CHAPTER 34: A RAT'S TALE

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The audible click snapped me out of slumber

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The audible click snapped me out of slumber.

I hadn't meant to fall asleep, I'd slept already, after all, but the night's events had exhausted me and, I had to say, it had felt okay to let down my guard with him. In fact, it had felt better than okay. It had felt amazing to lay my head against his chest and let him put his arms around me and just let go.

But the click came nevertheless, and I shot up in bed to see Tom standing over his open rucksack, a SIG Sauer pistol in his hand, one of the items looted from the Saudi Embassy secret arms cache.

I stiffened, bunching up handfuls of bedcover in my fists.

'Tom?'

Tom slid the magazine back into the gun and it clicked into place. When he turned his head to look at me, for a split second, there was coldness and a distance that made my heart judder because it was so unrecognisable from the Tom of last night and everything I hated and expected to see from the Grey he was underneath.

He smiled and the alien coldness was gone in an instant, but I'd seen it and he was still holding the SIG.

Tom's smile faltered when he realised I wasn't smiling back and instead, was now frozen in place, staring at the gun in his hand. He blinked.

'Sorry,' he said, quickly turning to place the gun carefully back inside the open rucksack. 'I was just...' When he turned to glance back at me, he looked embarrassed – Tom, so Tom – and grinned sheepishly. 'I was just looking.'

'You seem pretty comfortable around guns.' I couldn't relax the tension out of my shoulders. Why couldn't I just relax around him?

Tom hesitated, a flicker of something indiscernible – what was that – in his eyes.

'Well, I've had plenty of time to practice,' he said, walking to the side of the bed and reaching for his shirt which was still on the floor. My gaze flitted over his chest, his shoulders, his arms, remembering everywhere my lips had touched last night. I didn't realise I was staring so much until my eyes met his and his mouth twitched with amusement. Maybe he was remembering too, or maybe his amusement was for another reason?

Stop it, Evie. Just stop.

'We should get out of here, while we can,' he said.

I turned my head to look at the windows where the drapes still hung heavily over the glass.

'Have they gone?' I asked, surprised at how easily I'd almost forgotten the Greys were the reason we'd ended up in the room in the first place.

'It looks pretty quiet out there,' he remarked, sitting down on the edge of the bed so he could pull on his boots. 'I doubt there'll be a better time to chance it. Anyway, we can't stay locked away in here forever, can we?'

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