Alan was silent for a moment. “My friends are experts at keeping secrets.”
“And unearthing them.”
The man’s dark head tilted. “True. But these people would do anything for DarkHand’s daughter.”
“Out of respect for a man who swindled banks out of millions?” Scott didn’t even try to hide his disgust.
Alan blew out a long breath. “Look, Valerie and her dad were legends. As a team, they breached some of the toughest networks out there at the time, and her dad wrote the early versions of some of the most popular tools still in use. We respectthat.”
“So that’s why you’re here.”
“Dude, you can quit busting my balls, okay?” Alan glanced back, spots of color high on his cheeks, mouth a tight line. Returning his focus to the road, he said, “I don’t know what your deal is, but I’ve known Valerie since she was eleven.I’mthe one who looked out for her—kept track of her—after she went to live with her aunt and uncle,fourteen years ago.Your involvement in her life is a fucking blip compared to mine.” By the end of his little speech, the guy was practically growling. “You have no right to question my intentions.”
“You’re right.” Scott relaxed a little. Alan seemed to genuinely care about Valerie, which was all that mattered. “But I’m still not leaving.”
Alan made a noncommittal noise.
“She and I share a common enemy. I think it will take both our skill sets to defeat him.” Valerie was visible in the passenger side mirror, her beautiful, relaxed face bathed in the golden light of the setting sun, lips parted as if in invitation. He tore his gaze away, watching the passing ocotillo wave their long, prickly arms in the breeze. “I’m not looking for more than that.”
He would absolutely walk away once their names were cleared. Until then he needed to ignore the things she stirred in him.
Valerie straightened and wiped her mouth, stretching her neck side to side and rolling her shoulders, coming awake by degrees. “Whatare you looking for?” she asked, her voice thick.
Alan met Scott’s gaze in the mirror and an unspoken agreement passed between them. “Bathroom break, maybe a snack.”
“Sounds good to me.” She turned in her seat to look at Scott with a familiar smile that made him want to crawl over the center console and claim her with a hard kiss. “You okay back there? I can switch after we stop, if you want.”
Join me.Scott shook his head. “I’m fine,” he managed to get out between gritted teeth.
They stopped overnight in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Alan got a room at a cheap motel off the freeway that was about a hundred steps up from the crappy place Valerie and Scott had stayed in Zachari…yesterday?
Had it really only been last night?
“I’ll take the couch,” Scott said now, his solemn blue eyes taking in the two double beds in the beige room peppered with red accents.
He’d been even quieter than usual since Alan joined their group, but she appreciated the buffer that her old friend created between them. It was easier to ignore her inconvenient attraction to Scott when he wasn’t the only one in the room.
But Alan’s real help was in making them anonymous. Not only had he provided them with transportation, he could rent hotel rooms and buy food without raising suspicion.
And she’d missed him.
She hadn’t realized just how much until she saw him again. He was like the big brother she’d desperately wanted any one of her cousins to be. She’d missed the way he draped his arm across her shoulders, lightly “punched” her arm when she teased him, covered her hand with his own when she got emotional. She’d missed beingtouched.
Jesus, she was so pathetic, but she hadn’t realized how starved for a physical connection she was. Not necessarily romantic, just…human.
Maybe that’s what she’d been craving from Scott. Maybe she’d mistaken her need for a hug for desire.
And maybe she was a fifty-pound frog.
“The couch would be more comfortable for me than you,” she said, moving closer to Alan, whose strong aftershave obliterated Scott’s enticing scent. “I’m shorter.”
Scott shook his head, his face maddeningly expressionless. “Take the bed. You need to sleep.”
“And you don’t?” She put her hands on her hips.
Tossing his backpack onto the scarlet cushions, he said, “I can sleep anywhere.”
How about with me?
