Free In Safe Hands (The Safe House Series Book 1) by Leslie North

academy, he had always let others draw their conclusions. The presumed death of a friend seemed easier to explain than the real story.
    Alexa was quiet for a long moment. When her voice finally came, it was liquid, like the ceaseless rain, like a tepid elixir meant to numb the pain. "You were just a kid. Kids make mistakes. I'm sure if you met him today, he wouldn't blame you for what happened."
    "But I was to blame," Damian insisted. "And that feeling… it never left me. Daryl never left me. I got the tattoo so I would never betray anyone like that again. I've been thinking about adding another name."
    "Your partner?"
    Damian nodded.
    "You know…" Alexa mused. "Most normal guys get the name of the woman they love tattooed onto their skin."
    "I don't see the point," muttered Damian.
    "Of being in love?"
    "Of trying to immortalize something that is fleeting at best and destructive at worst," he continued.
    Alexa shook her head. "How long have you been waiting to lay that line on someone?"
    Damian's mouth stretched to a rueful grin. "A while."
    Alexa held her wrist aloft and turned it in the light. "Well, for what it's worth, I like your tattoo better."
    "So do I."
    A pillow dropped from above and connected solidly with his face. Before he had a chance to retaliate, Alexa had already whipped around in the bed and switched off the lamp. Damian thought it an unfair tactic. She knew he couldn't follow up the attack without encroaching on her territory.
    We're going to have to establish some ground rules, her voice echoed in his mind. Damian settled down onto his makeshift bed, still fully clothed. Ground rules were good. Ground rules were what he had been championing since day one of living together with the vexing beauty.
    The bed and the body shifting atop it pulled at his attention. Damian dragged a hand down his face.
    He knew he was in for another long night.
     
    ***
     
    They checked out without incident the next morning. Alexa waited for Damian outside a payphone across the street from the motel, keeping a lookout as he dialed the last number available to him. After a thirty second conversation, he hung up the phone.
    "I've found us a place to stay," he said as he exited the booth. "He's a former client of ours."
    "A former witness?"
    "Yes. I'm afraid that's all I can tell you."
    "Can we trust him?" she asked.
    Damian picked up his bag, shouldered it, and started down the road. "We don't have a choice. Rockwell's house is two days from here, and I don't want to chance another motel. Flynn lives along the way. He and his family will put us up."
    They walked in companionable silence. Damian would have never imagined the knockout in spiked heels he had met only a few days ago at a gas station would be a satisfactory road trip partner. Alexa rarely complained, though she did manage a few mild insults along the way that made him smile. He had a feeling she was only continuing the jabs to keep them both entertained. They had come to an understanding last night and forged a tentative connection in the darkness that he hoped the daunting miles of road stretched ahead of them couldn't shake.
    They walked all morning until they reached a sleepy, farming community. Sunlight had burned off the humidity brought on by the previous night’s rains and the midday clouds cast shifting shadows on the seemingly endless miles of sunflower crops, not yet mature enough to bloom.
    "Wait here," Damian instructed as he passed over the threshold of the local diner. A brief conversation with the hostess assured him that it was the right place. Their rendezvous with Flynn was a go.
    When he exited the diner, Alexa was nowhere to be found.
    He spotted her across the street with a strange man. She conversed quickly, using broad hand gestures and animated expressions. Damian had seen her wound like that before, the day he called her a child. The man was a good six inches shorter than Alexa. Spiked blond hair. Hawk-like nose. Slick shoes. Lit