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Kate stepped out of the phone booth, careful not to brush against Jonas, who was leaning against the booth's corner. He straightened up and quirked a brow at her.
"Well? Is he still speaking to you?" he asked.
"Dave? Yeah, we're speaking."
"And do you still have a job?"
Kate lifted a shoulder in a shrug she hoped looked more careless than it felt, but it took all she had to inject a light note into her voice. There wasn't a whole lot in this situation that was even remotely light anymore, least of all that talk with Jonas hanging over her head. Her gaze slid away from the electric blue eyes studying her so intently.
"To quote my partner, 'My father-in-law is an assistant commissioner, not the bloody Wizard of Oz!'"
Jonas didn't laugh. She hadn't expected him to. Restlessly, she scanned the deserted street, watching for the cab she'd called after ending her conversation with Dave. She flinched at the memory of the anger in her partner's voice when she told him their plans for getting across the river. The worry. If she went through with this—
No. Not if. When.
When she went through with this, she'd be burning every bridge she'd built in her entire career, and no one—not Dave, not his father-in-law, not anyone—would be able to undo the damage.
Jonas cleared his throat.
Kate closed her eyes. Right. The Talk. She did a brief assessment of her remaining internal fortitude, confirmed what she'd suspected about not having any left to deal with this, and held up a hand to forestall Jonas's words. "Can we not?" she asked. "You've apologized. I've accepted. It's done."
"Kate—"
"Jonas," she cut him off. "You've made your position clear. You're not looking for a relationship. I get it. So let's just get across the river, find the evidence you need to take down Lewis and Ramirez, and then we can be done, all right? And speaking of getting across the river..."
She lifted her chin toward a set of approaching headlights, and Jonas turned to look.
"Saved by the taxi," she told him, her cheerfulness buoyed by sheer relief. Jonas didn't respond.
* * *
At one-twenty a.m., the taxi pulled away from the end of a rough dirt road nearly obscured by the night and a tangle of bushes that stirred in the breeze. If it hadn't been the end of October with most of the leaves gone already, Kate doubted they would have seen the opening at all. As it was, the taxi driver had refused to take them any further, leaving her and Jonas with a tight window of twenty minutes to hike the final kilometer.
The red glow of the taxi's taillights disappeared down the paved road toward town, and the dark closed in on them like a tight fist. Kate shot a look at the sky. There was a full moon up there somewhere, but the cloud cover blocked it. It smelled like rain was coming, too. She shivered, wishing she'd thought to buy a jacket of some kind. And a flashlight.
"Cold?" Jonas asked.
"I forgot about it being cooler away from town," she replied, "but I'll be fine. We should get moving."
She peered into the dark to locate him, but it was no use. While she could hear him breathing, he was nothing more than the sensation of a shadow among shadows. Then his hand brushed her arm, making her jump, and his fingers twined with hers in a strong, reassuring grip. The rich timber of his voice came from a point somewhere above and to the right of her head in the night's blackness.
"This way."
Kate felt oddly disembodied as she followed Jonas along the narrow road that was little more than a well-used path. In a dark so deep she couldn't see her own hand if she held it up before her, Jonas’s grip seemed the only link with reality, the only thing that bound her to an earth she knew was there, but couldn't perceive. Well, that and the branches slapping at her face. And the sharp, twiggy fingers tearing at her hair. She was pretty sure she was leaving half her curls behind, dangling blond clumps that marked their path to the river.
Another branch snapped back from Jonas to smack her cheek and she swallowed a squeak of pain.
"You okay?" Jonas asked. "That one got away on me."
Eyes watering, Kate nodded. Then she remembered he couldn't see her in the dark. "I'm fine," she said. "But we should pick up the pace. Lazarus said they wouldn't wait for us."
Jonas didn't reply, and for a moment, Kate thought he hadn't heard. Then, with an unidentifiable noise deep in his throat, he let go of her hand and slid his arm around her waist, snugging her in against his hard, muscular length. Everything in Kate softened, and only sheer force of will kept her from melting against him.
"We'll move faster like this," he muttered. Using his body as part bulldozer and part battering ram, he forged ahead, dragging Kate with him, branches snapping beneath his onslaught. But while she stumbled along the rutted, overgrown road, Jonas's steps were unerring.
The man had the night vision of a cat.
Fitting, given that he also had the lean, lithe muscles of a panther. She knew that for a fact, because said muscles were molded to her side right now. Or she was molded to them. Or—
Kate sucked in a quick breath. Jonas's warm, faintly musky male scent filled her nostrils. She stumbled again and would have fallen, but his arm tightened around her, holding her upright. Heat scorched her cheeks.
Just how far was it to that damned river, anyway?
The clouds parted to reveal the moon as she paused to disentangle her mess of curls from yet another grasping branch. Through the trees, she glimpsed the white glow reflected on water. The St. Lawrence River. Finally. And somewhere in the distance, fifteen minutes away by boat, the U.S. shore and the land transportation Jimmy Lazarus had promised them..
"We're here," she said unnecessarily.
Jonas joined her efforts to extricate herself from the tree's persistent clutches. The moonlight cast his face into a complexity of planes and shadows as it hovered above hers, and Kate's breath snagged in her throat. Traveling with this man under dark's cover this way was beginning to take its toll on her libido.
Although, if she was honest, she didn't fare much better in broadest daylight when he stood this close to her. She held back a sigh. Maybe he was right to worry about what would happen when they parted ways after this. Maybe she should start worrying, too.
She felt her hair come free and stepped away from him.
"We're here," Jonas agreed, his voice grim, "but where the hell is Lazarus’s friend?"
Kate glanced around. Maybe they had the wrong place? No, she was certain they'd got their directions right. Even the taxi driver had seemed to know exactly where he was going on the drive out. An indication of the number of passengers ferried across here?
Hell, she certainly hoped not.
She filed away the idea for future reference—assuming she lived and remained in her job—and focused again on the immediate. No, they had the right place. There was the dock Jimmy had told them about, solid and well maintained, jutting twenty feet out into the water.
And empty of any kind of a boat.
Clouds scudded across the moon again, cutting off their only source of light. Kate's heart sank.
"Still think Lazarus is cool?" Bitter frustration tinged Jonas's hard voice.
Kate didn't know what to think.
"One of us had better retain some faith in humanity, don't you think?" she countered, her calm voice belying her crossed fingers.
"Blind faith is for idiots, Kate. All it will get you is hurt."
Kate paused. As far as veiled warnings went, that one was a doozy. It hung in the air between them while she debated her response. She decided she couldn't ignore it.
"Maybe," she replied. "But the way I see it, faith figures right up there with caring, trust, love. The things that make life worth living."
Jonas didn't pretend not to understand. "You know nothing about my life," he bit out. "You haven't lived it."
"You're right. I haven't. But I don't see you living it, either, Jonas. You've given up, plain and simple. All you do now is survive."
There was a short, tense pause before he replied.
"Survival doesn't hurt as much."
"Doesn't it?" she asked, and then she tilted her head. From out on the water came the low, steady thrum of an outboard motor, its pulse slowing as it neared the shore. Jonas had heard it, too.
"Seems you were right," he said. "This time."
Kate opened her mouth to reply, then snapped it shut as another sound reached her ears. A vehicle engine. No, two—maybe three. The crash of brush being mowed aside. And in the distance, the wail of a police-boat siren.
"Jonas...?"
"I heard." Jonas's hand clamped around her arm like a steel band. "Run."