Page 25 of Trust No One

“Yeah,” Dev said, accelerating as the light turned green. “Kingsley’s smart. Has to be, to survive all this time. He knows how to stay beneath the radar. And how to get rid of his enemies.”

“Yeah.” Mel exhaled, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw her shoulders relax. She must think he wasn’t going to bring up their little diversion in the back seat of the car.

She’d be wrong. He’d bring it up when she least expected it. Because their little make-out session in the back seat at the mall? All his memories of making love with Mel had come roaring back. Roiling his simmering need for her into a full-fledged boil.

He wanted Mel in his bed again.

The devil on his shoulder snorted with laughter. Mel was a smart woman. She wouldn’t sign up to have her heart broken a second time.

Staring at her phone, gripped tightly in her hand, she said, “Our rental car company has an office one point seven miles away. Turn right at the next corner.”

He flicked on his blinker and turned obediently. Took a left when she told him to. In a few minutes, he saw the familiar green and black sign and turned into the parking lot. Angled the car into a parking spot.

“You want to do this?” he asked her.

She shook her head. “You’re the registered driver. Better if you’re the one who makes the request.” She tilted her head and studied him. “Tell them that we don’t like the way this sedan handles. We’d like an SUV.”

“I can do that.” He smiled. “Make it convincing, too. What guy wants to be seen driving a sedan? That’s a grandpa car.”

Her lips curled up slightly. “Yeah, they’d believe that of you,” she said. “Good line.”

“I’ll tell them my wife booked the car,” he said, watching her as he slid out of the car. “She doesn’t know what a guy likes.”

She raised one eyebrow. “Not sure they’d believe that if they’d been watching us at the mall. But go ahead and try that line. See if it works.”

He slammed the door a little too hard. Mel had always had a smart mouth. It was one of the things he’d liked about her. Except when she used it against him.

Fifteen minutes later, he was back with a different set of keys. “We’ve upgraded to a white SUV. Standard issue. It’ll look like every other SUV on the road. And white is one of the most popular car colors.”

“Great,” Mel said, scanning the parking lot and the street in front of them before she stepped out of the car. “Where is it?”

“Behind the building,” he said, putting his hand on her back to guide her around the corner.

She stiffened beneath his fingers but didn’t pull away. Probably aware that the rental people could be watching them. He pointed the key fob at a white SUV and pressed the button. A cheery chirp told him he had the right car.

“Hop in,” he said. “Let’s get back to the hotel.”

“Yeah,” she said. “I feel like there are eyes on me, and I don’t like it. I’ll watch carefully on the way.”

They slid into the new vehicle, which still had the new-car smell, and pulled out of the lot after watching for a long moment. No silver sedans, but he wasn’t expecting one. Kingsley, or whoever had followed them, would know he’d been made.

On the drive back to the hotel, they both watched the mirrors. Neither of them saw anything unusual, and he took the long route, winding through residential neighborhoods and less-trafficked areas. Finally, when they were close to the hotel, Mel said, “Drive past it. There’s another hotel, a bigger one, a couple blocks away. I noticed it when we chose this one. I think we should park in the lot there, trying to look like we’re hiding the car, then walk back to our hotel.”

“Great minds,” he said. “I was going to suggest the same thing.”

They exchanged glances, once again the well-oiled machine they’d been back in the day. He put on his blinker when they reached the decoy hotel, then drove around until he found a spot on the backside of the hotel. Not visible from the road.

He turned the car off and they sat in silence for a while, listening for a car approaching their parking spot. But when they hadn’t heard anything for fifteen minutes, Dev slid out of the car. “Let’s go. I want to be inside, not sitting in a car out in the open.”

“Yeah, I agree.” Mel exited the car and closed the door gently. Dev left a couple of tells on his side of the car, then eased his own door closed. Mel glanced at her phone, then jerked her head toward the street behind the hotel. “We can get back to our hotel on that street. A lot less traffic, so easier to watch for someone looking for us.”

“Great idea.” He walked with her until they were on the sidewalk, then took her hand. Her fingers tensed in his, and she tried to jerk her hand away. But he only tightened his grip. “If anyone is watching and saw us in the car earlier, they’d expect us to be holding hands,” he said. “Gotta make it look real.”

Mel swallowed once, then again. “You’re right,” she finally said grudgingly. “We set up the story. Now we have to maintain it.”

Dev slid his fingers between hers, hating the way she tensed. She began to pull away, then stopped herself. But her hand was loose in his. As if she didn’t want to touch him but was forcing herself to maintain contact.

It pissed him off, but he grudgingly conceded that she had reason not to want contact with him. Not to trust him with either her body or her heart.

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