To get his attention, she coughed on dust he stirred up as he moved one of the skulls. She covered her mouth until the dust settled. “How are we getting out of here?”
He stood and wiped his hands on his pants. “You’re avoiding my question.”
She showed him her phone. “Look. Cell service doesn’t work down here.”
He checked his as well and turned his flashlight off. “Answer the question, Em.”
“Focus on getting out of here.” She crossed her arms, but he didn’t move. Throwing her hands to her side in exasperation, she then reached into her bra. “I gave him a fake.”
“What?” He scooted closer.
She unzipped the pockets that were specially designed for her when she wore expensive things and showed him her necklace. “I still have the real necklace you gave me.”
“Seriously?” He cupped it in his palm, laughing with triumph.
She took it from him. “I’m fearless, remember?”
Emily dropped her phone and the room became completely dark. The dust itched her nose. She put the necklace back in her bra. “So, how are we getting out of here?”
“We’re going to have to wait it out.” Dane used his flashlight to help her see, and her body heated. He probably saw the outline of her breasts. He bent down and picked up her phone, handing it to her.
Awareness wasn’t good here. They needed to escape, not have sex like animals. At least not here, not now. He walked her toward the ladder but she shook her head. “That’s your answer? People died down here.”
“Yep.” He pulled her toward the ladder where her bare legs brushed against the metal.
With his arms on either side of her she began to tremble and ache for his kiss as she asked, “What’s going on?”
“Nothing. It seems we have similar interests we’ve never discussed.” His warm breath mixed with hers and her eyelids fluttered.
“Yes, that's true.” Attraction wasn’t good and that’s all this was. She rested her hands on his chest and shook her head. Something didn’t click. They should be looking for an exit. “But you’re way too cocky right now.”
“I’m not.” He leaned closer.
If he came closer, she’d wrap her arms around his neck and run her fingers through his hair, kissing him again. She shook off the image. “Uh huh. Tell me what you’re thinking, Dane.”
His lips were a fraction from hers now and he closed his eyes. He was so close her body came alive, waiting for his touch. “You’re going to have to kiss me for that one.”
His lips brushed against hers.
It took everything she had not to just let this happen. She pushed him back. “Here?”
He gave her a smirk as he asked, “Why not?”
Her mind twirled. He wasn’t upset. Something was going on with Dane and he hadn’t told her why he was so calm. She pressed her lips together and met his hypnotizing brown eyes that shined liked beacons of salvation. “Because there are insects and if you remember, I prefer soft and pretty.”
“I thought you’d died today.” His hands brushed against her sides.
A hum grew in her veins. Her head no longer throbbed from being hit. Her lips parted slightly. “So you missed me?”
“Yes.”
“That’s all you had to say.” She met his kiss.
This time she held him and didn’t let him go.
Her body heated despite where they were.
Light shining down through the cracks around the metal hatch reminded her that they were in danger.
She dragged her body off his and let the damp air and stale smell cool her ardor. She heard someone at the hatch. The light that filtered down shone like a rainbow around the underground chamber. “How are we getting out?”
“Hold on.” He brought his phone from his back pocket.
Her gaze narrowed. “Phones don’t work down here.”
He showed her a small attachment. “Henry has a tracker. It doesn’t need Wi-Fi even if we’re stuck in a tomb the local villages must have built during the revolution.”
“That was my guess about this place too, but either way, I seriously like your Henry.” The hatch above them creaked opened.
“Brady designed it.” Dane hugged her and whispered in her ear, “But you like me more.”
“You’re the only one here I’ve kissed.” She patted him on the cheek. “But it’s nice to see you have friends.”
“Who are off limits to you—we will keep our kisses between us once we get out.” Henry gestured for them to climb up.
His friends were cute, but not for her. Brady might be a good match for her sister Isabella, not that she’d mention that. Dane’s jealousy was adorable. She turned and settled her foot on a metal rung and had the sense Dane stared at her legs in her borrowed black shorts on the climb up.
She took Henry’s hand at the top and breathed in fresh air.
Dane came out a moment later. Henry said, “You’re all right..”
The two men whispered about something but she was overwhelmed by the dust and grime on her clothes and coughed. They both looked at her and she said, “I need a shower and clean clothes.”
Dane nodded, which shook some cobwebs out of his dark hair. “Let’s go.” He turned to Henry and brushed the dust off his jeans, then looked down the street. She followed his gaze and saw Brady in the distance as lookout, near a car. Dane asked Henry, “How did we get in the tomb?”
Henry explained as they walked toward Brady. “Ted was after Emily and you. We tried to fight them but four men grabbed you two and ran faster than us.” Henry showed him the phone. “Brady’s inventions work.”
Dane wrapped his arm around her waist and they walked together down the street, Henry on the other side of Dane.
The three of them headed toward the sunshine and brightly lit street.
This wasn’t over, but they’d survived, and she had the jewels.
It was a start.
And maybe she’d kiss Dane a few more times before this all ended.
She couldn’t deny whatever this was between her and Dane anymore. She’d always felt it—but tried to stay away because they could never be forever.
Chapter 8
Uriel didn’t mind being Dane when Emily held his hand
While underground, she didn’t panic or scream at the sight of skulls. Not that he expected her to, but he’d never realized how similar they were. She was prepared, with those fake jewels, but that went back to Michael. He’d taught Emily to survive and he owed his biological father for that.
Emily made the world brighter, not that he’d say so, but having her here with him made everything better.
He let the thoughts that she shouldn’t be here at all return as he handed over his credit cards for three separate hotel rooms. Brady was at a hotel near the bank, as previously planned.
He signed the credit card statement and waited for the keys.
The front desk clerk wrote down the three rooms and handed them electronic keys with a folded paper including a map of the hotel. He immediately handed it over to Emily, in her dusty black t-shirt that matched his own. Her room was in the middle of the other two.
Emily accepted the key and smiled at him despite the soot on her cheek. She clutched her blue pocketbook.
Once they were out of earshot of the front desk, heading toward the elevator, he slipped an arm around her waist. “Tomorrow, we go to Paris and the bank.”
She turned and stared at his profile while they walked. He pressed the UP button as she asked, “Isn’t that giving Ted time to steal your box?”
“I hope so.” The three of them stepped into the elevator together.
No one said anything until the doors closed. Emily shook out dust from her short blonde hair—she’d lost her baseball hat in the tomb—and said, “It also gives him time to set a trap for us.”
Henry nodded like he agreed with her, that Ted might set a trap, but their plan was hopefully bulletproof.
They’d
used their collective brains, sending Brady toward Paris first. If their idea worked, they’d turn the tables on Ted. They just needed to follow the plan.
Emily stretched like she was exhausted.
Uriel kept his lips sealed. As the elevators doors opened, they shuffled down the white halls toward their room numbers. He quickly talked to Henry, who had the room closest to the elevator, about checking in with Brady. Henry agreed and went into his room with a wave at Emily.
Uriel and Emily paused before her door. He wanted to make her proud, to earn her regard, and hopefully she wouldn’t always think he was a sucker who’d almost killed his real father because his fake father had tried to frame a murder on him. If Emily hadn’t stopped him, perhaps he’d have been successful in that tragedy, but he didn’t want that to define him in her eyes. The truth was that she was perfect and he didn’t want to let her go, not again. He held her lower back. “You need a shower and clean clothes.”
“That takes a half an hour, max.” She stalled near her door.
He glanced around the hall, needing to ensure they were alone as his friends didn’t need to see his weakness.
She turned from him and opened her door, waving for him to follow her inside.
His heart beat a little faster as she switched the light on, but he stayed near the door and spoke in a low voice, “Brady is at a hotel near the bank and he’s going to report to Henry everything he sees. The Paris authorities are alerted to Ted, with his photo. And the bank is now aware he has fake identities. You did great, you know.”
“Thank Michael for training me so well.” She took off her sneakers that were not her usual name-brand style.
And her face had a smudge of dirt on it that she’d freak out about.
Right. He reached for the door handle to leave and said, “Grab a shower, then we’ll have a nice dinner, just the two of us.”
“Like a date?” Her face lit up like Christmas morning.
He held still though adrenaline raced through him. “Is that a problem?”
She ran her hand down his shirt. “No, but we’ll order you a nice suit.”
Now that sounded like Emily. The twinkle in her blue eyes was the same twinkle she’d had the day she’d pulled him into her arms and kissed him, to save him from himself. “Why a suit?”
She crossed her arms in challenge. “Because I want to be wined and dined in style.”
Impressing her would be hard—how could he top the necklace from his mother? Neither one of them were wide-eyed innocents anymore. He didn’t move. “We need to be safe.”
She shrugged and pointed for him to leave as she said, “This is a five star hotel. I’m sure you’ll find a way to impress me. I’ll send clothes to your room while you make plans.”
He stepped into the hall and nodded his goodbye. “You’re still bossy as ever.”
She held the door frame and stared at him like he was a ghost. He froze as she asked, “Is that why you left years ago?”
Right. He’d high-tailed it after prom night.
In their hotel bed, he’d been alive and forgotten who he was, tainted by murder and lies. It had been wonderful and terrifying. Now, his fingers grazed hers on the frame. “I left because seeing your sister and Michael so happy all the time was a knife to my heart. My entire childhood was an orchestrated lie and I’d been used as a pawn. I needed to be my own man, Em.”
She intertwined her fingers with his and squeezed his palm. “How were you a pawn?”
“My mother’s death.” He pressed his forehead to hers.
Emily already knew how he’d been used because she’d seen it with her own eyes—nobody understood what had happened better than her. In taking off, he’d tried to forget his past, but denying his memories hadn’t given him any peace either.
The only true peace he’d had was her, safe, and in his arms.
She batted her eyes at him and her smile was brighter than the lights on the Eiffel Tower. “So, your leaving wasn’t anything to do with me?”
Seriously? He’d left because he couldn’t let himself stay. Her arms were like heaven and at the time, he hadn’t thought he’d deserved that. He gently wiped a smudge of dirt from the crypt from her cheekbone. “You were why I stayed as long as I did. You were always an umbrella in the thunderstorm of my life. I stayed until I couldn’t stay anymore.”
“Umbrella?” She laughed and brushed some of the dust off his black shirt, not that it would ever get clean, and straightened. “Okay. Come get me in an hour.” She shooed him out and shut her door.
A shower would be the first thing he’d do to impress her. He let himself in the room to her left and stripped as soon as the door closed behind him.
His clothes had an odor and it was probably a good idea to burn them. He dropped them on the floor and headed into the shower.
A knock sounded and he tensed, turning the water off. “Room service.”
He relaxed as he remembered Emily’s promise. He peeked through the peep hole and saw a man in a hotel uniform with a plastic bag. Dane let him in. “The suit.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Lacoste brand was one of his favorites, and Emily likely knew his size though he hadn’t told her. He tipped. “Thanks.” He’d almost closed the door but then stopped. “Hey—what’s the best place to impress a woman at this hotel?”
“We have a rooftop restaurant.” The man smoothly pocketed the tip.
“Thanks.” He closed the door and opened his bags. How thoughtful—Emily had sent more than just a suit, and he now had clothes for tomorrow. After his shower, he filled out the slip for the hotel to do his dry cleaning and changed into new dark jeans and a black t-shirt.
A rooftop restaurant sounded romantic. He left the note for maid service and headed to the top of the hotel.
The staff was setting up for dinner, and Dane found the manager of the restaurant. “I’ll buy every table out for tonight.”
“It’s usually very busy,” the manager protested.
“That’s fine.” Dane handed over his black card. “I want to be alone with my colleague.”
“Very well, sir.” The man rang up a six figure number.
Normally Dane spent his paycheck on burgers and never touched the cash that kept accumulating from his supposed father, except when he wanted to solve a mystery that might right all the wrongs the Pearce name had done. The money he spent on this restaurant didn’t put a dent in his riches.
The manager handed him back the card as Dane said, “It will just be two of us. Could you possibly find a violin?”
“Yes, sir.” The manager put the receipt in the register. “I will personally take care of it.”
Dane smiled his thanks and hurried back toward his room when his phone rang. Ah, Brady. He answered quickly and hoped that nothing had gone wrong. “How are things in Paris?”
“Quiet,” Brady assured him. “I’m running online searches of the dark web to see if I can figure out who Ted’s buyer for the jewels might be.”
Right. If anyone was good at hacking, it was Brady. In Cairo, Brady’s scans had uncovered the hidden tombs in the Valley of Kings. He’d worked on his computer program for days, drinking only coffee in his hotel room. Brady often said he hung out with Uriel, because adventure followed him. That was probably true, but tonight he was just Dane, who wanted to charm his girl. “I appreciate it—make sure to enjoy the hotel room. Get room service, at least.”
He heard typing. “This might be interesting—so many times the thread disappears. I’ll tell you what I find tomorrow morning,” Brady said.
Dane glanced at Emily’s door. Soon they’d be together. He licked his lips and remembered her sweet kisses as he told his friend, “Good luck.”
He returned to his room and saw the floor lacked his dirty clothes. He would leave a big tip when they checked out.
Dane changed into his tailored gray suit and adjusted his thin blue tie—the hour almost over. He combed his clean hair in the bathroom and then sli
pped into the new shoes Emily had also bought for him for tonight.
Dressed to her specifications, Dane knocked on her door.
Emily answered, still in her bathrobe, though her blonde bob was shiny and smelled like jasmine. Her eyes lifted to his as she smiled. “Dane, there you are.”
Her skin glowed and she gestured for him to come inside. His heart beat faster, as if he should have brought flowers like he had on prom night. “You look like you spent all day in a spa.”
She checked her face in the hall mirror. “Is that a compliment?”
“Yes. I like your haircut—it suits you.” He remembered what Emily looked like naked underneath that robe and wondered if anything had changed.
She headed into the bathroom but kept the door open as she picked up a dress still encased in plastic wrap. “I wish I’d thought to write down the name of the person I took the clothes from on the train so I could send them back, cleaned and pressed.”
“They’d understand.” If she was him, he’d want to leave cash too. He saw her leg flash at the door and goosebumps grew on his body. “Are you ready?”
“Almost.” Yet her slender hand reached for lotion.
Either she was getting into that dress or she was about to walk out completely naked. His body hardened and he fixed his tie. “What are you doing?”
“I need to look perfect tonight,” she said in a sultry tone. “I’m almost done.”
He let go of his tie and took a deep breath. It was better not to get his hopes up. “Why? You’re just with me.”
“I don’t want you to leave me in the morning.” He heard the plastic of her bag rip.
He relaxed at her answer. They were heading out, but they’d be coming back. He poured water into a glass from the sink outside the bathroom. “That’s not going to happen.”
“Good to hear. I’m ready now.” Emily stepped out of the bathroom in a sparkly peach knee-length dress that made her skin glow and hugged her body perfectly.
It was like this dress had been made for her and only her. He instantly wanted to touch her. Dane realized his blue tie had the peach color of her dress embedded in it. Her eye for detail amazed him. “You’re beautiful, Emily.”
Hidden Dane (Hidden Alphas Book 4) Page 7
