couple feet, and even then only if they were suspicious.
“Different.” She tapped her finger on her lips, drawing his gaze. Her stomach dipped. The taste of his mouth still lingered on her own. Who knew upside-down kisses were so freaking hot? Well, besides Mary Jane and her webbed superhero. Obvs.
Lindsey cleared her throat and dropped her hand. “Like a man with brown hair and a little too much hair gel.” Tilting her head, she said, “Maybe dark auburn hair, but definitely not a redhead.”
“Perfect. Thanks to you. And your friend.” He covered all those distracting muscles with a fresh blue shirt and she could finally take a full breath again. “As if I needed another reason to love coffee.” Handing her a long-sleeved technical tee the color of the surrounding pines, he said, “Let’s stash the fleece for now. Just in case anyone recognized us earlier and reported what we were wearing.”
She sucked in a whole lungful of air and released it in a slow stream. They were about to walk into Pinetop, one of the towns where law enforcement was sure to have gotten the word out about the dangerous fugitives. But if they were going to head back into the mountains, they needed supplies.
And Todd wanted to talk to his boss.
“In case things go south, I need someone to know what really happened,” Todd had said with an apologetic frown. “Plus, he can find someone to help us negotiate our surrender, get Valerie—Steele’s hacker genius—to start digging on JJ, and maybe even send a few guys to help us.”
How wonderful to have a whole team behind him.
Lindsey had a group that she trusted implicitly—her parents, Megan, her volleyball teammates—but they wouldn’t be much use in this situation. As far as she knew, none of them could hack a computer system, and the only lawyer in the bunch practiced entertainment law.
Thank God for Todd and his connections.
All packed up, they took a long route to town, sticking close to the trees, but ultimately paralleling the highway. Ranches dotted the valley, surrounded by low mountains on all sides.
Finally, close to five o’clock, they approached the core of Pinetop, basically a collection of a dozen rustic wooden or corrugated metal buildings centered around the highway crossroads.
“Ninety percent of blending in is looking like you belong,” Todd said as they crunched over a gravel lot toward a building that housed a BBQ joint, a bakery, an outdoor outfitter, and a general store. No sign of any sheriff’s deputies. “We’re tourists, oblivious to the news, with nothing to hide.”
“We need new names.”
“Sure. I’ll be Igor Stansfield.”
She flashed him a look.
“What. Too much?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Sven Johannsen.” He put his hands on his hips. “I’m feeling very Sven-like with my new hair.”
“I was thinking John or Kent.”
“Mike it is. Mike Baker.”
She allowed herself a smile. “Nice to meet you, Mike Baker. I’m Kayla Serrano.”
“Because you’re hot like a pepper?”
She groaned in mock agony. “No, she was one of my teammates in high school.” Back when life had been simple.
“Sounds like a cartoon character. Or a stripper.”
“Don’t be so judgmental.” She resisted the urge to give him a playful push. The less she touched him the better.
“Fine, Kayla it is,” he said oddly, as if tasting the name and finding it lacking.
She followed him up rough-hewn steps and onto the wooden porch of Pinetop Sundries and Supplies. The store’s name seemed redundant, but what did she know? Two older men wearing cowboy hats and worn leather boots sat on a bench, tracking their progress.
She gave them what she hoped was a friendly smile and followed Todd through the door. Nothing to see here.
A bell dinged as they crossed the threshold and the teenaged girl behind the register flipped her long blond hair over her shoulder and smiled at Todd. “Hi, there. Help you find anything?”
The girl appeared a little dazed when he returned the smile and said, “Hi. We’re good for now, but I’ll let you know.”
Lindsey could relate. She felt a little dazzled every time he looked at her too.
They grabbed sandwiches from the deli, sodas from the cold case, and enough packaged food for the next couple of days. Lindsey also found a cheap pair of sunglasses, some warmer clothes, and a small daypack to hold them.
She grabbed a new baseball cap for Todd with a bear embroidered on the front to replace the gray one he’d lost the day before.
When they’d collected everything, he leaned against the counter, gave the girl full