Page 46 of Boxed In

Her chest tightened as she glanced around the cave.

“What?”

Obviously, the internal twinge had been accompanied by a look of alarm.

“Can we get back . . . where we belong?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I’ll lead you back.”

“And if you got killed—would I be stuck here?” she blurted, then immediately regretted the question.

He looked thoughtful. “I do not know.”

“Maybe we’d better leave.” She grabbed her pants and stood up, turning her back as she pulled them on.

“You have a nice ass,” he murmured.

“Thanks!”

“But then, I knew that from stroking you.”

She pulled on her pants and worked the zipper before turning to face him.

He pulled on the jeans he’d worn to work, not bothering with the shirt he’d torn.

oOo

As Olivia watched him, she couldn’t stop herself from saying, “You certainly know how to be subtle.”

“I do not have time for subtle.”

The clipped words made her focus on something that had been circling around in her mind. Something she wanted to know. Or did she?

She swallowed, then asked, “How did Luke end up at my office?”

He kept his gaze steady. “He came to fix the computer.”

“Yes, but before that—when I held the box, I had an odd feeling—like it was connecting with my mind.” She kept her gaze fixed on him. “Did you find out about Luke from me? Did you arrange for the computer to break so he’d show up?”

“You think I could do that?”

She raised her chin. “When you were in the box, you’d have to have a way to know what was going on in the outside world. I think you were using me.”

His face hardened. “It’s not what you think.”

Recognizing Luke was speaking, she asked, “Then what?”

He swallowed hard. “I work for an outfit called Decorah Security. We knew the shipment was coming in—and we knew the box was dangerous. I was assigned to watch out for the shipment.”

She caught her breath. “So you were lying to me since we first met.”

“Decorah made an agreement to get me the job of fixing the Peterbalm computers.”

“And break them—so you could keep coming by?”

---