He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “And the moral of my story, I’ve since realized, is that sometimes our most profound lessons come from a five-year-old child, and sometimes they show up as a mangy old dog.”
“Or as a fellow scientist who for some reason has clamped his teeth into me, and refuses to let go until I go home and apologize to my mother?”
He suddenly stiffened. “No,” he said with a growl. He set her back over the console and into her seat. “ Don’tcompare me to Maxine. That dog was a gutsy, selfless hero, whereas I’m a self-serving bastard who didn’t think twice about stealing someone’s life’s work.”
She gasped softly. “Is that how you see yourself?”
He looked over at her, the dash lights accentuating the harsh planes of his face. “Fiona had it wrong, Camry. I’m nobody’s miracle.”
“But you didn’t mean to destroy Podly.”
“I sure as hell meant to use the data I was trying to download,” he said, turning away to look out his side window.
Camry stared out the windshield, desperately wanting to tell Luke that hehadn’t caused Podly to crash, Fiona had. But even though she knew they would have to talk about it eventually, she simply didn’t have the courage to open that particular Pandora’s box quite yet.
She started the truck, checked for oncoming traffic, and accelerated back onto the interstate. Maybe Fiona did have it wrong. Miracles were the stuff of magic, after all, and the magic wasn’t known for rewarding hijackers and no-good, rotten liars. It was more prone to toying with them the way a cat toyed with a mouse—or the way an impish niece with a thing for satellites did—just before sending down some seriously bad karma.
Yeah, well . . . if she and Luke had some dues to pay, Camry couldn’t think of a better person to pay them with. Because contrary to what he might think of himself, she knew that, just like Maxine, Lucian Renoir had no intention of letting the raging river sweep her away.
Chapter Twelve
They arrived in Pine Creek shortly after midnight, but it took them another two hours to get their hands on a snowcat—which they virtually stole out from under the noses of the TarStone Mountain Ski Resort night-grooming crew. It was nearly three in the morning before they got back to the truck they’d hidden several miles from the resort, and Luke couldn’t decide if Camry had a death wish or if she just got her jollies from skulking around in the shadows.
He did learn some interesting things about himself, however. One, he probably should stick to physics, as he’d likely starve to death if he had to steal for a living; and two, even if he had spent the entire night in a cold sweat, he rather liked performing any number of illegal acts with Camry. At one point he’d even been tempted to look down the front of herpants to see what equipment shewas packing; the woman appeared to have nerves of steel, the focus of a Navy Seal, and the mind of a master criminal.
She also had a rather perverse sense of timing; like when they’d been hiding in the maintenance garage while they’d waited for one of the workers to kindly refuel the groomer they intended to . . . borrow. Apparently having grown bored, Camry had gone after Luke’spackage. But just as he’d been trying to wrestle her hands away from his belt buckle, the garage lights had suddenly gone out and the man had left.
Camry had immediately returned to criminal mode, leaving Luke—and his bewildered lower brain—sprawled in the corner, in total darkness, wondering when exactly he had lost his mind.
Camry finally pulled the snowcat to a stop beside her SUV and shut off the engine, snapped on the interior lights, and shot him a smug smile.
Luke pried his fingers off the handle he’d been clutching in a death grip. “Would you care to explain what your intentions were back there in the garage?”
“I intended to steal us transportation. Which I did.”
“No, I mean when we were stuck hiding behind that equipment. It wasn’t exactly the time or place for slap and tickle. And besides, I thought you were . . . um, off the market for a few days.”
Her smile turned downright cheeky. “Hey, just because the Ferris wheel isn’t running doesn’t mean the entireamusement park is shut down,” she said with a laugh, opening her door and hopping out.
Luke stared after her, nonplussed.
He suddenly gave a bark of laughter and scrambled after her, happy to realize their little affair was still on—which made him glad he’d snuck out to the drugstore yesterday and purchased a whole box of condoms.
Camry opened the back door of the truck to let the dogs out as Luke approached her, still chuckling. “What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Oh, nothing. I was just thinking how this excursion into the wilderness is going to be a lot more interesting than my last one.”
Tigger bounded out of the truck behind Max, only to give a yelp of surprise when she suddenly disappeared. Luke fished the dachshund out of the snow and set her back on the seat. “Yes, Tigger,” he said, brushing off the shivering dog. “I’ll bet this is exactly how you pictured your Christmas sleepover with Auntie Cam, isn’t it?”
“Her sweater is in the green backpack,” Camry said. She opened the rear hatch and started transferring their gear to the snowcat. “Just stomp down a circle in the snow so she can go pee.”
Luke dug through the backpack, found what looked like a doll’s sweater, and started dressing Tigger. Or he tried to, realizing he should have paid better attention when Kate had conned him into playing house with her dolls. “At least it’s bright pink, so we’ll be able to find you,” he muttered, pushing what he hoped was the neck down over Tigger’s head. “What are we going to do for fuel?” he called back to Camry. “I don’t remember seeing any gas stations on Springy when I was there.”
“I stole this particular groomer because it burns diesel. And Megan and Jack are building a camp on the lake at the base of the mountain, which means they would have lugged up a drum of fuel last summer that we can use.”
“Did you hear that, Tig? We’re going to teach you to steal, too. That way we can all share a jail cell so you won’t be scarred for life.”
Luke finally sighed in defeat, scooped Tigger up, and carried her to the back of the truck. “Here,” he said, holding the dog out to Camry. “You figure this contraption out and I’ll load our gear.”
She tucked her hands behind her back. “You need the practice for when you have kids,” she said, her eyes shining with amusement.
Luke hugged the half-dressed dachshund to his chest. “I’ve decided not to have children, because I’m afraid they might addle my brain.”
Camry instantly sobered, spun around, grabbed their sleeping bags, and headed to the snowcat.
Luke smiled at her stomping away, and rubbed Tigger’s head with the short beard he’d started growing three days ago for their camping trip.
Oh yeah, it was going to be a very interesting adventure.
Camry gritted her teeth as she grabbed the handle to keep herself from flying into the windshield, rethinking her brilliant idea of teaching Luke how to drive the snowcat. “Are you aimingfor every damn rock and fallen log?”