Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 35507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35507 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 178(@200wpm)___ 142(@250wpm)___ 118(@300wpm)
"Then that's where I'm going," I say.
"We," Oakley says.
"No."
"They already have the drive, Colt. The next thing they want is the woman who can testify to what was on it. You leave me in a mill they already walked through and you're giving them a second chance at the easier target."
Alden looks at me. He doesn't help.
The fear of losing her sits in my throat, metallic and huge. Taking her into Yard 4 is a different flavor of the same fear. At least in the second version I can reach her.
"You stay in the truck until I clear a wall," I tell her. "You drop if I say drop. You run if I say run. You don't chase a file."
"I chase you," she says. "That's the deal now."
Eli flinches when I glance at him. I point at Alden. "He doesn't leave this floor. I want Crewe on the outfall and Sin on the van if it moves."
"You'll have it," Alden says. "Don't make me collect you from a Northline box."
I take Oakley's hand because the alternative is shaking and I'm not offering anyone that picture. Her fingers lace through mine, fierce and certain, the same grip she gave me in the dark when the only threat was how much I wanted her.
The mill stays locked behind us. Red light holds the stairs. Somewhere under the brick the river keeps feeding a tunnel Helix already used. We go out the one door Alden names, into a morning that has no power and too many coordinates, and I keep her on my left the whole way to the truck because I can still feel how close they came to taking the rest of her with the drive.
12
Oakley
The sky over the river road goes from steel to white in the time it takes Colt to clear the mill gate. First flakes hit the windshield fat and wet. Then the wind turns and the world beyond the hood starts disappearing in sheets.
"Yard 4 is twenty minutes in good weather," he says. His hands are tight on the wheel. "This isn't good weather."
A storm? “So we outrun it."
"We can’t outrun this. Weather turns nasty at the drop of a hat out here. We need to find shelter and wait it out.”
“Where?” Snow hits the windshield faster, dropping the visibility to non-existent.
“There's an Equinox cabin off this spur. Stocked. Wired. Nobody's used it since spring."
I watch the trees vanish. "Helix is taking my files to that pin while we hide from snow."
"Helix can sit in an unheated yard and freeze. I'm not putting you in a whiteout so I can feel useful." His jaw flexes. "You stay breathing. That's still the job."
The spur appears as a gap in the pines. He takes it too fast and then not fast enough. Snow is already collecting in the ruts. The cabin shows up small and dark, timber crouched under a roof going white. He codes the lock, hauls me out of the truck, and the wind slams the door against his shoulder before he can shoulder it shut.
Inside is one bedroom off a short hall. Real door. Fireplace. Cold air that bites my wrists. He checks the cabin, clearing everything and locking the door. He makes a quick fire as I take in my surroundings. There’s barely anything here. As soon as the fire is roaring, he turns toward me.
That’s all the warning I get.
Colt kisses me with the permission he refused to take in a mill full of cameras. The storm is only weather. He's the reason. His mouth is hot and certain. My back hits the door we just locked. Snow melts in his hair and drops onto my cheek. I make a sound I've been swallowing since the table in the other house and he drinks it down.
"Tell me to stop," he says against my mouth.
"If you stop I will end you."
A wrecked laugh punches out of him. "Good girl."
The words land low in my stomach. He kisses me again, deeper, one hand in my hair and the other under my hoodie at the small of my back. His palm is huge and rough and shaking a little. I feel that shake and it undoes me more than the kiss.
"Been thinking about this since you laughed over ruined muffins," he says. "Since you told me not to put it in a drawer. Since you stood in red light and kept me from doing something I'd hate myself for. I want you on a bed. I want my mouth between your legs until you forget the drive. Then I want to fuck you until my name is the only word you know."
Heat floods my face. "Dirty."
"You asked for the rest of the lesson. This is the rest."
He walks me backward down the short hall without taking his mouth off mine. The bedroom is dim. A wide bed. Dark blankets. One window already latticed with snow. He peels the hoodie up and off. The Equinox shirt follows. Cold air finds my skin and then his hands find it instead, thumbs stroking the undersides of my breasts through the thin bra.