Total pages in book: 110
Estimated words: 104185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 104185 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 521(@200wpm)___ 417(@250wpm)___ 347(@300wpm)
“You want to know if I have a boyfriend?” It just came out, and I struggled to hide the cringe.
His face went blank. “I want to know if someone’s going to file a missing person’s report on you if you don’t check in.”
“Oh.” I wanted to slide under the table and disappear. “No, I don’t have a boyfriend. All of my friends are in the CBC with me.” I found it difficult, if not impossible, to have a life outside of the theater.
His face remained unchanged. “Family?”
“My dad died when I was little, and I lost Mom to cancer about six years ago.” I wasn’t sure why I kept talking. “I have a sister, but we haven’t talked in a while.” Shame crept into my voice. “Not in years.”
I didn’t want to talk about that. I wanted to focus on finding Seth’s picture. If I could do that, they could catch him, and everything would go back to normal. Hopefully before I lost my hard-won principal spot. I pulled my focus away from him, put it back on the screen, and pressed the spacebar.
It only made it two more slides before he paused it again. My annoyed gaze flicked up to Jason, who had one hand on the back of my chair as he leaned over me.
“You should take a break.” It sounded more like a command than a suggestion. “You look tired.”
He probably hadn’t meant to be rude, but my face heated with irritation. I was tired, but I didn’t like him pointing that out. I arched an eyebrow and straightened in my seat. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. You look like you’re going to fall asleep any minute, and you could blow right past his picture. You’re worthless right now.” He drew in a sharp breath and winced like he wished he hadn’t phrased it like that. “I didn’t mean—”
I gave him the most searing glare I possessed. “I want this over with,” I snapped. “I want to get back to my life.”
His chocolate-brown eyes softened with something like understanding, and I was completely unprepared for that. God, when he wanted to, he looked so handsome I had to remind myself to keep breathing. He loomed over me, our faces only a few inches apart, and it felt dangerous having him this close.
It’s just exhaustion, I told myself.
That was why I had no defense against the desire building in me despite my annoyance with him.
“I can understand that,” he said softly. “Get some sleep, and then you can get right back at it.”
Part of me wanted to stay glued to the chair and prove him wrong, but a larger part of me knew he might be right. When I stood, he backed away.
“Wake me up in an hour,” I said. By that time, Derrick would be back and I wouldn’t be alone with the dangerous yet appealing Jason Dunn. But that made me worry. “Is it safe here?”
“This is the safest place you can be right now.”
“I meant with Derrick out.”
“Yeah,” he said. “You’re safe here with me.”
On the outside, I hoped I looked indifferent, because his words sent an unwanted rush of heat coursing through me. I believed him, that he had the safe house secure. But who, exactly, was going to keep me safe from him?
Jason didn’t wake me like I’d asked him to, increasing my irritation, and I could tell it had been longer than an hour because the sun was low in the sky when I crawled out of the uncomfortable bed. I made my way down the hall into the living room to give him a piece of my mind—but he wasn’t there. Instead, Derrick sat at the table, working on his own computer.
“Feeling better?” he asked, not lifting his gaze from his screen.
“Jason was supposed to wake me up.” I sat down in front of the computer I’d used earlier. “Where is he?”
“He went to get dinner.”
Dinner? “How long have I been asleep?”
“Five hours?”
I slapped the spacebar and watched the computer wake from sleep mode as I seethed. I had newfound motivation to help identify Seth, to be done with the irritation named Jason Dunn.
When the slideshow finished, Derrick loaded a third for me. My aggravation fueled my search for the pair of intense blue eyes that had landed me in this situation.
For the next half hour, my stomach growled, and it grew loud enough that he noticed. He gave me a remorseful smile, said the lunch he had brought back for me had gotten cold and he’d tossed it a few hours ago. But he expected his partner to be back soon.
A few minutes later, a pair of headlights darted through the front window and he rose, putting a hand on the gun holstered at his hip.
The simple action knocked the air from my lungs.