“She’ll have a coat,” Hadley said. “But Gage is right. This is what every other woman at the party will be wearing.”
“Lauren isn’t going to be there for the same reason as the other women,” Zach reminded them.
“But if Lauren shows up looking like the small-town librarian she’s always been, then she’ll stick out like a sore thumb,” Gage said.
Lauren wrapped her arms around her middle, covering the exposed skin. She wouldn’t ever wear something like this, and the look was all wrong. She wasn’t anything like the women who hung out at parties hoping to go home with a stranger.
“Maybe we can skip the party and just meet with Eric the next day,” Zach said.
Gage cleared his throat. “Eric isn’t going to like that, and you know it.”
Eric Cross. Zach had heard about the man for years, but he’d never been high enough in the chain of command to meet the top dog. There were plenty of rumors about him. How he was older and more vicious than anyone else in the business. How he’d evaded authorities for so long because his pockets had no bottom and his threats had no limits. How he didn’t fear anyone, but everyone cowered before him.
Until recently, the man’s name hadn’t stirredanything inside him. Now, he wanted to stay as far away from risky and unpredictable as possible.
Zach pushed a hand through his hair. “I just hate this. You don’t have to come,” he said, finally looking at Lauren.
Her expression was soft, but her shoulders were pulled back and straight. It was a look that could only mean she’d made up her mind.
“Zach, I can wear clothes I wouldn’t normally wear. It’ll be fine.”
“But this isn’t you!” Zach waved his hands in the air, gesturing toward the ridiculous outfit. “And I love you the way you are!”
Gasps sounded at the same moment the realization hit him. Had he just said he loved her? That wasn’t supposed to come out. He wasn’t even sure what it meant.
Lauren was staring at him with her beautiful brown eyes, and all the fear that came with that four-letter word faded away. Nothing mattered more than Lauren, and she needed to know that.
Her cheeks lifted in a sparkling smile as her arms fell from where they’d been guarding her. “I love you too.”
She rushed at him, crashing against his chest as she whispered, “I love you. I love you.”
Crushing her against him, he held her as their hearts beat wildly together. He had one thing in his life he would hold on to at all cost, and he’d risk it all to make sure she was safe.
39
Zach
Dawson held up a skimpy black vest in front of Lauren. “You’re all set. There’s a tracking device sewn in, and another one in your shoe.”
Zach stood with his arms crossed, hyperaware of the tracking devices in his own pants leg and boot.
He was officially a traitor. A traitor to the cause that used to hold his allegiance. Now, he could see it for what it was—a trap. More of a cage than the prison he’d been in for three years.
Learning about the God that Lauren trusted was a slow climb up a snowy hill, but things he’d never noticed before were coming into a new perspective. It was almost as if he could seemore. He was thinking outside of the box, or maybe he was just thinking outside of himself. To be honest, he’d lived a selfish life until recently.
Now that he had access to a lot of the intel and equipment the authorities had, the lines were clearlydrawn, and he’d once been on the losing side. These guys had a file on him thicker thanWar and Peace. They could have had him at any point in time, and he’d been too cocky to see it.
Lauren slid her arms into the vest, leaving it open in the front. It did nothing to cover all the exposed skin. Thankfully, she reached for her coat and layered it over the vest and the top Hadley had called a bustier.
She picked up a set of jingling car keys from the table by the door and smiled at Zach. “Ready?”
No. He was not ready to go. He wanted to stay right here long enough that vines would grow over his boots. He wanted to hit his knees and beg Lauren to reconsider all of this.
But he’d made a promise to stand beside her.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.”
Lauren wrapped her arms around Hadley and kissed her cheek. “You have everything you need for Sunday?”
