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I couldn’t risk letting him go without knowing.
“Tell him to keep an eye on Dixon. Trail his every move, and if he leaves, follow him. We’ll be there by tomorrow afternoon.” I stood up. “Time to gear up.”
7
RAIKA
Dom had goneto the nearest town and gotten the computers, laptops, tablets, and phones from our place there. He had brought it all in the back of his pickup truck and parked in front of the library.
“Special delivery,” he told me as he entered the library.
The next few minutes I spent cataloging everything in the truck. Meanwhile, a line formed on the sidewalk as people realized their new electronics had arrived. Lucille and Roman helped me distribute those to our people, and then to take other desktops and laptops to the town hall, infirmary, school, library, and all other important buildings in town.
We had also bought tablets for the school. Each kid would have their own tablet in school, where they could do special activities and play educational games. I hoped they liked them.
I couldn’t wait for the kids to return to regular school soon. Maybe it seemed silly to worry about that when there were so many other things to do around town, and it was almost summer, when usually there was a bigger break from classes, but when talking to Shane, Rue, and Vianna about this, they all agreed with me that we needed to give something for the kids to do while the adults worried about the other things. They needed their minds and hands occupied, and what better way than school? Besides, they had already spent a year locked away, unable to read or play. They were eager to go back to a real school.
But since the school had also been their prison, I was working hard to paint the walls and change things, so they wouldn’t easily remember what transpired here.
I spent my afternoon hooking up computers, turning them on, setting them up, first in the school, then at the library. I hadn’t been ten minutes inside the library, when Rue brought Minsi over.
“She insisted on coming,” she said. “The others want to go play at the lake.”
Minsi stayed with me while I worked, but I knew I didn’t need to worry about her. The girl picked up a book, settled down on the rug in the middle of the library, and lost herself in fantasy worlds.
Though I wished she would have gone to play with the other kids, I was glad she was out of trouble and doing what she liked, where she liked—that meant fewer panic attacks.
I was behind the front desk, fighting with some stupid cables that didn’t reach to the damn outlet, when I felt it. I couldn’t explain it, maybe it was the bond, but when I turned around, I knew who I would see: Shane in the doorway to the backroom.
He smiled at me and butterflies took off in my stomach.
As I walked to him, memories of last night flooded my mind and my cheeks heated. I had done such a great job of keeping him out of my mind today and focusing on my work. But here and there, an image came back, a sensation hit me again, and I smiled.
Last night had been amazing, like nothing I could have ever imagined, and even though I knew nights like that one wouldn’t happen too often for the foreseeable future, the prospect that someday spending my nights with Shane would be the norm thrilled me.
I joined him in the backroom. “What are you doing here?” I asked in a low voice.
Shane didn’t answer. No. He simply clasped a hand around the nape of my neck, wound his other arm around my waist, and pulled me to him. His mouth crashed on mine, and I moaned as my body came alive and demanded more.
I would have kissed him forever if his sister wasn’t in the other room. She was a sneaky one, known to go from room to room quiet as a mouse. I gently broke the kiss, but stayed in his arms, right where I liked it.
“Hey, everything okay? You usually don’t visit me during the day like this.” Because it was risky.
Shane rested his forehead on mine. “I’ve missed you.”
I chuckled. “It has been only, what, a few hours?” I teased, but the truth was, I also missed him.
“Fifteen hours, give or take, but who is counting?”
I gaped at him. He had been counting?
He shrugged. “We parted around midnight, and it’s the middle of the afternoon. A simple calculation.”
I shook my head. “You’re incorrigible.”
“But you like it.”
Yes. Yes, I did. I smoothed my hands over his shoulders. I really liked touching him. “As much as I like this visit, I know something is up.”
