genius, after all,” he says, living up to his legendary self-belief.
“Well, genius, you’re just about to get shot,” Sofie points out, as Finn’s on-screen avatar gets blind-sided and falls to the ground.
GAME OVER appears in big letters, and Sofie does nothing to hide her smug smile. She walks out of the motel, trying to remember what she used to like to do when she had free time. It has been a while.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Darwin had invited Sofie along with him to check out the Native American museum in the town. But, it was clear that his impending divorce was on his mind, and she figured he could use the time alone. Besides, she wasn’t really in the mood for seeing anything more about outsiders taking over land that wasn’t theirs and causing destruction and mayhem. The thought of it just left a bitter taste in her mouth. So, she made her excuses and that’s how she found herself wandering around the town of Beaumont without any real plan.
She could feel herself starting to get antsy since she has never been a person who just to goes with the flow. She’s always needed to know what she’s doing, needed to be focused on the endgame. But right now, all she could think was how conflicted she felt about what she and the rest of the team were doing in this town. The expression on Ashton’s face when he’d heard they were from Shale made her heart clench in her chest. Although she tried to be rational about it all—reminding herself that he doesn’t know her—she can’t help but feel like somehow he does.
She wanders down the main street of the town feeling a little captivated by this charming place. It seems like a kind of oasis in the midst of a busy world. People actually smile and say hello as they pass each other on the street. If that happened to her in DC, she would probably have figured they were crazy. With the rain still hammering down, it’s really not the kind of weather that encourages time outdoors, but she’s not ready to go back to the motel yet. She needs some more time to get whatever is going on with her out of her system. All of a sudden, she catches sight of the furniture store where she’d seen Ashton the first day they drove into town. She convinces herself that she’s only going inside because her ‘new’ apartment in Washington is virtually empty.
She rushes through the rain, managing to get soaked to the skin in the process. She yanks open the door and stands at the entrance, wishing that she’d chosen a t-shirt that didn’t leave so little to the imagination, especially when completely plastered against her slick, wet body. She looks up to see that there are only two other people in the shop, Ashton and another man, and they’re both staring at her like she’d just landed in a space ship.
“I come in peace,” she jokes weakly and then wonders when exactly it was that she became such a dork in social situations.
The way that the broad, dark-haired guy with Ashton looks at her makes her glad that looks can’t kill. There’s a sense of violence about him, as if he might spring into action at any moment. He and Ashton exchange a look that seems to be an entire conversation, and Ashton nods as if in agreement. His friend stalks towards the door that Sofie is still hovering around. As he stares at her pointedly, she steps to one side to allow him to pass.
Although he moves with the same easy grace as Ashton, there’s a ferocity about him that makes her take a step away from him as he passes her. She tries to avoid eye contact, not wanting to make this guy any angrier than he already seems to be, but she sees a flash, and she has to blink to make sure that she wasn’t dreaming. It looked there was a shine in his eyes, like they turned gold, but when she’d blinked they were back to dark brown.
As the door closes behind the angry-looking man, the silence between Ashton and Sofie stretches out. She scrambles around for something to
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