Big Easy Temptation (The Perfect Gentlemen #3)(86)
The minutes rolled by as she looked out on the moonlit bayou. Silvery beams illuminated the still waters of the swamp. Every now and then it reflected off the light from creatures’ eyes. She shuddered.
“Can we talk about us now?” Dax asked softly.
She wasn’t ready, though she’d started to believe that at some point she might be able to discuss that with something other than sarcasm and cynicism. “Not yet.”
He was quiet for a moment, the only sound between them the pounding of the Jeep against the pavement. “All right. Let’s talk about the fact that someone warned us today. Any idea who?”
She’d heard the same thing he had. “It was a woman. I don’t know. It was chaotic and she didn’t yell out after that. From what I can tell, they were both across the street from my building.”
“Why would they have two agents across the street from us and why would one sell the other out?”
It was a question she’d been asking herself. “I don’t think they were together. One of the buildings across the street is a good two stories taller than the other. Whoever called out to us must have had the better vantage point. I suspect she’d positioned herself on that taller building. She took multiple shots at him, I’ll bet with the handgun. The guy with the rifle was directly across the street from us, so his perch was closer to my window. That’s why he had an easy time throwing those Molotov cocktails into my place. The competing gunfire had ceased by then.”
“She obviously wasn’t there to kill us.”
“Agreed. I wish I’d gotten a look at her. Unfortunately, that whole running-for-our-lives thing got in the way. That really rankles.”
It did. It made her restless that she’d been so vulnerable, that not one but two people had been watching them. If Dax hadn’t been there, she would have hauled off in hot pursuit. With him by her side, she’d had more than herself and her pride to think of.
She’d sat quietly in the bar of one of the larger hotels while texting her uncle and trying to figure out who would have warned them. While they’d waited for the Jeep Connor had arranged she’d come to terms with the fact that her only real concern in that moment hadn’t been herself or her apartment or even the files.
It had been Dax.
At the end of the day it didn’t matter how tough she was. She was a stupid girl at heart. She was still foolishly pining for a boy. No, a man. She could trust him with her life, just not with her heart.
“According to the directions, we’re not far now,” Dax said as he turned again, this time onto a one-lane dirt road so narrow that trees brushed the sides of the Jeep as though reaching out to pull them into the thick gloom of the swamp. Wherever they were headed, it was isolated.
“Did your uncle mention how much of the building was lost?” Dax asked.
“The good news is the fire department got there quickly. Uncle Beau thinks there’s no real structural damage. He was there when the fire department arrived, and he signed all the paperwork for me. He’s going to send in an engineer to make sure. He’ll keep in touch by e-mail, but at some point he’s going to want to see me.”
“Let’s give it a day or two.”
“How’s your mom?” It was so much easier to talk about family than the elephant in the Jeep. They hadn’t talked about that kiss yet or the fact that if some asshole hadn’t started shooting, she very likely would have surrendered to Dax on the balcony. She would have spread her legs wide without a word of protest and welcomed him inside because she hadn’t cared about anything in that moment except being close to him.
“So far, so good. I tried to get her to go to D.C., but she’s being stubborn.”
All the Spencers were stubborn. It seemed to be bred into their DNA.
Finally, a building came into view, illuminated in the twin lights of the Jeep. She couldn’t make out many details in the surrounding dark, but at least it wasn’t one of the small fishing camps that dotted the bayou. It looked like a cabin big enough to actually live in. The door opened and out stepped someone she hadn’t seen in years.
“Is that Connor?”
Dax stopped the Jeep and killed the engine with a smile on his face. “Asshole didn’t tell me he was already here.”
“Maybe he came out this afternoon.”
Dax shook his head. “Nah. He’s probably been here since I hit New Orleans, waiting for the minute I needed backup.”
He hopped out of the Jeep. In the moonlight, she watched Dax point a finger at his friend, stalking closer. Then the two men did that manly hug, beat-on-each-other’s-back thing.
Connor had come all this way because he wouldn’t leave Dax without backup. When was the last time she’d had a friend like that? Probably Joy.
Or had she pushed away another true friend because the woman happened to be Dax’s sister? She brushed the thought aside and exited the Jeep. With Connor here, she was firmly in Dax’s world again and she would have to remember that they weren’t really alone. Only she was. He was surrounded by people who loved him. She’d lost those a long time ago.
Even as she hopped out of the vehicle, she saw Connor size her up. Dax’s best friend had always been a deep one, the dark to his light. Dax always seemed so sunny while Connor obviously preferred the shadows. Sometimes she thought it would have been easier if she’d fallen for Connor. That man would never have pushed her for more than a good time in bed.