He was waiting for me as usual, pacing in front of room 417 like a caged animal. He stopped when he spotted me, but looked around like he was expecting someone else to show up as well. It had me even more on edge.
Instead of waiting for me to reach him, Marc met me in the middle of the hall. “We can’t do this tonight. They’re getting therooms ready for the new arrivals.”
I swallowed, afraid I’d missed my chance to tell him the truth, but even more terrified that we might not be able to find a way to be together. That this might be it for us.
“What now?” I asked.
Marc’s eyes darted to the hall at my back. “I made sure the bed was made and there were no other clues that we’d been using the room, so that’s taken care of. Other than that, I don’t know.” He chewed on his bottom lip. “I don’t want to quit seeing you, though.”
“Me neither,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
Real regret shone in Marc’s eyes when he took my hand. “We’ll find a way. Somehow. But it won’t be tonight. Maybe not even tomorrow. In fact, we shouldn’t even be here right now. Things are just too crazy.”
He was right, I knew he was, but I couldn’t let him go without telling him the truth about my past. I owed him that. Even if we never figured out a way to be together again, he needed to know who I was.
“I have to talk to you about something,” I forced myself to say. “Now. While I can.”
He frowned. “What is it?”
“It’s about my past. About something I did when I was younger.”
Marc’s frown deepened, and he opened his mouth to say something, but his words were cut off by the boom of male voices. They were far away but getting closer. Whoever it was, they were heading our way.
“Shit.” Marc looked past me, fear shining in his eyes. “We have to make this look innocent. Believable.” When he was once again focused on me, he said, “Just play along, all right?”
I couldn’t speak. My heart was pounding like mad, and for once I wasn’t thinking about what getting caught would mean for me, but what it would mean for him. In the beginning, I’d only been focused on the consequences I would face, and I’d told myself it was worth it. I would go to a prison hospital and maybe even jail, but I would go as myself, and that was what mattered.Now, though, I realized that despite what Marc had said, he, too, could be facing jail time for what we’d been doing, and that terrified me more than anything.
Releasing my hand, he grabbed my forearm in a firm but not painful grip and started walking.
“You’re upset,” he said out of the corner of his mouth. “Pissed. Got it?”
I found talking impossible as the voices drew closer.
“You know I’m going to have to report you for this,” Marc said in a booming voice. “All you had to do was cooperate and we wouldn’t have had a problem.”
The male voices grew louder as we reached the end of the hall, and then we turned, and there they were. Four soldiers, all of them armed and all of them looking at us with a mixture of curiosity and amusement.
“Problem, Ramirez?” a beefy black guy I recognized as Sergeant Miller asked.
Shit. He was a real hard-ass, always playing by the rules. Even worse, he knew who I was and wasn’t a fan. Like Hilary and Jane, Miller preferred the women who were happy to be here.
Marc let out a snort that made him sound only mildly irritated. “Found her up here wandering around and let her know this part of the hotel is off limits tonight, but she got mouthy.”
Miller’s lips twisted in disgust. “Causing problems again, I see, Miss Murphy.”
“Hormones, man,” muttered a soldier I didn’t know but whose name tag said Private Richards. “I’m telling you, these women are crazy.”
The soldier who hadn’t yet spoken chuckled, and, despite my terror, anger surged through me, and I spit out, “You’d be crazy too if the government kidnapped you.”
“See what I mean?” the same guy said, his mouth twisting into a sneer. “Hormones.”
Maybe itwashormones, because I suddenly had the urge to punch him in the face. Could this guy be any more of a misogynist?
“What are you going to do with her?” Miller asked, ignoringthe other man’s outburst, and looking pretty pissed about mine. Great.
“Take her to the first floor and report her to her minder.” Marc glared at me. “Like I don’t have anything better to do.”
“The program would make a hell of a lot more sense if they just locked these chicks up,” Richards said.
