Keira grabbed hold of my shirt, pulling me closer. I lifted my hands to her face to hide it as much as I could.
Woodson paused briefly and huffed a laugh. “Y’all have fun tonight,” he said gruffly. Then he and the other man got into Woodson’s truck and drove off.
I broke the kiss. Keira’s eyes were round.
“You good?” I asked, panting for breath.
“Um. Yep. Mission complete.”
I rubbed my eyes, separating our bodies, though I wanted the opposite.
She pointed in the general direction of our vehicle. “We should…um, car…”
Right.
Nice going, Marine. Get your damn act together.
We returned to the borrowed car and got in. “What happened?” I asked as I replaced the gun in the glovebox.
“You were armed? You might’ve mentioned that to me earlier.”
“I didn’t know it would be necessary. Keira, tell me what happened out there. What took so long?”
“Drive. Let’s get out of here. I’ll tell you on the way.”
I pulled us onto the road, heading back toward my place. The drive was going to take a while. But that was good. We had plenty of time to talk, and I could make sure we weren’t being followed.
Also plenty of time to calm myself down. Three times now I’d had my mouth on Keira, and not once had it felt like part of a mission.
“The man who left the strip club with Woodson tonight,” she said. “That washim. The bearded guy who offered to buy me a drink the night of the shooting.”
I cursed.
“But I got a photo of him. That’s why I didn’t come right back after planting the tracker.”
“We should send the photo to River, see if he can identify the guy.” I exhaled. “You scared me to death disappearing like that, though.”
“You don’t trust me to be careful?”
“I do trust you. But you’re still not physically able to defend yourself. I can’t let you get hurt again. You’re too important to me.”
“Make up your mind, Dean. Are we in this together or not?”
“We are.” On the other hand, I’d promised her mother I’d take care of her.
And if I brought that up right now, Keira might smack me.
“A few minutes ago, you were saying you’d help me become a Protector. Now you’re getting upset about me being in danger when it wasnothing. I was staying hidden. Woodson and his friend wouldn’t have seen me at all. Of course, then you charged over there, guaranteeing they’d notice us.”
“I had no idea what was going on. What was I supposed to do, just sit around?”
“Yes. You were supposed to wait for me. Instead, you had to manufacture a make-out session to get us out of it.”
“I’ll be sure to avoid kissing you in the future.”
“Good.” Keira touched her lips. Like she was thinking about it. Replaying it. “No more kissing. Or…any other stuff.”
“Like walking in on me naked?”
