Page 57 of Girl in the Water

Offices, offices, and more offices, drab gray industrial carpet, neon lights, cubicles. Damned if he saw anything worth killing for, or even anything interesting. So he went back to the elevator, as someone who’d just gotten lost would, and left the building.

Sugar.

He wasn’t aware of any big conspiracies involving the sugar trade. Ethanol had more potential. Ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, was a drinking alcohol. However, it was also beginning to be used as alternative fuel. The fuel industry was cutthroat. That had possibilities.

Instead of taking a taxi, Ian decided to walk awhile, give himself time to think.

Did Finch get involved in something like industrial spying?

Finch had headed straight north from Rio. Probably trying to get out of the country but not daring to go to the airport for fear that whoever was after him would be watching for him there. That they had pursued him likely meant that he’d taken something, confirmed by his own words “sweet little package” in his phone message, and also by the fact that his house on the Rio Negro had been searched.

Ian turned those thoughts over and over in his head. He ended up walking longer than he’d intended, all the way back to the hotel. The room was dark, Daniela sleeping in bed. He breathed a sigh of relief.

He cleaned up in the bathroom, then went to lie down in front of the window where she’d made up a bed for him from the bedspread, a pillow, and a sheet.

The cover was plenty; he didn’t really need anything. Even with the air-conditioning, the room was warm. If he’d been alone, he would have slept naked. As it was, he kept on his boxers and pulled the sheet up to his waist.

He lay on his back, staring at the ceiling.

She shifted on the bed.

“Linda was twenty-one when you married her,” she said.

Christ.His shower must have woken her. “We’re not talking about Linda.”

“There’s a lot we’re not doing,” she grumbled.

He closed his eyes. He was going to turn gray by the time this mission ended.

A romantic relationship between the two of them would be a mistake. He was determined to save her from that blunder.

When they’d first met, they both had been a mess, just in different ways. And he’d thought, what the hell, one of them should be put back together. He’d helped her fit into her new environment in DC, helped her lay down the foundations of a good, safe life, a life she would enjoy living, where she could reach her full potential.

And what a woman she was now. If he’d helped her, it’d been the best thing he’d done in his miserable life. But he wasn’t going to cling to her. She was the rocket, destined for the stars. He was the fuel tank on the rocket booster that propelled the rocket for a while, but then fell away, fell back to earth.

He willed himself to sleep, reaching up for a moment to rub the ache in his chest. Apparently, falling back to earth hurt.

* * *

Daniela

Daniela waited for Ian to give up on the hard floor and come to bed. She pulled the sheet to her chin. She was excited about this next step, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t nervous.

Sleeping in the same room with Ian somehow made even the air different, thinner, and full of tingly tension. Daniela lay on her side and watched his shadowy shape as he lay in front of the window with his back to her, his wide shoulder outlined by the barely there moonlight.

When she’d first met him, she’d been scared of him.

Then he’d become her safe place.

And now…

She felt different around him.Happy. Confused.She felt full of possibilities. Another door had opened. She wasn’t sure if she deserved another door—another new thing, another good thing.

In college, when she’d gone out with a guy and he touched her, she’d been an observer. She’d felt as if she was having an out-of-body experience. She’d been evaluating what it felt like—good or repulsive. She’d been trying to figure out if she could handle it. She’d been trying to tune out the emotions those touches brought back, so she didn’t run screaming and make everyone think she was a lunatic.

With Ian…

She wanted him to be next to her. Just feeling his skin against hers, having her head on his shoulder would have made her happy. She wanted to lay her palm over his ribs and fall asleep feeling his heartbeat.