January in Atlantis, Alyssa Day [read any book txt] 📗

Eva suddenly wasn’t very hungry anymore, but she knew she needed food. She’d eaten almost nothing all day. She needed to keep her strength up if she was to have any hope of outwitting Scott—Snake—and his demonic powers.

She glanced over at the very large Atlantean warrior crammed into the passenger seat of her very small car. “Are you okay if we just drive through someplace? I don’t really feel like being around people right now. I know a place out in the desert, not very far, where we could eat and have some peace and quiet while we figure out what we’re doing.”

“Yes, I think that would be great. Do you want…” He sighed and looked out the window, his sentence trailing off.

“Do I want what?”

“Do you want me to get Griffin to join us so we can talk out the plans?”

“No.” After she blurted out the word, she felt like she had to explain. She wasn’t sure how to explain though. She just knew she wanted time alone with Flynn, time to relax and feel safe before whatever was going to happen, happened. The mage wasn’t the type of person who was restful to be around.

“I just feel like enjoying some peace and quiet before my human sacrifice,” she said, a weak attempt at a joke.

“Not funny,” Flynn growled. He reached across the seat, took her hand, squeezed it once, and then let go so she could put it back on the steering wheel.

“I’m not going to let him hurt you,” he said, and his words had the ring of a vow. Eva suddenly felt as if something sacred had passed between them in the dimly lit, intimate, cave-like space inside the speeding car.

Cave. Cave-like space. What was…

Before she could follow the thought to its end though, she arrived at the drive-through restaurant and lost her train of thought. She gave their order of burgers, fries, and milkshakes—hey, the condemned deserved a good last meal, to heck with the calories—and then headed out into the moonlit night toward the desert.

She loved it out here. The peace and the open space. She loved the mountains too, and the ocean. Anywhere in nature, preferably with a dog or five by her side, and she would be happy hiking all day long. She hadn’t had much time for it lately, what with always being on the run and trying to make enough money to stay ahead of the Dark Angels in the next place Snake chased her down.

Maybe, if she survived this, she’d make a point to go hiking at least once a week.

Flynn was quiet on the drive, glancing at her every once in a while but saying nothing. Instead of being tense, the silence between them felt almost peaceful, even though the low hum of constant sexual tension between them never went away in spite of the danger they were in. She felt as if she could find him in a dark room, even if she were blindfolded, by feeling her way along the electric current that sparkled and snapped between them.

She had so many questions she wanted to ask him, but they could wait a while. Just for now, in the car, she would enjoy this little bubble of peace and pretend nothing dangerous could ever find them.

When she arrived at the turnoff, she signaled and slowed down, and Flynn spoke up for the first time in about fifteen miles.

“Where are we?”

“There’s a hiking path trailhead at the end of this little road. Almost nobody ever uses it though, or at least not when I’ve been here. And certainly nobody will be here in the dark. There’s a picnic table. I thought we could get out, stretch our legs, and eat.”

She suddenly felt shy. What if he thought it was a stupid idea? On the heels of that thought came another, stronger one.

Why should she care?

If he was the type of person who thought her idea of a picnic was stupid, he wasn’t worth her time, was he?

She smiled at the feel of another piece of her damaged soul fitting itself back into the puzzle that was Eva. Pre-Scott Eva.

Authentic Eva.

“A picnic sounds wonderful,” Flynn said, sighing with what sounded like contentment. “I’ve never been a fan of spending a lot of time in cities and towns. Towns are full of people, and people come with problems. And if you don’t have any problems of your own, they’ll be glad to foist theirs off on you.”

She threw a wry glance at him, and he had the sense to look sheepish. After all, he’d foisted his problems on her. But no. Not his problems. Those girls were more than just problems. They had to find them soon.

She parked and locked the car, and they walked down a path to a place that opened up and contained a few benches and a couple of picnic tables. As she’d guessed, hers had been the only car in the lot. Nobody was here either. She picked up a newspaper that someone had left on a table and put in the recycling bin.

Flynn, meanwhile, was unwrapping their food. “This smells amazing,” he said, groaning. “I had no idea how hungry I was until I smelled this food. It was torture not to just rip into it in the car.”

She grinned at him. “Yeah, at first I thought my engine was making another new sound, and then I realized it was your stomach growling.”

He laughed and handed her a milkshake. “Maybe. But I think two double cheeseburgers will take care of that for me.”

Eva started to unwrap her chicken sandwich. “Sure, if it doesn’t kill you—”

She froze, her words trailing off.

Flynn moved around to sit on Eva’s side of the bench with her. “Stop it. Nobody’s killing you. Nobody’s dying. You’re going to stay alive and fight the good fight. We’re going to get those girls out of there as soon as we find them, and we’re pretty sure that Snake is the way to do it. So