Free Blacklisted by Gena Showalter Page A

ahead.
    â€œI couldn’t. You would be in way more trouble.”
    His hand settled on my lower back. “You keep surprising me, Camille Robins.”
    I kept surprising myself.
    â€œI’m getting tired of waiting,” the purring one called. “I haven’t met my kill ratio this week, and you’re seriously pressing your luck.”
    â€œBlow up the car then,” Erik taunted. “Our time is up anyway.”
    I paled. Had he just told them to blow up our car?
    â€œDon’t tempt me. A lot of people want you dead, Erik. I just want to talk to you.”
    If I’d had the strength, I would have slapped my hand against Erik’s mouth so that he couldn’t respond. As it was, he didn’t incite her further. “Give me a moment to think,” he called.
    â€œYou don’t have any options but death or surrender.”
    â€œLet me think, damn it!”
    Pause.
    â€œOne minute,” came the response. “And the countdown begins now. If you haven’t made a decision by then, I’ll make it for you. I’ve already given you more leeway than I’ve ever given any other. The fact that we were once friends is beginning to mean less and less.”
    â€œSo why’d you do it?” he said quietly. “Why’d you really stay with me?”
    A moment passed before I realized he was talking to me. “We have one minute and you want to talk about this now ?”
    â€œYes. So hurry.”
    â€œThey already knew my name,” I replied, trying to absorb his strength. His hair hung low, covering his eyebrows. There were frown lines around his mouth. And yet, he’d never looked sweeter.
    â€œYou didn’t know that until a minute ago. Why?” he persisted.
    He wanted the truth. Fine. I had nothing to lose at this point. “I couldn’t just leave you here to die.”
    â€œEven though I ignore you at school?”
    â€œEven though.”
    â€œEven though you think I’m a drug dealer?”
    I caught the phrasing and blinked. He’d said “you think.” Not “I am.” In that moment, hope that he was just a regular guy who’d been misunderstood bloomed and spread. “Yeah.”
    His expression had become vulnerable. Soft. As hopeful as I felt.
    â€œEven though.”
    â€œStupid,” he said, but there was a lightness to his tone that hadn’t been there before. “Brave.” And then he turned toward me and placed a soft kiss on my lips, shocking me.
    The kiss didn’t last long, but it shook me to the core.
    Danger was all around us and there was a mental tick-tock in my mind, but I didn’t care. Erik Troy had just given me a kiss. Not with tongue, like I’d dreamed of so many nights, but with caring—as if we were about to die and he wanted to savor his last few minutes on Earth.
    Even though the kiss had stopped, he didn’t immediately pull away. I breathed in his scent, as warm and crisp as the night, basking in this stolen moment. So badly I wanted his arms to wrap around me, to hold me close.
    But they didn’t, and I understood why. He couldn’t remove his gun from the girls’ sights. A sobering thought. And yet, this still managed to be the happiest moment of my life.
    Maybe because, for the first time in my life, I realized I wasn’t promised a tomorrow. Maybe because I’d crushed on him for so many months. Either way, I took comfort from the action. My determination to make it through this ordeal (alive) intensified.
    â€œI’m not worth staying for,” he said. “Ever.”
    A few minutes ago, I might have agreed with him. With that “even though you think I’m a drug dealer” comment, I wasn’t so sure anymore. “Let me be the judge of that,” I replied.
    He studied me for a moment. “I don’t know what to make of you. You’re—” Suddenly he squeezed off a shot in the girls’