Read Online TRACELESS by Helen Kay Dimon - Free Book Online

call after. He didn’t say it, but she knew he hated being separated from his men.
    She also knew her frayed nerves and the dragging exhaustion played tricks on her mind. Every step in the sifting red sand and over the smooth rocks sapped her strength. The heat didn’t help.
    They escaped the worst. That came with summer, but the intensity and clear sky didn’t provide much of a buffer. Neither did her dirty and torn clothes.
    She walked all over Annapolis, despite Connor’s grumbling, and spent time on a treadmill in the makeshift gym at the house. But after hours of terror and confusion in Utah, her body failed her. She leaned against the cool stone to keep from falling down.
    Grimy and sweaty, she wanted a hot shower and a bed and days of sleep. Instead she got a gravel floor and a shaded area about ten feet square where rock walls opened into a sort of cave.
    She watched him pace around the entrance to their temporary hiding place. He stared at his cell’s screen as he traveled back and forth over a space little more than a few feet long. “Do you have a signal?”
    He didn’t raise his head. “No.”
    “No phone and no GPS.”
    “Basically.”
    The guy could argue and lecture for hours on end but he picked now to switch to monosyllabic responses. Lucky her. “Can you do anything with your watch?”
    His shoes skidded on the loose rocks as he stopped and glanced over at her. “Like what?”
    “I don’t know.” Her comment seemed silly when he looked at her like that, with the corner of his mouth curled up and his eyes sparkling with mischief, but she’d seen these guys do unbelievable things. Give them a paper clip and a piece of gum and they could rewire a house alarm. It was downright spooky.
    “Okay.”
    He seemed far too amused for her liking. She thought about telling him to knock it off but when she turned her head the world went wavy. With a hand against the smooth edge of the stone she regained her balance.
    When she saw his eyes narrow in concern, she blurted out the first thing to pop into her head. “It’s just that they seem to perform magic sometimes.”
    “You should sit down.”
    “Because I’m babbling?” She looked over her shoulder to the rocks piled up on the side of one wall. With the stark interior and low illumination, the space resembled a jail cell.
    “The bobbing and weaving has me more concerned.” He put a hand on her elbow.
    She leaned into him. “I was trying to get your attention.”
    He didn’t smile at her joke. “Well, you have it.”
    “So that’s what it took.”
    His fingers tightened against her skin. “Excuse me?”
    “Nothing.” If she were a different type of woman she might fall down more often. Anything to get him to show a reaction. But games didn’t appeal to her. She wanted a marriage, not a constant battle for control.
    “You’ve been up all night and attacked. You deserve some rest.” He pocketed the cell and guided her farther into the cave. “Much longer going like this and you could fall over.”
    “You’ve had the same long night, plus a flight.” Yet he bounced back without as much as a dark circle under his eyes.
    He wore the same clothes and they managed to look clean. Except for the scuff of dirt on his black shoes, he could walk into any restaurant and not turn a head...except for the female ones attracted to the tall, dark and oh-so-tempting type.
    The whole put-together thing was not new. Connor fit into any situation, could slide in unnoticed or command a room. She had sensed his power the first night she met him. He issued orders and older, bigger and gruffer-looking men jumped to obey.
    “No one knocked me out and dragged me from my desk.” He smoothed the back of his fingers down her cheek. “The whole tied-up-and-kidnapped thing? That was you, and no matter how much I try I can’t forget it.”
    “You were shot,” she said, pointing out the obvious and trying to drag the conversation away from the attack and his