Jurassic Heart (11 page)

“Probably for the best,” he agreed, standing. “I’ll call you if anything new comes in.”

“Thanks,” I said. “You’ve got my number.”

Boner dropped me off at the motel and then mumbled something about going to see Raven. I let him go, sensing he was still mad that I hadn’t backed him up and laid the blame at Hunter Joseph’s door. I wasn’t lying to him, though. I really couldn’t see how Joseph would be responsible for something so childish.

It wasn’t until I was in bed alone that I realized I’d become used to having him sleep next to me; the bed felt far too wide and empty, and I could still smell him on the sheets. It only highlighted what I’d lost, and as I fell asleep, I vowed to make it up with him as soon as I could. He was my best friend, after all.

I
GOT
used to the fact that Hunter would hang around the site, not on it, as promised, but close enough so I couldn’t help but notice him. It was annoying, but after we’d spoken in the coffee shop, he mostly stayed away from the actual dig, keeping way back and just making notes or doing whatever it was that he did. If he was still petitioning the locals to get us off the land, I hadn’t heard anything about it.

I wanted to approach him about the letter. Boner and I were still on uncertain terms—I’d tried to apologize to him that morning, but he was stubborn and wouldn’t give up on his insistences that Joseph could be involved. I wasn’t so sure, and he refused to accept our differing opinions and move on. Later in the afternoon, Joseph arrived in his little hybrid. I’d been watching out for him all day.

“I’ll be back in a bit, okay?” I said to Raven as I passed her trench. She nodded and returned to her work.

I was calmer going into this conversation than I had been with any other interaction I’d had with him. We were on better terms now; it was strange to think that punching each other had actually leveled things between us.

“Hunter,” I called as I moved from the grassy hill of our dig to the dirt track that eventually turned into the road back to town.

He looked up at me in shock, probably for using his first name. “Nick,” he said cautiously but with a smile. “How are you?”

“Not bad,” I said, folding my arms over my chest. My blue plaid shirt was unbuttoned, and I felt like fidgeting and buttoning it back up over my white tank. It took effort to resist.

“I had another visit from the police last night.”

“Oh?” I said, not wanting to give the game away just yet.

“About some letter that was sent to you?”

“Yeah, that,” I said. “I was going to talk to you myself. I didn’t realize they’d get there first.”

He shrugged. “That’s fine.”

“I’m sorry you’re getting dragged into all of this.”

“That’s nice of you to say.”

“Not so nice for me if I turn out to be wrong.”

Hunter raised an eyebrow at me. “You’re not.”

“Do you know anything about it at all?”

“No,” he said and crossed his arms too. “Is that why you came over here to see me? To accuse me of trying to—what—intimidate you away from your job?”

“No, that’s exactly what I’m trying
not
to do,” I said with a weary sigh. “This isn’t exactly easy for me. I didn’t come here with the intention of leading a dig, I just wanted a bit of fucking peace and quiet so I could do a bit of excavating for the first time in ages.”

His expression softened. “Yeah, okay. I’ve put a few feelers out to see if anyone I know might have heard about it, but to be honest, this isn’t our style. We don’t make physical threats to your people. We’re about raising awareness and education.”

“That’s what I thought,” I said with a nod. “It didn’t seem like the sort of thing you would do.”

“There are a few groups that will resort to violence or nonpeaceful protests, but not with this kind of setup. They’ll riot against corrupt governments. Not scientists.”

I huffed a laugh. “Thanks. Anyway, I should be getting back….”

“Okay. I’ll see you later, Nick.”

“Yeah. See you.”

I hated that he’d done something nice for me. Now I felt like I owed him something in return. I also wasn’t crazy about the fact that he was turning into a real person rather than remaining a cartoon villain. It was much easier to think of him alone in his mansion, twirling a moustache and plotting our imminent demise. Instead, I found myself thinking about him alone in his house, not wearing any clothes. I seemed to be pretty good at imagining what he looked like under his neatly pressed khakis.

When I got back to the dig, River was well underway with her geology master class in the lab, which was open to anyone on the team who was interested. Apparently that turned out to be everyone except Raven, Boner, and me. I’d been to a few of her lectures and was more than happy for her to teach a class; education within the team was as important for us as it was in the wider community.

It meant the site was a lot emptier than it was normally, so I could go and sit in Boner’s area without worrying about anyone overhearing what I had to say.

“Boner,” I said, calling over the sound of his headphones. I think he noticed me more because I was blocking his sun, but that didn’t matter.

He pulled the earbuds out and gave me a wounded look that told me he was still upset.

“C’mere,” I told him.

Sniffing, he sat next to me on a convenient rock.

“I’m sorry we argued,” I said. “I don’t like arguing with you. You’re my best friend.”

“You’re my best friend too.”

“Where did you stay last night?”

“On the couch in the apartment River and Raven are staying in.”

“Will you come back to my place tonight?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Are we okay?”

“Hunter Joseph is still an idiot.”

“I won’t contest that at all,” I said, raising my hands. “He is an idiot not worth arguing with you over.”

Boner cracked a smile. “I agree.”

“Give us a smooch?” I asked him.

Boner smiled and tugged me into a big, wet kiss that quickly progressed into something with tongues and teeth. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him close, and felt absolutely no sexual urges toward him at all. We finished our big kiss with a couple of smaller ones, laughing, and I laid my head on his shoulder so he could hug me properly.

“I love you, you stupid idiot,” I said softly.

“Love you too,” he said, punctuating his words with another kiss to the top of my head.

That night, when we closed up the dig, he swung by the Goth Twins’ apartment and picked up some stuff he’d left there, and then came back to my room. Our routine was good: shower, food, TV, snuggle. We added making out to the routine, but it felt different somehow. Any spark between us had fizzled away to nothing.

“I
THOUGHT
we had an agreement,” I snapped at Hunter as I climbed out of Boner’s truck the next morning. It was early, and I wasn’t great with mornings. On top of that, I’d finally taken the rental car back and was now relying on Boner to transport me around. Being without a car always made me irritable.

Boner rolled his eyes and stomped on up to the trailer. We were still good; he just didn’t want to get in the middle of another argument.

“I’m just doing a job,” Hunter said. He was dressed in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

“I’m still not exactly sure what your job is,” I grouched. It was too early for his shit.

“Right now I’m observing,” he said easily. “Later, I’ll write up any notes. Then I have an academic paper to finish. It’s about saving the planet.”

“You’re like a broken record,” I said, even though I’d heard the sarcasm in his voice. I made to follow Boner up to base camp. To my surprise, Hunter fell into step next to me.

“I spoke to a few people,” he said. “About the letter you got.”

“Oh.” I stopped on the path and turned to him.

“Yeah,” he said. “So you might wanna stop bitching at me.”

“Fine. I’m sorry. What did they say?”

“No one has heard anything,” he said. “It’s got nothing to do with any of the groups I know or I’m part of. I didn’t think anyone would do something like that, but that’s confirmed now.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I didn’t think you were behind it, for what it’s worth.”

He shrugged. “I know. I’ve passed that on to the police as well, so hopefully they’ll leave me alone now.”

I raised an eyebrow and smirked a little. “If you left altogether, then you could be sure they’d leave you alone.”

“Nice try,” Hunter said with a laugh.

“What are you even working on at the moment?” I said. “If you’re not harassing us, what’s left to spend your day doing?”

“I’m actually working on a new article. It’s a new look at whether modern scientific discovery is possible without damaging the environment.”

“Don’t you ever get tired of the same theme?”

“No,” he said with another smile. This one showed lots of teeth. Lots of straight, white, perfect teeth. I immediately thought of a shark. “Part of my responsibility is to explore all the options available to us so we can work together for a better environment.”

“Do you ever go off script?”

This time he laughed. “Sometimes. I won’t keep you from your work. I’m sure we’ll run into each other again soon.”

“I’m sure,” I said drily. “And… thanks for looking that up for
me.”

“No problem.”

I raised my hand in a wave and started up the path again.

Maybe unsurprisingly, when I finished work, he was still there. Boner had packed up early so he could go to a doctor to get another inhaler—with all the dust, his asthma was acting up—and River was supposed to be giving me a ride back to my motel. As we walked across the parking lot, Hunter stepped away from his car and ambled over to us.

“Do you need a ride?” he asked.

I looked at River, who shrugged as if to say
sure
. I nodded. “Thanks,” I said. “See you tomorrow, guys.”

The girls gave me identical knowing smiles and hopped into their car, leaving me alone with Hunter.

“That was nice,” I said, narrowing my eyes. “What do you want?”

“Is anyone else around?”

“No,” I said. “They all left early.”

“That’s what I thought.”

This was weird. Hunter looked weird.

“I know you did that asking around for us,” I said, “but I still don’t trust you. Or like you.”

He crossed to me in two swift steps, caught my face in his hands, and kissed me hard. For a moment I swooned. Then I got mad, mostly at myself, for the way he made me feel. I didn’t want to swoon for him, I wanted to go back to punching him, when everything was simpler and I wasn’t forced to evaluate my fucking
feelings
.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” I asked, pushing at his chest and taking a step back.

“I thought that was obvious,” he said and licked his lips.

“Are you
high
?”

“No.”

“Do you have a death wish?”

He smirked. “Definitely not.”

“You can’t just go around kissing people!” I exclaimed.

“Why, didn’t you like it?”

Yes
, a traitorous little voice in my head whispered.
Yes, I liked it a
lot.

“No,” I said.

“Liar. Do you want dinner?”

“What?”

He sighed. “Do you want to go to dinner with me?”

I gaped at him.

“Christ, you’re hard work.”

“I’m all dirty,” I said redundantly.

“Then go change. I don’t mind.”

“Okay.”

I blamed the voices in my head for that one and climbed into Hunter’s car without another word. He had the radio playing and the windows wound down as he drove back into town; he dropped me off at the motel and went to get gas while I changed. Boner wasn’t back from his appointment yet, so I scrawled a note to let him know I had a date, apparently, and he should call the Goth Twins. From what River had said, a bunch of them were going to a bar tonight, and I didn’t want him to miss out.

After the world’s quickest shower, I dried myself off and pulled on clean jeans, a nice shirt, and the only pair of decent shoes I’d brought with me. That took fifteen minutes, and I figured I could spend a few more making my hair look good. It was probably the only thing I had going for me, looks-wise, so I made a point of trying to keep it nice. My ex used to say I had nice eyes. It was a shame they looked all buggy behind my glasses.

Speaking of which, I pulled the tortoiseshell frames from my face and quickly polished the lenses with a cloth. It was amazing how dirty they could get after a day playing around in the mud and rocks and dust.

I was halfway across the room, ready to leave, when I hesitated, then went back to the bathroom to steal some of Boner’s cologne. It was nice, spicy. I recognized it from his collar. I didn’t usually wear it myself.

By the time I rushed across the lobby and out to the street, Hunter’s car was pulling around the corner.

“Perfect timing,” he said as I slid back into the passenger seat. I smiled blandly.