Hide Seek Kill - A Thriller Novel || Draft One

Eight: Zach

"Make sure you keep track of where we are!" Naomi warns, trailing behind the others.

Sasha turns around, walking backwards for a moment. "Relax," he assures them. "I've navigated catacombs when on the run in Cairo. I think I know what I'm doing." He turns to face forward again and Zach can't help but wonder if he's ever done anything normal.

"He thinks he is so cool..." Zach mumbles under his breath. In the corner of his eye, he sees Liz smile. Looks like she heard that. Oops, Zach thinks sarcastically.

"Yeah. Well, one time Li—" Seeing Liz's face, he quickly changes his wording. "—Eliza and I were trying to hunt down the descendants of some Nazis because they had some information we needed, and ended up having to hide in a convent to get away from their goons."

He sees Liz smile again, which causes his heart to soar up to the clouds.

"Oh my God! Remember how mad the nuns were when they found us? And then one of them was actually Kassy—" Zach notes how her voice falters at the mention of their friend K. Belle. That isn't her real name, of course, but it was how everyone in the Blue Star knew her.

"Oh, and how Kas had to use some karate to hold them off once they realized she wasn't actually a nun!" Zach can't help but laugh a bit. Those were some good times. It was back when he and Liz were still together, kicking ass one mission at a time.

"Their reactions were priceless! I think I even heard one of them curse!" Liz looks up at Zach through her lashes and he wonders if she knows how much that has an effect on him. His heart is melting.

"Wow, you've got a stuffy Catholic nun to curse. Congratulations." Naomi rolls her eyes, but there's a small smile pulling at her features. It is quite hilarious to imagine them all red-faced and irritated in their habits and veils.

"That's not a huge accomplishment. On a mission in France I made a priest swear like he was an old sailor!" A sly grin pulls at Sasha's face.

Wow. Way to ruin things, you show off. Zach is about to say something back, but Liz beats him to it.

"Oh, so now it's a competition to see who can make the holy people swear?" Liz counters. "You're pathetic, you know."

Sasha turns back around, once more walking backwards. Zach doubts that he's actually keeping track of where they're going.

"And you know it's why you find me so irresistible," he wags his eyebrows and all Zach wants to do is wipe that smug grin off the Russian's face. Preferably in a painful way.

"Ugh! Will you stop already, Volkov? Just because you saved my life once, that does not mean that you can just...flirt with me constantly. It will never happen. Period."

Sasha's face turns into a dangerous snarl. "I could've left you to die. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't be here."

By now, the group has completely stopped and is standing in the middle of the hallway. Liz's whole demeanor has changed and Zach worries that she may kill Sasha herself.

I sure hope she doesn't, he thinks. That's supposed to be my job!

"Well," she huffs. "I guess you're just as selfish as I thought you were."

Ooh! This is getting good, Zach thinks. He can't seem to hide the triumphant look from his face. That is, until Liz whips her head around to him. He is quick to mask it, but it seems he wasn't fast enough.

Uh-oh.

"And you, Zachary Elsher, aren't any better. Just because we have some history doesn't mean we're still close, got it?" Zach's face flushes slightly, but he brushes off the warning like it doesn't hurt as bad as it does.