Wynter's Horizon (15 page)

“Before what?” I prompted. She looked up at me with those smoky green eyes.

“Before the accident.” She twisted off the tab of the plastic top and smushed it between her fingers. I contemplated stopping but needed more. This is why I was with her, after all.

“What happened?” The plastic top ricocheted out of her fingers.

“Jason’s girlfriend, my friend, Abby was in the car. It was just the two of us. She died.” A
nother piece of the puzzle clicked, as I saw her on the beach frantically searching for her friend. And now she was sleeping with her dead friend’s boyfriend.

She stared at the plastic piece on the ground. Her chest rose and fell as she took in a shaky breath. A wave of guilt washed over me. Why was I doing this to her?

“Hey,” I said softly. “I didn’t mean to upset you. You just seem too nice to be with him.”

She laughed, her voice wavering. “You got me on that one. My friends tell me I need to find ‘a nice guy’ and stop being attracted to all the bad ones. But, you know, I tried to be with some nice guys. It didn’t work.”

Now I laughed. There was something too ironic about that statement to me. I felt suddenly very self-conscious.

“Are you okay?”

“Nothing.” I tried to be nonchalant and recover my balance. How bizarre. Drops into hostile territories, with death at my door didn’t unnerve me, but this twenty-one-year-old girl gave me butterflies. We were in front of her dorm now. She shivered. “You look cold,” I said. I leaned closer, brushing her hair from her face. . I wanted to fold her in my arms and kiss her. I took a step back. “I’d better go. Get inside so I know you’re warm.”

She nodded and moved toward the door.

“Wyn,” I called. I liked the way it rolled off my tongue. She was wrong about her name.

“Yeah?”

“How’s dinner tomorrow night? 7:30?” She nodded and smiled at me—a real smile that lit up her whole face.

I leaned against the hood of the Jeep and watched her go in. She turned and waved as the door slid closed. It took me a few seconds to realize I had company. I yanked open the car door. “You’re like a bloody cat. You should wear a bell.”

He grinned back at me. “I just wanted to see how the date went. Dinner, huh?”

I got in the Jeep. “It’s the natural progression.”

“Aren’t you all evolved now? Are we sticking around? Doing some ledge watching?”

“No. We’re giving her some privacy.”

“Oh. Very mature. But kind of disappointing. I’d love to see what she wears to bed.”

I threw the Jeep into gear and pulled out. “Where’s Sara?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Where is Sara?” He mimicked rhetorically, sarcasm dripping through the words. “Oh, yes, she’s in France. Down in Cannes, but heading to Paris tomorrow for a job.” He smirked at me.

“Is she coming back here to save me?” I asked.

“Yes, she is. Sometime after Paris.” I turned out the gates of the campus and paused. It was only one a.m. As if reading my mind, Quinn suggested gambling. I turned the car toward I-395 and headed north.

We separated as soon as we got through the front doors of the casino. Quinn liked craps, and I liked blackjack. More important, we needed to keep a low profile. We knew how to play the system and would walk out with sizeable winnings. We didn’t like to complicate matters by seeming to be friends. By three a.m., I had a few thousand in front of me and could see the manager heading my way. I spotted Quinn across the room, busy moving chips around. I assumed he was doing well, though craps was harder than twenty-one to beat, even with special hearing, eyesight and incredibly fast hands.

“Mr. Williams,” the manager acknowledged me, holding out his hand. We never used our real names, in case things ever got out of hand.

“Stephen,” I answered, grabbing his hand.

“How are you doing tonight?”

“Fine, thanks.”

“Looks like things are going well.”

I looked down at my winnings. “Yes, thank you.”

“Can I interest you in a poker game?” All night poker with the big guys. My ticket to more money. I was about to say yes when I saw Quinn walking toward the door with a slight shake of his head to me. I scanned the room more closely and saw him, in the corner playing craps at another table. He didn’t look particularly menacing, but, if Quinn’s instincts were alerted, something was up.

I declined the offer of the game politely, collected my winnings, and made a graceful exit. Quinn met me at the car, eyebrows raised and muscles tensed. We didn’t speak until we were in the Jeep.

“Did you recognize him?” I asked Quinn.

He shook his head. “He had a special forces tat, though. Clear as day on his arm. I caught him looking my way more than once. Pull over there. I’ll double back and tail him. You check home.” I dropped him off on the side of the highway and watched him disappear into the woods. He would be back at the casino faster than it would take me to drive him. I headed home, sweeping past the campus and the area around my house in the process, searching for any clues that he had been tracking us. I didn’t find anything.

I waited for Quinn on the porch, watching the horizon. A storm threatened; I could see the clouds gathering and smelled it in the air, but it was still a few miles away. I wondered if it would come to shore. Finally, when the sky lightened to gray, I went inside. Quinn returned as I stretched out for my morning run and workout.

“What’s up?”

“I didn’t find anything on him. I tailed him to Providence. He’s staying in a basement apartment there. I couldn’t get a read on what he’s doing here or anyone he knows.”

“I wonder who he’s working for.”

“That would be nice to know. We should keep an eye on him, in case there’s more there than meets the eye.” I nodded in agreement. We both knew what each had been unwilling to say. Upon our recruitment and training, we had both signed documents that stated we were no longer members of the SAS and forfeited any rights and privileges that went along with that classification.” They wanted us outside the normal government rules and procedures due to our special talents. We needed to be careful. Since failing in Colombia, we had been discharged, but that didn’t mean forgotten. We had extra powers and a lot of government knowledge. It would certainly be less liability for them if we were gone. We couldn’t trust them.

Quinn disappeared into the kitchen as I grabbed my jacket. When I opened the door, he called out, “Hey, if I don’t see you, have fu-un at dinner.”

“It’s just dinner.”

I heard him snicker. “It’s never just dinner.”

Chapter Thirty

Wynter—The Dining Hall

I stretched out my toes and hands as far as they could go and sighed with satisfaction. I’d fallen asleep dreaming of Beck. I awoke still thinking of him. My stomach tingled. I wondered if he would kiss me tonight. I picked up my phone. One missed call and four texts—Galen:
Well??!!
Sophie:
Any wintry weather?
Jason:
Want to meet?
and
call me.
Interesting. I dialed into my voicemail.

“Hey, it’s me.” My heart jumped at the sound of Jason’s voice. He really did want to find me. “I was just wondering if you knew about this history paper we have due. Give me a call when you get a chance.” Fucking Jason. His timing was impeccable, as always. I wanted to delete it, but my hand hesitated. I pushed two for save instead, feeling instantly guilty, and quickly grabbed my stuff to shower, trying not to think about what I’d just done or why.

Jason tracked me down in the dining hall at lunchtime. I felt a twinge of pleasure as I realized my failure to answer him was driving him nuts. Oozing charm, he stuck close as we shuffled through the lunch line.

“Where have you been? I haven’t seen you around much.” He positioned himself behind the guy in front of me. “I’ve been busy. You know, studying and such.” I tucked my hair behind my ear and searched for some crackers to go with my sandwich. My hand shook as I pawed through the cracker basket.
Damn adrenaline
.

“You didn’t stay at the library last night.” He said it as a statement, though he was obviously digging for information.

“Yeah.” I felt self-conscious.

“So, you want to study later? I thought we could talk about this paper we have due. Williamson said she’s looking for some particulars.” I could hear someone behind us grumbling about how slow the line was moving. I removed my tray from the counter and took a step toward the cafeteria doors, trying to buy some space. Jason moved in front of me until we were standing tray to tray.

“I don’t think so.” I couldn’t believe the words even as they left my mouth. In four years, I had never turned him down, even when we were just friends. “I’m going to work on it in my room.”

“So?” He followed me as I made my way through the salad bar line. I looked up and saw Annie and Julia already seated at our usual table. Julia stared intently at us, but Annie was busy typing into her phone.

“I just don’t know what you want to discuss. She gave us the assignment.”

The corners of his mouth curved into a smirk. “So, are you really seeing that old guy?”

My stomach dropped and so did the tongs I was holding. “What?” My phone buzzed. I ignored it.

“I heard you were seeing that old guy you walked out of the library with. Do you have some hot date with him? Is that why you won’t meet to study?”

In an instant, a catalog of the times Jason had treated me badly flew through my mind. For anyone else, probably one of those episodes would have been enough to never see him again. I just shook my head, picking the tongs back up. I’d been waiting for this moment, when he realized how great we were together and how he might lose me to someone else.

I piled some salad on my plate. My phone buzzed again. I glanced down. Two texts from Annie:
WTF??!! Tell him to suck it! Fing ahole!!
Well, I knew her feelings.

“You’re not seeing him?” Jason sounded annoyed. He wasn’t used to not having my full attention.

“You do remember leaving me at Jim’s, right?”

“I remember Jim’s. Some parts more than others,” he answered sarcastically. I dropped the tongs, this time purposefully, and stepped back with my tray. He reached out, grabbing the corner.

“I’m sorry. I thought you had a car that night. I wouldn’t have left if I had known. You know what that night was for me. I’m really sorry.” I stared at him, trying to gauge his true feelings.

“Well, I didn’t. Look, maybe we can study tomorrow. I’m slammed with reading today.” I regretted it instantly, feeling guilty to Beck and simultaneously defensive; we had no promises. Jason immediately smiled, his charm oozing back to the surface.

“Let’s talk after class then.” And he was gone across the cafeteria to sit with his team. I slid in the seat next to Julia.

“I can’t believe you fucking said yes,” Annie snapped.

“I did not. I just didn’t say no. He got me all turned around.”

“WTF, Wynter! He’s just pissed because he thinks you could possibly be moving on—and you just reassured him you’re not.”

“That’s not true.”

“Yes it is. What the hell are you doing? I thought you liked Beck.”

“I do, but I don’t know if he likes me.”

“Seriously? He spent an entire Friday night hanging out with you and your friends. He came here last night, and he asked you to dinner for tonight. What’s your problem?”

“I don’t have a problem. I just didn’t know what to say.”

“Yes, you do. When it comes to Jason, you can’t say no. You’re going to ditch a perfectly good guy for Jason? Not even just a perfectly good guy—that guy is hot, way hotter than Jason—and nice. Is that the problem? He’s too nice to you?”

I swallowed hard. I liked Beck. I knew that. He made my heart thump in a way even Jason couldn’t. Annie was right. But for once, the tables were turned with Jason, and I didn’t want to shut him down entirely. I liked having the power.

Annie finished her lunch in silence and stormed off.

Julia, who’d been unusually quiet throughout Annie’s tirade, finally spoke up. “I don’t care what you do with Jason. Well, I do, but I’m your friend no matter. Just make sure, if you like Beck, you don’t lose him over trying to dangle Jason out there. I know it kills you he picked that damn sophomore over you, but it’s not worth losing Beck.” I nodded, not trusting my voice.

Just before seven-thirty, someone knocked at my door. When I opened it, he was leaning on the doorframe, a bouquet of wild flowers in his hands. I thought my heart would beat itself out of my chest.

“I would have come down,” I said, taking the flowers and smelling them.

He smiled and shrugged. “Where I come from, you always pick a girl up at the door.” His brown eyes twinkled back at me, and I wondered why I’d even had a conversation with Jason at all.

“Oh. Thanks for the flowers.” I fumbled around, looking for somewhere to put them when Julia appeared out of nowhere with a plastic beer cup. She disappeared again almost as quickly.

I wore my short, gray skirt with my black clingy top, and my high-heeled black boots. I caught Beck looking at my legs as I grabbed my coat off the back of the door. He leaned in close, helping me put it on, his hands lightly gracing the back of my neck. Shivers ran up my spine.