They ran for the rear exit. It was clear. He took the bags back and grinned. “Smile sweetheart,” he said. If you were looking for a fugitive, your eyes automatically drifted to anyone who looked out of place: shifty, nervous, anxious to be away. So, true to his training, they ambled out of the small passageway and blended immediately with the evening throngs of people commuting home or looking for somewhere to eat.
Dusk had fallen, so it was much easier to merge with the crowd and act like tourists. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw more cops scanning the crowd, so he widened his smile and tried to shrink an inch or two. He was tempted to get her to put on the shawl, and to put on his own baseball cap, but there was no point unless he was sure they’d been identified. May as well save the makeshift disguise until they needed it.
“Where are we going?” Molly asked, as they walked slowly among their fellow pedestrians.
“For the time being, along any street that has the most tourists. Then we have to think about hunkering down for the night. Somewhere no one will find us, and I’m not sure another hotel is an option.” He had to call someone. Once they were safe and hidden.
“I know the ideal place. A place I worked at a few years back,” she said with an unexpected touch of enthusiasm in her voice. “It’s slightly illegal, but I doubt we’ll get caught. Now the more I think about it, that seems right up your alley.” She was smiling. What a freaking incredible woman. They were basically being hunted by Russian and Greek officials, and she was making a joke.
“Not so much anymore, sweetheart, but bending rules I’m okay with.” He cast a thought at Mal, who would have virtually got a hard-on at the thought of being able to do something totally illegal. “I’m in your hands. Lead the way.” He wondered what she had in mind, but didn’t see the benefit of questioning her about it when there were hundreds of people around.
She led him through the streets of Monastiraki, gradually away from the crowd, past Hadrian’s library, and up into what looked like a residential neighborhood. The streets were so small and windy that they would be able to spot someone coming easily. The occasional dog barked as they walked past its home, constantly moving upward, leaving the humidity of the streets below, feeling the lightest breeze as the air got a little cooler.
Finally a street gave way to a dirt path, with a fence on one side and a bare hill on the other.
“We are on the trail to the Parthenon. The other side of the fence is the agora. The marketplace of ancient Athens. It’s all mostly ruins now. But if you can get me over the fence, I can take you to our room for the night,” she whispered.
That he could do. “Stay here, let me do a little recon.” He went searching for the lowest, or least well-maintained part of the fence. Really it wasn’t a great security feature, more a vague discouragement of entering after hours, he suspected, when he found a brick post that was pretty easy to climb over.
He easily boosted her up, so she could jump down on the other side, and then followed by using the post as a fulcrum to swing his legs over the fence. Easy.
“This way. Be careful of the tortoises, there are a lot of them here.” She took his hand and led him into the darkness. Through undergrowth, across stone floors and small wooden bridges, until he saw the very top of a huge temple lit with floodlights looming ahead of them.
Really?
She ran up some shallow steps to the base of the temple. It was in much better shape than the other temples he’d seen in Athens. “It’s the temple of Hephaestus,” she breathed, sounding as if she was in awe. “Take your shoes off.”
He complied, watching her slip off her own sneakers. She almost danced up the broad stone steps of the temple and disappeared inside.
Molly couldn’t believe she was breaking the rules like this. It’s true, she had a pass—probably somewhere in the suitcase she’d left at the hotel—that allowed her into the archaeological sites, where tourists couldn’t go. Now with the authorities on her tail, she wasn’t entirely sure her pass would make much difference anymore.
This was the perfect place for them to stay, though. It was in a gated compound, and she was pretty sure no one would think to look for them there. The lights at the base of the temple that lit its roof for the tourists to see at a distance, let just enough light in to illuminate the interior, just enough that they could see what they were doing.
There was nothing inside, just a sandy floor and a few blocks of stone. “I think we should be safe here,” she said, sitting on the ground, leaning up against one of the inner walls and opening the bag she’d been carrying with the kebabs he’d bought earlier. “I’m starving.”
David walked around the room, looking out. Although probably in the daylight you could see through the temple, at night you couldn’t. As long as they slept toward the sides, they would never be seen. “I would never have thought to come here,” he said, sitting next to her.
“Let’s hope no one else does either.” She handed him his food, and silence fell as they ate. As the kebabs hit her stomach she felt calmer and more settled. She took a breath. And another. They were safe here. And she felt at home here. The last time she’d been inside this temple was when she was at college. But it felt familiar, and familiar was good when everything else that was happening to her was so alien.
They finished their meal in complete silence, except for the ever-present noise of the Athenian traffic. Once the last morsels had been consumed, she asked the question that had been bothering her since their car blew up.
“Are you going to get in trouble for being with me?” she asked. “I mean, with the car bomb and the killing of Dr. Doubrov?”
He paused before answering. “Honestly I don’t know. My boss ordered me back to the airport, but that was before they locked down Athens. So right now, my future at the company could go either way. I’m not worried about it though.”
She thought that might be a lie, judging by his strained voice. This was the last thing she wanted to happen. He’d just gotten his world back together, and she was the one responsible for knocking it out of whack again. She wondered how she could fix it for him. Given that he was already inextricably linked to her—after all it was his car that was blown up—she wasn’t sure how best to do it.
She stood to gather their detritus and crept outside to deposit the plastic bag in one of the trash cans in the agora. She considered leaving. Walking away, finding the police. She hesitated, looking toward the entranceway, which always had night guards. Then she looked back at the temple to see David standing, watching her, leaning against one of the pillars. “Don’t.” His voice floated to her on the light breeze.
At the thought of him watching her, her nipples tightened, shooting a small flame of need through her. Her libido was driving her nuts. She never knew she could be so turned on all the time. It was his fault. She looked up at him, and he held out his hand to her in the dark.
She slowly took the steps again, and as she approached him, she took his hand. He bent her arm so that it rested against his chest. “Don’t even think about it,” he said.
He backed up to allow her back into the temple. She didn’t want to lie, or make a promise she wasn’t entirely sure she could keep. She was about to change the subject when a light beam hit her. She tried to step out of it, but he stopped her.
“I can see through your dress,” he sounded amused. “Your nipples are poking through the material, they’re making me want to put my mouth on them. Maybe bite them until you’re just this side of the pleasure-pain line. Come here. I want to taste you.”