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Laying both of her hands on the arm he had resting over her stomach, she stroked and scratched, appreciating the weight of it and the strength of his support.
“Helluva kiss,” he said. “Are you hungry?”
“You brought food?”
“Yeah,” he said, rolling over to pounce off the bed.
Watching him was a pleasure, even after he retrieved a pair of sweats from the closet and put them on.
“What did you get?” she asked, staying on her back, staring at the ceiling.
“I got Chinese food,” he called up the trailer. “But I went to the store too, so I can cook if you want something else… got your milk as well.”
“Chinese food sounds good,” she said, having missed it while on her jaunt over the Atlantic.
Making herself sit up was a struggle, but she scooched to the end of the bed and put a hand on either side of the hallway to steady herself as she stood.
“You don’t have to get up, I can bring it to bed.”
He wasn’t even looking in her direction, he was doing something with bags on the dinette table. Still, it didn’t surprise her that he knew exactly where she was and what she was doing. Making her way down the passageway, she stopped at the closet and grabbed one of his tee-shirts to pull it on over her head.
“I missed eating with you,” she said, sliding in at the dinette.
“Funny, I missed eating you,” he said, winking before putting the last of the boxes onto the table. “Will you sit at the other side, please?”
He asked but bowed to take her hips before she could do anything. He slid her out of the one side and slotted her in at the other, shuffling her in front of him to do so. Once she was sitting, he went to the fridge.
“Why this side?” she asked, glancing over her shoulder. “You want to see the door.”
“I do,” he said, projecting his voice a little, proving he had no shame about it. “And if someone comes through it, you slide under the table.”
“I do?” she asked, accepting the beer that he opened for her.
Daire nodded and stepped back to point at the bed. “Unless you’re in bed. If you’re at the back of the trailer and it’s safe to leave, pop the big window. It’s a fire escape, it’s designed to let you out. Go out and bolt. If it’s not safe, if there are enemies outside or there’s no cover, you remember the bed lifts? There’s a strap under there, lift it, go under and use the strap to pull it back down. I will come get you when it’s safe.”
“I don’t like talking about this,” she said, accepting the chopsticks he got from the drawer under the sink. “I don’t want anyone coming into our home without permission.”
“It’s kinda what happens when people are after you,” he said, opening one of the food boxes to push it toward her, showing it was her favorite. “You don’t have to worry about anything except staying out of sight. Most of the spaces in here, like the bed panels and closet door, they’re reinforced, or I’ve switched them out, so they will provide cover for gunfire.”
“Are you going to get under the bed with me?” she asked, snagging some chicken with her chopsticks.
One corner of his mouth rose to show a dimple though he didn’t actually look at her. “That’s not how this works, babe.”
“I want to know how it works,” she said. “I can shoot a gun.”
“Good,” he said. “But you won’t ever need to. Not so long as I’m around.”
Raising her chin, she kept her chicken in her mouth as she responded. “So long as you’re around is what worries me.” She swallowed the food. “I don’t want you with me if it’s going to get you killed.”
He stopped moving around to set two hands on the dinette table and look her in the eye. “Say I wasn’t here right now. Say I stayed in Vegas, and you went on the run on your own.” She nodded, picking up the box as she lifted her heels to the edge of the bench under her. “I stay with Harry. Ulysses comes for us. Comes for you at Three’s house. No matter how it goes, we find out that you were meant to retrieve the keys.”
“With you so far,” she said, offering him some chicken.
He shook his head, so she ate it instead. “No matter how it plays out, you have Z and H after you. You know I wouldn’t be far away from H… especially when I know you’re in the mix.” She nodded along and kept eating. “Eventually, at some point, someone catches up with you. If that someone is me and Harry, then we’re together anyway. If that someone is Zeus, he takes you to the beta site. You know I’ll know if he’s there because Harry will know, so we’ll all end up there. No matter what, this doesn’t end without you and me being in the same space at the same time.”
She put down the box with the chopsticks in it to pick up the beer. “Okay.”
“Do you ever…” he said actually closing his eyes and emphasizing the last word with a head tilt, “everin any scenario see me not putting myself between you and danger? Can you imagine any scenario where I don’t do everything in my power to protect you even if it costs me my life?”
