I didn’t stop. I ran through the dim maze, not sure which direction to go. And I didn’t want to give up any speed while I figured it out. I looked down at the tablet but there was nothing—no signal. The tech team wasn’t going to be able to help me down here, so I ran, trying every door I came to.
Behind me, a door slammed open as the guards made it into the tunnel. They weren’t far behind me. I swung left and found a dead end.
Fuck.
These tunnels were old, built way before the building itself. Mosaic had probably realized it, and that’s why they used this building. I shot back the other direction as men yelled behind me. They were trying doors too, looking for me.
I finally found a door that didn’t have an electronic lock and kicked it open. Inside was a small room with a metal ladder heading up toward street level. I had no idea what street, but that was fine with me.
I didn’t care where I ended up, as long as it wasn’t here.
I climbed quickly, not sure when the armed guards would catch up, and came to a grate at the top. I pushed on it as hard as I could but it barely budged. Damn it, those men and their guns were getting closer.
I couldn’t get the leverage I needed while holding the tablet. I tucked it into my waistband and used my shoulder to push, gritting my teeth as it took all my strength to get the grate unstuck. But finally, it moved. I hefted with my legs and got it the rest of the way open.
I felt the tablet shift and start to fall, but there was nothing I could do. If I reached for it now, I wouldn’t get the grate back open in time. The tablet crashed to the ground below me. I pushed the grate the rest of the way up and crawled through. A second later, bullets struck behind me.
Jesus, that had been close. I looked around. I was in the middle of Reddington City, but where exactly? I had moved west from where I’d started back in their computer room. That put me on the opposite side of where Landon and I had parked.
I touched the comm unit in my ear. “Landon, are you okay? Report.”
There was a long moment of silence, and I let out a relieved breath when he finally responded. “I’m out, but I can’t make it back to the car.”
“Me neither,” I said. “I’m on the west side of the building, a few blocks away.”
“Shit. They’re heading right for you. You need to get off the street quick. Don’t try to blend. Run.”
I did. I didn’t know which way to head and veered right when I saw men dressed in suits running toward me. They weren’t shooting, but I had no doubt they would if that became their only option. They’d spotted me.
I had no idea how to get away from them without running directly into innocents, and I wasn’t willing to take the chance on collateral damage. So I cut down an alley, pushing myself for speed to get through to the next block. But when I came out of the alley, two more Mosaic guards were waiting across the street.
Shit, I’d done exactly what they’d hoped I would.
And now they’d take the shot and nobody would be any the wiser. The guys up the block smiled with the knowledge that they had me trapped. They weren’t even rushing anymore.
A car turned down the street. Could I get away if they waited to shoot until it passed? I kept my eyes on the men as the vehicle rolled toward me, knowing the guards from the tunnel would be coming up behind me any second. When the car passed, I would run beside it and take my chances. I already knew what happened when Mosaic took people alive, and I didn’t want to experience it again.
Time to run.
Except the car didn’t pass. It stopped right in front of me, and a window rolled down.
“Hey, Ian. Um, do you need a ride?”
What the hell? “Wavy?”
Wavy
As soon as Ian got in my car, I started driving. Reddington City wasn’t a big crime haven but this alley felt pretty sketchy. I’d been a little surprised a couple of minutes ago when I’d seen him cut through it. I’d circled around the block and tried to seem casual, pulling up next to him and offering a ride.
I didn’t want to ask him what he was doing here because he might turn around and ask me the same thing.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
Or he might ask anyway.
“Um.” I’d practiced this. “I was picking up some supplies at the art store.” That was relatively close to the truth. “How about you? Out saving the world?” My laugh was so awkward, I wanted to cringe. “Or maybe doing some shopping?”
I wasn’t sure exactly which way to go now that I had him in the car, so I took a left at the next light. I hadn’t been sure I would actually find him. It had been a stupid plan from the beginning, to come to Reddington City on the off chance that I’d run into Ian here.
I’d dreamed of painting him last night. Which wasn’t unusual for me—I dreamed about painting nearly everyone and everything. Ian DeRose had been naked, but that wasn’t the problem. That sort of painting would be classified as acceptable dream fodder for any artist.
In my dream, instead of him posing and me painting him at my easel, I’d been using my brushes all over his body. I’d been painting him. He’d stood there watching me with those smoldering brown eyes as I’d painted him all the colors and patterns flowing through my mind.
All the colors. All of him.
Then he’d showed back up at the diner this morning. I’d tried to be friendly and talkative—although his friend Landon was much more talkative than Ian himself—but I couldn’t stop thinking about painting him. About the hard muscle I’d felt under my fingers when I’d been brushing pie off him the night before.
How it had felt when he’d backed me up against that wall in the alley.
So when I’d found out Ian was going to be in Reddington City, I decided to come here and see if I could “accidentally” run into him.
He wasn’t talking. He was looking out the side-view mirror behind us. Oh crap. What if he really had been on some sort of world-saving mission?
I was such an idiot.
“Is there anywhere I can drive you?” I glanced in the rearview mirror, but no one seemed to be following us.
He looked over at me. “Where are you heading?”
I shrugged. “I guess back to Oak Creek now that I’m done shopping.”
“Okay, Wavy Bollinger. I will go back to Oak Creek with you.”
All right, that was a bit weird. I glanced over at him, but he was still looking in the mirror. “Yes, Ian DeRose,” I said in the same serious tone, “I will give you a ride back to Oak Creek.”
I gripped the steering wheel tighter and got on the road that would lead us out of town. This had been a mistake. Could things be any more awkward between us? As we got farther out of town, he stopped looking in the mirror so much. Instead, he was looking at me.
But not in a Wow, how fortuitous is it that we ran into each other? sort of way like I’d been hoping. Instead, those endless brown eyes were pinning me. Studying me.
“What sort of supplies were you picking up again?” he asked.
“Oh, some art stuff. Stuff I didn’t need. I like to come to the shop here in Reddington City. It’s the biggest one around. A great shop.” Shit, I was babbling.
I didn’t so much as glance at him because as soon as I did, he would know the truth. That I was here because of him. I drove past the on-ramp for the highway, planning to take the back roads to Oak Creek. It would give us a little more time together—although right now that might be prolonging the awkwardness. He wouldn’t notice the difference.