Page 44 of A Shot in the Dark
I drop the vanity mirror down, lift my blonde hair up, and examine the skin. “Still fading—so fast it’s like I was bred to be brutalized.”
He sucks in a sharp breath. “Shit.” The idea makes him shift in his seat.
The marks are fading, the bond changing, the dreams though, the strange glimpses as if of some other world? Gone as if they never existed. Just a set of strange memories or the product of an overstimulated imagination. Fever dreams of a different sort? I can’t be sure. “The bond—I still feel it. It’s different now. It has to break pretty soon, though, right?”
“I…” He glances away before returning his eyes to the road. “Yeah. It should only be seven days. Only temporary.”
His tone doesn’t carry the same assurance I expected. He stretches his neck, rolls his shoulders. Then his lips twist in something halfway between a faint smile and a grimace, and I know he’s making plans—which means I have to continue making my own evasive maneuvers, engaging strategy—for both our sakes.
I wake to find us parked, Boots gently rubbing my arm. “Hey.” The word rumbles out of him.
“Are we there—?” Sitting up, I realize we are most certainly not in Greenbriar. Instead, the Town Car is parked at the top of a mountain that looks like it would provide the perfect scenic overlook in the entire world, if only it had a roomy parking lot. Instead it’s a miraculously quiet, completely empty spot.
Only birdsong and the scents of early spring—of flowers and hope—greets us.
Boots has slipped out of his seat and is carefully—politely—opening my door. My foul-mouthed, dirty-talking knight.
“I found this spot on another job a couple years ago. Always thought I’d find my way back someday. When the time was right.”
Before I can ask what he means, he’s turned me around, pointing over my shoulder as he slips behind me. “But the time will never be right—not for you and me—so I’m taking what I can get. And in a minute you’ll see a sunset that’s nearly unbeatable.”
“You brought me here to watch a sunset with you?”
Red flag.
Warm against my back, he is a solid and powerful presence. “Yeah,” he says simply. He runs his fingers lightly through my hair, lifting it away from my shoulder, my neck, and the mark he left on me—the mark that appears to fade more and more with every passing moment. Our time is running out.
I know it.
He knows it.
Hehasto know it.
We’re just dealing with it in different ways. I’ve noticed the way he talks to me—so softly, like everything is a secret shared only between us. I see it in the way he watches me, the smile coming more easily to his face when he realizes he’s been caught.
Red flag.
Red flag.
Whatever the madness was that overtook me has passed. And the bond that should be ending? It’s still changing, keeping him leashed to me. Keeping him tied to me, like some common dog.
And I can’t bear the idea of that. Boots is so much more.
This was all supposed to be temporary.
It should mean nothing, just fade and become some sweet and strange memory, something to look back on later andwonder about. Not every adventure needs to be meaningful. Not every knight needs a lady—some need to head right back into battle. Maybe to pay their bills on time. Maybe to lead some crazy rebellion and rework some aspect of his world I will never understand.
Because he will never let me in far enoughtounderstand.
That’s not what a “one and only” should do.
Right?
It’s above my paygrade to decide what destiny holds for Boots.
It’s only in my purview to understand we need to go our separate ways. Both of us back to worlds we understand.
He simply needs to drop me off in Greenbriar and go on his way. Like he planned. I’ll be safe and, I hope, he’ll be safe.
