by Remy Richard
Sabrina rolled over and squinted into the murky gray light. It was a good thing she could acclimate quickly in the morning, or else she’d have had a lot of trouble over the past few days waking up in a new room every day. Luckily, she wasn’t a snooze kind of girl. Once she was awake, she was awake for the day.
She stretched her arms and Lila’s too small t-shirt slid up her stomach. Today was definitely the day to get new clothes. She had agreed to Holden’s stipulation that Sam would have the final say so on her shopping spree, but there was no way she was going to stay in ill-fitting clothes for the next few days. If Sam said no, she would find another way around Holden.
Yawning, she sat up and threw the covers off before padding to the bathroom. Unfortunately, she didn’t have very many morning rituals. She had none of the tools to do even a passable job. No brush, no makeup, no perfume, not even clothes that fit. She sighed and brushed her teeth. At least she had hygiene going for her. It wasn’t saying much, but it was better than a day ago.
Sabrina stared in the mirror at her reflection. When she had herself fixed up and ready to go, she could be enticing. But without the tools of the trade she had to wonder what Holden saw in her. A week ago she would have said something that wasn’t there. But now she was starting to wonder.
She felt different when she was with these people, Holden especially. Not that she was a totally different person who was going to start helping the poor or anything. Just more calm, kind of rested. To someone who had been running almost her entire life, a place to be still and safe was a luxury.
She shook her head in denial. She couldn’t afford to get used to that luxury. She had to be firm with Holden and tell him that she was leaving. Tomorrow at least. Worst case scenario, the day after tomorrow. But she was leaving.
She nodded at her reflection in the mirror. Sealing the deal.
With the decision made, it was time to carpe diem. Seize the days she had left with him.
When Sabrina stepped into the sitting room, it was empty. A glance out of windows not covered by blackout curtains showed that it was another beautiful summer day in Portland. Probably about eight or nine in the morning. She wouldn’t have pegged Holden, and especially not Sam, as late sleepers though.
Sure enough, when she pressed her ear to Holden’s door, she heard the rhythmic tap-tap of his keyboard as he worked. She pushed the door open and stuck her head around the side, half hoping he was indecent and half dreading it. When she saw things she wanted, it was in her nature to take them. It was getting harder and harder not to take Holden.
He looked up when she entered the room and held up one finger before continuing his typing. Trying to appear casual, she stepped into his room and flopped down on his still-made bed. She watched his face while he worked and imagined that she could see the gears going around in his brain.
After a few minutes of comfortable silence, he saved his work and closed the lid on his laptop. He smiled at her warmly. “Good morning.”
She studied his face and took in the deep bruises left over from the break-in and the bloodshot eyes. “Should I say good morning or good night to you?”
“Either would be appropriate,” he said as he laughed wryly. He rubbed the stubble on his face. “I guess I look a little worse for the wear.”
“I don’t know. I kind of like the three-day beard look. It makes you look tougher, more dangerous. Like we could be friends in another life. Plus the black eye is sexy.”
He stood and stretched, fascinating Sabrina with the pull and flex of his long bones and solid muscles beneath a t-shirt and sweatpants. Funny how she had seen him in nothing but jockey shorts, but the sight of him in comfortable clothes made her heart beat faster. It was like hanging out with someone on a Tuesday night. Saturday meant that you were dating, Tuesday meant that you were a couple.
Seeing him in casual clothes made it feel like they were a normal, everyday couple made up of a genius and a thief. Sabrina rolled her eyes at her own ridiculousness and forced herself to remain cool.
“We can be friends in this life,” he said, coming around the desk to pull her up by her hand to a standing position. “In fact, I would love it if my friend would call room service and order breakfast while I took a shower. That would be a very friendly thing to do.”
Laughing, she pushed at his chest until he had to back away a few steps. “Alright, alright. Do you have any special requests?”
He shook his head and started going through his duffle bag for clean clothes. “Nope. Just quantity. And maybe see if Sam and Lila want to come down here too.” He pulled out a t-shirt and a pair of jeans and shook them out. “Conner got pulled into the lab for the day so it’s just the four of us.”
“I’ll get right on it.” She saluted smartly and turned to leave.
“Hey, I do have one favor to ask,” he said, stopping her.
“What’s that?” Hopefully, he was having trouble reaching his back during showers. She would be excellent at that.
“Can you help us keep an eye on Lila? I think Sam has to go out this afternoon and check out the house and stuff. I’ll be working most of the day, so it would be really helpful if you could keep her entertained,” he said.
Sabrina rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to do this. I know you didn’t want me around your sister before and I know you’re over it now. You don’t need to make me a member of the Babysitters Club. I get it; I’m not a prisoner now. I’m part of the group.”
“Well, yes, but that’s not why I asked.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “You’ve already seen that Lila gets claustrophobic. If her mind settles for too long on the fact that we’re virtually trapped here, she’ll go nuts. And she’ll drive the rest of us insane as well.”
“She seems perfectly fine to me. Why do you guys baby her so much?” Sabrina questioned, frustrated.
“I guess I do baby her somewhat. She is my baby sister, after all.”
Sabrina snorted. “Your baby sister’s all grown up if you haven’t noticed. And she’s got some pretty grown up thoughts going about your head of security.”
“Sam? No way.”
“Yes way. She can’t keep her eyes off of him.”
Holden ran a hand through his hair. “She can have a crush on him all she wants. He knows better than to get involved with her.”
“Well, genius, you’ve got them in adjoining rooms. How serious are you about keeping Lila entertained?”
“I’m going to take a shower. This conversation is over.” Considering that he forced the words through a clenched jaw, the diction he was able to still use was amazing.
Sabrina just rolled her eyes and left his room to search out the room service menu. He didn’t want to talk about his grown-ass sister having feelings? Fine. It wasn’t like she’d be here for very much longer anyway. When all of this blew up in his face, she’d be thousands of miles away.
For some reason, the thought didn’t give her very much comfort.
Just to be spiteful, she ordered the left side of the breakfast menu and charged it to the room. Hey, he’d said he wanted quantity, right?
She heard him turning off the shower just as a knock sounded on the door. Carefully she stood to the side and called out, “Who’s there?”
“It’s us,” Sam’s voice called back.
Quickly, Sabrina undid the locks and let them inside the suite. “Perfect timing. The food should be here any minute.”
“Great. I’m starving,” Lila said as she walked into the room, peering around curiously.
“Make yourself at home,” Sabrina said dryly.
“Thanks, I will,” Lila returned, grinning as she dropped down on one of the sofas. “Where’s Holden?”
“Right here.” Holden appeared in his doorway, fresh and clean with his hair still damp. He must have packed his soap from home, because he still smelled like pine and musk. He hadn’t shaved though. Sabrina tried to decide if it was laziness or a message to her.
He moved across the room, sitting on the s
ofa next to Lila and pulling on socks and tennis shoes as he asked his sister how she had slept and if she liked the hotel. Sabrina forced herself to look away. She would not lust after a man’s feet.
Soon enough, breakfast was delivered, and after Sam made them all go into Holden’s room while he signed for the room service, they sat down to dig in.
“I know I said I was hungry, but I didn’t say I wanted to feed an army,” Holden said, surveying the three carts of food before them.
“You should really learn to be more specific,” Sabrina shot back.
“Duly noted.”
Breakfast was a warm, leisurely affair. Even Sam managed to relax for a few minutes and taught the girls a couple of self-defense moves. All too soon it was time to get back to reality.
Sam told Lila and Sabrina to get working on the sketches of the accomplices’ faces and Holden retired to his room to work some more. Briefly, Sabrina considered telling him to get some rest but she stopped herself. He wasn’t her husband or her boyfriend or even her lover. She had no right to coddle him.
So she focused her attention on Lila and spent an enjoyable morning with the younger woman. Strangely enough, she could almost imagine Lila as her own little sister. Which probably owed more to the other woman’s obvious longing for another female to talk to then it did to Sabrina’s familial instinct.
After several hours of work and a couple of trips back to the breakfast leftovers, they had completed the sketches. Lila held up two pages of faces that were as close to portraits as Sabrina’s memory would allow.
“Looks pretty good,” she said, munching on a cold pancake.
Lila pulled the pages back and surveyed them. “I think so too. I might use them as villains in the new game I’m working on. In fact, Harry’s scar would make for a pretty interesting backstory.”
“I don’t think the actual story was that interesting. Probably a dog bite while attempting a run of the mill B&E.” Sabrina laughed. “I thought you weren’t supposed to use people’s actual likenesses.”
“That’s just a disclaimer we put on the box so we don’t get sued,” Lila said as she waved away her concerns. “Would you mind if I left you here to go back to my room? I want to write some of these ideas down while they’re still fresh.”
“Go. Think. Create. I can entertain myself.”
Lila smiled her thanks and then leaned into Holden’s room to call a goodbye. He quickly came out, more bleary-eyed than before.
“I’ll walk you to your room,” he said.
“Holden! It’s like ten steps. I’ll be fine,” Lila protested.
Sabrina shot him a look and mouthed “babying her” behind Lila’s back. Holden rolled his eyes and returned his attention to his sister. “Fine, I’ll stand at our door and watch you walk to yours. Is that better?”
“Not really, but I’ll take what I can get.” Lila bounced up and gave Holden a kiss on the cheek before flitting out of the door.
Holden stood sentry in the doorway until his sister had entered her own room. When she was safe, he shut their door and leaned back against it, staring speculatively at Sabrina. “I appreciate your point with the babying thing, but I’m inclined to believe it’s something I can work on after the threat of danger is gone.”
She stood up and moved closer to him, unable to resist the pull to be near while they were alone. “That’s just the thing. She’s a beautiful young woman in a grown up world. There’s no such thing as the threat of danger being completely gone. You have to teach her how to be self-sufficient and then let her be self-sufficient.”
Holden closed his eyes and leaned his head back. She couldn’t stop herself from reaching up to push a lock of hair that had fallen over his forehead back. Then she couldn’t make herself pull away from him. Slowly she stroked his hair while his breathing evened out. She could almost believe that he had fallen asleep standing up, he looked so tired.
“Come on. Why don’t you go get some sleep?”
Holden nodded and let her lead him a few steps into the room before opening his eyes. “What are you going to do?”
“I was thinking about making good on your end of the deal and going downstairs to get some clothes.” She pulled at her t-shirt. “I want a shower and I will scream if I have to put these back on.”
“Sabrina…I’m not sure it’s safe.”
“Don’t worry about it. I make my living by not being seen, remember?” she teased him.
“Sam should be back any minute. Can’t you wait for him?”
Over breakfast, Sam had approved her plan to get some more clothes in the hotel boutique. However he’d made it seem more like a military stealth operation than a shopping trip. If she had carte blanche with Holden’s credit card, she wanted to take her time and savor it.
“I guess I could wait. Do you think Sam would mind if I modeled a few outfits for him? It’s always good to get a man’s perspective on these things.” Holden’s eyes narrowed and Sabrina drove the point home. “And of course, I’ll need to get some new lingerie. I wonder what this kind of place has in stock…”
She let the thought trail off while Holden’s cheeks were washed with a fine red. He wasn’t embarrassed, more like aroused. He groaned and reached out to grab her waist but she danced away from him.
“I know what you’re trying to do,” he mumbled.
“Of course you do. You’re a genius. I’m just betting that you’re tired enough— “and male enough— “to let me do what I want.” She gave him her most winning smile while he stared at her, considering. Time to put the icing on the cake. “If you let me go, I’ll pick out something extra special for you.”
“I don’t need any more clothes.”
“Let me be clear. Something extra special for me to wear and you to see,” she explained.
“No need,” he said in defeat. “I’ll want you no matter what you come back with. Provided that you do come back.”
So he was more concerned with her return than with sexy lingerie? For that alone he deserved something fantastic. “I promise to come back.”
He nodded and then indicated for her to wait, jogging into his room and returning a few seconds later with the cell phone he had confiscated a few days ago. It seemed almost a life time though.
“Here,” he said, pushing it into her hands. “Call me if you see anything.” He forced her to program his and Sam’s cell numbers into the phone and made her promise to call about four more times before he allowed her to leave the room.
Sabrina slipped the phone into the pocket of her pants and headed downstairs to the lobby. The boutique was even better stocked than she had imagined. There were a lot of evening gowns and cocktail dresses, but there were also some more casual sweater and slacks combinations. And an impressive array of naughty underwear.
Recognizing a woman with money to burn, the attendant gathered all of the clothes Sabrina indicated an interest in and started a room for her. Even in the poor lighting of the fitting room, Sabrina could see the difference the expensive clothes made in her appearance. The fact that they were actually her size didn’t hurt either.
She quickly narrowed her selection down to three sweaters and four pairs of slacks in different colored neutrals. The attendant suggested some scarves and a jacket that could be worn over all of the sweaters and Sabrina agreed. She even selected a couple of shirts that would look lovely with Lila’s fair complexion.
She then turned her attention to lingerie. Her favorite was a bra and panty set made of sinful red lace with a bow between her breasts. And a garter belt that anchored sweet white stockings with hearts embroidered on them.
After she had pulled everything off and sorted it into yes and no piles, she belted the complimentary robe and called the attendant over. “Yes, I think I’ll take these and leave these behind.” She indicated the piles. “And one more thing. I have a very special occasion tonight and I need something…tempting.”
The saleswoman smiled at her in the age old way of women. �
��I know just the thing.”
She quickly bustled back with a wisp of lace hanging from a padded satin hanger. “This is a merry widow.”
“I’ll say,” Sabrina said as she reached for the hanger. It was a little bit of a project to get into, but once on, the lace lingerie made her waist look impossibly small and her boobs look gravity defying.
Snaps at the crotch held the whole thing together but it seemed to be sheer enough just to be ripped apart with a man’s bare hands.
Indulging in the shiver that thought brought about, she heard a buzzing noise from under the pile of clothes on the fitting room bench. It was her cell phone, set to vibrate. She felt a draft from behind as she bent down to search for it.
After waking up the screen, she saw that she had received a text message, so she clicked on the icon. The screen indicator whirled as dozens of messages were downloaded at once. She pushed some clothes out of her way and sat down to read them.
They started out normal, queries from Harry, George and Stiles about where she was and what was going on. But they got increasingly angry as she didn’t respond. Several hours after the meeting that she had been scheduled to attend and missed, Mike had begun texting her. Reminders that the men she was dealing with weren’t the forgiving type scrolled across her screen.
Heart pounding, Sabrina saw the first of the messages almost twenty minutes after they’d run away from Holden’s after the break-in. They all referenced her being a traitor and a liar. The ones from Stiles were particularly upsetting. She knew his background and that he would have no problem with violence if he deemed it necessary.
From the tone of his texts, he deemed it necessary in her case.
She glanced back at the phone just as another text message from Mike came through.
Please, Sabrina. I need your help here. You have to get that program.
Sabrina sat back and leaned her head against the wall. The voice of the attendant came through the door. “Is everything okay in there?”
It took two coughs, but she finally cleared her tight throat enough to respond, “Yes, thanks. Everything’s fine.”
