The burger on that sign looked no more appealing than the place itself.
I sniffed. “I still don’t like this plan.”
“Sweetheart, we have no choice. They’re right up our asses.”
My gaze flickered to the mirror. The black car had stopped on the side of the road.
Great. Just great. I unbuckled the belt and gave in to the inevitable. “Okay, let’s get this over with.”
We climbed out of the car and walked over to the door. All the time the back of my neck prickled, and it was all I could do not to run.
They were watching.
They were always watching.
No matter what Egan or I or the kids did, they were there. Them and Marsten.
I shivered, and jumped a little when Trae touched a hand to my back. “In you go,” he said, guiding me through the door.
A little bell chimed as Trae closed the door, and a voice from the rear of the building called out, “Won’t be a moment, loves.”
I raised my eyebrows and looked at Trae. “Now, that’s the most feminine-sounding male voice I’ve heard in a long time.”
He frowned. “That it was.”
“Could it be the great planner got this one wrong?”
“I don’t get things wrong, sweetheart.”
“Call me that one more time and I’m going to stomp on your toes.”
He looked down. “Bare feet versus boots. Not so worried.”
“You obviously haven’t spent enough time looking at my feet.”
His gaze twinkled. “Most certainly not. There’s nicer things to look at than toes.”
Footsteps echoed as someone marched smartly up the hall to our right. Seconds later, a matronly looking woman with gray hair and a merry smile appeared behind the counter.
“Now, what can I get you young people?”
“Is old Harry here?” Trae asked.
“Nope. That bastard got sacked a month ago for pilfering the till. Me and Frank run the place now.”
“There goes the seduction plan,” I murmured cheerfully.
“Don’t suppose you do a traditional breakfast?” Trae said, cupping his hand under my elbow and leading me over to a table near the window.
“Depends what you mean by traditional,” she replied. “We do pancakes, waffles, and bacon and eggs.”
“One pancakes, one bacon and eggs, and two coffees, thanks.”
“The pancakes had better be for you, buddy boy,” I said, as the woman headed back out to the kitchen. “Otherwise there’s going to be words said.”
“You don’t have a sweet tooth?”
“Not when it comes to breakfast.” I slid into a booth seat and kept my back to the black car.
“How about we share the plates?” He slid in the booth opposite and crossed his arms on the table as he casually looked out the window. “There’s three men in that car.”
“Three?” A shiver ran through me. “There’s probably two hunters. The driver would be one of the scientists.”
He looked at me, eyebrow raised. “You make them sound like cowboys intent on drugging cattle.”
“They are. And we’re the cattle.”
He studied me for a moment, then shook his head. “I wish I’d known. I would have done something to try and get Egan out. And, in the process, the rest of you.”
I smiled. “I had the same thought when I was eighteen. I got caught.”
“I’m not eighteen, and I’m also a very good thief.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered.”
“So little confidence in my abilities,” he said, voice bland. “And yet here you are, trusting them.”
Because I had no other choice. I needed those codes, and I knew nothing about breaking into houses, let alone safes. I crossed my arms and stared out the window, watching the tufted grasses that lined the parking lot sway lightly in the breeze. Remembered wind of a different kind—a wind that howled and moaned through long, dark nights. A wind so cold it could kill if it touched bare skin. We’d gone to the Arctic to avoid them when we’d first escaped, but hadn’t stayed long. It had been far too cold for an air dragon to survive, despite Egan’s protestations that he was fine. So we’d looped around Iceland, and had come back through the North Atlantic, making our way down and around South America before swimming—or in Egan’s case, flying—back up to Mexico.
It had all been for naught, because they’d been waiting for us. And yet Egan had been so sure that they wouldn’t know about the villa. So how had they found us so quickly and easily?
Trae snapped his fingers in front of my face, and I jumped. “What?” I said, scowling at him.
“You were off in your thoughts again.” His gaze went from me to the car and back again. “Tell me, why do you think they killed Egan? If he was the only full-grown male, it makes no sense for them to get rid of him.”
“I think they considered him to be more dangerous than Mom or me, and he did start the fire that allowed us to escape.” Even if the fire wasn’t his. I shrugged. “I’m sure they were intending to keep his body and study him that way, but I foiled that by snatching him away.”
“I would have thought being able to control water was a greater threat than fire. Especially when you’re all being kept beside a loch containing a huge amount of freshwater.” He leaned back in the seat as the old woman walked over with two coffees.
“There you go, loves. Breakfast will be another five minutes or so.”
“Thanks,” I said, giving her a smile.
Trae waited until she’d walked back to the kitchen, then added, “If a sea dragon can control any sort of water, why did you never call the loch?”
I grimaced. “I can’t tell you why my mother never did, because I just don’t know. In my case—”I blew out a breath. “I did try, but the loch didn’t answer. I thought at first it was because I was a half breed, that maybe I simply didn’t have the strength to make the water obey over any distance. When we finally realized they were giving us a drug that restricted our abilities and we managed to wean ourselves off it, I could have tried, but then there were the kids to worry about.”
He frowned. “Why would they be a worry?”
“Because while I might have been able to call freshwater, I can’t control its fury or its path like I can with seawater. Carli and a couple of the others couldn’t swim—I asked them. If I’d called the loch, they would have drowned.”
“Ah. A nasty situation, then.”
“To put it mildly,” I agreed. “What are we going to do about the car and the people within it?”
He picked up his coffee and took a sip. “First priority is to deflate the tires. Then we can ditch our car once we’re free and get a new one.”
I wrapped my hands around my coffee mug, but it did little to warm them. “You’re pretty free and easy with other people’s cars, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “Part of the joy of being a thief is an easy contempt for other people’s belongings.”
“Does that include the girlfriends of other men?”
His sudden grin was so sexy, so filled with heat, that an answering flame rose from deep within me.
“I am not my father’s son. Not in that regard, anyway.”
“So you’re a one-woman man?”
“I will be, when I find the right woman.”
I raised an eyebrow. “So you’re totally unattached right now?”
His gaze met mine, and something in those bright depths sent a shiver through my soul. This man was hunting, too.
“Currently, I’m single,” he said softly. “But you never know when that might change.”
Another tremor ran through me, and I wasn’t sure whether it was anticipation or fear. I pulled my gaze from his and tried to calm the idiotic racing of my pulse. “How do you intend to get out of the diner without being seen?”
“Simple. I’ll go to the bathroom.”
I took a sip of coffee, and raised my gaze to his again. The heat of hunting had faded from his eyes, but not the amusement. It leant a warmth to the cold, bright depths. “So there’s a window in the bathroom?”