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No way I was admitting that.
“What did ye want to talk about?”
She pursed her lips. “Walk me through the flying thing. Not the typical teenage activity. Is the flight school owned by your family?”
“If I talk, will ye answer one of my questions?”
She inclined her head.
“My older brother is a helicopter pilot, and I relocated to Scotland to move in with him when I was fifteen. He has a mentor, a man named Gordain McRae, who gave me a job at his aircraft hangar, and who also created the bodyguard service I usually work for to take care of his famous son-in-law. I did every fetch-and-carry job they needed until I had skills. Then I traded my labour for lessons. After university, I was lucky enough to be sponsored by Gordain to fly commercially.”
“Why are you a bodyguard and not a pilot?”
I made a buzzer sound. “Sorry, your turn now. What did ye want to talk to me about?”
“Oh. Straight into the awkward, huh?”
She shoved her hands into her shorts pockets. We’d walked far enough into the park that I could see the lake she’d mentioned. It was silver in the low light and mill-pool calm. Tothe right was a pontoon with small boats attached, no doubt for hire during the day, and to the left, the path circled under trees.
“I owe you an apology. You were fired because of helping me and Dori at the nightclub. I felt awful when I found out.” She peeked up at me. “How come you’re back?”
I held my breath for a moment. I didn’t like lying. I had an ulterior motive in taking the job, but if I told her, I wasn’t sure how she’d react.
The words came out anyway. “I suspect someone is selling information about ye. My suspicion is that they’re on your team. Aye, Jared sacked me, but my boss is friends with his, and he heard me out on the shite management of the team. Jared lost his job, and I was offered the chance to return for a week. I took it.”
Alex stopped dead on the path and stared up at me. “Whoa.”
I winced. “I realise that makes me sound either paranoid or insane.”
“No, it doesn’t. For a start, you just told me something real. No one ever does that.” She started moving again. “Does Riss know?”
Footsteps thumped on the tree-covered path ahead.
I whirled into Alex and spun her away, off the track and around a thick oak. Bracing myself against the tree to cover her, I held her to me and listened hard for whoever was approaching.
“Park keeper,” a male voice called out. “East Gate, locking up. Please make your way to the exit, the park is closed.”
Night cloaked us in shadows. The man neared our hiding spot, making no attempt to be stealthy with keys rattling and his breathing laboured. I kept my head tucked down and Alex concealed entirely behind my body, my black t-shirt and jeans hopefully enough to disguise us. I was too aware of Alex in my arms, her palm against my chest.
It was a familiar pose, from age eighteen and more recent. I soaked in the press of her fingertips. The warmth of her.
I needed more.
If the park keeper spotted us, he’d throw us out. It wasn’t as if we could go to a pub and continue our conversation. I’d have to get a cab to take us back to the palace, where she’d go to her rooms and I’d return to the bodyguard accommodation where I’d been on the edge of my seat, waiting for her message.
Neither of us moved a hair.
Realisation struck in a heady rush. I didn’t want this to end. We’d barely started talking, and I had so much more to ask and say.
The man continued on until he was right next to us, close enough for his radio crackle to be audible.
The footsteps passed then died away.
Alex pushed up on her toes, her mouth next to my ear. She spoke in a whisper. “He’ll leave by the same gate.”
Which meant that as soon as he was out of hearing range, we could make a run for it.
But that thought was entirely buried under my awareness that if I just turned my head a fraction to the right, my lips would meet Alex’s. She took a little inhale that sent my blood rushing south, but then grabbed my hand and slipped out of the protection of my body.