“How about here?” I drag my fingers over her ass and brush my knuckles up and down the crack, making sure I brush the lips of her pussy.
“Perfection,” she hums.
“Hungry?”
“Don’t you know me at all?” she asks and then rolls her body away so that she can face me. Propping herself up on her elbows, she smiles and says, “Of course I’m hungry.”
“Why don’t I make you some food?”
“Sounds perfect. I’m going to dip into that pool while you get started, and then I’ll meet you in the kitchen.”
Before I can lean in and kiss her, the phone rings, jilting us out of the bubble we’ve created, and dousing us with the reality of why we’re here in the first place.
“Go for a swim,” I tell her. But I know better.
“Fat fucking chance. This is my life, Henry. And I need to talk with Bea,” she says, already throwing on a white t-shirt and pulling her long blonde hair into a knot on the top of her head. She grabs the satellite phone from the chair and answers.
“Bea? What’s happening?” I can’t hear anything from the other end. “No. You talk to me first, then I’ll let him know you’re on the phone. He’s outside.” She smiles at me. At her lie. She moves toward me as I pull my shorts up and on. Putting her hand up to her mouth, she kisses her fingers, and then puts them over my heart, over the words I’ve tattooed there for her.
You’re killing me, Pixie.
Then she’s dragging her fingers down to my crotch and squeezing, making me hold back a groan. Tapping my ass, she gives me a coy smile, then leaves and takes the call down the hall and away from me.
When I finally make my way to the kitchen, I listen to her side of the conversation, and I watch her like a hawk while I make us food. She’s been on the phone with Bea for more than thirty minutes now, and I’m concerned that they’re not making the kind of progress on the situation that should be expected.
I finish chopping the tomatoes, tomatillos, and cilantro. Dumping the full cutting board of vegetables and herbs into the onion, bell peppers, and jalapenos I’ve already finely chopped and minced. Gazpacho. To go with her favorite. Grilled cheese.
G finally walks closer to the island, and I can hear relief in her voice as she ends her conversation, readying to give me the phone.
“Bea, I understand.” She looks up at me. I can’t read what her eyes are trying to tell me, but she looks nervous. “I know. I’ve already heard this. You don’t need to repeat yourself. It’s a non-issue.”
Me.I’m the non-issue.
She hands me the phone as she sits.
“Harper,” I say as I tuck it to my ear.
“Riggs. Hell.” Agent Harper isn’t one to mince words, but she sounds exhausted. “You’re cleared to come back with her. The situation has been taken care of, but I’ve warned her that she needs to keep a very low profile.”
That hits me in the gut.Riggs is not a low-profile name. And neither is my role at Riggs Outdoor. I look at her as she chugs water from her glass.
“I need to know that she’s going to be safe if I bring her back.”
“The issue has been resolved. That’s all you're allowed to know, Riggs. You don’t have the clearance to know more. She has a full picture of the situation, but the only thing you need to know is that I appreciate your discretion. The way you jumped into action on this. It allowed us to do our job knowing you got her out of harm’s way. And fast.” Bea takes a minute and speaks to someone on her end. “You still there, Riggs?”
“Still here.”
“I’d suggest coming back to town with her in the next day. Anything longer than that, your family will start to wonder where you both have been. I’ve already had to reroute some text messages from your sister. Those two talk way too often. I thought she was honeymooning?”
“She is. And, yea, they do.”
“Don’t push her, but she knows all the details of what happened here in the past twenty-four hours. Let her update you with that information. Listen, I want to make sure you know this too.” She pauses. I know what’s coming next. “I’m not an idiot. But I will ask that you put her safety first. That girl has been through too much to have to uproot her life again, but if things turn out that she’s no longer safe in Strutt’s Peak, I’m going to need to move her.”
“Understood.”
“Low profile, Riggs,” she says again before hanging up.
One more day.I’ll have her for one more day. I wait another minute to let that sink in. To tell myself one more day will have to be enough, knowing full well it won’t be.