He hadn’t been able to think straight since.
Ignoring him now as if nothing had happened between them, she leaned against the headboard of her bed, hunched over her laptop. Before her shower a little while ago, she had twisted her dark blond hair into a messy bun high on her head that revealed the graceful curve of her shoulder and the soft spot beneath her ear where he wanted to press his mouth—
Stifling a groan, he jumped to his feet. A quick look through his backpack netted him a clean shirt and underwear. “I’m going to take a shower.” It had been a couple days, and while he didn’t smell particularly bad, he definitely didn’t smell like roses.
Alan made a distracted noise of acknowledgement, and Valerie waved without looking up from her screen.
Scott understood that level of focus. Admired it. Was pretty much in awe of the intellectual skill required to do what they did. He was an action kind of guy, even if that action meant not moving for days. A doer. But he had nothing to contribute in a world where all the action played out in bits and bytes.
Pushing down the familiar feelings of inadequacy, he paused on his way to the bathroom to peer through the peephole. All appeared quiet in the motel’s back lot. He double-checked that the extra deadbolt was thrown and entered the tiny bathroom.
And came face to face with Valerie’s green T-shirt and a pair of lacy black underwear dripping dry on a cord pulled across the shower stall that had been installed by the motel owner for just such a purpose.
He took a three-minute shower—something he had lots of practice with—not giving himself enough time to think about her standing naked on the same spot, using the same bar of soap to wash her bare skin…
He turned the dial for a quick blast of cold water and then dried and dressed quickly. Following Valerie’s lead, he soaped and rinsed his dirty shirt and boxers and hung them on the line next to her clothes, shutting a mental door on any sappy metaphors his brain wanted to conjure.
I don’t do relationships.
She’d laughed in his face when he dropped that line, but he’d made the rule for a reason, and he needed to stick to it. All marriages were a lie anyway. Those people who played happy and posted glowing testimonials about their spouse on Facebook to celebrate their wedding anniversary were either straight-up liars or deluded. Every relationship was one lie, one hit, one cheat away from unraveling.
Who knew what might push Scott over the edge someday? Between his dad’s genes and example, and the ease with which Scott could already take out a target, weren’t his barriers even lower than the average working stiff’s? It took a special kind of person to be a scout sniper. He’d been made for it. His dad had turned him into a keen observer out of necessity. The Marines had turned him into someone who could sight a human being through a scope—know color of the man’s eyes, understand his humanity, feel his emotion—and still pull the trigger. No hesitation, no second-guessing.
Good for his job. Bad for a normal life.
The closest he came to normal was when he had a camera in his hand.
“You have a message from Kurt,” Valerie said when Scott came out of the bathroom.
Finally. They had used another online telegram to send Kurt a temporary email address where messages only stayed in the inbox for an hour. Scott shook his head. The things that people came up with to maintain their privacy were amazing and kind of scary. Good when he was the one on the run, though.
He sat next to her on the bed and was immediately assaulted by her fresh, clean scent. “What does he say?”
She angled the computer in his direction and pointed at the screen. “It’s just his burner phone number.”
“Perfect.”
A minute later, he had his boss on the line using Valerie’s disposable phone. “I didn’t do it,” he said.
“I know.” Kurt almost sounded offended.
The surge of relief took Scott by surprise. He hadn’t even realized he was waiting for his boss’s vote of confidence. “Any word on my mom?”
“Todd and Jason have been covering her since last night. Looks like they got there just in time.”
Scott forced himself to breathe slowly. In. Out. Repeat. “Why’s that?”
“Someone tried to break into her house early this morning. Jason ran him off, but couldn’t catch the guy without abandoning her.”
“Shit.” He hadn’t really expected Hollowell to go after his mother. Somehow the man had known that she was the only person who could lure Scott out in the open. “Tell the guys thanks.” As if that was enough.
“I’m probably being monitored, but there must be some way I can help you. Unless you prove you were set up, you’ll never be able to stop running,” Kurt said.
Scott glanced at Alan. The hacker had been great so far, but Scott would rather not rely on a third party he didn’t know well. Then again, Valerie might feel the same about Scott’s friends. “We need to get to D.C. Valerie and her friend are working the data side of things, but I need to be on the ground there to see what I can find on this guy. The sooner the better.”
“I’ll see if Caitlyn can help.” Kurt sighed as if he dreaded calling the pilot. “I’ll talk to you in the morning.”
Scott checked the clock. It was nearing midnight in New Mexico, two in Virginia. He couldn’t reasonably expect Kurt to work a miracle before sunrise.
