll be until a trial is seen to completion. Or even how long until a trial starts, depending on their lawyers’ strategy. It’s better safe than sorry, right?”

“Right,” I said for the both of us. I didn’t have anybody who cared waiting at home for me.

“Alright then kids, enough talk. Let’s get settled in. We’ll head to the house in the morning.”

We ordered room service and vegged out in front of the TV for the night. I wanted to pick a regency romance movie I knewWill would hate, but Jim vetoed the idea. “Fine,” I pouted. “Then we’re watching Titanic.”

“Cool, naked chick,” Will nodded in approval. Damn. I should’ve tried harder for Pride and Prejudice.

The ship was sunk and Rose floating along when I couldn’t hold in the yawns anymore. It was time for some shut eye. Jim directed me to the back bedroom and Will to the one on the left. He assigned himself couch duty.

“Why don’t you get a real bed in that room, Jim? You have to be on your game again tomorrow.”

“What am I, chopped liver?” Will scoffed. “He’s paying his dues now since he got the aisle seat on the plane earlier. And I think I deserve a bed, too, thinking on my feet like that after you froze up at the airport.”

I stiffened. Ididfreeze up. I talked a good game, logically knew how to survive, but it was all theory and hypotheticals. I was never good at putting theories into practice. I had the book smarts, but I guess I was lucky Will had street smarts to put it all together for us in the heat of the moment.

His sarcastic quip was short lived; I could see the regret in his eyes immediately. “Claire,” he entreated, but I needed to move on.

“You don’t deserve a bed until I’ve balanced out the ledger and punched you six more times,” I said.

“Well, maybe I’d have the brain capacity to hold my tongue in check if you weren’t always so eager for me to touch you.”

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