Hostile Ground by Melinda Di Lorenzo

Author:Melinda Di Lorenzo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: suspense, romantic suspense, thriller, action, female detective
Publisher: Melinda Di Lorenzo
Published: 2020-01-15T16:00:00+00:00

Fourteen

Time ticked by more slowly than I would’ve liked, and neither of us mentioned the helicopter or Vaughn’s suggestion of staying again. We skirted—ironically, I thought, considering what Agent Black had told us about the name—around Project Elephant. After a while, Vaughn shifted on the bed, propping himself up on the pillow. I stayed where I was, my legs tucked under his in a way that was more intimate than the conversation. Neither of us mentioned that, either. And finally, our exchange started to taper off. There were longer pauses between my questions about the last two years, and I recounted fewer anecdotes about Izzy and her kids. Vaughn’s words became murmurs, and then his breathing evened out. I was fighting to keep my own eyes open as I counted the seconds between his inhales and exhales. At last I decided it’d probably been long enough.

“Vaughn?” I called softly.

He didn’t answer. I counted again, this time to a hundred.

“Vaughn?” I repeated.

Holding my breath, I put my hands on his calves. Carefully, I lifted them up. Just an inch. And waited. When Vaughn didn’t budge, I lifted his legs a little more. My forearms actually ached with the effort—he was solid muscle—but I persevered. I counted a bit more. Just to thirty this time. Then I pulled myself out from under him and very slowly stood up.

I stared down at Vaughn. He had one hand on his stomach, the other above his head, and his lips were parted just enough to let in the whispers of air. The very picture of relaxation.

I watched the slow rise and fall of his chest and shook my head. I knew he was a sound sleeper. But it was a rare quality in a cop. The first time I spent the night at his house—our fourth date—his neighbor’s dog was howling, and he’d stayed conked out for the whole thing. I was so surprised that I’d forcibly woken him, just to demand to know how he managed it. He’d sleepily told me that every day, he put good into the world. Saving people. Putting away the bad guys. He told me sleep was his vice. I asked what he meant, but he’d promptly rolled over, grabbed his pillow, and drifted off again. I’d been amused and impressed and envious, all at the same time. There was no doubt in my mind that he was equally dead to the world at that current moment.

“Vaughn,” I said his name a third and final time, just to be sure.

He didn’t stir.

“Of course,” I murmured.

I stowed an urge to grab a blanket and tuck it up around his chin, but I couldn’t quite stop myself from staring for a minute longer. In his sleep, his mouth curved up on one side. And guilt tried to sneak in. Vaughn would undoubtedly wake up and be concerned when he found me gone. With any luck, he’d simply assume I’d headed back to my own temporary home. And with even more luck, that’s where I would be by the time he woke.

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