firsthand the danger you and your men put yourselves in every day.”
“Not everyone is meant for cloak and dagger or shouldering a rifle. You’re doing what no one else can do, and if making small talk with Russian movie stars and hobnobbing with the enemy elite is going to help win this thing, then I can think of no one finer for the job.”
“Gee, how thrilling it is to know all my fine education and etiquette lessons are finally reaching their pinnacle of power.” Her shoulders drooped as if the stint in Bavaria had added to their invisible burden. “All my life, my name has been offered as a golden key to unlock the gilded echelons of money and popularity, but it’s only served to lock me away. Until you gave me a new set of tools to pick the lock and find freedom. All I wanted was to get my sister out of here—make no mistake, that is still my intent—but I can’t return to that cage. I’ve witnessed too much to simply sit at home while this Nazi poison spreads. Not when there’s more we can do.”
His heart thumped. After all this time, all these struggles together, did she finally wish to work alongside him? Give them a new reason to fight? Blood hummed in his ears at the memory of their kiss in Bavaria and the ghost of it pressing against his lips every night as he tried to sleep. “You really think you can do this?”
She drew herself up and narrowed her eyes, the coolness of her gaze freezing the ghost kiss in its tracks. “I most certainly do.” Brushing past him, she strode away, her heels pocking against the pavement in angry clips.
He cursed, but luckily it was lost on the wind kicking up from the river. “Wait a minute. I didn’t mean—”
“Oh, I know what you’re thinking. Poor little rich girl thinks she can do whatever she wants because she lives in her own plush world of fantasy. Like slipping into Paris when no one else can because of dear Daddy’s connections, or that brilliant move to kidnap her sister to Switzerland.”
“True, not your finest hour.”
They reached the other side of the river, but she didn’t slow down. “Believe it or not, I can and will do this.”
“Never thought you couldn’t. I just don’t want you to have to do it alone.” The weight of his words hit him in the gut. Not until that moment did he realize their trueness.
Her feet faltered. She swung back around, delicate brows furrowed. “You leave me dizzy at times. Oscillating between concern and wanting to leave me in a gutter.”
“Don’t think you don’t deserve the gutter sometimes.”
“How touching.”
A low roar split the engine noise of the autos chugging by on the Quai d’Orsay. Two steel-gray motorcycles zoomed by, clearing the way for five char-blackened tanks. The ground shook as the massive beasts rolled by with guns pointed straight ahead, daring any to block their passage. People stopped along the sidewalk to stare at the invaders with repulsion and sadness shivering in their eyes.
“Think they can take whatever they want simply because it pleases them.” Though murmured, the viciousness in Kat’s voice rang loud as a Howitzer.
Not bothering to turn her rage from the tanks, she stepped off the curb without looking. A horn blared. Barrett jumped forward, grabbed her arm, and yanked her back onto the footpath as a wayward Nazi rider motored by on his cycle.
Kat swooped down and grabbed her handbag that had tumbled into the street. “Deutsch schweinhund!”
Shock rang in Barrett’s ears at her less than prim and proper outburst. “Never studied German, but I’d guess that wasn’t very ladylike.”
“You’d guess correct. Please don’t mention it. Ever.” Shaking, she pulled her arm from his grip. “Thank you for saving my life, I believe for the second time, but it’s best we part ways here. Good morning, er, afternoon.”
Her cool dismissal snapped the last strand of his patience. He gouged a hand through his hair to keep from reaching out and shaking sense into her. “Can’t learn your lesson, can you? When is it going to get through that thick head of yours that you can’t navigate this without me? Getting on a train or crossing the street, you need me.”
“Strange how you keep saying that. It’s beginning to sound like you need the reassurance.”
“Hardly. Every second with you proves it.” He dropped his hand and slid it into his trouser pocket. Like a match,