Page 17 of Steinbeck
“Agreed.”
She stared at him.“Okay, did you get hit in the head when the yacht blew up?”
He met her gaze then, and under the velvety dark sky, the stars shining in his eyes...
A beat of silence fell between them, thunderous.She swallowed.
Friends.Maybe comrades in arms.
His voice turned a little rough when he finally spoke.“I came for you because I couldn’t...because the thought of something happening to you?—”
“Stop, Stein.Just—” She shook her head.“It can’t work.”Oh, nowhervoice roughened.“In a different life...”
He stared at her for so long that she thought maybe he hadn’t heard her.Then, softly, “What kind of different life?”
His gaze made her entire body ache.“A life where...when I look at you, I don’t see my mistakes.The things I’ve done.And where you don’t look at me and see...regret.And anger.And...the truth is, I’m just not built for anything real, Stein.I’m not a team player.I’m a solo act.And I’m built to survive.That’s all.I should have told you that from the beginning.But?—”
“But in the beginning, you were just trying to survive.”
She nodded.
He swallowed, sighed, his chest rising and falling, the lights of the city sparkling around them.“So was I.But...I don’t know.Maybe we can figure out how to get past survival together?”
Did he not hear her?
“Stein—”
The alarm shrieked, a blaring shot into the night, and she jumped to her feet.
“Two minutes,” he said and took off for his room.
She looked down into the alleyway.Nothing amiss.Sweeping up her pack, she took off for her room.
From a shelf in her closet, she retrieved her go bag and a tactical vest, then climbed onto her bed, pushed aside the canvas picture, and sprung open the latch that revealed the compartment behind it.
She grabbed one of the two Glock 19s and a SIG Sauer P226.Shoved them into her tactical vest.
Stein came charging in.“You have a bunker above your bed?”He snatched up the other Glock.“You do realize how sexy that is, right?”
She stared at him, her eyes wide, and he grinned, winked.“One survivor to the next.”He grabbed a radio from her stash in the compartment and tossed it to her, then the other.“Let’s roll.”
He took off down the hallway, stopped at the door while she checked the monitor.A man stood in the hallway.And he was armed.
“C’mon.We’ll take the balcony.”She headed for the doors, opening her ottoman on the way.
“You have a fire ladder.”
She nodded, turned, and headed outside.Hooked the ladder on the side of the rail and let it fall.
“Let’s—”
He wasn’t behind her.
She stepped back inside and stilled as she watched Steinbeck unlatch the door, stand back, and let the enemy into her home.
THREE
Stein wasn’t a total idiot.Of course he had his SIG Sauer out as he opened the door.Not for the man on the other side, but for the unknown woman who’d stepped up behind him.
