the bathroom. Her bare arm brushed his as she swept past him. But she was too rattled to relish the brief skin-on-skin contact.
“How long do you think we have?” she asked, setting the gun on the bed.
“A couple of hours?” he said, the words ending on an up note as if he wasn’t certain.
A couple of hours. “That’s more than I would’ve thought.” Frowning, she glanced over at him as she unlocked and opened the small safe. “Why aren’t you putting your pants back on?” Inside lay a stack of important documents; two exterior hard drives with backups of all her don’t-want-to-lose computer files, family photos, and videos; some keepsakes; and an envelope full of cash.
She had thought her parents paranoid for recommending she keep the last on hand but was glad now she had done it to pacify them.
“Emma,” he said softly.
“What?” she responded absently. Where could they go? Where could they go that would make it harder for the network to find them?
It would have to be someplace remote. Out of the country. With Cliff’s speed, he could get them across borders without needing passports. So that was a plus because she doubted he had one, and she didn’t want to use hers in case Reordon could track it.
Maybe they could lose themselves in South America.
“What are you doing?”
She looked at him. “Packing.” The amber glow in his eyes had diminished a bit. And now that he’d washed off the blood, he looked healthy and perfect and so damned lovable. “Right. Sorry.” Yanking open another dresser drawer, she drew out a green shirt in a men’s size large and tossed it to him. “Here.”
He caught it easily but made no move to don it.
“I don’t think we should risk taking the time to wash your pants.” She tucked the cash and hard drives into the bag, then added the laptop from her corner desk.
“What exactly do you think has happened?” he asked, his voice cautious and quiet.
Something in it made her pause. Turning, she stared at him. “You escaped,” she said. “And I don’t think it’s going to take the network two hours to send teams out looking for you, Cliff, so we need to hurry. Come on. Get dressed.”
Clothing. Money. Laptop. Hard drives. Phone.
Wait. Should she take her phone? Could the network track her that way?
Maybe leave the phone.
What else, what else, what else?
The green shirt clutched in one fist, Cliff moved to stand before her, so close she could smell the soap he’d used when he showered and feel the heat from his body.
Cliff was six feet tall or thereabouts. Emma was five-five, so she had to tilt her head back to look up at him.
“And now you’re packing?”
“Yes.”
“To come away with me?”
“Yes.”
His eyes flashed bright amber. “You would do that? You would leave everything behind and just… run away with me?”
“Of course I would.” Reaching up, she cupped his strong jaw in one hand and stroked the stubble it bore. How often had she dreamed of touching him like this? “I don’t know how long we’ll be able to elude them, but—”
He covered her hand with one of his and shifted it so he could press a kiss to her palm.
The tender gesture made her fall silent, her heart aching. How she loved him. Sadie was right. Whatever ugliness lay ahead was worth every minute she could spend with him.
“The network won’t be hunting me,” he told her, his deep voice gentle.
If network special-ops teams weren’t hunting him, that could only mean one thing.
A lump rose in her throat. Blinking back tears, she withdrew her hand, then slid her arms around his waist. The curly hair on his chest tickled her nose as she pressed her face to it and squeezed him tight… as though by doing so she could shield him and protect him. “The Immortal Guardians are hunting you?” she forced out, the words thick.
With a two-hour head start, she had held at least some hope of escaping. Seth might be able to sense the location of other immortals, but he couldn’t do the same with vampires. Once she and Cliff got in her car—the old one, not the one she drove to work that the network had LoJacked—long miles would eliminate any path Cliff’s scent might leave for them. Avoiding main streets with traffic cams would further increase their chances of throwing them off. And the farther they drove, the more their chances of getting away would increase.