Page 23 of Dark Soul

Less formal is better.

“The Starbucks,” she said. “There’s only one. You can’t miss it. I can be there tomorrow night at eight.”

8

* * *

Dark

Fuck.

That was unexpected.

Dark had been shadowing the pair to see where they went, but hadn’t been planning on making contact. In fact, they’d agreed Rogue would be the one to make contact with the American tutor—because he was closer to her in age and because, with his longer hair and slimmer build, he looked a bit like one of her college boyfriends.

Dark shook his head, thinking back to when Rogue had first projected the woman’s face on the screen. He’d thought her pretty and fresh-faced, then. And it’d felt wrong to spy on a woman who hadn’t done anything wrong, but they needed an in, so Rogue had gone digging. It’d taken him less than ten minutes to find his way into her old Instagram account—which hadn’t been logged into in the last few years—and into those of her friends. That’s how they’d found the ex-boyfriend. Nothing was private in today’s day and age, at least not when someone like Rogue was looking for it.

Pretty and fresh-faced.

He wanted to laugh, now. How could he have been so wrong. In person, even terrified out of her mind as she’d been by the incident with the sled, Alexia was nothing short of magnetic, with her heart-shaped face, framed by a cloud of auburn hair.

And her eyes … her eyes were the most beautiful green he’d ever seen—green with flecks of gold. Looking into those eyes, he’d had this impression of … infinity.

And he could see, also, a kind of goodness in her, in the way she’d spoken to the boy, and the way she’d spoken to him.

And fuck, he should have left her alone.

He’d been tempted to leave her alone.

Fuck the mission.

Fuck everything.

But it wasn’t just about his own freedom anymore, even though he wanted it so badly he could taste it. He had a responsibility to these men, now. They had to complete their mission, and getting to know Alexia Miller could be the key to that.

So he’d asked her out, telling himself it was the most logical solution.

But you also wanted to do it.

You want to see her again.

Fuck, yes.

If he were honest with himself, after meeting her, there was no way he could have let any of the other guys get close to her.

He drove using his right hand, glad that this was an automatic car. He’d learned to drive manual, since those had sometimes been the only vehicles available in the countries where he’d been stationed, but he much preferred automatic cars. He rested his other hand on his knee. His left shoulder was killing him.

He parked the car on the street and walked up the short driveway to the house.

Everyone, except for Griffin, was in the basement. Rogue was typing away furiously on one of his laptops, while Slate pored over some documents. Ash was hunched over his travel chess pieces, seemingly unconcerned by the fact that he was playing against himself.

“Change of plans,” Dark announced. No sense in delaying the inevitable.

“What happened?”

Does it show on my face?

“You’ve got blood on the back of your hand,” Slate pointed out.