Lucidity Read Free Page B

would feel awful if something happened to Shep.” She was rambling and she knew it. The weeks of isolation were finally getting to her. And she squeezed the phone tighter in her hand. “Couldn’t we just call to check on him?”
    “I’d rather he focus on getting out of there alive. We can all kumbaya together later.”
    “Love the way you wear your heart on your sleeve, Parker.” She imagined Shep being overwhelmed by a mob of gun-toting backwoodsmen and felt herself tearing up. She’d met him only twice. They’d barely exchanged a few words. But she’d never forgive herself if something happened to him. “I hate this.”
    “What?”
    “ This . This sense of…impotence,” she fumed. “This ‘helpless woman’ feeling.”
    “‘Helpless woman’.” He chuckled, scratching at the scrub on his jaw. “My favorite oxymoron.”
    A man with a healthy respect for the female sex wasn’t as dense as he tried so hard to make her believe. “Stop deflecting. I hate all this running away. And dammit, you might have lost a friend back there. You never even said a civil good-bye, didn’t even wish him luck.”
    “He may not have needed it.”
    “Oh? I suppose you guys are bulletproof?”
    “No.” He dodged a fallen branch protruding onto the road, grimacing. “But that attack was a little suspicious. Too sudden, too soon. We were in the boonies, for shit’s sake. Only Shep and my superiors should’ve known where we were. Unless your enemies have some serious networking going on—”
    “You—you think Shepherd might’ve had something to do with it?” She turned to gape at him, amazed. “You actually believe your friend would betray you? Jesus, you’re crazier than I thought. He’s the one who helped us escape!”
    “Yeah. Because he happened to be there at just the right time and made himself look good in the process. Convenient, if you’re angling for a promotion or planning something bigger. The government thinks you’re a valuable commodity. And anybody can be bought, Carlotta.”
    She swallowed hard, trying to eliminate the bad taste that blossomed in her mouth. “But he’s your go-between, your link to your superiors. How can you suspect him?”
    Even in the muted light, she could see a taut muscle twitch in his neck. It reminded her that she might enjoy teasing him, but Munroe was not a man to anger. “Let’s get something straight. They may be my supervisors, but they’re not my superiors . And in a pinch, they’re neither. I go with my own gut. Is it telling me Shep is guilty of anything? No. I think he’s good people. It’s just something I have to consider. We have no way of knowing who might belong to the Temple, and since whatever the hell you do is top secret, I’ve gotta wing it.”
    She shook her head. Geez, what an awful way to live. It had never occurred to her that this insanity might be harder on him than it was on her. “Then knowing what’s really going on would help you do your job. Can we talk about this?”
    “No.”
    “Please.” Unlocking her seat belt, she swiveled to face him. “I know I’ve suggested it before, and I know we’re not supposed to discuss it, but—”
    “No.”
    “Damn you. Did it ever occur to you that I might need to talk about it? That I hate knowing you have the wrong idea about the One Hundred? About me? C’mon, big guy. We’re all alone here. Nobody needs to know—”
    “No.”
    “Stop being so bullheaded. Don’t you care about the reason for these sacrifices? After all this time, aren’t you even a little curious?”
    “As you said earlier—we’ve had this discussion, Carlotta. I don’t need to know.”
    He only called her Carlotta when he felt she was being childish. It made her want to scream. “If you would, just this once, let me explain—”
    “I really don’t want to hear it.” He paused to skillfully play the wheel as the car swerved on a patch of black ice. “I was told not to ask questions. I was given this