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Sullivan couldn’t help it. His mouth hung open. ‘You have got to be joking.’
‘What?’ She smiled.
He held out his hand. ‘A hidden door, a secret passage? No way.’ He kept shaking his head but couldn’t stop smiling.
She shrugged her shoulders. ‘The palace is hundreds of years old. There are numerous plans. What you find depends on which set of plans you look at.’
‘This is like something from a movie.’ He stuck his head into the dark corridor and pulled it back out in wonder, squinting at the dimensions of the room they were in. The wooden panels were deceptive. He was still frowning as he walked back out into the corridor to check the overall size of the rooms.
‘Stop it,’ hissed Gabrielle, laughing and pulling him back inside. ‘You can think about all that later. Now we need to go.’
He was still shaking his head as she led him down the twisting and turning dark corridor. ‘Phwoff!’ he said, wiping the cobwebs from his face. ‘I take it no one else has gone down here in years.’
She couldn’t stop grinning. ‘Probably not. Andreas used to sneak his girlfriends in and out this way when we were teenagers.’
He squeezed her hand. ‘Just Andreas?’
She gave him a smart glance. ‘Can I pretend I’m an American and plead the fifth?’
He rolled his eyes as they turned a corner with a chink of light at the end. She pressed her hands up against the door and pushed. Nothing happened.
He put his hands next to hers. ‘You’d better tell me now, are we going to end up in that place in the kids’ story where they go through the back of the cupboard?’
She shook her head. ‘No. Just Mirinez. But who knows? It might already feel like Narnia to you.’
‘Narnia. That was it.’ He pushed hard alongside her and the door creaked open slowly.
Long grass and a tall hedge were impeding the doorway. Gabrielle flattened her back and slunk along behind the hedge out into the palace gardens, Sullivan followed suit and looked around, trying to get his bearings.
‘Where are we?’
‘Opposite side of the palace from your apartments.’
He looked back at the hedge. The door was completely hidden. He put his hands on his hips. ‘I honestly can’t believe there’s a door there. I also can’t believe you just didn’t tell Security you were going out without them.’
Gabrielle shook her head. ‘Where’s the fun in that?’ She waved her hand. ‘Anyway, do you really think Arun would let me get away with it?’
She skirted along the hedge until they reached a large security gate, which she opened with an old-fashioned brass key.
It opened out onto the road and they walked half a mile to the nearest tram stop. Gabrielle pulled her hat down. ‘Hope you’ve got plenty of money. I eat a lot of popcorn.’
He patted his pocket. ‘I think I can manage to keep you in popcorn.’
They settled into a seat on the tram. No one even looked at Gabrielle and Sullivan pulled his hood up. As the tram travelled through the city she pointed out different areas to Sullivan. ‘This is Felixstock. It’s one of the city suburbs. Houses are cheaper here and a lot of the locals stay in this area. There are a few community clinics as a lot of the residents of Mirinez don’t have their own health insurance. Some get health insurance through their employers.’
‘But the rest don’t?’
She shook her head. ‘No, it’s a bit of an issue. I’d really like to do some shifts in one of the community clinics.’
Sullivan gave her a smile. It seemed that he wasn’t going to have to persuade her to continue being a doctor after all. The seed was already planted and growing. ‘I think, once you get over the chaos period you’ll be able to balance things to your advantage.’
He could see her biting the inside of her cheek. She let out a long slow breath. ‘Here’s hoping. I can’t imagine reaching that point right now.’ Then she wrinkled her nose. ‘The chaos period?’
He nodded. ‘Sorting out the disaster your brother left behind.’
There was the oddest expression on her face and he knew instantly that there was still something she wasn’t telling him. Something coiled up low in his gut. He’d thought they were getting closer. Thought that she trusted him. But there were obviously some things she still didn’t want to share.
What did he know about running a country? There could probably be a million things that Gabrielle could never discuss with him. He shifted in the tram seat.
As the city passed by outside he sucked in a breath. Something was eating away at his brain. Thoughts of Oregon, going back home and his father. He’d ignored another call from Gibbs. A call that would doubtless have offered a chance for the next mission—another chance to avoid going home.
He pushed those thoughts away as Gabrielle tugged at his arm and jumped up. The cinema was at the end of the street. They walked hand in hand, past the restaurant they’d eaten in the other night, and joined the queue outside the cinema.
The doors opened and they filed in. Gabrielle tried to melt into the background as he bought the tickets and the popcorn and soda. The cinema was dark when they entered and the adverts were already playing. ‘Where do you want to sit?’ he whispered to Gabrielle.
She winked at him. ‘How about the back row?’
‘Your wish is my command.’ He gave a mock bow and led her up to the back row.
They settled in their seats. He slung his arm around her and she settled her head on his shoulder. Two minutes later she pulled her hat off. Her soft hair was just under his nose. The aroma of raspberries drifted up around him. As the film progressed Gabrielle tilted her head up to him. ‘What do you think?’
He leaned closer. ‘I think I need a distraction.’ She tasted of popcorn and lemonade as her lips parted easily against his and her hand slid up around his neck. Even fully clothed he could feel her curves against him, reminding him of their night together. He slid his hand under her top, her silky skin warm beneath the palm of his hand. He sensed her smile as they kissed. ‘You make me feel fifteen again,’ she whispered as his hand closed over her hardened nipple. Her kissing intensified, her hips tilting towards him and one hand running along the side of his jaw. Her other hand slid over the front of his jeans.
‘Is this how you behaved in the cinema at fifteen?’ he growled.
‘Always,’ she teased, before she pulled her lips from his and settled back to watch the film.
Sullivan glanced sideways at her and adjusted his position in his seat. ‘Now, that’s what I call a distraction,’ he said as he glanced at his watch. ‘This is going to be the longest ninety minutes of my life.’
‘Here, have some popcorn.’ She dumped it in his lap with a cheeky glance.
* * *
The next morning the papers seemed to have changed their mind about her delinquent doc.
There was a fuzzy picture of them locked in each other’s arms in the cinema. It seemed her disguise hadn’t gone unnoticed. Arun gave her a stern stare as he handed over the morning’s papers. ‘Don’t do that again.’ He narrowed his gaze and raised his eyebrows. ‘I wanted to see that movie.’ He strode off down the corridor.
She smiled as she settled down to check the press. Her staff knew she wasn’t particularly adept at translating languages so they’d translated all the headlines pertaining to Gabrielle and Sullivan.
This time they’d actually found out a little more about Sullivan. They named his father and his great service as an admiral in the US navy. They’d found a photo of Sullivan from a few years ago. She had no idea where it had been taken—but it could have been used for an action movie. He was in uniform with a desert background. His face was smeared with dust, but he was on the ground, attending to a patient. He was clearly focused on the job.
He was pointing to som
ething in the distance and shouting. The sleeves of his uniform were pushed high up on his arms, revealing his defined biceps. The intensity in his face seemed to emanate from every pore on his body. He hadn’t noticed the photographer—or he wasn’t bothering with them. He was totally in the moment.
The photo would stop just about every woman in their tracks. And if the photo didn’t, the words underneath might: Hero Doc.
