Page 60 of Healing Conviction
“The fuck they would.” His arms stiffened around her, locking her in and his voice was barely above a growl at even the thought. “I wouldn’t let them.”
“You know? For some reason, I believe you, Malfoy.”
“So… your real name’s not Nora?”
She shook her head and gave him a small, apologetic smile. “It’s Timea. Not that it matters anymore. I’m a completely different person now.” She looked back to Jasmine’s grave. “Besides, it won’t be on my gravestone. That life already died.” She tilted her head toward the stone. “This could’ve been me. Twice if you think about it.”
Guilt filtered into his mind and he kissed the side of her head. “I’m sorry I couldn’t save you, Nora. And I’m sorry you’ve had to save yourself too many goddamn times.”
She turned to him, her lips nearly meeting his, and he held his breath while she looked from his eyes to his lips and back again. “I always say our best is all we can do, and you almost died for me, Drake. You gave everything for me. Never believe your everything isn’t enough.”
He held her face in his hand and stroked her cheek. “And never think your life isn’t worth my everything.”
CHAPTERTWENTY-TWO
“Um… delusional Viking Survivorman saidwhatnow?”
He rolled his eyes and sipped his leftover peppermint tea as he drove down the back roads toward whatever-the-heck reserve he was taking them to.
“The closest thing to a town is two hours away from the last diner we stopped at. The CTI distribution center is along the edge of a national reserve in bumfuck nowhere, but I’ve actually hiked the trails around here with my stepdad.”
Her heart squeezed. “You guys did stuff like that a lot, huh?”
“Yeah. We were always camping, hiking, hunting, or fishing.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Sometimes I think he was trying to give my mom a break from my rowdy ass, but those trips were still some of my favorites.”
“It’s really cool how close you were with your family. I, um, I wish I’d had that.”
Sympathy shined in his eyes as he glanced at her. “Me too.”
She gave him a small smile and resisted the urge to make a joke. After they shared a comfortable moment of silence for the childhood she’d never had, she cleared her throat and spoke again.
“So what were you saying about your little plan?”
He smiled. “Well, I figured that while we twiddle our thumbs and wait for word on the last two women, we can camp on the outskirts of the facility and scope it out.”
Nora scoffed and pointed to the outfit she’d changed into at the diner. Her “I solemnly swear I am up to no good” black T-shirt, black jeans, and rose gold snake bite studs finally made her feel more like herself. Dressing the part for everyone was fun, but exhausting.
“I don’t know what part of my semi-emo, Goth chick, hacker vibe gave you the impression that Idonature, but I assure you, all it will take is one chunky heel thigh-high, combat boot inside that forest and you will be remedied of that misconception real friggin’ quick.”
“I thought you liked to try new things. Just pretend it’s a different persona.”
“I don’t need lumberjaneadded to my repertoire.”
He snorted. “I think you’ll make an adorable lumberjane, but in any case, I don’t know where this is coming from. I told you the plan back at the diner. You nodded, said ‘sounds good’ and asked me for my bacon. Which reminds me, I thought you were a vegetarian?”
“See,that’swhere we went wrong in our communication. You can’t tell me important things while I’m eating delicious waffle-y goodness! I probably was in the middle of ecstasy and said ‘sogood’ not ‘soundsgood’. And get off my back, dude, Iama vegetarian. Breakfast food doesn’t count. I have morals sorta, but unfortunately no self-control and I’ve learned to accept that about myself.”
“That lack of self-control is why I keep taking you to diners.” He tilted his head and unabashedly scanned her up and down. “Your waffle-eating-face looks just like your come face.” The heat in his eyes made her nipples stiffen underneath her clothes, but she didn’t cover them this time.
“If you think you can butter me up to get me to go on a backwoods vacay with you, you’ve got another thing coming, mister.”
“Yeah… hopefullyyou.”
“Hey!There shall be noNaked and Afraid. I’m trying to be mad at you right now, so get your mind out of the gutter and explain yourself. Why don’t we stay in the closest hotel and come do stakeouts throughout the day?”
He sighed. “We couldn’t stay there, Pix. Hotels in a small town are not an option, since we might have someone after us. It’s too far to go back and forth and we don’t know how long we’ll be here waiting for info on the third woman. Besides, we wouldn’t exactly be keeping a low profile in a truck riddled with bullet holes.”
She nearly laughed at the way he grumbled the last bit. He’d complained about the state of his truck babyquitea few times.