I blinked twice.
Wow. All right. Talos wasn’t exaggerating at all.
Jesus, was that how I sounded to everyone I opened my big yap to?
Poor Blake.
“Lucky for both of us, I’ve got an in with guest services.” I swung my bag off of my shoulder and let it drop down onto the ground. When I squatted, I pulled the zipper apart and brought outtwocanteens. “Pretty cool, right?”
Her mouth dropped. “Oh, that’sexcellent. We definitely won’t be going thirsty today! That’s going to be great because there are peanuts in the trail mix and they’re the salty kind which definitely make you real thirsty after a while. So many people don’t realize that when they bring trail mix as a snack and then they go through half a bottle of water, and it’s like... where did it all go!”
Talos was a sick bastard.
There was no doubt in my mind assigning me Elaine was giving me a taste of my own medicine. Trying to dress it up with ‘taking painstaking measures to pair up matching athletics’ my ass.
“How we doing over here?” Turning to look over my shoulder, the devil himself was wandering over at a leisure pace, clipboard in hand and a pen at the ready.
“Oh, we’re great!” Elaine replied. “I don’t know about Marlow’s stamina but I can definitely match paces. I hate when groups get too staggered because what if someone twists an ankle? Or what if there is a mountain lion waiting for a straggler to get too far from their group? You know there is plenty of wildlife out here that are opportunistic predators. I have a whole guide book that shows each one and their hunting habits.”
Talos swung his attention down to where I was still squatting, a slow smirk curling at his lips.
This was definitely karma.
“You know what, Elaine?” After shoving the canteens back into my bag and zipping it up, I rose up to my feet again. “I’dloveto see that guide book. In fact, we should totally dog-ear the ones that are known to be in this area so we can warn the rest of the group. There’s no reason onlyweshould be privy to such important info like that.”
Her eyes immediately widened. “Oh... you’re so right.” She quickly turned to Talos. “Do I have time to quickly run up to my cabin? I swear it’ll only be, like, a second.”
Right as his mouth started to form around the word ‘no’, I butted in. “I mean, it would make us all feel safer. The key to a healthy mindset is through learning. Plus, what an entertaining book to go through while we hike?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s a real good one. And! There is a whole chapter dedicated to wild flora you can eat!” Elaine said.
I shot Talos a grin. “Awholechapter.”
A laugh bubbled up in my chest that I had to bite back when his jaw ticked, clearly resisting the urge to tell me to go fuck myself. “As long as you’re back here in five minutes.”
“Done!” she said, and quickly spun around to sprint back to her cabin.
The second she was out of earshot, Talos flashed me a look over the rim of his sunglasses. “Remember what I told you less than two hours ago?”
“Was it the ‘behave’ thing? Sorry, my memory’s a little fuzzy. Lots of packing, you know? That list was extensive.”
He muttered something under his breath and then said, “I’m going to be keeping a close eye on you. Don’t do anything ridiculous. Please.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
As he walked away to bother the next pair on his list, my shoulders relaxed. Going toe-to-toe with Talos, while fun in the moment, wasn’t exactly the kind of attention I wanted onme at the moment. I was going to be focused on keeping my thoughtsawayfrom my obsessive worrying and that was going to take a lot of dedication. Enough where it would definitely rouse suspicion if someone who knew me a little better than the average stranger would pick up on.
Getting cornered by him to ask me what my problem was wouldn’t be good. I needed tonotspiral during the next three days, and if Talos was too busy riding my back about my weird attitude problem, I would be in trouble.
Blowing out a breath, I slipped my hand around the strap of my bag and lifted it onto my shoulder again.
Three days. That’s all I had to get through.
And then I’d get back to Blake again.
All I had to do was pray he found my note and didn’t hate me after he read it.
CHAPTER 21
