Twice as Hot (Tales of an Extraordinary Girl #2)(59)
Author: Gena Showalter

"I don’t know exactly what clothing they brought, so I’m not sure if any of it was taken. Their toiletries are here, though."

"Anything of yours taken?"

I shook my head. Except for what I had in my purse, all of my stuff was in my bag and my bag was in the corner. Why had they left it?

"Good. Let’s go," Rome said, and motioned me to the door.

I padded across the room and bent down to grab the duffel, but Rome stalked to my side and gripped my arm, stilling me. Silent, he shook his head. I opened my mouth to ask what was going on, but he gave another of those head shakes.

O-kay. We were leaving empty-handed, it seemed.

His grip remaining firm, he ushered me to the door and into the hallway. As he shut the door behind us, he leaned down and whispered, "They probably placed tracking chips on your clothes." My eyes widened. Of course.

"Assume we’re being watched. Say nothing. Do nothing without my permission." This time, the permission thing didn’t bother me. This man knew what he was doing. I didn’t. One day I would, though, I vowed. One day soon.

When I’d first been recruited to be an agent, I hadn’t really wanted the job. Okay, a part of me had still craved the excitement. But mostly, I’d agreed for Rome. To protect his daughter, he’d wanted out, so I’d traded myself, taking his position as my own.

Because he loved me, he hadn’t wanted to leave me at PSI without him. He’d shocked me by changing his plans and staying on, asking only that I help him safeguard Sunny. Well, that, and love him always.

I’d considered before but truly accepted now that I’d kind of coasted through the job all these months, doing what was required of me, but nothing extra. Nothing above and beyond. I hadn’t really trained like I should have, hadn’t hunted Desert Gall like I should have. I’d put myself first. My wedding first. My life first. Because of that, my best guy friend was lying unconscious in the hospital, my lover was without his memory and my best girlfriend was now a prisoner of a water-sucking scrim.

No more, I thought, hands again clenching into fists. From now on, I was an agent, pure and simple. No longer would I play at this job, pass time with it or place my own desires over my missions. They called me Wonder Girl, after all. I would do wonderful things, I told myself – and tried to believe it.

I remained close to Rome as we trekked the length of the hall and down the staircase. He had a weapon trained ahead of us, but he never had to use it. The rest of the hotel had seemed to drift off to sleep, leaving us to our spy games.

"This way." He didn’t lead me to the parking garage as I expected. No, he led me outside, back into night’s shadows. A few cars meandered along the road, their lights glaring.

I was still wearing my hooker dress, and the air was chilly against my skin, causing goose bumps to break out over every visible inch. My gaze remained watchful, circling the area with suspicion. Any moment, I expected someone to jump out at us and attack.

Keeping his own gaze alert, Rome removed his jacket and draped it over my shoulders, though he never broke stride.

"Thank you."

"Welcome. Now get ready."

"For what?"

"Anything."

Smart man. Hmm. What to do to prepare? The only way to be ready for anything, I supposed, was to work up a simmering anger. That way, I could torch something – or someone – if necessary, and the ensuing smoke would help hide us. But I had to be careful. Anything beyond simmering would light me on fire. I had to be just angry enough so the flames would be contained inside me until I was ready to unleash them.

I needed Tanner and Rome for this; I’d never done it on my own. Tanner would have warned me before things got out of control, and Rome would have filtered out the excess emotion. Without one, it was risky. Without both, it was probably suicide. A one percent chance of success was better than nothing, though.

Rome and I moved into a hedge of trees, the leaves swaying behind us. Twigs snapped under my heels, minute after minute passing in fraught silence. Before I could force my mind down an anger trail, we broke through another thick bush and a well-lit building came into view. A bar. Red neon flashed: Pool here. A group of middle-aged men exited the front door, smoke billowing behind them. They were talking and laughing and slapping one another on the shoulders.

All four stopped and gawked at me as I passed. One even whistled. Guess my cle**age was visible through the slit in Rome’s jacket.

Rome growled at them, but at least he didn’t attack. He simply quickened his pace, and once again I had to run to keep up.

"Where’re we going?"

"I need some equipment, then we’ll find a place to rest."

"Equipment? Other than what you’ve got in the car?"

"There’s nothing in the car. Sorry, I lied. I just wanted you safe so that I could assess the situation." And to think I’d been wondering how to make myself mad. I popped my jaw, my anger simmering as I’d wanted. Rome believed in doing what he thought was right, no matter what. It was part of the reason I loved him, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating.

"Don’t do that again."

"Can’t promise that. But I’m wondering, did I ever lie to you? Before?"

"At first. But we’d reached a point where we were totally honest with each other, no matter how badly it hurt."

He was silent a moment, contemplating my words. "Fucking Memory Man," he muttered.

Bye-bye anger. His remorse was irresistible.

Where was Memory Man, anyway? I’d pondered it earlier, but now I was surprised by his absence.

He’d called me a magnet for trouble, had claimed he was desperate to protect me, but hadn’t been here for the action. Did that mean he had remained in Georgia? Or had he lost my trail?

"We can get there again," I said. "We just have to – "

"I can’t discuss that now, Belle. I want to, but I can’t. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up. I have to keep my mind clear, focused, and when we talk about our feelings, the past, I just want to hold you, and I can’t right now…."

Ir-re-sistible. But I’d try to focus on the matter at hand, as he wanted. "Maybe you haven’t noticed, Rome, but everything’s closed," I said, looking around at the darkened storefronts. Well, except for the bars, but I doubted they had what he needed.

"Doesn’t mean I can’t get in." He squeezed my fingers in reassurance.

I should have known he’d add B and E to our long list of necessary evils. "Where are we going exactly?

What if we’re being followed?"

"So far I haven’t spotted anyone trying to follow us. Besides, Desert Gall doesn’t need to follow us. She has something we want, so she knows we’ll go to her."