Domino Falls (ARC) by Steven Barnes & Tananarive Due

Author:Steven Barnes & Tananarive Due [Barnes, Steven & Due, Tananarive]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781451617023
Google: Vge4LwEACAAJ
Amazon: 145161702X
Barnesnoble: 145161702X
Goodreads: 15803000
Publisher: Atria
Published: 2013-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Nineteen

When Terry opened the door and peeked into his room, he expected to find Piranha on the bed with an excuse about how Marv wouldn’t give him his own space on such short notice. But Piranha’s stuff was gone. He’d left the tiny battery lamp on the nightstand on, and his blanket was pulled up and tucked beneath his mattress like an army cot. He’d tried to leave the room looking nice for Terry.

I owe you, man, Terry thought. Again.

Hipshot waited by the door, tail wagging. The world’s best dog. Terry rubbed the mutt’s chin and smiled. He and Kendra were sharing custody of Hippy, who lived between their rooms.

“Is it safe?” Kendra asked behind Terry, teasing.

Gazing at the drab room, Terry had a sudden inspiration. “Yeah. One second.”

He closed the door behind him and rushed to fling open the nightstand drawer. Perfect! Piranha had left his stash of candles. Candles were against regs, but girls thought they were romantic.

While Hippy trotted behind him, he lit one on the nightstand, one on the dresser, and one on the bathroom counter. He hoped Marv wouldn’t make a late-night room check or see the glowing contraband, since there was no mistaking candlelight.

Terry was nervous, despite having had steady girlfriends since he was fifteen—until juvie, anyway. His first girlfriend, Loretta, had only been a novelty, a senior when he was a sophomore. He thought he’d loved Gwen for real, until she banged half the basketball team and turned love to loathing. Then he’d practiced all of Gwen’s evil on his last girlfriend, Paige, who had finally gotten the hint after he stopped answering her calls and texts. After a month.

Not the greatest track record, maybe, but he was no stranger to girls.

So why did Kendra make him feel like he’d never kissed a girl before? Or like her brown eyes could see everything he’d ever thought or done? Why did her cheekbones remind him of a wood carving? How did such a compact body hold curves that filled her jeans in a way Loretta, Gwen, and Paige could only have dreamed about?

Kendra was like no other girl he’d known, and so smart she was almost scary. Knowing that she’d been on the bus seat behind him all that time, relying on him to stay awake and keep them safe, might have been the single most important reason the Blue Beauty had made it to Threadville.

Now if only he could make Kendra happy here, so she wouldn’t get kicked out with her wild stories. Or get him kicked out, because he couldn’t let her go back on the road without him. Kendra seriously needed to get . . . distracted. That was what Dean had been trying to tell him on the way to the mechanic’s house.

“Okay,” he said, opening the door.

“It’s safe now?”

“You tell me,” he said.

Damn, why was his heart whirring so loudly? He watched her face as she walked into the candle-bright room, waiting for her reaction.

The smiling curve of her lips was a jolt of pure lightning.

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