Page 30 of Steinbeck
Until today.
Now, Harper stared at the blurry stars.
Clearly, the answer was yes.
FOUR
Emberly’s storybothered him more than Stein wanted to admit, even after they’d turned on the television and embarked on a shortWest Wingmarathon.
She’d helped him clean out the junk-food supply in the galley, and when the copilot came over the speakers and told them to buckle in for landing, he found her snoozing.
Emberly was impossibly pretty, and he had to catch himself because she was most likely right—“This is going to end badly.”
Maybe.Probably.And he might be a fool for thinking anything else.Because he didn’t trust her.
But he wanted to.
Shoot.A smart man would put a tracker on her, because deep in Stein’s gut, he knew that at the first—or best—chance she got, Phoenix would ditch him.He should probably let her.
Emberly, however, the girl who’d tried to care for her sister, who longed for a family...That girl spoke to the guy inside who’d grown up with that exact family.
They were cut from the same double-sided cloth.And four days ago he’d been desperately trying not to think about their kiss—okay, all the kisses between them.
Then she’d launched herself into his arms in Sintra, and something had shifted inside him.“Don’t make that bet quite yet...”
Aw.Maybe he just needed to help her with this one thing, get her—and this mission—out of his system.Walk away, back to a life without thieves and Russians chasing him.
No more danger and trouble and waiting for her to betray him.
However, now as she sat in the rental beside him, driving from the airport the hour-plus to Duck Lake, their life felt almost pedestrian.Just a couple of...spies?Not thieves, but maybe...operatives?Heading to his parents’ home.
Okay, maybe not so pedestrian.
“You okay?”
She stared out the window, the early autumn sun casting upon the red silos and barns that sat amidst fields of corn and soybeans on this stretch of highway between Minneapolis and Duck Lake.
“Last time I was at your house, I snuck in like a thief.”
“Notlikea thief.Youwerea thief.”
She glanced at him.“A dancing thief.You had nice moves there, Travolta, if I remember correctly.”
“I should have realized you were just using me for my jacket.”But yes, he remembered that dance with a stranger, the one that had lingered with him.
Maybe because, deep inside, he’dknown.
Phoenix, the girl he’d tried to forget, somehow, impossibly, in his arms.
“Listen.No one knows why you were there.Not even Austen.Calm down—for all they know, you’re my secret girlfriend.”
Her eyes widened.
He glanced at her.“There’s that panic again.Listen.Just for the next twenty-four hours, until we track down Declan, maybe just...take a breath.Loosen up.Let your inner Emberly out.”
“You do remember that Emberly was a little unhinged.”
“I think Emberly just wanted to be safe.”
