She hesitated and did that thing where she looked at everything but me. It wasn’t a good sign.
“Oh… um… Well.”
“Where’s the thumb drive, babe?”
She jerked her head, stuck her nose in the air, and then popped out a hip and put her hand on them.
“I hid it.” A pause followed, and neither of us took a breath. “For safety.”
“Where?” If she said she locked it in her glove box or something ridiculous of that nature, I’d take back the kind words I thought earlier.
She didn’t seem fazed by my glare. “Somewhere safe.”
Shit.
It had been a long day, but as I stared at her, the events from earlier that day fell into place. The return trip from the trailhead, the dirt on her hands. The hike. She definitely either tossed it or buried it somewhere in the woods surrounding Pelican Bay. But hundreds of acres of trees were out there, and if she didn’t mark her spot well enough, we’d never find it.
“Do you know where you hid it?” I asked skeptically.
Hazel rolled her eyes. Definitely not suffering from shock. “Of course I do. I’m not a moron.”
It was late and darkness had fallen on Pelican Bay while we sat at the table chatting and eating pizza with me, stupidly unaware we were not in possession of the thumb drive.
“Well, it’s too dark to go look for it now. I guess we’re sleeping here tonight.”
“Here?” she asked, her eyes widening. “I can’t sleep right now.”
I stared at the stack of movies. “Looks like somebody was going through a Brad Pitt phase pre-marriage to Jolie. Why don’t you pick something and we’ll watch it.”
Hazel used the white cloth from the couch to wipe the dust off the TV screen and then rummaged through the DVD cases. She didn’t show me any options before she started a movie. As the credits started, she sat on the couch two spots away from me.
We both needed to get a good night’s sleep, but I wanted to stay awake as long as possible. Every minute I was awake we didn’t have to worry about the sleeping arrangements in the Cape Cod or what happened tomorrow.
I didn’t want Hazel out of my sight, but I didn’t think I’d be able to talk her into snuggling into bed with me on the pretenses of keeping my eye on her.
The couch in the middle of the living room was a safe place. Hazel safe from the Grandmaster and me.
CHAPTER7
HAZEL
Ipulled down the skin underneath my eyes and widened them, trying to wake myself up as I stared in the mirror of the master bathroom of Corbin’s safe house. I didn’t have a better word for it, but it felt as if he’d stashed me away. He even had Drake, his bodyguard, patrolling out front.
The side of my face was still red where I rubbed off the dry drool from the corner of my mouth. I’d never fallen asleep against a man before but at one point last night in the middle of our second Brad Pitt movie,Legends of the Fall, I must have leaned over, tucked my head against Corbin’s shoulder, and then quickly passed out.
That morning I woke up beside him, his arms wrapped around my middle and a wet stain on his shirt from where I’d drooled.
Falling asleep next to the hot guy and then drooling on him didn’t even make my top three problems for the day, which really was a clue of how my life was going at that moment. I was still on the run from people who owned guns and weren’t afraid to use them. I still needed to find the thumb drive and have Corbin break the encryption. And after those two colossal problems, next up was my lack of clothing.
Corbin took me back to the bed-and-breakfast to pack a bag of clothes. He even watched me throw them back in my suitcase as he hurried me along the entire time. The problem was that I didn’t have many to begin with. I only planned to be in Pelican Bay for a day. Possibly two.
I packed accordingly.
Old Hazel was naïve. She threw on a pair of leggings for comfortable driving and one set of jeans to wear around. At the time, that sounded like enough to get me through.
Old Hazel hadn’t gotten shot at yet.
The jeans I wore on my short nature hike had dirt caked on the knees, which meant I was stuck wearing the black leggings I’d worn during my car ride. It was about a two-hour car ride from Bangor, but I hated to wear anything constricting on a long drive.