“I’ll be in touch. I’ll find ways.”
She drew away enough to search his eyes. “You can’t promise things like that. The military— Your team—”
“Sierra doesn’t have to know.”
He kissed her again, a hard stamp of his lips to seal his promise to her.
She shook her head. “You can’t promise things like that if you don’t mean them.”
He cupped her face. “I never say things I don’t mean. This doesn’t feel over, Jolie. I don’t believe this is the end.”
Tears spilled freely down her cheeks—and his were too close for comfort.
“I don’t think it’s over either. I want to stay with you, Archer.” She gulped back a sob that almost ripped away the last thread of his control.
He swallowed hard. “I want to check on you. Nightly. We’ll make a plan. Calls. Messages. Burner phones if we have to. I’ll figure it out.”
A wet laugh escaped her. “Burners. How romantic.”
“I’m filled with platitudes.”
Her lips twitched at the corners, coaxed into the smallest smile.
He brushed his thumb beneath her eye to swipe away another tear. “Somehow we have to believe this will work out for us.”
She stared at him as if he’d handed her a basketful of sunlight. “But you don’t have my number.”
“Tell it to me. I’ll remember.”
She recited it, and he repeated it back to her, the numbers already stored in the vault of his memory like gold.
With something settled between them, he drove. Her phone number tumbled around his head, solid enough to his heart to make it pulse fast.
He didn’t hood her again now that they were close to town. The motel she’d been staying in when she disappeared from the world came into view, its neon sign flickering, the lobby windows warm and yellow through the gray day.
Archer’s lips tightened as he looked at the building. Even though he had no reason, he hated every brick for what they meant. Those walls would shelter the woman he cared about—was falling in love with.
Hell, he was alreadyin love with Jolie.
He parked near the office and paused, fingers tight on the steering wheel. For a blinding minute, he pictured himself backing out at high speed and tearing down the highway.
But another image rose in his mind—of his team. The guys sitting around the common room, joking and playing poker. Sitting down to a big meal of whatever Younger threw into a pot.
He loved Sierra too. He belonged there. And he had to believe his own plan to continue contact with Jolie would work.
When she stepped out, she moved up to stand beside him.
Together, they walked into the motel. The desk clerk looked up and let out a loud gasp.
“Oh, thank God you’re okay!” The woman crossed herself and folded her hands in thanksgiving and waved them at the ceiling.
She hurried around the counter with astonishing speed and gathered Jolie into a motherly hug. “I saw you on the news! I told my sister they’d find you. I said that girl is too pretty, smart and stubborn to disappear.”
Jolie gave a shaky laugh.
Archer stepped in before the questions could start. “She’s had an ordeal.”
The woman’s whole face softened. “Oh, honey. Of course you have.” She took a key from the wall. “Room twelve has fresh sheets and the best heater. Ignore the wallpaper.”
