Page 34 of Eyes in the Shadows

“Depends on the weather conditions, but usually a few days. Why?”

She throws a look over her shoulder. “Think he’d fit in one of these lockers?”

The sly little minx. She’s quick on her feet, I’ll give her that. It’s perfect. I’ll call Felix as soon as we’re out of here—I know he operates in the area—and his crew can come clean up once the gym closes for the day. “Good idea. See if there’s any kind of ‘out of order’ sign and put it up on the door. Should buy us some time if we run out.” I busted through the lock to get in, so that’s not an option anymore.

She scurries off to do as I ask and I grab both his ankles. Dragging is so much easier than carrying. I feel her stare like a physical touch as she watches me pull the body across the floor. She holds the locker open for me as I get him upright inside. It’s a tight fit, but I’m not too worried about his comfort.

Once I get him closed in, she steps into the space between me and the metal door to get it locked. I lean down just close enough to get a deep whiff of her hair. The scent of other people’s sweat and chlorine in this locker room isn’t enough to overpower the sweetness of her. She pulls back, brushing against the entire front of me, and I nearly groan at the contact. Just as she would pull away, I grip her shoulders and keep her pressed to me.

It helps to soothe the part of me that’s still so full of white-hot rage at that motherfucker who thought he could threaten—thought he could even fuckinglook at—what’s mine. When I think about how much skin she was showing, and how his eyes were on her… I should take them with me as a trophy.

But we don’t have time.

I lean down so I can murmur into her ear, if for no other reason than it means I can keep her close a second longer. “Take another deep breath, darlin’. I need you to be ready to walk out of here, looking like nothing’s wrong. Can you do that?”

I hear her loud exhale, feel some of the tension leach out of her body. She nods. “I think so.”

“Good girl.” She shivers against me and I really, really hope it’s because she liked what I said and not because she’s going into shock.

But she looks okay for the most part, hair a little mussed and eyes kind of wild with the adrenaline. She winces a little when she looks at my face, then darts away before I can say anything. When she returns, she’s got a wet paper towel. “Your nose,” she says, handing it to me.

Another point to Eleanor.

I wipe the blood off my upper lip and when she nods in approval, I pocket the towel with my DNA and I tug her behind me as I ease open the door. The buzzing of the fire alarm has stopped, and I hear voices above us. Relief washes over me—they just started letting people back in. We slip into the hall.

She’s power-walking, and her head keeps whipping side to side like she’s keeping watch for someone about to jump out or spot us. It’s nice, but my carefully honed senses will do just fine for us and she looks really goddamn conspicuous.

When she starts yanking on her jacket, I grab onto her hand to stop her before she can start climbing the stairs. Her eyes go wide in surprise as I pull her into my side so I can lean close and mutter, “You need to be better about hiding things with your face. Now, smile at me like I just said something sweet and play along.”

There’s an instant when I pull away where I can read her face like an open book and what I see is as humbling as it is arousing. Desire, wariness, trust, concern, fear, resolve…

“You’re being so brave, Eleanor,” I murmur, swiping across the top of her hand with my thumb.

She smiles and even though I know I just told her to, it really feels genuine. I pull her against me, drape my arm over her shoulders, step up, and say, “I’m thinking pizza tonight if you don’t feel like cooking.”

She matches my pace, but falters for an instant at the unexpected topic. “Oh. Yeah, pizza would be fine.”

“And I think there’s another episode of that show you were telling me about.”

I tighten my arm around her as I feel her instinct to walk faster as we reach the top stair and people’s heads turn in our direction. “Uh… that cooking show? The competition one?”

I want to laugh, because I did put her on the spot so I shouldn’t be surprised that’s what she came up with, but I just grin. “I’ll agree to it on one condition.”

“Yeah?”

I can see the front desk in my peripheries, and the people just getting back to work aren’t paying us any mind. “That we watch all the Mission Impossible movies this weekend, even the new one.”

The face she makes in response is genuine. “What? Are you serious?”

I laugh and push against the handle, biting back a noise as the weight of the door against my recently-dislocated shoulder sends hot pain down my arm. I step to the side so she can go ahead of me, and take her bag as she passes. I swing it over my shoulder and reach ahead of her to open the second set of glass doors.

The cold air bites into any exposed skin that’s still clammy from the warm, wet locker room, and it feels like pure freedom. I hear Eleanor fill her lungs with the same emotion. The lights are on in the lot, casting large circles of safety at regular intervals. It’s nearly empty, though, and clearing out. The only movement I see is a woman getting into her car in the second row, and another car turning out of the lot.

When she starts heading to the left, I grab her hand and pull her back towards me. “Nope. This way; I’m at the back of the lot.”

“But I live—”

I lower my voice, just in case. The last thing I need is someone seeing and overhearing some massive dude kidnapping a struggling woman in the gym parking lot in the dark. “You’re coming with me, darlin’.”

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