Pretty Wanted Read Free Page B

reason.
    “I don’t want to solve this case, Aidan.” We weren’t detectives. If the police hadn’t found anything, then how could we? “I just want to know who she was. I want some closure.”
    “Fair enough,” he said. “Then we’ll get you closure. But I’d still love to see them fry.”
    We studied the map again and figured out our plan of attack. We would start with the apartment building, see if we could talk to anyone that knew her. Then hit the restaurant. Someone out there would have to remember. Fifteen years was a while ago—my whole life-span—but it wasn’t ancient history.
    For tonight, we would have to go squat somewhere. With so little money to rely on, we’d been finding fancy vacation homes to break into (à la Sam Beasley’s) since we’d been on the road. I’d never attempted a break-in in a city before but we would just have to wing it.
    We powered down the computer, careful to erase all of our browsing history and went upstairs.
    Our feet echoed on the floor, thin and metallic sounding in so much open space. I looked around. There was nothing else here, no carpet, no wall hangings, to absorb the noise, but it still didn’t seem right, the emptiness of the place.
    Aidan halted us. “Willa. Listen.”
    “For what? I don’t hear anything.”
    “Exactly.” He pointed to the ceiling, where most of the lights were out, then to a giant clock on the wall. It was 7:37 P . M .
    In front of the computer, we’d somehow lost track. All of the doors were locked now. The library was closed for the day. Unless we wanted to risk setting off what was sure to be an elaborate alarm system, we were going to be here until it opened again.
    Welcome to the Hotel Dewey Decimal.
    I looked at Aidan. “Guess we know where we’ll be spending the night.”
    • • •
    When I thought about it, it wasn’t so bad, really. I’d always been a fan of books, and now we were surrounded by them. It saved us the trouble of having to find and break into a new place to sleep. Not to mention that it was kind of sexy to be trapped in a deserted building with Aidan. For days on the bus, we hadn’t really had any time to fool around, and the close proximity to him had been a constant low-grade torture, like a slow-burning fever. Now we were finally alone.
    He clearly felt the same way as he took my hand and led me into the darkened periodicals room. He sat down on an upholstered bench and pulled me onto his lap.
    “C’mon, Colorado.” He reached up to cup my face, drawing my mouth to his.
    I didn’t think I could ever get tired of making out with him—the plush pull of his lips, the woodsy smell of his skin, the warmth of his hands traveling over me, even this new scratchy stubble. There were private, interior parts of him I’d never know, but these parts I could touch.
    There was a looming question, I knew, of when and how we would take it further, but for right now he hadn’t put any pressure on me and we were living in the moment. We were both good at that, it seemed. And this moment was especially irresistible.
    I said a silent thank-you to all the writers of the world for giving us cover.
    I lay down on top of him, so that our bodies were perfectly aligned, ran my hands under his shirt to feel his smooth skin.
    I definitely didn’t want to hear the footsteps out in the hallway. But there they were.
    Aidan heard, too. “What was that?” he asked.
    We listened as I hovered above him in non-kissing stillness. Definitely footsteps. Getting louder, too. I got up and broke away, tiptoed closer to the doorway, but shielded myself against the wall as I peeked out. Outside in the corridor, the beam of a flashlight bounced around.
    Security was here, doing a check. Of course.
    We should have known that they don’t just close up a place like this. There were rare books in here.
    I crept back toward Aidan as quietly as I could, gesturing with my arms to move. We needed to hide, and pronto.
    We ducked behind the