Leaving Annalise (Katie & Annalise Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

for Nick’s hand. I peered down at Rashidi. “But this isn’t Bart.”
    Rashidi John and my five dogs were standing on the side patio between the pool and the hill leading up along the back of the house and out to the driveway. His long dreadlocks were tied back neatly in a tail, his skin darker than the night sky around him. He craned his head up toward us, and the five dogs did too, six dominoes in a row.
    “Hello, Not-Bart,” he said.
    I winced. “This is Nick. From Dallas. Nick, Rashidi.”
    Rashidi was one of my best friends, a University of the Virgin Islands botany professor, and the one who had introduced me to Annalise in the first place when he was moonlighting as a rainforest tour guide. Now he was house-sitting until she was ready for me to move in. I had forgotten to expect him. There were other things on my mind.
    “Nice to meet you,” Nick said.
    “We were just leaving,” I added. “We’ll meet you by the garage.”
    I squeezed around Nick on the narrow balcony and he followed me through the house. In the kitchen, he slipped his arms around me from behind and stopped me for a few last kisses, but we made it out to the driveway without too much delay. We found Rashidi sitting on the hood of his red Jeep, chewing on a stalk of sugar cane.
    “Hey,” I said. “I’ll introduce you properly tomorrow. We’re in kind of a hurry.”
    Rashidi’s smile was all teeth. “Yah mon. I got what I came for,” he said, pinching the front of his shirt and giving it a shake, “so I off to town for now.” He hopped off the hood and got in the Jeep. Just before he put it in gear, he rolled down the window and called out, “Have fun, Katie and Not-Bart,” then drove away.
    Nick shook his head and laughed. The dogs settled by the garage door in the dirt, their usual sleeping spot. We walked the fifteen yards to my truck, hands entwined, my skin tingling where it met his. We were leaving, but where would we go—back to his hotel? I shivered and hoped he didn’t notice. He didn’t release my hand until momentum forced our hands apart when we went our separate ways to get into the truck.
    I climbed in and reached to turn the keys in the ignition, but they weren’t there. Nick got in and scooched toward me as I turned on the dome light and scanned the seat.
    “I can’t find my keys. I thought for sure I left them in here. I always do.”
    “Oh, no. I don’t have them.”
    I searched inside and Nick searched outside, to no avail. I perched on the seat, half in and half out of the truck, facing Nick. “I guess we need to retrace our steps,” I said.
    “Nah, I have a better idea.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Let’s go parking.”
    Before I could answer, he was crawling into the truck and on top of me, lowering me onto my back on the bench seat. I let out an involuntary but surely quite sexy “oomph.” A few wriggling, grasping minutes later, I broke lip lock. “Not here.”
    Nick mumbled, “What’s wrong with here?” and reattached his lips to mine.
    I thought of the five dogs outside the truck and Rashidi showing up again with us behind nothing but clear glass. I spoke without detaching this time. “Somewhere else, somewhere more private.”
    Nick lifted his head a fraction of an inch and I could feel him thinking.
    “Have you ever hotwired a car before?” he asked.
    “Of course not. My dad was the Dallas chief of police. I didn’t run around with bad boys.”
    “Well, you do now. Or at least a good boy who can hotwire your car.”
    “And you know this how?”
    He grinned. “It’s better if you don’t ask that. I need something with a small, flat tip to use as a lever, like a knife or something, and a couple of bobby pins.” He leaned back down and kissed the breath out of me. “And I think we should hurry.”
    I hurried. The bobby pin was easy. They were scattered all over the floor of the truck. But a flat-tipped object to use as a lever? I reached down and pulled out the machete Ava had