Free Murphy's Law (The Bounty Hunter Series - Book 1) by Laurie LeClair Page B

barely remembered how to get here myself after you were hurt. Storm helped getting the gold out of the car. But, she doesn’t know about this place and where it’s hidden. She and I agreed its better she didn’t know. She stayed with you. I got it the hell out of Dodge and came back to be with you.”
    “Murphy,” she gulped hard at what he’d done. “What about us?”
    “How we met?”
    Tickles of him on the fringes of her memory teased her. She and Storm were bartenders on Sixth Street in Austin. He’d walked in. She couldn’t take her eyes off of him. He couldn’t take his off her, either. His big, strong arms coming around her to lead her off to the dance floor rushed back now. His sexy smile and that hot, green-eyed stare melted her from the first moment they’d met. Lazy, drugging heat had followed. And it wouldn’t let her go, no matter how hard she tried.
    “Where we’re going?” she asked softly.
    “To bed, first.”
    She chuckled. Tingles rippled through her blood. “I kinda like that idea.”
    “Find Storm and Timmy.”
    Echo clamped her eyes shut. “I…I think she got away. I can still feel her, sense her.”
    He sighed. “Good.”
    They were probably ten miles outside of town when he checked the mirrors and slowed down. The road he turned into was more like a brush-covered trail. He inched the truck along, stopped, shoved it into park, and then got out to cover the opening again. Coming back in, he shifted gears and they were moving again.
    It took nearly another hour before he stopped.
    “We’re here?” she asked.
    Murphy nodded to the far-off ramshackle deserted mine opening and nearby dilapidated building. “Our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”
    With only a couple of water bottles to sustain them, Murphy led the way. As they hiked to the entrance, he kept a keen eye out for any intruders.
    Echo felt exposed, but welcomed the gun he held in his hand. Even though the black tunnel vision had slowly eased into a fuzzy gray border, she still couldn’t predict how her brain would react.
    As bits and pieces of her memories rushed back over the last hours, so had the pain lifted from her skull, the pressure just a gentle buzz now. There were still missing spaces, but she didn’t feel as lost or broken anymore.
    He halted at the entrance. “I’ll go and make sure nothing’s hiding in there.”
    “I’m going, too.” She’d rather be in there with him than out here alone.
    The cobwebs and spiders yawned across their path. Murphy knocked them away as they stepped into the black hole. They’d walked for a few minutes when he finally stopped. His boots scuffled in the dirt and soon he squatted down. The sound of a match striking and the flare of the flame came next.
    She helped when he directed her to a hidden lantern. Soon, between them, they had it lit. Murphy tucked the gun in the back of the waistband of his jeans, held up the light, and then led them deeper into the tunnel.
    Farther in, there were five intersections. He glanced up and she followed his gaze.
    Murphy went to one to his left, reached up, and then brushed off the dirt over the arch. He uncovered two dots. She shook her head, but went with him through that one. Deeper still, they came upon even more entrances. Again, he chose one, this one off the side, and cleared away the grime. A curved line pointing up was underneath.
    He smiled, and then grabbed for her hand. Unfurling her curled fingers, she opened her hand to him. On her palm, he drew a smiley face. She chuckled.
    “Remember, Echo. The first night I met you, I drew this on your palm. Later, on your bare belly...”
    She sucked in a breath. Even in the damp recesses of this old mine shaft, he could still make her hot all over. “Before you kissed me there.” A tug, low and deep, shot through her.
    Murphy nodded to the arch and redrew the smile on her flesh.
    Echo gasped in understanding. The dots over the other arch were the eyes and now this curve was