And he just scooped her up tight, his breathing hard as he carried her off the porch, away from the flames.
“Stein, I’m fine—I’m okay?—”
He set her down on the street, hands on her shoulders, searching her green eyes, his breaths cascading over each other.
“I woke up to the fire alarm.Nim must have it wired to a 911 trigger?—”
Her gaze broke away and she searched for Nim.
Stein found her too, standing back from her home, her arms around herself, tears casting down her face.
“Oh, Nim,” Emberly said, going to her, wrapping her up in her arms.
Nimue held on, her expression stripped.
The fire engine turned onto their street.But as Stein watched, he spotted a black SUV pull away from the curb.And as the man drove by, even Steinbeck recognized him—dark hair, black eyes...The man he’d grappled with on the dock.
And his ilk beside him in the passenger seat.
Emberly slipped her hand into Stein’s, tightening.She glanced up at him, her voice hard, changing, as she spoke.Phoenix was back when she said, “I don’t know how, but they found us.”
NINE
So much forEmberly’s attempts to forget who she was.
“I amabsolutelygoing with you.”She paced the family room of the Airbnb Nim had gotten while the fire department assessed the damage to her house.
A.k.a.the entire thing.
Emberly still couldn’t believe that Nim’s beautiful cottage had burned, almost entirely, to the ground, just the shell remaining, her beautiful kitchen charred, her porch blackened, and her living room smoke-damaged.
How it started, the fire chief didn’t say, but he’d found a broken bottle in the remains and suggested it might have been an improvised incendiary device.
She added the Russian part and came up withMolotov cocktail,lit and left burning while she slept.
Nim’s tech room, however, had survived with remarkably little damage, so she’d reassembled her system in the main room of the rental.Now she sat in front of the array of screens, wearing her computer glasses, her pajama bottoms, and an oversized T-shirt she’d picked up on their shopping run.
Outside, the last of the day receded along the palmy horizon, the ocean outside darkened, the stars scattered overhead.A half-empty box of Oceanside pizza lay on the counter.
Steinbeck’s mouth had been a tight, almost angry line for the better part of the day.
Yeah, well, Emberly was mad too.And it might have been worse if she hadn’t stopped him fromcharging, without a thought, into a burning building.
After her.
It turned her a little weak, not to mention the way he’d held on to her.
Oh,Austen was probably right.
And he wasn’t going anywhere without her.“I can’t believe you thought you could just ditch me for Declan.”
Steinbeck’s eyebrow rose.“I wasn’t exactly going toditchyou.But I didn’t see you necessarily jumping to protect a guy who, just a couple months ago, you called a terrorist.”
“The shoe seemed to fit at the time.”
Nimue picked up a half cup of coffee, took a sip, and made a face.“Oh, that’s bad.”
“Because it was brewed two hours ago,” Emberly said, taking the mug.“Should I nuke it?And your sad piece of pizza?”She picked up the plate.
