Part 10 (1/2)
”The bad news,” Katie said for him, ”is that they could have caught one of the interstates by now, and if so, they're over the border into California.”
”Probably so, ma'am. Which means the amount of help I can offer you is pretty limited. I'm sorry.”
She pulled in a deep breath, held it and let it out. Suddenly, all of her weariness came flooding back, and she almost staggered under the weight of it. ”Nothing to apologize for, Captain, I know you did your best. At least we have a live cop to show for it. Do me a favor, will you? Keep somebody with her in case she comes to long enough to give us information. And copy me on any forensic information you get from the wreck.”
”Can do. Oh, one fast fact I can tell you-the van's white.”
”White? You're sure?”
”Standard white, nothing special about the paint, except that it was on the front b.u.mper and door panels of the Saturn our cop was driving.”
White. Well, that didn't exactly narrow it down, but of course that was the intention: they'd picked the best statistical choice of blending in, the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. On a busy freeway like I-10 or I-8, both of which headed west into California, it would be like a raindrop in a thunderstorm.
Unless it had visible damage.
She said that aloud, and Menchaca agreed. ”We already thought of it,” he said. ”Got the California Highway Patrol as much detail as possible, so we're working it from both borders. Cross your fingers, Agent Rush.”
She thanked him again and hung up, then walked away to look out the windows of the Quik Stop onto the vast parking lot, lit by orange sodium bulbs. Out on the freeway, traffic continued to move in a sea of lights.
A warm hand fell on her shoulder and squeezed with surprising strength. She turned her head. Stefan, unsmiling, held out a cardboard coffee cup. She took it, gulped without tasting anything but heat, and said, ”I'm going to lose them. I promised Jazz, and now I'm going to lose these girls.”
He could have lied to her, told her she wouldn't, that she was going to win despite the odds.
Instead Stefan said, ”You might, but if you do, it won't be because you didn't give it your heart. Don't count yourself out yet, Katie. I can't think of anybody I'd want on my side more, if I were Teal or Lena.”
She found it hard to swallow, suddenly. She put the coffee cup down and without thinking it through, clasped his hand in hers. Warm, strong fingers that interlaced with hers as if born to do it.
They didn't speak for a few seconds, and then Stefan said blandly, ”Are you going to shoot me if I make a suggestion?”
”Depends on the suggestion.”
”First, you need food, and I'm not talking about-” he consulted the package in her other hand ”-s...o...b..a.l.l.s. What the h.e.l.l are s...o...b..a.l.l.s, anyway?”
She sighed. ”Chocolate cake with cream filling, covered in marshmallow and coconut.”
”And they're bright pink because...”
”Don't ask.”
”Right.” He took the package from her as if it were an unexploded bomb and carefully set it aside. ”I'm guessing that you're one of those women who just burn it all off in metabolism. Let's think about food that doesn't come in pink.”
The diner didn't look as if it was serving anything much healthier, but she didn't argue. Instead, she met his eyes. ”And two?”
”What?”
”You said, first...so there's got to be a second part to the statement.”
His eyes widened, very slightly, and she could see he was debating something. Then he said, ”You need sleep.”
Her s.h.i.+elds came up, full strength. ”Forget it.”
”Seriously, isn't there some kind of regulation about how long an FBI agent gets to stay awake and behind the wheel? Because I'm guessing your day didn't begin when you got off the plane in the airport.”
He hadn't let go of her hand. She looked down at where their fingers intertwined, shook loose, and said, ”Are you seriously propositioning me? You want to get a room while two girls are being driven off in a van by three men, one of whom probably has a conviction for rape? Because I thought better of you, Stefan.”
When he spoke again, his voice had cooled off, gone soft and distant. ”I was going to suggest I drive while you sleep,” he said. ”Or that we get separate rooms. Though hey, if you're up for it-”
”Don't be a b.a.s.t.a.r.d.”
”I wasn't. You think I'm trying to delay you? Distract you? You think I'm working with the kidnappers, Katie?”
”No.” She didn't, really. She'd seen too far into him, and there was nothing that wasn't truthful on that score.
”Look at me.”
She did. He reached out to fit his palms around her face. It took her breath, froze her in place like some innocent virgin.
”Listen very carefully,” Stefan said, with a scary, quiet intensity. ”I am not trying to get you in bed. I do have some sense of propriety, and even though I find you very, very attractive, I know that there are more important things at work today.”
If she thought she'd been intensely aware of him before, on a s.e.xual level, she was now. Deeply. Her whole body hummed with it, and it was maddening, it was stupid, because he was right, there were more important things, and her body was betraying her principles in ways she'd never thought possible.
”I think I'm going to kiss you,” Stefan said with that same blind intensity. ”If you're going to shoot me, wait until I'm done, okay?”
His lips were warm and soft and full, and he tasted of coffee and sugar and cream. She licked at that taste, devoured it, craved it more. She was against him now, their bodies burning where they touched, and his hand slid around to cup the back of her head as his tongue touched her lips, stroked them open, explored.
As good a kisser as she knew she was, she was a novice compared to Stefan Blackman. Maybe he was a magician after all, not just an illusionist; he was trans.m.u.ting her bones into light, making her glow from the inside out, and he hadn't done anything except...kiss her.
Stefan pulled back, breathing fast, and she opened her eyes to stare at him. She felt drunk on the residual energy he'd left inside of her, and if that wasn't magic...
”Wow,” he said faintly. ”That...never happens.”
”What never happens?” Automatic question; she didn't care and was too busy watching the mesmerizing damp movements of his lips. Then his tongue, as he licked her taste from them.
”That. That thing. That thing that just...happened.”
She knew what he meant, but sanity was starting to creep in again, and she grabbed it for a s.h.i.+eld. ”I don't know what they call it in California, but in Missouri we call it a.s.sault.”
”Funny, I thought Missouri was the Show-Me State.”
”It's not you-show-me-yours, I'll-show-you-mine.” The sharp-edged attack was working, it was helping her clear the adrenaline out of her system and get her brain working again. ”Fine. You've had your kiss. Try it again, and I'll handcuff you so fast you'll think you've died and gone to bondage heaven. Now back off.” She was desperate to get distance, too, and he must have seen that in her eyes; it wasn't because she was really offended. She was afraid that if he stayed that close to her, she was going to reach out and devour that sweet, hot mouth and sink into the completely animal world of sensation.
And she couldn't.
Stefan hesitated, then took a step back. A large one. And he picked up the fluorescent-pink s...o...b..a.l.l.s from the counter, handed them over to her and walked away, toward the car.
Katie stood there, shaking, furious with him, even more furious with herself, and tried to control the blood pouring fast through her veins. She'd had plenty of practice at it, through firefights and face-offs with bad, dangerous men, and yet, somehow, this was more difficult.
She felt something squish in her right hand, and looked down to see that she'd destroyed the cupcake treats in their plastic package, reduced them to a fluorescent-pink misshapen mess leaking chocolate cake and cream filling.
Katie tossed them in the trash, picked up her coffee and followed Stefan.