Of all the thingsI expected Rome to do after making love to me, fainting wasn't one of them. I barely managed to catch him before he smacked into the tub. Slowly, I eased him down. But he was heavy - freakishly heavy, actually, with all that muscle mass - and I struggled to lay him back without hurting him.
Shaking, still trying to catch my breath, I leaned forward and switched off the water. Instantly cool air began to lick at my damp skin, making me shiver. I climbed out and grabbed a towel, then dabbed us both dry. Concern wasn't something I could allow myself right now because with concern came fear, so I told myself Rome was still recovering from captivity and the drugs The Multiplier had given him.
Didn't take long until he was moaning, his eyelashes fluttering open. Total deja vu.
Relief speared me. I hovered over him, one hand beside his head, my body propped on the rim of the porcelain, my wet hair spilling onto his chest. "Seriously, Rome. How many times am I going to have to wake your lazy ass up today?"
A moment passed before he oriented himself. When he realized where he was, his cheeks reddened and he muttered, "Shit. I blacked out."
"Yep." I settled back on my haunches.
"Too much too fast, after that cocktail. I knew better."
So I'd been right. My relief intensified in a rush, sending a violent tremor through me. That tremor drew Rome's gaze. I'm sure it was my hardened nipples that held his attention, though. He licked his lips, sat up slowly.
"At least I reached the finish line before going down like a pussy." He scrubbed a hand down his face, smoothing away the moisture.
A soft chuckle escaped me. "So true." A good thing, too. It might be a while before we had a chance to do this again. He needed to be completely healed, and the Desert Gall case had to be closed. "Now, tell me the fall knocked some memories back inside that thick skull, and I'll consider this a gold star day." He snorted. "I wish."
My grin slowly faded. Oh, well. Would Jean-Luc decide to return them? Of course he would, I told myself then. The real question was whether or not he'd do it without being tortured. Even though I didn't want to torture him, still liked him more than I should - I mean, the guy thought I deserved to be treated like a goddess, and who could fault him for that kind of logic? - I would do whatever was necessary. I hoped. God, I was a mess.
Rome rested his elbows on the tub. A drop of water trickled from his eyelashes, almost like a tear.
"More than anything, I want to know the things I've done to that beautiful body." His voice was hard, angry now. Not with me, I knew, but with Jean-Luc.
One of our phones beeped, and we both stiffened.
No longer could we pretend we were the only two people in the world. Trying to push his sweet words from my mind, I rose and stalked to mine. Nothing. I strode around the room, searching for his. The beeping grew louder as I approached the desk. And then there it was, underneath his wallet. Frowning, I flipped it open and gasped. Not a call. A picture. There, on the screen, was a photo of Desert Gal - as pretty as she'd been before, damn her - and Cody.
They were in the lobby of this motel. I recognized the giant fake plant beside the reception counter.
"Rome," I called. "We've got company."
He was inside the room a second later, snatching up his clothes, dressing despite his weakness.
I did the same. How had they tracked us down yet again? Jean-Luc? Surely not. Cody, with another mysterious "plan"? Again, surely not. He didn't know our location. But why was he here, rather than guarding Sherridan and Lexis? Could Reese, Desert Gal's former informant, be the culprit? No, wait. He was currently indisposed.
The Multiplier, maybe? If one of the brothers had managed to escape PSI without anyone's knowledge, follow us...but that seemed implausible.
A tracker? That seemed the most likely. But where would it be? We hadn't taken anything from that first motel room - except the picture of the girls, I recalled, eyes widening. I'd stuffed it in my purse. Could one of those tracking chips Rome mentioned be glued to it?
Dressed now, I swiped up my purse, fished out the photo and held it to the light. What looked to be a piece of clear tape rested on the upper left corner. Damn it! This was my fault. I scowled and dropped the Polaroid on the floor.
I tugged on my shoes, hopping on one foot as I entered the bathroom and scooped up all my knives. My Taser already rested in my back pocket. "We staying here to fight or running?"
"Normally I'd want to stay and fight, but they always seem to be one step ahead of us and we're both at the end of our strength. I don't want to leave, though." His eyes moved to the ceiling as he quickly weighed the pros and cons. "We're leaving. Safest thing for us. If Cody wanted to bring us in, he should have contacted me to ensure I played along."
"Truth." As Tanner would say.
"We've got a few minutes before they reach us, so go into the hall and start knocking on doors until someone answers. First person who does, get inside their room." Somehow I'd known he would say that. Though unsure about what he was doing, remaining here, I left our haven and did as he'd commanded without argument. Took me four tries, but someone finally opened their door. A middle-aged woman in sweats and a T-shirt, sleep clinging to her eyes.
I must have woken her up.
I opened my mouth to say...what? I didn't know, and it didn't matter. Rome jogged out of our room, spotted me and closed the distance.
"Sorry, ma'am," he said, moving past her and into her room without permission.
"I'm so sorry," I echoed. I pushed her back inside, shut and locked the door.
She gasped, shock covering her plain features. Poor woman. I'd been there. This would forever change her, ruin the safe world she'd thought she lived in.
"We're not going to hurt you," I vowed, holding a hand up as though I were swearing on a Bible.
"We're in trouble, being chased by dangerous people. We're just going to...what?" I asked, looking to Rome.
He was at the window, prying it open. I rushed to his side, ready to jump through at a moment's notice - even though I could see only a thin ledge, a fifty-foot drop and cars in the parking lot. "We're leaving," I said over my shoulder. The woman hadn't run out, was still standing there, frozen by her fear.
Oops. A good agent wouldn't have turned her back. A mistake I wouldn't make again. "Please don't tell anyone you saw us. Please. They'll take you in, question you, maybe hurt you."
"Not maybe." Rome's voice was cold, hard. "They will."
She swallowed audibly. Found her feet and backed herself into the wall, edging closer and closer to the door. But she stopped, hand fluttering to her throat. Her skin was so pale I feared she would faint. I didn't think I could handle another unconscious person today.
Rome finally got the glued seal unstuck and pushed the window open. Cool air wafted inside, followed by the sound of night birds and crickets. He looked back at the woman, who now had tears streaming down her cheeks. I'd never scared an innocent so badly, and I hated myself for it. She didn't know whether to trust us or not, didn't know whether a painful death waited in here or out there.
"You're going to be okay," I told her. "I'll - "
Rome stealthily placed something cold and thin in my hand. I didn't have to look to know it was a syringe filled with that night-night cocktail of his. He carried it everywhere. Though after what The Multiplier had done to him, I would have expected him to rethink that strategy.
I moistened my suddenly dry lips. I'd never done something like this to an innocent, and hadn't ever wanted to. But she would have freaked if Rome approached her.
You're an agent. Act like one for once.I needed to tattoo those words on my wrist or something. You can do this.
Pasting what I hoped was a sincere smile on my face, I slowly moved toward her, careful to keep the syringe behind me. "You're going to be okay," I repeated. "I promise." She blanched, turned and finally ran to the door, hand reaching for the knob. A cry curled from her lips the moment I grabbed her. She swung back, trying to bat me away. I ducked and jabbed the needle up and into her arm. Her cry instantly ceased, her muscles jerking in reaction. As the drug instantaneously broke the blood/brain barrier, she slid to the floor, immobilized at my feet.
I stayed there, staring down at her. I had done that to her. Me.
"Belle, come on!" Rome said in a fierce whisper. He even waved me over.
I jolted into motion, whipping around and running to him. He wrapped an arm around my waist and ushered me onto the ledge.
"She gonna be okay?" I knew she would be, had promised her she would, but I needed to hear it confirmed.
"Look at it this way, baby. You woke her up by banging on her door. The least you could do was help her fall back asleep. She'll be up and at 'em in a few hours. I'm proof of that," he added with clear self-deprecation. "She might not even remember what happened." Hopefully she wouldn't. I didn't want to be forever branded a villain in her mind.
Who knew I'd ever be pro-memory loss?
"What if someone's waiting for us on the ground?" I asked.
"They probably are. That's why we're going up."
Up? Dear God. Though I was trying valiantly to numb my emotions, I couldn't stop a wave of fear from crashing through me, chilling me inside and out. Ice branched from my fingers, making the ledge I was holding, as well as the one my feet were braced upon, slick.
"Calm down, Belle," Rome commanded.
"So easy to say, so hard to do." I could fall. He could fall. We could die. Oh, God, oh, God, oh, God.
Faster and faster the frost spread from me.
"You're going to get us both killed."
"Not helping!"
Even as I spoke, I felt his mind probing mine, snatching up my emotions, dulling them slightly. Without Tanner, he didn't know how much to filter. The fact that he was filtering anything at all, though, thrilled me despite the circumstances.
He moved behind me, his body heat enveloping me. Warm breath trekked over my neck, caressing, lifting my hair and dancing it over my skin. "Move with me." He crept to the right, and I followed. He reached up and hefted himself a few inches higher, and I followed. "I've got you. That's my girl." That's right. I was. Up, up we continued to move, but soon my arms and legs were burning from the strain. I held on tight, though, Rome's big, hard body anchoring me despite the small patches of ice I'd created.
"I want to get us into a shadowed corner on the roof, all right? Then I'll take care of the rest. You won't have to do anything but hang on. And just so you know, no one's on the ground watching us. I checked.
We're fine. We're safe." He kept up the steady chatter in hopes of distracting me, I knew. "You're breathing too hard. Tell me about the wedding you've been planning."
"I'm not planning it anymore," I said. "It's been canceled." With the words, my remaining fear began to fade, tendrils of anger and hurt taking their places. One more emotion and I'd have the cocktail needed for wind. Great.
I had to get myself under control or I'd blow us from the building.
Okay, that caused the fear to intensify. At least I had my filter back.
"Why's it canceled?"
"Are you kidding? You don't even remember me, much less want to marry me."
"I could get my memory back at any time." As he spoke, he continued to climb, dragging me up with him. Finally we were there at the top and throwing our legs over that last ledge, sweet shadows enveloping us.
Safe now, I wondered what was happening inside our room. Surely Desert Slut and Cody - and however many people they'd brought with them - had reached it by now.
"What does your dress look like?" He was jiggling behind me. What the hell was he doing? "You must've bought one by now."
"I did, but I accidentally burned it."
"Got mad, did you?"
"Yeah. You kept calling me Homicidal Tendencies Wench and I BBQed all the clothes in your closet.
The flames leaped onto my dress."
"God, I bet that was hot."
Hot. "Ha-ha. Very funny. Anyway, I had planned to buy another one, but... Anyway, the first one was gorgeous. A Grecian cut with thin straps, a beautiful cream color and a flowing skirt. I was going to look like a goddess."
"You already do. Were we writing our own vows?" Rome slapped a hand beside mine, a weird-looking circle-thing clutched between his fingers. It was black, about two inches thick and as big as my palm.
I knew he was asking me these questions to distract me, but man, they hurt. "Yes, we were." I changed the subject. "What's that you're holding?"
"You'll see." He stretched his arm toward the neighboring building's roof, pressed the pad of his thumb into the center of the circle, and a silver arrow shot out and up, moving so swiftly I caught only the barest glimpse of a blur. "What were your vows?"
The arrow must have caught in something, because Rome's arms jerked and I saw a thin silver wire was secured inside the circle. Clearly, we were going to propel. Fabulous.
"I don't want to talk about the vows."
"Turn around and face me," Rome said. "Wrap your arms around me."
"There you go, kidding again." He wanted me to slide through the air, a massive drop below me and no net to catch me if I fell? Yeah, right.
"Do it. Now." No longer did he sound like my sweet protector. Now he was total commando.
"Fine, but only because you asked nicely. Jerk," I muttered. Slowly, shaking, I did as he'd demanded.
When I faced him, I found my nose buried in the hollow of his neck. Sadly, I could still see what he was doing.
He pulled hand holders from the circle, cutting it into two pieces. "Ready?"
"As I'll ever be," I said on a sigh.
A moment later, my feet were jolted off the ledge and I was soaring, soaring...I wrapped my legs around Rome's waist for added security, and my eyelids squeezed shut. Having the wind in my hair was enough. I didn't need to see my progress.
The entire trip from one roof to another lasted about five seconds, but it seemed an eternity until we stopped. Rome used another device to hoist us to solid ground. I lay down, trying to catch my breath.
Rome rolled to his back and flipped his cell phone open, holding it up so I could see. On the screen were Desert Whore and Cody, as well as four others I didn't recognize. OASS agents, presumably.
"I placed a camera in the ceiling of our room," Rome explained.
Ah. That's what he'd done while I'd been searching for an unsuspecting civilian to frighten. "Why couldn't we have just gone out our own window?"
"They might have been watching it."
Ah, again.
The four agents were digging through our stuff, not that we had much. They ripped what little clothing we had, then threw open the dresser drawers, looking for more.
With the downward angle, I had a perfect view of Desert Shithead's hair. I hated to say it, but damn, those tresses were gorgeous. Golden-blond and silky. This had to be her DG persona, since Candace Bright was the redhead.
"You dragged me out at this ungodly hour for nothing! You told me they'd be here and they clearly aren't," she said to Cody. Well, not said. Her voice was husky, rich, more a purr than anything. Knowing how pretty she was, when you added the voice into the mix the girl was walking sex. Men probably drooled for her. And then she probably mopped that drool up like a sponge, the water-sucker.
"They must have spotted us." Cody looked left, right, and sighed heavily. "I told you Rome's security would be a problem. Good thing is, they packed in a hurry, only taking the essentials, so we were close.
Next time we'll nail them."
"Do we still trust him?" I asked Rome, genuinely curious. What if Desert Gall was the one woman who'd inspired Cody to break his three-date min-max rule, and he truly was on her side now? On the bright side, if that was the case, at least I wouldn't have to worry about him dating Sherridan.
"Yes," was the only response.
"I want her." Desert Whore dug her nails into her thighs. "I need her." I blinked. She needed me? Why? Jean-Luc had told me she hated me because her dad liked me. That didn't necessitate a "need."
"I know," Cody said gently. "I know. We'll get her. I swear." Desert Turd whipped away from him. "Get out," she said softly.
The men working around her froze, realized what she'd ordered, then hightailed out of the room as though their feet were on fire.
Cody remained in place. He closed the distance between himself and my greatest enemy and wound his arms around her waist. She stiffened. He didn't pull back, though. Instead, he rested his chin on the top of her head. "Having her doesn't mean your father will come back, though." Rome tossed me a confused look.
I shrugged.
"I know." She sniffed and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. A frustrated growl left her, and she raised her head, eyeing the ceiling, a harsh mask pasted on her features.
Something inside me recognized that mask for what it was: fake. She was crumbling inside but wanted to show the world how tough she was. Or, hell, maybe I was deluded. Maybe I wanted to see vulnerabilities in my enemy because that would mean I wasn't up against an impenetrable force.
Cody tugged her tighter against him, glancing up at the camera as though he'd known it was there the entire time. I gasped, feeling pierced all the way to the soul. He reached up and extended two fingers, his thumb pressed in the middle of them. It was a sign. I knew it was, and suddenly trusted him as completely as Rome had assured me I could.
Desert Gall couldn't see him, and he quickly dropped his arm and escorted her from the room, promising her he'd find and deliver me.
My brow wrinkled in confusion. "What does that mean? He'll meet with us in two nights? He's going to act against her in two minutes?"
Rome jacked to his feet. "We've got to get Tanner." Dread dripped from his tone. "I'll explain on the way."