Page 116 of Intent to Kill
“Pick up the cash from Tia for me. I’ve got apreviously arranged engagement,” Dan said. Sex. He meant sex. Which Adam would normally understand if he weren’t hoping to be on the verge of some himself.
“I can’t go right now,” Adam said with a tight jaw.
“That’s fine,” Mercedes said, heading for the door. Adam, panicked, darting his eyes between her and his friends. What could he say to get her to stay? How could he get them out of there so that they could–
She slipped on her coat and smiled. “I’ll go with you.”
20
FOR THEIR ACTIONS
MAY 1991
“Yes, you’d beat me in a race,” Adam said. “But I’d beat you in a gun fight.”
Their car halted leisurely underneath the red neon lights, caressing rainwater pooling under the tires. It was four in the morning, and shifts were wrapping up for the girls.
“You couldn’t outrun or outgun me,” Mercedes said.
“Oh really?” he said, as he looked at where his hand rested against hers over the gear shift. Fingers intertwining, he ran his thumb over her palm.
Their voices were little but a whisper, the only sound the light splattering of rain on the windows.
“Absolutely. There’s no scenario in which you could out fight me,” she said.
“Is that so?”
“Maybe we should put it to the test.” She shifted to face him, her head resting against the seat.
Mirroring her movements, Adam moved until they were only a breath away. So close that he was sure any glance from her eyes to her lips was an obvious giveaway of his intentions.
Removing his hand from hers, he reached out to cup her cheek. Like snow melting to reveal moss-covered ground, Adam could see her hardness melt away from her eyes. Replaced with a softness that looked a lot like longing.
Had she been able to see that same desperate love in his eyes this whole time? It’d been there. That was what he always felt when he was around her.
A lazy slide from her cheek, and he was holding her chin, pulling her lips closer and closer to his, biting his lip as she got nearer.
A bing sounded from his pager.
With a disappointed exhale, Adam checked the pager. “It’s Paul, wants something urgently.”
“There’s a payphone over there.”
Unbothered by the rain, they stepped outside, not caring to hurry before they slid into the phone booth.
It must’ve been a test. The payphone was a tight fit, pushing her body against his. Yeah, had to be a test from a higher power that knew he had no self-control.
Adam held the phone with his shoulder as he dropped in the coins and dialed the number. The answer was so immediate that Adam could barely tell if the phone even rang.
“Adam?” Paul said, voice grating on the other end.
“Yeah, I’m at a payphone, what’s up?”
“You and Mercedes should get back here ASAP. There’s some alarming rumors spreading,” Paul said, the line cracking.
“What do you mean?”
Mercedes wasn’t paying attention to the call, just giving him bedroom eyes and biting her lip as she wiped rain from her bare arms.
