Page 47 of Stubborn as a Shadow

“Shit. I need to do one more thing,” he said as he pulled out a phone. He tapped out a short text, then he tucked his phone back in his pocket. “Okay. Let’s get out of here.”

I shook my head. “You can do better than that. How about, let’s make like a tree and leaf?”

He rolled his eyes, but there was a little quirk around his lips again. Ha! He was totally falling for my charms.

16

ALMOST A ROM-COM MOMENT…

NELSON

Someone had sabotaged our escape. I scanned the area for signs of an ambush. The area appeared quiet. But with the howling wind and the snow, I could easily miss something. I gritted my teeth and plowed on through the gathering snow.

I needed to get Morgan away from here. All the way to Willow Lake, if possible.

In the meantime, I was going to do my best to forget Morgan found me attractive.

That wasn’t important. Really. A lot of people found me attractive. I wasn’t being vain, but in my line of work, my looks had come in handy. It’d be silly to pretend they hadn’t. But I doubted Morgan’s interest was anything more than a skin-deep attraction, magnified by my having saved him.

“We should brainstorm a fabulous escape plan.” Morgan skipped and bopped through the snow at my side.

As he became more comfortable with me, more of his personality peeked through his disguise, right down to the way he moved. When he’d crafted his Rudy Tada persona, he’dobviously tried to become the opposite of his natural behavior and appearance.

“We’re going to Willow Lake, where we’ll figure out how to keep you safe.”

“Right. You mentioned that. But how are we getting there? Dog sled? Skis? Helicopter?”

“I have a bike.”

“Oh! I haven’t been on a bicycle for eons. How are we going to do this? Am I going to have to balance on your handlebars? That sounds very rom-com, somehow, although now that I think about it… I don’t know if I’ve actually seen that in a movie. But I need to warn you, balancing on handlebars doesn’t sound like something I could do for the long haul.”

“Motorcycle, not bicycle.”

“Cool, cool.” He nodded. “Yeah. That makes more sense. I can totally see you on a motorcycle.” He tugged his cloak tighter around his body. “So, just to have everything out in the open, would you be okay if I laugh when we do that? I tend to laugh when I’m scared.”

“There’s nothing to be scared of.”

Morgan didn’t look convinced.

“But if you need to laugh, go ahead.”

“And the bubbles?”

Right, I’d forgotten about the bubbles, although I wasn’t sure how. “We’ll be going fast enough that if you laugh up some bubbles or whatever, they shouldn’t last long in the wind.”

“Oh good.” He smiled at me. “Because I don’t think I’ll be able to hold in my laughing much longer.”

Damn it. Now I wanted to hug the guy and tell him he’d be okay. That he was safe. That he didn’t need to be scared. Every protective instinct inside me—ones I didn’t know I had—sat up and howled, and I wasn’t even a wolf shifter. I’d obviously been around the pack too much lately if I was thinking like a wolf.

“Don’t suppose we could go to my place on the way, hey?” Morgan mused. “Grab a change of clothes and stuff.”

That would be a horrible idea. “It isn’t safe for you to go back to your house.”

“No, probably not.” He sighed. “But are you sure?”

“Those people were after you for some reason. I bet they already ran the plates on your car and are hacking into the records to find out your information.”

“It isn’t my car. It’s a rental. Give me some credit.”