When he returned, he got into bed beside her and pulled her into his arms. She snuggled close, throwing a leg over his and wrapping her arm around his waist.
They fell asleep like that, entwined like two vines growing together.
“IT’S GO TIME,” Chase said, his expression somber as he pulled on a baseball cap. He had a pair of dark sunglasses tucked into his jacket and a gun beneath it.
Sophie adjusted the ugly dress even though there was nothing to adjust. It hung off her like a sack, though it clung to her breasts in a very unflattering way. She looked like a granny. She slipped on the glasses she’d bought at Walmart. She’d put her hair in a tight bun at the base of her neck, and she’d gone minimal on the makeup. She wrapped a pink scarf around her head and tied it beneath her chin Grace Kelly-style.
She didn’t look like Grace Kelly. More like Grace’s maiden aunt. She frowned at her reflection, but Chase only nodded his approval.
“Looking very unattractive, Soph. Excellent job.”
“Thanks. I think.”
His green eyes were very serious. “You ready for this?”
“Yes.”
“You’re staying in the car, you got it? I’m getting the package from the carrier before he ever gets to Tyler’s building, but you’re along just in case I don’t intercept it in time. We’ll go to Madame Renard if we have to—but the plan is not to let it get that far.”
“Won’t Sergei Turov have the same plan?”
“Maybe. Which is why we have to get to it first.”
Sophie’s heart tripped along like a skier on a downhill run. She was nervous about the plan, sure. But she was also nervous because when they got the flash drive, this thing between them—whatever this thing was—was over.
It hit her that she’d yet to get him in her mouth. He’d managed to make her so incoherent with pleasure last night that she’d fallen asleep after he’d made her come—over and over—but she’d never explored him the way she’d wanted.
And now she might never get to. That thought made her heart ache and her belly tighten.
There was so much more she wanted to say, much of it nonsensical and confusing. She had this crazy feeling that if something happened to him, she’d never recover. That she would mourn him for the rest of her life.
She caught the lapels of his jacket and held him hard. “Chase, I—”
“What, baby?” he asked softly, running the back of a finger over her cheek.
“I don’t know,” she said truthfully. “I just know I want more of you—”
“I want more of you too.”
“But when this is over, when we have the flash drive—” She couldn’t say it.
“We’ll figure it out, Sophie.”
She didn’t know what else to say. She’d already said too much. It was crazy to feel so strongly, but she had a connection with him, and she didn’t want it to end. She wanted more of the insanity of being with Chase. More of the excitement. More of him.
He squeezed her hand. “We have to go now. We have work to do.”
She nodded. He shouldered the gun bag, and she rolled the suitcases out the door. But he wouldn’t let her carry anything downstairs. He took both suitcases, carried them down, and then she rolled them outside and along the sidewalk until they reached the car. He shoved them in the trunk and stowed the guns behind her seat before helping her into the car as if she really were a helpless old granny.
He got into the driver’s seat and started the engine. Then he turned to her. “You do everything I tell you, got it?”
Her heart thumped. “Yes.”
“If I tell you to drive away, if I’m bleeding in the road and six guys are standing over me with guns drawn, you drive away. Got it?”
She swallowed. “Yes.”
“You sure?”
No. “Yes.”
He nodded. “Good. Then let’s get rolling.”
27
Chase fucking hated that he had to take Sophie along with him. More than anything, he wanted to leave her locked up tight in the apartment. Safe. But if he couldn’t get to the package on the van, then he had to take her to see Madame Renard, in which case there would be no time to turn around and go back for her. If he had to get the package from Madame, it had to happen very fast.
Unfortunately, there was every chance that Turov had the same plan he did, which was to intercept the driver—but it was a risky plan as plans went. Far easier to wait for the package to be delivered and snatch it then. Except Chase couldn’t count on Turov caring about the risk, which meant that Sophie was in danger every step of the way on this mission.