Night Falls on the Wicked - By Sharie Kohler Page 0,49

life, her “gift” was proving unreliable. The one thing she could count on—whether she liked it or not—was the reliability of her visions, the recognition of them for what they were. And now she didn’t even have that.

The banging at her door continued. She stumbled from bed, casting a glance over her shoulder to see Aimee still asleep, her face flushed, dotted with perspiration. The incessant knocking didn’t rouse her in the least.

Darby peered through the blinds, verifying who was on the other side of the door. With a deep breath and silent command to forget her vision—dream, whatever—she pulled open the door.

Niklas stalked inside. “Didn’t you hear me?”

“I was asleep,” she mumbled, smoothing a hand over her wild hair self-consciously and hoping he didn’t read more into the blush staining her cheeks.

“You’re going to have to toughen up … especially considering where you’re headed.”

She straightened her spine. “I’ve hardly led a rosy existence. I’m tough.”

He ignored her comment. “How’s the girl?”

“Aimee,” she ground out. She motioned to the bedroom. “Still asleep. Feverish like you said.”

“Okay.” He nodded. “Do you have your things ready?”

“Yes.” She’d packed before she fell into bed.

“Good. Let’s go. I have everything we need. She can sleep in the car. We need to move out before Cyprian’s trail grows cold.”

Ten minutes later, they were secured in the comfortable leather seats of Niklas’s Hummer, the heat blasting on high. She sat in the back again, Aimee’s head cushioned on her lap. She stroked her light brown hair, trying to give the child, as she whimpered in her sleep, as much comfort as she could.

They pulled out from the back lot behind Sam’s diner onto Main. As they approached the first stoplight, Darby surveyed Niklas through the rearview mirror. He looked left and right, considering which way to go.

“You know which way?”

He stopped looking and closed his eyes. The light turned green and still he sat there several moments before raising one finger and dropping it in the air to their right. “That way.”

“Just like that? You know?”

“Yeah.”

As they drove on, Darby turned and looked over her shoulder at the town she was leaving behind. A town like so many others where she’d worked and lived during the last few years. She felt no remorse.

Facing forward again, she looked down at the sleeping girl and vowed to make everything right for her. She brushed a hand over the girl’s forehead. She would see Aimee made it to her grandmother safely. Looking up, she caught Niklas staring at her through the mirror.

He didn’t look away immediately but seemed to hold her gaze. She tried to read something in those indigo eyes, tried to see something there. She had thought they were alike, but now she wasn’t so convinced. Now she wasn’t sure she could ever know someone like him. Someone who quite clearly didn’t want anyone to know him.

SIXTEEN

They drove late into the night before stopping at a motel. Niklas carried Aimee inside and laid her on the bed. Darby busied herself getting the girl tucked in. She seemed a little more at ease on the comfortable bed, tossed from side to side less.

“You should get some sleep,” Niklas advised, removing his jacket. She tried not to watch the way his muscles rippled beneath his black sweater, but it was a point of fascination for her. She couldn’t stop the surge of longing. She closed her eyes in a tight blink and looked away. She really was pathetic. This mission wasn’t about her and her misplaced desires. It was about doing what was right for Aimee. Giving her the chance Darby never had.

“Yeah.” She nodded, wrestling off her boots. “Sounds good.” And she really was tired—drained even though all she had had to do was sit in the backseat, silent for the most part, her hands full of Aimee, stroking and petting and lending what comfort she could.

Her few attempts at conversation had been shut down. Or rather ignored. Niklas wasn’t interested in talking. It hardly seemed he was interested in her. It was hard to imagine they had ever shared that kiss. Hard to imagine that he might have ever wanted her even for those brief moments.

So stop imagining it, a small voice commanded inside her.

Sighing, she doubted that would ever happen. Not as long as they were thrown together like this. Maybe not even when this was all over and they went their separate ways.

NIKLAS WATCHED AS SHE gathered her things and moved into the bathroom. He