“Stay down,” Matthew whispered as he peered low through one of the windows.
I did not stay down. Instead, I looked with him, shocked again by what I saw.
“There’s only one,” I whispered. “Where did the others go?”
Matthew’s mouth remained in a tight line as we watched the man I had spoken to yesterday slump onto one of the sofas, set his gun on the side table next to him, and reach for a warm beer that had been sitting on a dirty cooler. The woman, whom I recognized as the one who answered the door and asked for Kate, reached for one of the tourniquets and needles beside him. He snapped at her in a language I didn’t recognize, then grabbed the back of her head. She jerked at first, but I watched in horror as she turned to him in a resigned fashion and started to unzip his pants.
“Let’s go,” Matthew said, pulling me away. “Now.”
We crept around the side of the house, darted through the bushes, and into the shade of the oak tree, where we walked quickly back to the car.
“Drive,” he ordered as soon as we were both in. “Now.”
We were both silent all the way back to Skylar and Brandon’s, both obviously pondering what we had just seen. Matthew’s shoulders remained tense and cold. His hand crept nowhere near my knee or any part of my body. It wasn’t until we had parked in front of Skylar and Brandon’s house and gotten out that he turned to me beside the car and spoke.
“Do you need to go anywhere else?” he asked.
I frowned. “No. We’re already here. Where else would I need to go now?”
He looked disappointed. And frustrated. “Nothing else you want to check up on? Things you need to tie up before you start school next week?”
I turned to him, suddenly irritated myself. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m just asking a question.”
“Why?” I asked.
Matthew tipped his head. “Why what?”
“Why the question? Why this whole day, now that I think about it? Why did you follow me everywhere? Come with me to all these errands?” I frowned. “I didn’t need help with this, and it can’t have been terribly interesting for you.”
“Doll, you have no idea how interesting this is. I’m fuckin’ fascinated right now.”
I scoffed. “Tell me another. Please.”
Suddenly, I was backed up against the car, with more than six feet of hot-blooded, dark-eyed prosecutor glowering over me from under the brim of his fedora.
“Nina,” he growled, “do I look bored right now?”
I gulped. “No, but—”
“And did I say anything about wanting to be anywhere else but right here with you?”
I swallowed harder. “No, but—”
Matthew smirked. It brought out a dimple on his right cheek, and I wanted to hook my finger in the divot and kiss him. Hard.
“What are you looking for here?” I wondered. “What are you expecting?”
He shot me a bemused look. “Why? Should I be expecting anything?”
I frowned. “No, of course not. But still. This isn’t adding up.”
Matthew worried his jaw. He hadn’t, I noticed, let me up from the car. If anything, I was trapped more tightly to the shiny metal, his knee between my legs, broad chest pressed to mine.
“You know you can tell me anything, right?” he asked.
I hesitated. Was he serious? How many times had he told me the exact opposite—not to say a word? “What makes you say that now?”
His eyes searched mine. “Nothing. But…”
And then, instead of finishing his statement, he kissed me. My lips fell open instinctively, and his tongue dipped in to tousle furiously with mine. Searching, somehow, just as insistently as his questions before.
“Why?” I gasped when he finally released me. I felt like I was drowning, but because he was gone, not because he was there.
Still.
“Why what, doll?” Matthew pressed the back of his hand to his mouth, like he was trying to keep whatever remnants of the kiss firmly in place.
“Why do you keep doing that?”
“Doing what?”
“Kissing me. You keep saying we shouldn’t—”
“You say it too.”
“Even so!” I burst out. “I’m—you’re—” I shook my head. “You make me feel so weak. And I am. You’re the stronger one, but you keep taking such advantage…”
He looked at me like he wanted to argue back again. I didn’t blame him. We were so good at it, and it only inevitably started more fireworks. Carefully, he slipped his hands around my neck, cradling my head in his warm palms like I was some precious treasure he couldn’t bear to drop.