Nate reached into the back seat for the smaller duffle he’d brought along. With it on his lap, he unzipped a small side pocket and pulled out what appeared to be two drivers’ licenses.
“One, businesses like these aren’t supposed to give out that type of information.” He handed her one of the plastic cards. “And two, I’ve got us covered in case they do.”
Gracie stared down at the I.D. in her hand. It was the same picture as the one on her actual license, but everything else was different. Unfamiliar.
“Who is Lynn Winters?”
“She’s you. Until we get back home, that is.” He paused a moment. “The key to being undercover is to stick as close to the truth as possible without giving yourself away. There aren’t many variations of Gracie or Gracelynn, so I used the last half of your name.”
“What about you? Who will you be?”
Nate held up his license for her to see.
“James Winters.” She tried it out to see how it felt on her tongue. It felt…off.
“James is my middle name. Winters was my grandmother’s maiden name. It’s an alias I’ve used before, but it has no ties to anything Walker or Akmar would know about.”
“When did you even have time to make these?”
“I already had mine from before. I threw yours together while we were at my apartment.”
He just threw a fake I.D. together in a matter of minutes. Gracie didn’t even know what to think about that.
Rather than respond, she glanced back down at her picture. Absentmindedly, she began to run her thumb across the fake name and address and wondered how her life had come to this.
Placing his hand on her knee, Nate softened his voice. “It’s just a precaution, Gracie. You’ll be safe here, I promise.”
She glanced down. Heat radiated from his hand to her leg. Even now, in the middle of the freak show her life had become, his touch sent her pulse racing.
Gracie knew she shouldn’t be going there. But, when it came to this man, her body seemed to have a mind of its own.
Nate pulled his hand away before muttering, “Stay there. I’ll come around and open your door.”
“Wait.” This time it was Gracie who threw her hand out.
He looked over his shoulder. “Yeah?”
With her fingers clutching his impressively solid bicep, she licked her lips nervously before pulling herself up to him and pressing her mouth to his.
It wasn’t a passionate kiss like the one in Jake’s office. It was a bit awkward and clumsy, which was the whole point.
Pulling back, she nearly laughed at the shock reflected in Nate’s widened eyes.
“What was that for?”
Gracie shrugged. “I know you said nothing more can happen between us, but we’re supposed to be married, right? Depending on how long we’re here, we’re bound to be around other people. I know we’ve already kissed, but that was before.” When Nate remained silent, she tried to better her explanation. “I thought, in case we have to actuallyactmarried or something, we should probably get the awkward, unexpected kiss out of the way now. You know, so we don’t blow our cover or whatever.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed hard. After staring at her a few seconds longer, Nate gave her a tiny smile. “That was smart. Thanks.”
Feeling better about the impromptu kiss, Gracie watched as he walked around the front of the car. Opening the door for her, he waited until she got out to give her the run-down for the rest of the night.
“We’ll go check in and get some snacks for tonight. In the morning, we’ll drive into town, grab a bite to eat, and then go find you some clothes and a few necessities to get us through the next few days.”
Right. Because they couldn’t go to her apartment for her own clothes prior to leaving Dallas.
“Do you think that’s all it’ll take to find Akmar and Walker? A few days?”
“I hope so.”
