Page 39 of Kissing Danger

Obviously, I couldn’t tell her what we’d actually done, but I couldn’t risk making something up that wouldn’t match what he said.

I quickly ran over the timeline of our day in my head. We landed. We drove immediately to the office building where Caprice Vidales was meeting with her hitman. We killed a couple of people, including the hitman. Then we left and headed straight for a hotel to spend an unknown amount of time screwing each other’s brains out.

Thinking back on it, I vaguely remembered the time on the big clock in the hotel’s lobby when we checked in. Compared to thetime we landed, and how long it took us to drive there, we only spent about twenty minutes at the office.

That small of a discrepancy could be explained with a minor traffic jam.

In the end, I just shrugged. “Nothing much. We landed. Then we came here.”

I held back a laugh as I watched the muscles around the agent’s eye start twitching. “It took you an hour to drive from the airport to the hotel?”

“What can I say? New York traffic’s a bitch.”

Her pen tapped against the still blank page of her notebook, leaving a little constellation of dots on the otherwise pristine surface.

“Why did you come to this hotel? There are plenty of other ones closer to the airport. We looked into it. You didn’t have reservations ahead of time, so why drive all the way here?”

I looked around the hotel room as if seeing it for the first time. “I guess Nathan likes this one. I don’t know. I didn’t ask. As long as there’s a decent bed, then its good enough for me.”

I could almost hear her teeth grinding. “Mister Millar. You’re not being very cooperative.”

“Hmm?” I put on my best confused face. “But I answered all your questions. Is there something else you need to know?”

Her “Good Cop” act was about the crack. I could feel it. She was moments away from threatening me. The pen trembled in her hand, and her lips pulled back over her teeth like she was about to chew me to pieces.

Before she could say another word, however, the hotel room’s door opened. I knew who I would see before I even turned around. Those footsteps were unmistakable.

“Nathan.” Springing up from my chair, I threw myself into his arms. “You’re back.”

Checking the clock, I quickly realized he’d only been gone for about two hours. That was still two hours too long, but not nearly as long as I feared.

His arms wrapped tight around me. “Hello, beautiful. I told you I’d be back. Were you good while I was gone.”

Grinning up at him, I nodded. “I was on my best behavior.”

“Sterling?” The officer sputtered from where she still sat, staring at the both of us in wide-eyed confusion. “What? But—how?”

Nathan’s hand gave my hip a squeeze as he addressed the officer. “As I said. It was a misunderstanding. Everything’s cleared up now.”

We obviously had a lot to talk about. He must have done something questionable to get released so quickly, but all I could feel was relief in that moment.

Turning within the circle of his arms, but never leaving his embrace, I waved at the officer with a coy twiddle of my fingers.

“Goodbye, Officer Quinn. It was pleasant talking to you.”

CHAPTER 13

Nathan

After escapingour run-in with law enforcement, Deacon and I caught the first flight back to Las Vegas. A few days later, I was sitting in my office at theFantaisisteheadquarters, staring out the window as my thoughts turned over and over.

I’d spent the last few days trying to figure out how Agent Belden managed to follow me to New York, and I didn’t like what I’d found.

I was no amateur. I knew how to cover my tracks. The plane tickets had been booked under an alias, paid for from an account I couldn’t be connected to. Plus, based on the timeframe and how quickly she’d shown up, she must have followed me to New York and rallied the local officers before I’d even committed a crime.

The only way to explain it was if she knew exactly what I had planned to do.

For the first time in a long while, I’d been put in a tough spot. On my own, I could have beaten the murder charges. I hadn’t left any evidence behind for them to prove my crimes.

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