Free Shock by Francine Pascal

what had happened in the world during his confinement, Sam gobbled up with greed. He couldn’t explain why he had such a craving for information. The only reason he could think of was that he just wanted to make up for lost time. To recreate the world as it rolled on without him so he wouldn’t have this massive blank spot in his worldview.
    All that reading made Sam tired. He was still physically drained from his injuries—and the stress on his body wasn’t helping his diabetes, either. He marveled at the fact that his captors had treated him so badly—neglected his every need—but had managed to get him the insulin he needed to survive. As if they wanted him to live, but with a broken spirit. Well, today’s research mission had taken him a long way toward repairing that spirit.
    But damn, his body still needed some mending.
    As he hopped on the subway and headed back down to Chinatown, Sam noticed with a rush that he hadn’t thought about Gaia in hours. Not that she wasn’t there—but she hadn’t been in the forefront of his mind. She was starting to shrink from the massive icon in his mind into regular old Gaia Moore, high school girl who had stolen his heart.
    Funny thing, though. His heart still tightened at the thought of her. His temperature still spiked when he pictured the way her hands brushed across his chest. He still had the most massive feelings for her. Even shrunk down to normal size, Gaia still ruled Sam’s heart.
    And damn it, between misplacing his cell phone, Dmitri’s Internet habit, and the lack of working public phones in this city, he hadn’t been able to get in touch with her all morning. Couldn’t even comfort her—as a friend—after her fight with Ed. It drove him crazy. But that was the way it was.
    The last thing he expected, as he exited the train and walked up to Dmitri’s apartment, was to see the object of his desire, obsessive or otherwise, wrapped in a terry cloth robe with her hair swathed in a turbaned towel. Even in his fantasies, he hadn’t thought he’d walk into the dingy apartment to find Gaia Moore dripping wet and basically naked. In fact, a postshower Gaia was the last thing Sam Moon had expected to find as he opened the door to Dmitri’s apartment and trudged toward his room.

End of Story
    â€œOH! GOD!” GAIA YELPED AS SHE came out of the bathroom to ask Dmitri what he’d done with her clothes. Stupid, stupid, STUPID, she thought. Her heart felt like it had just exploded inside her chest, leaving pulsating bits of arterial matter splattered all over her lungs and stomach. All the warm relaxation of the hot shower drained from her body as she came face-to-face with Sam Moon.
    Sam, the guy she still had lingering feelings for. Sam, the guy who had apparently arranged for her murder the night before. Part of her still bloomed with happiness at the sight of that handsome face; the rest of her wilted with disgust at the guy who’d set her up to be whacked. With all the breaking and entering and arson of the afternoon, she had forgotten her resolution to get out of Dmitri’s apartment before Sam got back.
    Because this was more than she could stand to think about right now.
    â€œGaia! Are you all right?” Sam seemed surprised and thrilled to see her—tried to hug her, in fact. Maybe he was checking for the bullet holes that were supposed to be there. Maybe he was surprised just to see her without a body bag and toe tag. Or maybe she was wrong and he hadn’t set her up.
    Click. Her mind turned off and her instincts switched on. Gaia had to get out of this claustrophobic apartment, and pronto.
    â€œSam, you are back early,” Dmitri said with dismay, appearing behind him with Gaia’s clothes, cleaned and folded.
    â€œI thought nobody would be here,” Gaia said to him. “I thought our discussion was top secret.”
    â€œIt is,” Dmitri told her.