Cipher (18 page)

I knew that. I wasn’t sure why I tried to pull away, other than instinct.

“Plus, I get to hold your hand.” He winked.

“Ugh. Dork,” I said.

“You say dork, but I think you like it.”

“No, I don’t.” But damned if I wasn’t grinning like a fool.

His gaze scanned my face. “Dimples. Green eyes nearly glowing. Yup. Your words might be saying one thing but your face is singing a different song. That smile is gen-u-ine.”

I rolled my eyes. Knight walked straight past the ticket kiosks to the gates. “Hey. Forgetting something.” I pointed to the long lines.

“Nope. We’re already pre-checked in. All we have to do is board.”

“Right.”

He stopped walking, shoving a hand in his front pocket. “Wait.” He laughed. “I actually
did
almost forget something.” He slipped a plain gold band over his left ring finger, and then placed a matching ring on me before I could pull away. “Thanks for doing me the honors, Mrs. Vasquez.”

Vasquez? Who? What was he doing?

It took me a second to realize what he was talking about. This was our cover. The sight of him putting a ring on my finger must’ve short-circuited my brain.

When I tried to pull our hands apart to look at the band, Knight’s grip firmed. “I know it’s not the proposal that you wanted, princess, but I’ll make it up to you later.”

My heart skipped a beat. “It’s just our cover.”

“For now.”

That wasn’t the most reassuring answer. Was it going to be something more than our cover later? Was he actually implying that he wanted to marry me?

The guy was insane. I didn’t want to ask that question, no matter how curious I was. Instead, I asked a different one. “Why’d you call me princess?”

“Best to call you what you really are.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You don’t remember?” He sighed. “Of course you don’t. Don’t you wonder why I picked Knight?”

“Cause you have a thing for medieval RPGs?” A totally wild guess.

He chuckled. “Nice try, but no. Because you were always going on about these princess stories as a kid. You were convinced some knight in shining armor was going to come save you.”

My jaw dropped open. “So, you think you’re my knight in shining armor here to save me?”

“But of course, fair maiden.” He dipped in a gallant bow, still clutching my hand.

I rolled my eyes dramatically. “I was a lame kid.” I started walking again.

“No, you weren’t. You saved me. You were my angel. It’s only fair that you let me be your knight. At least every once in a while.”

What did I even say to that? I was used to taking care of myself. Of doing everything and being the only one I could count on. Maybe sharing the weight—both the burdens of my Red Helix and abilities—would make my life easier for a while, but it was wrong. I had to save myself, or else I wouldn’t be worthy of being saved.

“Come on. This way.” Knight started toward gateway fifty-two.

A gate agent stood in the pod doorway. The guy was shorter than Knight by a foot, but not as short as me. He was overweight and sweating. In this air conditioning, that took talent. He breathed so loudly that I was worried for his health.

“Automation down?” Knight said as he pressed his finger to the sensor.

“Just doing some routine checks. Got a few fugitives at large. Gotta be extra-secure this morning or the boss’ll have my ass.”

This was majorly not cool. I glanced up at Knight, but he only grinned at me, like this was totally fine and normal. Meanwhile, I was a complete mess. We could get caught. Right here. Right now.

My heartbeat pounded in my ears.

The gate agent ran through Knight’s file for his alias, Juan Vasquez. “Newlyweds, huh?”

“Yes, sir,” Knight said, with a shit-eating grin. He pulled me into his side, throwing his arm over my shoulder. “Isn’t she just the cutest thing you ever did see?”

He was laying it on way too thick. I poked Knight in the side but he didn’t react.

The agent leered at me, giving me a thorough once-over. I wasn’t the only one who didn’t like the look. Knight was suddenly standing a little too stiff.

“If I had a girl like her, I wouldn’t let her see daylight. She’d never leave my bed.”

I threw up a little bit in my mouth.

“You and I are on the same page, sir,” Knight said. Only the fear of getting caught stopped me from hitting him.

The agent handed us our passes back. “Have a good honeymoon.”

“We plan to,” Knight said. “Right, sugar?”

Before I could say anything, his lips landed on mine. When I tried to push him away, he held on tighter.

It took me a bit to remember this was our cover. I shouldn’t push him away. I should be hamming it up.

I gripped his T-shirt and opened my mouth to him.

Bad call.

The second his tongue brushed against mine I melted. I heard myself moan right before he started to pull my dazed self into the pod.

What the hell just happened?

I stumbled over my feet as Knight found our spot. The pod had twenty gray vinyl seats. Four seats to a row, with a small aisle between them. Five rows in total. I’d always pictured pods to be round, but they were actually more like really tiny train cars. This one looked clean enough, but still had marks of heavy wear. More than half the pod was already full.

Knight pushed me down into a seat in an empty row, fastening my seatbelt across my waist and tightening it. He pushed the shoulder harness and looped the seatbelt through, snapping it into place.

“That was one hell of a kiss,” Knight whispered as he sat next to me and buckled in.

I whimpered. “What was that?” I was beyond turned on. Every nerve ending was sensitive. And the heat…

Knight’s fingers twined with mine again. “That’s us. Only us.”

“Is kissing everyone like that?”

“What?”

Oh crap. I hadn’t meant to say that aloud.

“That was your first kiss?”

Now I was a different kind of hot. “I uh…didn’t have a lot of time for boyfriends. What with the running and the starving and the trying to stay alive. Didn’t have a lot of friends period.” This was more than a little embarrassing.

“Great time to tell me, princess. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure the next kiss is even better.”

A chill ran along my skin at his promise. “Better?” That was a high bar he was setting.

“Yes.”

I didn’t think it could get much better, but I was suddenly game to try. “Guess it would be better if it was a real kiss instead of a show for some sleazeball douche?”

“That was a real kiss.”

I shook my head. “You know what I mean. Real. Like you mean it. Like you want to kiss me, not because you have to because of the cover or whatever.”

He rubbed his thumb up and down the back of my hand. “That was a real kiss. I wanted to kiss you the second I saw you.”

I turned as much as I could. I needed to see his face. “You don’t have to pretend.”

“I told you not five minutes ago that I’m going to propose to you one day and you still don’t believe me about the kiss?”

I opened and closed my mouth a few times as I tried to figure out what to say. Trying to find something that wasn’t totally dumb. “You were joking.”

“No. No, I wasn’t.”

I sat back in my chair. The ring on my finger suddenly weighed ten times as much as it had a second ago.

An automated voice announced the countdown to departure through the pod speakers, but I barely heard as Knight’s words echoed in my head. It scared me how much I wanted him to be serious. I wanted it so badly my heart ached for it.

It seemed nuts. I hadn’t known Knight for long. But I’d also kind of known him forever. Putting all those pieces together in my head, I knew him. And he knew me better than anyone.

I still had a lot to learn about him, but I knew that I hadn’t made a bad choice. Sticking around after blowing those transformers was maybe the best decision I’d ever made.

I held on to Knight’s hand as the pod took off and hoped I never had to let go.

Chapter Twelve

KNIGHT

Pod travel only took minutes. I let myself relax into my seat, enjoying these few moments in transit. We’d start being in danger as soon as we arrived in San Diego, but until then, we were safe in the pod. Just being next to Emma meant everything to me.

“How’re you doing, Em?”

“I wish you wouldn’t call me that,” she mumbled.

That was all I wanted to call her. “Why?”

“Because it makes me uncomfortable. Like someone could recognize me.” She blew out a harsh breath. “It’s not an unusual name, but it’s mine. Private. Anything that’s mine I’ve hidden. So hearing it out loud is disarming. Makes me feel…bare.” She paused. “I’d rather you not use it. Especially here.”

It was a valid fear. “You’re on record as Emera Mason-Vasquez. So Em isn’t far off.”

“Good to know.”

Her fingers felt thin and fragile. I rubbed by thumb along the top of her hand so that I remembered not to squeeze it. Not to hurt her. “Okay. So in public, you’re Cipher. What about in private? Can I call you by your real name then?”

Her cheeks reddened. I bet she hated that her skin was so fair. “You think we’re going to be in private together a lot?”

I leaned as close to her ear as the restraints would allow. “I sure hope so.”

If possible, her face got even redder and she looked away. “How am I supposed to respond to that?”

I didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, but I had to make my intentions clear. She had to know I wanted her. Pressuring her wasn’t an option, though. “You don’t have to. I’m just laying that out there. Okay?”

She breathed in and out hard. “Okay.”

I couldn’t help the stupid grin. “Okay.”

As soon as the pod stopped, announcing our arrival in San Diego. I unhooked myself, and then helped Emma with her belt.

I kept my hand firmly in hers so that she doesn’t lose control. “This way.”

“Have you been here before?”

“No.”

The San Diego station overlooked the water. While inside the pod, I hadn’t gotten any com signals, but I didn’t want to spare a glance to check it. If something bad was going to happen, I needed my eyes open. I couldn’t do that while looking at the screen.

We stepped out of the pod, and I took a breath. If they’d found something wrong with our fake IDs in New Mexico, now was the time we’d find out about it.

I kept Emma close to me, her hand firmly in mine. We couldn’t afford for even the tiniest fluctuation in the electrical grid or the station’s security would come down hard.

Officers lined the walls, but I counted only three Black Helixes on site. If we’d been expected, all the big guns would already be out. All the other security guards were low-rent norms.

Jack hadn’t stretched this far yet.

We walked calmly to the exit. With each step, we were on safer ground.

Even if I’d never been to this station before, I knew that we had at least three vehicles to choose from in the south parking lot. The Shadow Ravens had escape vehicles planted at every major transpo station.

Emma glanced around as we stepped outside. I tapped on the brim of her hat. “I know it’s tempting to look around a new place, but don’t.”

“Sorry.” She walked staring at the ground and I stopped walking, yanking her to a stop, too.

I leaned down to her. “We’re going to be okay.” I brushed a kiss along her cheek before standing tall again. She was so tiny.

“Let’s get out of here.”

“This way.” I pulled her toward the parking lot, and through the aisles of cars. Raven cars were always on aisle “E” or “5”—depending on what system the lot used. The plates were totally random. The only way to find the car was by the glowing raven painted on the bumper. Thanks to Lady Eva’s eye mods, only Ravens could see the shade.

“Are we stealing another car?”

“Not this time.”

“Good.” She took a deep breath. “That smell. Isn’t it amazing? God, I missed the ocean. It’s been a long time.”

“Why?” A long time ago, we’d lived not far from the beach. She could go anywhere in her RV. Why would she ignore beaches if she loved them?

She shrugged. “I stayed mostly inland. I went along the east coast a few times, but it was always too cold to really enjoy it.”

“Well, it’s a good thing we’re getting some beach time.” I finally spotted a car with the raven mark. I pressed my finger to the trunk lock and it disengaged. “Get in.”

Emma slid around to the passenger side while I grabbed a bag from the trunk.

“Security code, please,” said a silky automated voice as I slid into the driver’s seat.

If someone managed to get in without an access code, the car would explode. Good thing I had one. “Marquez, Hunter. Psi one eight three beta seven thirteen.”

“Thank you, Shadow Marquez. Security disengaged. Destination?”

“Buckle up.” I threw the bag in the backseat. “We’re going to get the hell out of here. Fast,” I said as I put my seatbelt in place. “Computer. Manual drive, please.”

“Manual drive is engaged. Please obey all traffic laws and ordinances, Raven Marquez.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said as I put the car in reverse. I didn’t like not having control over a vehicle.

I spared a glance at Emma once I was on the road. She was rubbing her hands along the leather seat.

“You okay?”

Her face turned a little pink as she glanced over at me. “This car is legit.”

That made me smile. I dug how much she was enjoying the car. “Yeah. Lady likes to travel in style.”

“Did she know we were coming here?”

“No.” I explained the setup with the cars.

“So, how do we get to the island from here?”

I cleared my throat. She wouldn’t like the next part. “We’re driving to Los Angeles to catch another pod.”

“But isn’t there a big citadel outpost there?”

“Yes.”

“So, why in the hell would we go there?” She sounded a little pissed, but that was to be expected. She’d avoided the major outpost areas for good reason.

“They’re looking for us everywhere, but it’s really cursory. You saw how this was. They didn’t even have a full Black team out on the platforms.” I squeezed her hand. “Don’t worry. If something doesn’t look right, we’ll find a different way to get there. But it’ll be worth it. The island in the Virgins that we’re headed to is completely uninhabited. It’s a natural preserve. We’ll stay there a few days. No transformers for you to blow, so we can have some privacy while we work on your control.”