Saved by the cab.
Going up on tiptoe, she pressed a hasty kiss to Sam’s cold cheek and whispered, “Thank you again.”
For the span of a few heartbeats, he searched her eyes, looking like he wanted to argue with her. But, eventually, he only smiled sadly. “Anything for you, Hurricane Hannah.”
If only that were true,she thought wretchedly.
After handing his stocking cap back to him, she turned toward the taxi.
Like her dad always said,there’s nothing left but the leaving.
31
Kit Kat Lounge
Two months later…
“I’m really not in the mood to be out tonight,” Sam grumbled as he stepped from the cab onto the sidewalk in front of the club where Cesar performed.
Two more cabs pulled up behind the one that’d carried him, Fisher, and Eliza to the venue. They disgorged the rest of the BKI crew.
“Come on.” Fisher clapped a hand on his shoulder. “We’ve been doin’ back-to-back assignments for weeks now. Weneeda little fun. I’m thinkin’ a drag show is just what the doctor ordered.”
For weeks after Hannah’s ordeal, Sam had wracked his brain for ways they could potentially make a life together.
He could welch on his contract with Madam President—although there were stiff financial consequences associated with that plan. Or they could date casually until such a time as his contract was up. That way she wouldn’t have to be trulyinvestedin his dangerous life. More like a bystander. Although,thatplan didn’t hold up under scrutiny because he wasn’t sure that when it came to Hannah he coulddocasual. Or, alternatively, he could ask her to wait for him, promise to stay friends with the knowledge that, as soon as his days of being a hired gun for the Leader of the Free World were over, they’d begin their lives together.
Or any variation of all the above, he’d desperately thought, more than happy to letherchoose the path he’d take. Because, the truth was, he was miserable without her.
He’d found the soul that matched his own and living without her felt like someone had reached down his throat and ripped out his insides.
He’d tried texting her, tried calling her, but she’d always had an excuse to cut short the conversation before he could lay out his ideas, lay out hisheart.And when he’d gotten fed up playing phone tag, he’d even gone to her apartment, determined to make her listen to him. Determined to make her at leastconsiderwhat he had to say.
Unfortunately, Cesar had been the only one home.
“She’s been really busy with work and trying to beef up the security inside her department so that what happened to her doesn’t happen to anyone else,”Cesar had told him as he stood outside their apartment door.“But I’ll tell her you stopped by. I’m sure she’ll be sorry she missed you and the opportunity to thank you again for all you did for her.”
It was then Sam had known there was no solution that would work. No solution that would get him Hannah. Because she’d meant it when she said,“We’re not cut out for the long haul together.”
He’d done the only thing he could then. He’d respected her position and hadn’t tried to contact her since.
Instead, he’d thrown himself into work, desperately searching for anything to fill the gaping hole inside him. He’d even tried to date. He’d let Fisher set him up with some woman he’d met on a dating app. But it’d turned out to be a colossal mistake.
Not that the woman hadn’t been warm and charming. Shehadbeen. But Sam hadn’t been able to drum up even an ounce of interest in her.
By the end of the meal, she’d dabbed her lips with her napkin, skewered him with a sharp look, and asked,“So, who is she?”
When he’d asked her to clarify, she’d said,“The woman you’ve been thinking about all night.”
It was then he’d realized therewasno way to fill the emptiness inside. That he’d simply have to resign himself to its presence and be grateful that for a short time, he’d known what it was to be made whole. To have met his match. His other half.
Mybetterhalf.
“What are we waiting for?” Grace’s voice dragged him from his thoughts. He glanced over to see her rubbing her hands together in excited glee. “Let’s go grab some drinks and have some fun!”
The group turned toward the door where ahugebouncer with a smile that was nearly as big as his shoulders waited to usher them inside.
Sam remained rooted to the curb, however, looking over the buildings across the way at a sky that held the last lingering shades of sunset.
