by Rylee Swann
“But you’re stronger now. You can take him, can’t you?”
He stood from the table, his eyes drawn to the cash register and the gray-haired man paying for his meal.
“Too dangerous for you, Ray, and I’m not going to leave you alone on the chance I might find him. He knows about you.”
“Oh.” She nervously chewed on her lip. “Wait, what do you think of my idea?” She blinked up at him.
“Not now. Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
She huffed in frustration. “Didn’t you just say we’re leaving?”
She started to get up but Shawn put out a hand to stop her.
“Changed my mind. Stay here. Finish your coffee. I’m going out for a smoke.” He strode to the exit with the echo of Rayna’s surprised “you smoke?” drawing unneeded attention.
He stood outside the entrance to the restaurant, rummaging in his waist bag until the door opened again a few seconds later. Out stepped the gray-haired man. He paused to blink into the bright sunshine before turning away from Shawn.
Shawn couldn’t have asked for better. Zipping his bag, he waited until the older man was a couple of steps away then fell in behind him. He paced the man, keeping his head down but tilted, hyper aware of his surroundings. When a couple of young, blond surfers dressed in short wetsuits approached, Shawn picked up his pace. As the surfers converged on them, Shawn bumped into the older man and muttered a “sorry” as he passed.
At the first side street, Shawn turned right as the man he’d jostled continued on. Shawn leaned up against a storefront, putting his right foot up on the wall in a casual position. He kept an eye on the gray-haired man until he was gone from view. Only then did Shawn allow himself a slight smile.
Pulling the man’s wallet from his back jeans pocket, he opened it, his smile growing wider. Counting the bills, he came up with a total close to two hundred dollars. Upon closer examination of the contents, he found a few credit cards and an ATM card. He took the ATM card and put it in his back pocket.
Continuing his search of the man’s stolen wallet, he discovered a small folded piece of yellow paper. He unfolded it, saw what was written, and shook his head in disbelief. Shawn had what he needed—the code to the ATM card. The foolish man deserved to be ripped off. The credit cards weren’t of interest to Shawn, and he left them in the wallet when he bent down and dropped it nonchalantly onto the concrete.
Hastening back up the street to the restaurant, Shawn passed it, continuing until he found a store with a sign in the window for an ATM. Inside, he made a transaction for one thousand dollars. The machine denied him. Either there were insufficient funds or the card had a daily withdrawal limit. Shawn next tried to withdraw five hundred dollars, and after a few clicks and whirring sounds the machine spit out the money. He pocketed it and the card and retraced his steps back to the restaurant.
Entering, he spotted Rayna at their table before she noticed him. He stood there a moment, enjoying the sight and inexplicably liking the fact that she’d waited. She could have been long gone. Escaped to her car and driven away. For a brief second, he wondered what his reaction would have been. He didn’t get far with those thoughts before Rayna spied him and stood from the table with a look of relief that transformed into a broad smile.
Shawn offered a practiced smile, more for the other diners than for Rayna, and rejoined her before she’d managed to take more than a step toward him. Bending his head down, he kissed her on the lips, lingering there for a moment. Rayna gasped into his mouth and he tasted the butter from her toast.
Pulling back and gazing into her eyes, he whispered, “Now say loud enough for your voice to carry, ‘you taste like an ashtray.’”
Rayna stared at him with parted lips as he urged her with his eyes to comply.
Rousing herself, she blinked and nodded. “Ugh, you taste like an ashtray!”
She picked up her half empty glass of water and took a sip.
Shawn laughed, again for onlookers, and tossed a ten onto the table. Picking up the check, he took Rayna’s hand and walked with her to the cashier, where he paid the bill with more ill-gotten cash.
“You don’t taste like an ashtray,” Rayna said as he led her out the door and toward what looked like motel row in this little beach community.
He took a moment to check for anyone in earshot. No one. “I don’t smoke.”
“Oh. So...where’d you get the money?” She kept her voice low, telling Shawn she’d already caught on.
“Exactly where you think I did. Now, c’mon.” He pointed to a pinkish four-story building with a vacancy sign. “I like the looks of that one.”
Rayna shook her head and hurried along to keep up with him.
Once Shawn had rented a room on the ground floor, he and Rayna entered room 111.
“Not bad. Seems clean.” He went to the window, standing to the side of it as he drew back the curtain enough to peek out. “Bonus. We have an ocean view.”
Noting Rayna’s silence, he turned to find her sitting primly at the edge of one of the two double beds. With an inward sigh, he moved across the room opposite the bed and leaned against a long brown dresser. She stared past him to a point on the wall to his left. Dark circles had formed under her eyes and her suntanned skin had whitened, making her resemble a goth.
“You should get some sleep. We won’t be staying here for too long.”
Silent, she cut her angry slitted eyes toward him.
Exasperated, he blurted, “I did the right thing.”
Her mouth dropped open, two angry blotches of red forming on her cheeks. “Stealing someone’s money was the right thing? How can you—?”
He raised a hand to quiet her, his expression stern enough to make her swallow any further words. “Listen carefully. Someone is trying to kill me, and whoever it is doesn’t care if he takes you down too. We needed cash. We can’t use your credit card. We can’t leave a paper trail. I will not risk my life to follow your misguided sense of right and wrong. Got it?”
Her face screwed up into an angry ball that was shattered by a yawn. “Misguided?”
“In this situation, yes.” He placed his hands on either side of him on the dresser, softened his voice. “I know the difference between right and wrong, Ray. Most times, I just don’t care. But in this case, it’s urgent that you follow my lead without complaint.”
She sighed and rubbed her tired eyes. “I hate this.”
“I know. Just trust me to get us out of this. I’ve kept myself alive this long and I can keep you alive too.” He moved past her, pulled down the blanket on her bed, and stepped back. “Get some rest. I will keep you safe.”
And figure out why I’m so drawn to you.
She nodded and crawled to the pillow, pulling the blanket up and over her. “My clothes are still damp so I’m taking them off. No peeking.”
He grunted and moved toward the door of the room.
“Wait! You’re not leaving, are you?” The worry in Rayna’s voice had him snapping his head back around to her.
“No, I’m putting the do-not-disturb sign on.” He could have left it at that. Would have at any other time, but a nagging unfathomable urge to say more kept him talking. “I won’t leave to let you fend for yourself, alright? I meant what I said about keeping you safe.”
“Thank you,” she said in a relieved voice, as one by one, articles of her clothing came out from under the blanket and dropped to the floor.
Stifling a groan of desire, he grabbed the sign, opened the door a crack, and hung it on the outer doorknob before locking the door and putting on the chain. Only when the rustle of sheets told him she’d settled down under the covers did he dare to turn around.
“I’m going to nap too but I’ll hear if anyone tries to get in.” Standing in front of his bed, turned away from Rayna, he unzipped his jeans and tugged them down off his hips, letting them fall to the floor. After stepping out of them, he unbuttoned his shirt and shrugged out of it. He took his and Rayna’s
discarded clothing to the bathroom and hung them on the shower rod to dry. Coming back to his bed, he pulled off his underwear to the sound of Rayna sucking in her breath and slid between the sheets with a little smile of amusement on his lips.
“Shawn?”
From under the covers, he turned to face her. This was the first time she’d called him by name. It sounded good coming from her lips, lyrical, familiar. “What?”
“Later...we’ll, um...talk about my idea some more?”
Her eyes were already closing when he said, “Yes.”
He watched as her breathing changed from irregular to slow and steady. A lock of hair fell over one eye, making her appear more mysterious than she was. Rayna was beautiful, even in sleep. So peaceful. So innocent. So fragile. So...infuriating.
This had to be the longest he’d ever spent with a woman without using her for his own pleasure. He didn’t understand what was going on. Why he was still with her. What hold she had over him. But there was no denying that she did. Even if he didn’t like it one bit.
Yet, as he shut his eyes, his thoughts turned to how he could arrange a meeting with—how did she put it? One of those secret clandestine branches of the government—without getting himself thrown in jail or, worse, killed.
7
Noise.
Even while Shawn slept, he heard it. It intruded upon his subconscious but did not wake him.
Furtive sound.
His muscles coiled, tightened.
Footsteps, drawing closer.
Still deep in slumber, he sprang into action, grabbing the intruder and bringing whoever it was down onto the bed with him. The mattress bounced as it absorbed their weight. As he took the soft body, all flailing arms and legs, into a choke hold, a female scream finally woke him. He knew the voice.
Rayna.
Of course.
This wasn’t going to go over well.
He sat up in bed, bringing her with him amid a tangle of bedsheets and blankets. “Don’t scream and I’ll let you go.” He loosened his grip on her and she nodded, her eyes bulging out of her head, her breathing rapid and shallow. “Don’t scream,” he said again, and released her.
She flew up and away from him, wrapping her arms around her fully clothed body. As she stared down at him, her brows bunched together and her lips turned downward.
Shawn swore yet again to himself that he did not understand this woman. Glancing down for his underwear, he found his dried clothing folded on the floor. He reached down to grab his jeans and jockeys, swinging his legs over the side of the bed, the blanket in disarray over one muscled thigh.
“What the hell was that?” she said in a stage whisper. “I mean, I was just looking to see if you were awake. You saw me!” She jabbed a finger at him. “Why the hell did you grab me like that?”
He sighed, shook out his hair with a hand, and pushed it back from his eyes, his jeans in his lap. “I didn’t see you.”
“Oh yes, you did! Your eyes were open! You were awake and looking at me.” She brought her hand up to her neck where his hand had been. “You were...I thought...you… You choked me!”
He put one leg after the other into his jeans, stood and turned away from her and pulled them on. “I had only one eye open, and I didn’t see you.” Turning back to her, he adjusted himself and zipped up the jeans. “I didn’t know it was you until I woke up.”
She took a step back from him. “You’re not making any sense. You know that, right?”
“No, not to you I’m not,” he said. She frowned, and looked about ready to go on another tirade, so he qualified his statement. “Not to a human.”
Her mouth dropped open and the steam of her anger drained away. Confusion darkened her eyes like a sudden rain cloud on an otherwise sunny day. “Umm...what?”
Shawn walked past her to the bathroom and partly shut the door. While he did his business, he hunted for the right words, keeping his gaze locked on the chipped white toilet tank cover.
“We sleep mostly in the sea. I guess it’s a genetic thing that we keep one eye open. So we know when danger is approaching and can react.” He flushed the toilet, rinsed his hands, and came back into the room. He gazed at her rapt expression, her eyes wide in wonder. “We act, but don’t see until we wake.”
“So...you sleep with one eye open?”
He nodded and went back to the bed to retrieve his shirt.
“I mean, you’re not just saying that like the expression?”
“No.” Frustrating woman, he thought, constantly asking the same question more than once. He put his shirt on, leaving it unbuttoned, and waited for the next barrage of questions he knew would come.
She regarded him in awe. “Dolphins do that.”
This was the last thing he’d expected to hear. She had a startling ability to surprise him. “What?”
She nodded knowingly. “It’s true. You know, one of those random factoids that you pick up. I think I read it in a marine biology book in the library when I was taking a break from studying nursing.” She moved back to her bed and smoothed down the sheet before lifting the blanket. “Kinda funny, isn’t it?” She glanced back at him as she made the bed. “Do you have dolphins on Paros?”
“I’m not a dolphin.” His frustration mounted, and he buttoned his shirt in preparation to leave. “Or are you teasing me?”
“No, I’m not teasing you, and I know you’re not a dolphin.” She laughed and gestured to his body. “I mean, come on. Look at you. Two legs. No fins. You’re not a dolphin. Cool your jets. I’m just saying that this sleeping with one eye open thing you do is something dolphins do too. That’s all.” She plumped the pillow and nodded at her handiwork.
“All Parosians do it, not just me.” Still frowning, he motioned toward the door. “Let’s go.”
“Oh, already? Where? To my car?”
He shook his head as he stepped to the front door of their motel room, where he listened for anything on the other side. Satisfied, he opened it, but took a look both ways regardless.
“No, not yet. Food, money, change of clothes.” He held his hand out and beckoned. “Come on.”
“Alright, so long as we get new shoes soon. Yours are still in my car and I lost mine on the beach.” A little shiver rippled through her body but she stepped forward. “I’d rather not go barefoot for much longer.”
Shawn held the door open for her. “We’ll be alright. We’re in a beach town during summer. No one will notice.”
He walked out of the room behind her so he could enjoy the view but also hide his own inner turmoil. He’d lost his gun in the ocean last night and only had his wits and hand-to-hand combat skills to rely on for the time being.
Well, that would have to do.
Keeping her close, Shawn led Rayna to a nearby grocery store. He marveled at his comfort level in holding on to her. How natural it had become. He stole glances at her as they walked, amused that she kept her head down to make sure she didn’t step on anything with her bare feet. She didn’t step on any cracks either, he noted with an inward smile.
Once inside, he located the ATM. Standing in front of it, he pulled out the stolen cash card and inserted it into the slot.
“Be prepared to move,” he said to Rayna. “If there’s already a hold on this card we’ll have to ditch and run.”
She nodded, and he pressed the appropriate keys on the screen to again withdraw the maximum amount.
The machine whirred then spit out five crisp one-hundred-dollar bills. Shawn pocketed them along with the card and walked with Rayna to the fruits and vegetables section of the store. Locating the organic display, he pulled a plastic bag from a roll and began depositing first apples, then peaches, then oranges into bag after bag.
Picking up a final peach, Shawn rubbed it against his shirt and took a large bite. Juice ran down his chin, and he wiped it off with the back of his hand. Rayna laughed, and he turned to her with a raised brow.
“Want a bite?” He held the peach out to her.
She looked at it and raised her eyes to his as color reddened her cheeks. Stepping forward, she reached out, placed her hand on his wrist, and with her eyes locked on his, took a big bite. Juice ran down Shawn’s hand and onto Rayna’s fingers. She broke into a smile as she chewed, letting go of him and licking her fingers.
“I suppose it doesn’t matter that you’re stealing that peach?” she said, licking her lips.
He didn’t reply right away, too busy watching her every movement. “What is it about you?”
He met her gaze. So blue, like an ocean he could drown in.
“I was going to ask you the same thing,” she said, her blush deepening.
His lips quirked upward. “Pick out what you like. We need to get going.”
They finished shopping a short time later, only buying items that didn’t need refrigeration or to be cooked. At the train station in the center of town, he got them a cab and told the driver to take them to a hotel on the other side of this beachfront community.
Rayna held the two grocery bags while Shawn checked them in.
Inside the room, she set them on the dresser. “Same room, different day. What are we doing here?”
Shawn unpacked and shined an apple on his shirt.
“Eating, first.” He held out his hand, inviting her to choose from the assortment of fruits and vegetables.
She picked up a pear and examined it. “And second?”
“We discuss the pros and cons of your plan for me to contact your government.” He bit into the apple, enjoying both the taste and Rayna’s surprised yet pleased expression.
“Really?” An almost childlike glee entered her eyes and reminded him of how young she was. Only twenty-two, she could have been fifteen for the sheltered life she led.
He realized he was only five years older than her, but he’d seen and been through so much he could have been thirty or even forty, for that matter. Yet, he appreciated her strength, her character, the goodness in her and couldn’t help wondering what he would have been like if he’d led a life like hers.