The next time they were alone, she asked again, “Why?”
“What else is a red-blooded American man supposed to do when a gorgeous shadow is coming at him at breakneck speed.”
“Do you take anything seriously?”
“Oh, Jo…”
For a moment she thought they were going to be joined by more Guard traipsing through the building. Instead, he moved a hand under the desk and ran his palm over her forearm, then gave it a brief squeeze. His Sapphire wrist tattoo looked almost black in the dim space.
“I don’t think we can get more serious than this.” His voice was sober, and she agreed with his statement. So far this had been the most satisfying and most dangerous night of her life. “Very soon we’re going to have to take our chances getting you out of here. My shift will be ending soon and my partner is due up from his good night’s sleep anytime now.”
Another group passed through the building. The foot traffic appeared to have turned the tide, with most of the soldiers and firemen crossing back into the Sapphire Zone.
Jordan’s legs ached from being forced into the unnatural position for so long. “I’ve got to go. I’m dying under here.”
“Come see me again, tomorrow,” he whispered. “I can help your cause. I usually step out to get some air after my partner goes beddy-bye, normally around twelve thirty. Look for me then? In the alley?”
Apprehension churned her insides. Trusting this man was risky at best, and deadly if the trust was betrayed. But he already knew who she was, and if he had any brains at all, what she’d done that evening. Yet he still reached out to her, wanting to help. There was no way this man was ignorant of the fact he was risking his life by seeing her again.
“Why would you be interested in helping the resistance?”
“We don’t have the time to get into that now,” he said with a hard, cold tone of voice that told her, despite his uniform, he was not a fan of the Gov.
Or, he was a spy.
“It’s dangerous.”
He snorted. “So is setting a Gov building on fire.”
Jordan stayed silent. She wasn’t going to openly admit to that. Surely he didn’t think she was that stupid. “I’ll talk to my people. If they okay it, I’ll be back tomorrow.”
He sighed. It was a sound of both resignation and confession. “I’d like to see you again either way.” His hand slid softly over the arm she had slung across his lap. It only took a split second to decipher his nonverbal cues, and her sharp intake of breath accompanied the true meaning of his words.
She didn’t know what to say. She was thrown. The whole purpose of the Repopulation Laws was to keep people like him away from people like her. A little flirting was one thing, but what he proposed was forbidden, and they’d both be swiftly and brutally punished if they were caught.
“Since the first time we met, I’ve hoped to see you again, and I’m going to keep hoping after you leave tonight.” Before she could develop a train of thought as answer to his statement, he spoke again. “Think on it. I’m here every night, Monday through Friday.”
He cleared his throat. “Okay, this is what we’re going to do. I’ll slide away from the desk. When I tell you to go, you’ll have a window of about seven seconds to get out the door and back into the Amber Zone.” He squeezed her forearm again. “I’ll be looking for you tomorrow night.”
Suddenly, he rolled back a bit, leaving Jordan crammed into a slightly larger little box. She shifted to her hands and knees and groaned as her usually limber form creaked complaints at being compressed into a human brick for so long. She lifted her chin and looked up at Patrick O’Connor. Their gazes met for a split second. The color of his eyes drew her into their indigo depths. They sparkled with mischief as he grinned down at her. “You look especially beautiful down there on your hands and knees.”
Yes, and he looked absolutely delicious towering over her.
He chuckled, as if he were reading her mind.
“My ma says I’m incorrigible.” He said the words as if he was proud of them while his deep blue eyes flashed with more than mischief. Shadows of erotic acts and silent promises leapt at her from the mesmerizing, heart racing gaze. “It’s just a part of my charm. You’ll get used to it.”
He scooted back away from the desk a little farther. “Are you ready?”
“Yes.” She hitched a breath, bracing herself for the sprint she’d execute at his signal.
His attention shifted to one side of the border and then to the other. He rolled away from the desk a few inches more. Seconds passed.
“Go.”
Jordan bolted from the shelter of the desk and ran out the glass door of the brightly lit building into Amber, into the night.
She’d gotten about fifty feet from the building when a crowd of Guardsmen turned a corner and spotted her. Still in her police uniform, she composed herself and smiled at the group. “Hey, you guys need any more help over there?”
She called the question across the twenty or so feet that separated them, hoping she didn’t look as caught as she felt. Her blood whooshed loudly in her ears while she viciously fought the impulse to look away from the Guard’s direct eye contact. Straightening her spine and locking her teeth together, she steeled herself and looked the man directly in the eye.
“No. Everything is under control now. Get on back to where you belong.” The order was riddled with the superior attitude and disgust that those from a different zone parroted when in the presence of an Amber. Jordan gave the man a quick salute and turned, heading back on foot toward Amber Zone Police Headquarters.
The farther she walked away from the border guard station, the more relaxed she became. Her solitary steps echoed outward into the gathering fog of early morning, punctuating the rapid-fire thoughts shooting through her mind. They’d done it. The resistance was a reality, now. And already, there was someone from a different zone reaching out as an ally. If she could trust him.
Jordan thought back to the night she met Patrick, waiting for Jaci to cross back into the Amber Zone after Caroline had tried to kill her. She’d spent over an hour talking and flirting with him and his sleazy partner on the night shift. She’d flirted with the men because she wanted to keep them off-kilter, not questioning why she was there or why her friend was crossing back into Amber at such a late hour. It had worked, but she’d never looked back after they made their escape from the border guard station.
That wasn’t really the truth. She’d thought about Patrick a couple of times since then. He was attractive, and she’d picked up on his attraction to her.
But there was something about him even more memorable. She didn’t sense any disapproval or superiority usual during contact with people of other zones. He’d been fun, cracking jokes and tossing out sexual innuendos, which of course, was taboo because of their difference in designations. A flood of confidence swelled within her. After only a couple hours of contact months ago, Patrick remembered her name, both first and last.
She found it hard to believe, because she wasn’t a bat-her-eyelashes-and-wrap-men-around-her-little-finger type of woman. She’d never even tried that wholly female ploy before that night, and when she thought back, she was still shocked it worked. Maybe the years since she turned twenty-one and moved into Circle City allowed her to pick up some of the basics, but she was still way behind the learning curve in the feminine wiles department compared to the rest of the women in Amber.
Her upbringing in the Amber Zone had been different from other girls. She didn’t grow up doing the things they did. She never found comfort and acceptance through the touch