“Agreed.” He grabbed his duffel. He’d had to purchase his fancy duds in Bangkok, and now he changed clothes, checked to make sure he didn’t have any random blood on his hands, then emerged from his room to see that Chloe had changed clothes too.
Jeans, a T-shirt, and Cons. She wore her rucksack over her shoulder. “The question is whether we can gather enough evidence to stop them before they stop us.”
He didn’t like how she said that. As if:challenge accepted.
They descended into the hotel parking garage. A different level from where they’d been chased, but concrete walls and exhaust fumes brought back memories.
Yeah, he—they—should be on a plane to the States. Instead, he’d rented a small Toyota sedan—nondescript and reliable, the kind of car that wouldn’t draw attention on rural highways.
Because this was oh such a great idea. And to make it worse, Chloe had gone quiet.
“You okay?” he asked as they loaded bags into the trunk.
Chloe paused. Sighed. “Maybe, no.”
“Well, points for honesty. Most people would’ve gone with ‘I’m fine’ while their eye was twitching.”
She gave him a thin smile.
“Our plan could go a dozen ways wrong,” he said.
“So,” she said, “we’re either incredibly brave or incredibly stupid.”
Wow, she sort of read his mind there. Without thinking, he pulled her into his arms. “Hey,” he said softly, “for what it’s worth, you’re handling this a lot better than most people would.And you look good doing it, which is just unfair to the rest of us mere mortals.”
What? Oh, Skeet—too much!What was wrong with him?
She stilled for a moment, then suddenly melted against him, face buried against his shoulder.
And she smelled good too.
“We’re in this together,” he said quietly, lips close to her ear. “Whatever happens next, you’re not facing it alone. Plus, I make excellent company in life-threatening situations. I’m very charming under pressure.”
Shoot. Skeet, just keep your mouth?—
“As long as you feed me,” she said, then looked up at him. Grinned.
Oh. Well.“Hope you like the Golden Arches, because this hotel tapped me out. And we didn’t even get to sleep in those extra-plush beds.”
She pushed him away. “Aw, you don’t sleep anyway. You sort of hover near sleep, like a cat.”
“I’m not like acat. I’m a panther.” He got into the car.
She got into the passenger side. “Take me to Mae Sot, panther man.”
SIX
Six hours of rural Thai highways had left Chloe’s nerves stretched thin. They’d left Bangkok around 6:00 p.m., driven until Skeet couldn’t keep his eyes open, then pulled over at a roadside rest stop, where they’d dozed fitfully in the car for a few hours before continuing at dawn.
Now, rice paddies bordered both sides of the road, broken only by clusters of wooden houses on stilts and the occasional Buddhist temple gleaming gold in the morning sun.
Beautiful country. Peaceful. Nothing like the churning in her stomach as they got closer to Mae Sot.
Skeet drove in silence. Maybe planning.Smart man.Because walking up to the widow of a murdered researcher to ask for evidence that could get them all killed? Yeah, that deserved some planning.
They slowed as they came into the city. Mae Sot sprawled around them—a border town that had seen everything from refugee crises to drug smuggling. Narrow streets lined with two-story shophouses painted in fading pastels, their ground floors converted into small businesses—internet cafés, motorcyclerepair shops, and restaurants serving both Thai and Burmese cuisine.
Vendors pushed carts loaded with fresh fruit through the growing morning traffic of motorcycles and pickup trucks. The air carried a mix of diesel exhaust, grilling meat, and the earthy smell of the nearby Moei River that marked the border with Myanmar.