“Willyoube allowed in, when you and Ted get married?”
“Ifwe get married,” Tash corrected Thomas, adding, “I don’t know. I won’t take it personally if I’m not.”
He glanced at her, eyebrow elevated.
“Really,” she said. In truth, she’d be relieved. The idea thatshe’dbe allowed into Ted’s family’s inner sanctum was not a happy one. It felt wrong on so many levels.
But then again, the closest in years that she’d come to feelingrighthad been last night.
In Thomas’s arms.
But it was crystal clear that he didn’t feel the same.
Chapter Ten
The muscle in Thomas’s jaw got tighter and tighter as the smell of smoke in the air got stronger. He’d always been a teeth-clencher, even when he was a teenager, but at this rate he was moments from spitting out broken shards of enamel.
Tasha could feel her own heart racing, and it wasn’t from the physical exertion of the close-to-over hike. The smoke—probably started by that explosion they’d heard in the SUV yesterday morning—surely came from the Ustanzian ski lodge. Or whatever was left of it.
What else could it be? There was nothing else out here.
“Thomas,” she said, “This smoke...? Is it...?” and she didn’t have to go any further. He was already nodding his head, the absoluteYesto her unspoken question right there in his dark brown eyes.
She had to sit down, and he came toward her immediately, crouching down beside her to say, “It’s a good time to stop. We should assume there’s trouble ahead.”
As she sat there, trying to breathe, she was actually impressed by his ability to downplay the potential horror of what they didn’t yet know.
Because she would’ve gone with,I’m already assuming that Ted and his entire family have been brutally murdered and left for dead by terrible people who broke into the compound with rocket launchers that blew the place up before burning it down.
He knew exactly what she was thinking. “We don’t know that anyone’s dead,” he said.
“We don’t know that they’re not,” she countered. “Although I guess maybe that’s true anytime you’re not in the same place with someone. And not talking on the phone with them. Or in the middle of texting, or... You never know for sure. I mean, people step in front of buses or get struck by lightning...”
Thomas put his hand on the side of her face, his palm and fingers somehow warm, and Tasha leaned into it, into him, before she realized he hadn’t done it to comfort her. Oops. He was making sure she hadn’t gotten too cold. For most of the afternoon, the temperature had been dropping steadily.
Still he didn’t pull his hand away until she leaned back and essentially released him.
“I’m okay,” she said, managing to meet his eyes and force a smile. “We should keep going.”
He shook his head. “I’mma build another hide, dig another fire pit, light it and let us both get warm. Okay?” She nodded. “After I put the fire out, I’ll make sure this area is secure before I go—alone—to surveil the compound.”
Tash felt her eyes widen. “You’re gonna leave me here?” God, she couldn’t’ve made herself sound more like a seven-year-old if she’d tried. Her voice had actually squeaked. “That’s okay,” she quickly added. “I’ll be okay.”
“Just so I can move more swiftly and silently,” he said.
“I know,” she said. She’d practically grown up with the teams of SEALs and BUD/S candidates on the Coronado Navy Base. She’d been completely aware, all day, that Thomas would’ve been moving much more quickly if she hadn’t been slowing him down.
“I’ll be back,” Thomas said.
And this time her smile was a little less forced. “I know. Come on, Terminator, I’ll help you build the hide.”
* * *
“Don’t you dareEnglish Patientme.”
Tasha’s last words echoed in Thomas’s head as he headed back to the hide where he’d left her. He knew exactly what she’d meant, because they’d watched the DVD of the classic movie together—must’ve been when she was around fifteen. They’d both had the same reaction to the Oscar-winning film—the main romance felt weird and the hero read to them as stalkerish, but the secondary storyline was worth the time-investment, mostly due to Naveen Andrews, the actor who played the explosives expert.
Still, he knew Tash had been referring to the part of the movie where the hero left the injured heroine in a cave, went to get help, and instead had a massive fail, due to getting his ass locked up in prison. Spoiler alert: that did not end well for the heroine.
