We walked down the sidewalks, stopping in shops so Owen could get things or speak to someone quietly while I peeked through the different stalls. It was odd to watch him with people. Some he charmed, others he gave what I decided was his ‘assassin stare.’ Either way, he seemed to know exactly which he would need for each person.
Eventually we ended up at a little store that sold clothing and essentials. The racks were full of basic shirts and jeans, but even a clean pair of underwear sounded like a luxury at this point.
“Get what you need.” Owen nodded at the store. “I’ll be back to pay for it.”
“Where are you going?” I pushed my hair out of my face and fought to calm my heart.
“Next door. I’ll only be gone for a moment.”
“And you’re not going to tell me what you’re doing.” I kept my face blank. I felt exposed without him by my side. Would I ever feel safe in public again?
He smiled and squeezed my hand. “I’ll be back soon.”
We had held hands for most of the day. At first I’d told myself that it was part of our cover—looking like a happy couple. But eventually I realized I found comfort in his touch, in the way his warm fingers wrapped around mine. My wildest revelation was when I realized that he seemed to be just as content with the contact.
“I don’t like secrets.” I stepped closer and lowered my voice.
“I promised I wouldn’t lie to you, Ava, and now isn’t the time to talk about it.” His lips brushed along my hairline and I forced some of the tension out of my shoulders. It was his way of reminding me that we were supposed to be happy, but it mainly served to make my heart race.
“Hurry back.” I smiled sweetly up at him and his eyes locked on my lips. Temptation swept through his features and I was sure he was going to kiss me. My stomach coiled tight with anticipation and desire. I’d been with my share of men, but none of them had made me feel like that with just a look. But then, just as quickly, distance slammed down in his eyes and the moment was broken.
“Back before you know it.” He pulled away from me and left.
“Whoa,” a voice echoed from behind me.
I turned and looked at the girl behind the register, who still stared after Owen.
“Yeah.” I sighed. That pretty much summed up Owen.
“Your boyfriend?” The girl leaned forward over the counter. “He’s a killer.”
“Um, yeah.” I had to look away so I wouldn’t laugh at her word choice. I picked through the racks and grabbed a couple of shirts I thought would fit.
“American, huh?” She pursed her lips.
“Yep.” I smiled, but didn’t elaborate.
“Southern state, right?” She walked around the counter and rifled through some of the shirts before holding one out for me. “This will look nice with your eyes.”
“Thanks.” I added it to the pile in my arms. “Arkansas.”
Bad. I was a very bad liar. Even when I just said one word.
“I have a friend that moved to Florida. She works at a theme park.” She turned to look through a different rack. “She likes all the sun.”
“Florida is nice.” Florida is nice? That’s all I’ve got? “The beaches are beautiful.”
“Maybe I’ll get to visit her one day.” The girl held her hands out for the clothes in my arms. I took a quick glance at her name tag. Heather with curly-cues on each side of her name. “Here, I’ll go start you a dressing room.”
I almost objected but decided it might look weird. There was no way I was going to be caught with my pants down in a dressing room. I’d just have to stand in there and pretend.
As I expected the jeans weren’t in American sizes, so I had to do my best to eyeball the right size. After narrowing it down, I took two shirts and a pair of jeans to the front counter before going to look at the shoes. There were sandals, a few small slip-ons, and some athletic shoes. I opted for the athletic shoes even though they weren’t very attractive. I’d rather be able to run than look cute.
I added socks and underwear to my growing pile, but Owen still wasn’t back. Trying to not look worried was hard, so I ended up trying on sunglasses, picking out a shampoo, and eventually ended up by the paperback books. There wasn’t a large selection, but I read the back cover of one that actually caught my interest. It was a Christmas romance with a puppy on the front cover.
“Oooh. I read that one last year. You should definitely get it.” The accommodating cashier peeked over my shoulder. “I love happy endings.”
The door chimed and I looked up to see a petite blond woman enter the shop. She was breathtaking. Small delicate features, big brown eyes, and a shape that would leave men drooling in her wake. It was like looking at one of Shakespeare’s fairies brought to life.
“Can I help you?” Helpful Heather pounced on the new customer.
“Mm. Do you have the local paper? No one else on this block has one.” Her voice was low and sultry. She had a very upper crust London accent.
“Let me go check in the back.” The rapt clerk disappeared behind a curtain leaving me with the well-dressed woman.
I tried to not stare, but something about her made me uneasy. She caught me looking at her and smiled.
“Can you believe no one has the paper? I’m new and looking for a place to stay.” Her voice was friendly, it hit every note that it should, and every hair on my body stood on end anyway.
“I guess you could try looking online.”
“Oh, American!” She held out her hand. “I’m Jilly.”
Well, shit. Now I had to shake her hand. I guess if she tried to put me in a headlock I could just step on her.
“Taylor.” I held out my hand. Hopefully if someone was looking for me, they wouldn’t recognize my middle name.
“Pleasure to meet you.” Her eyes were so genuinely friendly, I was sure she was acting. She pointed at the book I had forgotten I was still holding. “I love that author. I buy everything of hers. She writes the best happy endings.”
“I’ve got one left, if you don’t mind a few bent corners.” Helpful Heather reappeared.
“Oh, that would be perfect. I just need the real estate section.” Jilly turned her bright smile on Heather. She paid for her paper and turned back to us at the door. “Nice to meet you, Taylor! Maybe I’ll see you around.”
“Good luck with your house hunt.” I smiled, but I knew it didn’t reach my eyes. Maybe I was being paranoid. Okay, I was being paranoid, but that didn’t mean I was wrong to be suspicious.
She could be guilty of something that had nothing to do with me and I was just picking up on it. I looked back at the book in my hand and shrugged.
Well, I figured I could really use a happy ending at that point. I sat the book on my stack and looked back around the shop.
“Feel like you’re forgetting something?” Heather tilted her head in sympathy.
“I just can’t remember what I’m missing.” I shrugged my shoulders. If Owen didn’t show up soon to pay, I was going to look like a giant ass. It had been almost an hour since he’d left and I was starting to wonder. “Makeup! That’s what I’m missing.”
I could kill some time staring at the cosmetics. I tried not to grimace when I found the small section of makeup.
“Airline lose your luggage?” Helpful Heather asked.
“Can you believe it? And I had some really cute things to wear for…well, you know.” I tried to chuckle but it sounded demented. I really couldn’t lie.
“From what I saw, I don’t think he cares.” She laughed.
The door chimed and Owen walked back into the shop. I almost melted in relief. He was carrying a small black bag slung over his shoulder and his hair was a little windblown.
“Sorry, love.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and nodded his head at my personal shopper. “Ran into an old friend who wanted to catch up. Couldn’t get away.”
“That’s okay. I’ve had fun shopping.” God, that made me sound like an airhead. And wa
s he speaking in code? Should I be ducking behind something heavy and covering my head? “Did you invite them to dinner?”
“They had plans.” He nuzzled my cheek and I tried to not whimper as his stubble rubbed across my skin. “Looks like it will just be the two of us.”
“Good.” My voice came out in a husky whisper as I stared up at him and I watched his pupils dilate.
“Well, let’s get your things and head back.” He barely noticed the giant pile of things I had collected while I waited, but he did smile at the Christmas book.
“In case I have time to read.” I shrugged.
“Hm. We’ll see about that.” His voice all but purred and I was tempted to check and see if my panties had spontaneously combusted.
Helpful Heather was staring at him with her mouth slightly ajar and I felt a flash of jealousy and the need to reassert my fictional claim on him. I leaned against his chest and stroked my hand across his midsection.
Whoa. Those were some nice abs. Owen the Assassin was ripped.
Mentally I took inventory to make sure that I wasn’t drooling on his button up shirt and that I was still completely dressed. I had this wild desire to rip all of my clothes off when I was this close to him. Helpful Heather’s expression turned a little less helpful as she watched my hand.
I looked up at Owen and male pride smiled down at me. I really couldn’t fault him. My hand was still stroking along those hard lines and I had to force it to be still. His smile widened but he didn’t say anything. Which was good. I was embarrassed as it was, and I wasn’t sure I could keep up the charade if he called me out for groping him so shamelessly.
Charade? Who was I kidding? On some level I was eating the attention up.
Jealous Heather told us the total and quickly bagged up my new clothes. Her eyes were glued to Owen’s backside as we left the store. I turned around and waved bye.
“Thanks for all the help!”
Her head jerked up in embarrassment. I should have felt bad, but I didn’t.
“Any more errands?” I was developing a blister on my left foot from walking all day in the heels, and I mentally congratulated myself for the sensible new shoes I’d just picked out.
“I dropped off some food at the car before I came back to the shop.” He put his arm around me, but I could tell his mind was elsewhere. His eyes swept back and forth across the street, waiting.
“Are we looking for something in particular or just letting paranoia reign?”
“I really did run into someone. Or rather, saw them and followed them.” A frown pulled at the corners of his mouth. “We need to get back to the house.”
“Followed them where?” I shivered.
“A store.” He looked down at me and I could see the hesitation in his eyes as he wrestled with saying something.
“What is it?” He had promised to not lie. Of course, that didn’t mean he wouldn’t just refuse to answer.
“They had your picture.”
I stumbled and looked around in fear. I spun in a circle like a puppy chasing its tail. The bad guys could be anywhere. I thought I might actually pass out.
“Ava.” Owen said my name softly, but I started forward, intent on getting to our car, to temporary safety. He gently pushed me back against a nearby vehicle and put a hand on either side of my face. “Breathe, Ava. I need you to keep it together. You can do this.”
“My picture. There are people here trying to kill me and I still don’t know why.” My breath was ragged. I felt like there was a flashing target over my head. How was I going to survive with all of these people out to collect some bounty?
“It’s okay, Ava. They didn’t know your name, just that you were American. There are a ton of ex-pats in Oxford.” He lifted my chin, forcing me to meet his gaze. “Breathe, Ava, you have to breathe.”
The only problem was that it was just as hard to breathe when he looked at me. All of that intense scrutiny made me want to wiggle against him.
“Take that shit somewhere else,” a drunken man called from a group of guys meandering down the sidewalk. I froze, my heart speeding into a panic. Were these people here to kill us?
“Get a room!” another man called.
“Nah, I wanna watch.” He stopped and leered in our direction.
“Mind your business.” Owen turned to look at the men and they sped up, pulling their drunken brother with them. I couldn’t see his face as he looked at them, but it must’ve been menacing. When he turned to look back at me, he had already managed to school his features back to normal.
“I’m scared.” I whispered the words. I’d never felt so alone and frightened. “For just a little while I’d let myself forget. Forget that everyone wanted me dead for some reason. I picked out a book to read.”
“I’m not going to let them hurt you.” He leaned closer, his eyes intense. “Do you trust me?”
I thought about it. Really thought about it. Did I trust Owen? I did. I didn’t know why, but I trusted him. And I was probably a giant idiot for it. But…he had come back for me. He hadn’t led the witch hunters to the little shop. He’d been by my side every step of the way.
“Yes.” I let the word out on an exhale.
“Good. That’s good.” He pulled away from me and opened the car door. I hadn’t realized we’d gotten back to our stolen ride. “We need to get going.”
I didn’t talk on the way back to his safe house. I was too shaken up to hold an intelligent conversation. Every muscle in my body felt like jelly and my head throbbed.
At the safe house, Owen insisted on carrying all of the bags himself. I busied myself in the kitchen, putting up the new groceries and heating more soup. It was almost dark and we hadn’t eaten since our late breakfast.
Owen made a fire and we sat on the floor eating our soup and watching the flames. It would’ve been peaceful if I didn’t jump at every noise that seemed out of the ordinary.
“I’m sorry for freaking out,” I sighed.
“Don’t worry about it.”
My mind rolled over things and I tried to make sense of it all. One thing was certain: I needed to make some decisions. If I was going to trust Owen, I needed to trust him. If he was going to give me up, then I wouldn’t be able to stop him. I didn’t know much self-defense and wasn’t sure I could hit anything with a pistol. It had been years since I’d fired a gun.
But despite the unusual way that we had met, I liked Owen. Not because of the way he looked with firelight twinkling in his eyes. Well, not just because of that. But because of the way he had looked at Mrs. Abernathy, the way he puttered around this old house, and had gone out of his way to fluff my pillows. There were more sides to him than even he realized.
I also needed to get in touch with Tess. I wasn’t sure how I was going to do it, but it needed to happen soon. No one else would be worried about me, but I knew that Tess would search until she figured out where I was. Or until something happened to her in the process. But I couldn’t afford to think that way.
I leaned back against the couch and set my bowl on the table. The soup had been good, and I felt warmed from the inside and out. I closed my eyes and tried to figure out how I was going to get out of all this mess.
I WOKE ON the couch, a blanket tucked around me, and tried to figure out how I’d gotten up there. Tapping drew my attention to floor at the foot of the couch. Owen was leaned back against the sofa, the keyboard in his lap. His eyebrows were drawn together and I watched as he frowned at the screen.
Worry was etched across his tight jaw and I wondered what had him so upset. Even when we were running from the people shooting at us, he had seemed so calm and in control. He bent over the keyboard and his hair fell across his forehead, obscuring his eyes. His fingers tapped furiously across the keys and he blew out a deep breath before leaning back and dragging a hand through his hair. I could just barely make out the screen, but I saw my picture with a news station logo plastered in the corner.
Instead of freaking out the wa
y I had the night before, I felt oddly resigned. I should have been worried, scared, and confused; instead I just wanted everything to be over.
“If you tell me how to get there, I’ll turn myself in to the police.”
His head jerked in my direction and I noted the growth of stubble along his jaw line and the way his eyes flared.
“You are not turning yourself in, not to anyone.” His words were soft. “Besides, they’re just saying that you’re a person of interest.”
“I’m weighing you down, Owen.” I sat up and noticed that my shoes were on the floor. Had I taken those off or had Owen, when he put me on the couch?
“Stop it, Ava.” He closed the computer and sat it on the floor next to him. “Does it look like you’re weighing me down?”
“Well, yeah, a little. When was the last time you slept?” I adjusted my sweater so it wasn’t twisted around my waist.
“I’ve slept some each night that we’ve been here.” It was still dark in the room, and the sun wasn’t fully up yet. I watched him in the early grey light of dawn thinking about all that he had done for me.
“If I turn myself in to the police, they can give me an extra guard and you can slip away. I’ll tell everyone that I managed to evade the other people by myself.” I shrugged. “I’m American. I grew up on action movies. They’ll buy it.”
“No.”
“Owen—”
“No. They can’t protect you the way I can. I realize I’m not exactly the knight in shining armor most women imagine, but I’ve got the skill set you need right now.” He frowned. “Something serious is going on. Big players in the business are disappearing. Some of my contacts are gone. Vanished. No one has heard anything from them for weeks. This is bigger than just you. You’re going to need me to help you get through it. And you’re my best link to everything that’s going on. You’re not the only one on the news. They are reporting about Song and say he was the head of a sex slave ring, but they believe someone else is pulling the strings from behind the scenes. Somehow you’re connected to all of this.”
The Accidental Assassin (Assassins #1) Page 8