𝐂𝐑𝐘𝐁𝐀𝐁𝐘 | mitch rapp

24. the next step

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
THE NEXT STEP

"Home sweet home."

Another motel. After staying in the safe house for two and a half days, Angeline was more than disappointed. A double bed sat in the middle of the room, thin white bed covers on top, and there was a small kitchenette and a table and chair. It looked like every other motel that they had stopped in so far.

Angeline walked past Mitch as he was checking the room to make sure it was one hundred percent safe, rolling her eyes as he went into the bathroom with his gun in his hand. She flopped down onto the rickety old mattress and pulled out her duffel bag which was filled with her clothes and books.

"It's a good thing I like reading, or else I probably would have died of boredom," Angeline noted as she pulled them all out. "Are you a spine breaker?"

Mitch looked slightly startled as he emerged from the bathroom, his face screwing up a little. "Excuse me?"

Angeline smirked, realising he had taken it sexually. "I mean, do you break the spines of your books? I know some people think that it's practically a sin to do so - but I can't imagine reading at an angle. I break them as soon as I get them. And I dogtail the pages instead of using a bookmark most of the time. Another crime, apparently."

"Does that matter?" Mitch asked.

"To some people," Angeline quipped, "I guess you're not a reader."

"No, not really," he said as he pulled out the chair at the table and grabbed his laptop, opening the lid. "I could never imagine the words. I preferred the movies."

"Oh, I used to be such a bookworm," the brunette responded as she held her book to her ear and snapped the spine of it - it wasn't that satisfying actually. "The smell is one of the best parts."

She raised it to her nose this time and inhaled deeply, causing Mitch to glance over at her with a strange look.

"Wanna smell?"

"Pass."

Angeline sighed heavily and peered at the front cover, settling her head down against the pillow behind her. It was about midday by now, so she reckoned that she could probably finish it before tonight. So long as Mitch didn't make any plans to leave, although she didn't think he would.

Mitch pulling over into a motel so soon in the day had actually been rather abrupt. One moment Angeline was sitting in the car waiting for him to come back from where he was using the bathroom in the woods, and the next he was coming back and telling her that his superior told him he needed to check something out.

He wouldn't tell her what it was and Angeline had no energy to push.

"So were you cool in high school?" Angeline asked.

Mitch scoffed. "I was in between. I blended in."

"Really?" Angeline narrowed her eyes at him.

Just looking at Mitch, she would have assumed that he had been popular in high school. He was tall and handsome and was strong - he probably played sports or something. He probably would have been the kind of guy that everybody had a crush on. I mean, Paige had certainly liked him enough to hit on him, and even Darcy had said he was hot and she was a lesbian.

Or should she call her Mila now? That's what Mitch had told her Darcy's real name was when he looked into her phone. Was she even actually a lesbian? Or did she pretend to lure Angeline into her bed? Her head hurt thinking about it and she wondered what 'Darcy' was doing right now. Probably helping out her own father - Angeline's father's opposition.