Nate had no idea where they were in relation to the tower Nadia was planning to escape from, and he knew even the superspy couldn’t have figured out their position based on the tiny expanse of fence they could see through the trees.
“Why are we stopping?” Nate asked, his breath still short from the run.
“You need to stay here while I go on ahead and figure out where we are.” Nate started to protest, but Dante cut him off with a sharp gesture of his hand. “That white shirt of yours glows like a beacon. You don’t dare get too close to the fence, or someone might see you.”
Nate cursed as he looked down at himself and the crisp white tux shirt. He supposed he could take it off, but aside from the fact that it was freezing out, he didn’t think his pale skin would be that great an improvement. Dante, of course, was wearing all black, and his complexion was naturally darker, even though he’d lost the unfashionable tan he’d had when they’d first met. It only made sense to let him scout things out by himself, no matter how much it galled Nate to be left behind.
“Fine,” he said. “Just hurry.”
Dante gave him a look that managed to convey no shit without words. Then he began creeping forward, keeping low and darting from tree to tree. Even knowing where he was, Nate had trouble picking his form out of the darkness, and that had to be a good sign.
Dante was gone long enough that Nate wasn’t out of breath anymore when he returned. Nate knew that caution was absolutely necessary under the circumstances, but curbing his impatience was damn hard when urgency kept beating at him. It was possible his father had figured out Nate was going to show up here in an attempt to get to Nadia. Unlikely, given how impossible it seemed that he could get her out of there, but if his father did guess, pursuit wouldn’t be far behind.
“Looks like Nadia’s tower is about half a klick that way,” Dante said, waving to his right. “Let’s go.”
Nate didn’t know how far a klick was—a kilometer, maybe?—but he wasn’t about to admit his ignorance by asking. He wondered if Dante had used the term just to be annoying, or if he’d had military training before becoming a spy for Paxco security.
Nate reminded himself that he didn’t actually care how far half a klick was, that he’d run another five miles if that was what it took to get Nadia out of the Sanctuary. He took off after Dante.
It felt to Nate’s burning lungs and leg muscles that they had run at least a mile when Dante called a halt again. This time, he allowed Nate to get a little closer to the circle of light surrounding the Sanctuary’s fence, but he still made him stop before Nate could see much of anything.
“If you could see the guy in the tower,” Dante reminded him, “then he could see you. The last thing we need to do is put him on alert before Nadia gets there.”
Nate looked at his watch. It had been a good thirty minutes since they’d talked to Nadia. “She should be there already,” he said as his heart rate jacked up on a fresh surge of adrenaline. It felt like it had taken him forever to get here, and Nadia had had much less ground to cover. If the Sanctuary staff had caught her trying to escape …
“She’s cautious, Nate,” Dante said with a hint of impatience. “It takes a while to get from place to place when you’re cautious. Not that you’d know about that.”
Nate closed his eyes and ordered himself not to rise to the bait. And not to get testy that Dante insisted on calling him Nate when they were far from friends. “You really want to pick a fight now?” Talk about your bad timing.
“I’m not picking a fight. I’m just telling it like it is. I’m going to get closer, and you’re going to wait here. Might be a good time to get out the gun and turn the safety off. If things look like they’re about to go to hell, I’ll whistle. Keep your finger off the trigger until you’re sure you have something to shoot at. And try not to shoot Nadia or me if it comes to that.”
Nate’s self-control was definitely getting better. He refrained from making a smart-ass reply. He was never going to like Dante, but he had to grudgingly admire the guy. By being here, he was defying not only his official bosses in the security department, but his unofficial ones in the resistance. It took major guts to do that.
Nate withdrew the gun that he’d stuck in the back of his pants. He couldn’t see the safety in the oppressive darkness of the trees, but he found it by feel and flicked it off as Dante crept forward once again.
Nadia hit the ground with a thump that rattled her teeth. Her ankle buckled on impact, sending a stab of pain up her leg. She choked off a cry of pain as she fell to her hands and knees. The lights of the guard tower felt like a spotlight, picking her form out of the darkness and screaming “she’s trying to escape” to anyone nearby. Her ankle throbbed, but she felt too vulnerable in the light to wait for it to ease up.
Hobbling as fast as she could, she half-walked, half-limped toward the trees. She caught a flash of motion, nothing more than a patch of shadow darker than its surroundings, and she came to a sudden halt, panting with exertion and pain.
“Dante?” she called in a breathless whisper, her hand straying to the canister of knockout gas, in case it wasn’t him.
“Keep moving!” Dante said abruptly, stepping into the fringes of the light.
Nadia wanted to throw her arms around him and weep, but Dante was all business, grabbing her and dragging her toward the trees. She stumbled along behind him, her ankle screaming in protest. Once they left the circle of light, she could barely see anything. The cloudless night and Dante’s black clothes made him practically invisible.
As soon as they were safely under cover of the trees, Dante hauled her into his arms and hugged her so tight she could barely breathe. Not that she had the slightest inclination to complain.
“Are you all right?” he whispered in her ear, and the brush of his lips against her skin made her shiver.
Her sister was dead, her life was in ruins, someone had just tried to kill her, but other than that …
Nadia pulled back from the embrace so she could look up into Dante’s eyes and drink in the sight of him.
“I thought I would never see you again,” she whispered.
He gazed down at her, opening and closing his mouth a couple of times as if he couldn’t quite decide what to say. In the end, he settled for kissing her, his lips hot, hungry, and almost desperate against hers. He pulled away sooner than she wanted, his hands cupping her face.
“I wish we had time for a proper hello,” he said, “but we have to get moving.”
Nadia agreed on both counts. She had no idea how long she had before the alarm was raised, or even what the Sanctuary staff would do about it when it was—and she didn’t want to find out.
“Just give me your arm for a bit,” she said, slipping her hand into the crook of his elbow. “I’m a little gimpy.”
Dante swept her off her feet so fast she gasped in surprise. Her arms settled around his neck by instinct, and she held on tight as he made his way through the darkened trees. She couldn’t help cuddling against him, noticing the firmness of his chest and the breadth of his shoulders. He carried her with an effortless strength that was undeniably sexy, and she felt way safer in his arms than she had any right to feel under the circumstances.
“Where’s Nate?” she asked, though she was reluctant to let anyone else intrude on this moment. “And Agnes?”
“I left Nate a little ways back,” Dante answered, “and Agnes is with the car. We’ll have you out of here in no time.”
And then what, she wondered, but didn’t ask because she doubted Dante had any more answers than she.