The best words Anna had ever heard in her life.

Griffin said, his voice a whisper, “Three different voices. They’ll wait, stay hidden and quiet, and see what happens. If they have a brain, they won’t step into the open, won’t take the chance either of us survived. Keep moving back, quiet and slow.”

They slithered back as quietly as they could, and heard the blessed sound of sirens in the distance. “Okay, this is good.” Griffin pulled out his cell and punched in Ruth’s number.

Ruth’s frantic voice blasted out of his cell. “Griffin? What’s happening? Dix got a call from 911. What’s going on? Tell me the two of you are all right. We’ll be there inside three minutes.”

She punched off before Griffin could say a word. He slipped his cell back into his coat pocket. “That smell—you forget what burning rubber smells like. Did you hear an engine revving? The second they heard the sirens they were out of here. Too bad my car is history.”

Anna stared at him. She grabbed his face between her hands and kissed him hard.

He kissed her back, his hands in her filthy hair, stroking down her back, bringing her hard against him.

Between kisses, she said, “Who cares about a freaking car? I don’t care about mine, do you? We’re alive. That’s a miracle,” and she continued to kiss him.

Finally she leaned back in his arms. “Were you hurt?”

The instant Griffin heard the words he felt a burning pain in his left thigh. He grunted in surprise, and then his leg collapsed and down he went. He lay on his back, staring up at her, his hand pressed hard against his leg. “Your mouth—I didn’t realize how much I liked the taste of smoke.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, on her knees beside him, pressing down hard on his leg. Siren lights cut through the trees. They heard voices shouting, back where the cars burned, billowing up thick black smoke into the night. They saw a flashlight, heard a woman’s voice yelling their names. It was Ruth. When the flashlight landed on Anna, Griffin said, “You’ve got blood all over your face.”

Anna touched her cheek, felt the trickle of oozing blood, then the sting of a glass cut. “Not bad, and I don’t think your leg’s gonna fall off, either.” She grinned at him, leaned down, kissed him again, then jumped to her feet. “Apply pressure. I’ve got to find Monk.”

Henderson County Hospital

Late Monday night

It was strange to see Griffin in the very same hospital, lying in the same kind of bed Delsey had occupied. There was a drip in his arm, and his eyes were veiled with drugs, but he was thrumming his fingers on the light hospital coverlet. “Is that museum print a Monet?”

“Yep. Glad you can see it.”

“Only an impression.”

“Ha ha.” She leaned over him, covered his hand with hers. “But we made it. Guess what? You managed to draw the same doctor as Delsey—Dr. Chesney. She says you’re lucky to have the war wound everyone used to hope for: some stitches, a little soreness, and a sexy limp for a while, and best of all, some feel-good drugs and a bed for the night. She said you’ll be out tomorrow.”

He gave her a lopsided grin, took her hand in his, and pulled her down to him. He kissed her, hard and fast, and laughed. “You still taste like smoke. Tomorrow’s good. We’ve got lots to do. You’re really pretty, you know that? And the smoke, it really does taste fine.”

“Griffin, you do know you kissed me and not Dr. Chesney, right? I mean, how drugged up are you?”

“Maybe more than I’d like, but who cares?”

But I’m not drugged up at all, and a girl’s gotta take her chance when she gets one.

She leaned down and kissed him just as hard, just as fast, and thought, What a great decision that was. She cupped his cheek in her palm. “You taste pretty fine yourself.”

She started to straighten, but he grabbed her arm, kept her close. “Why’d you do that, Anna?”

She studied his drop-dead gorgeous face. Truth was, what she really wanted was to burrow right into the man behind those incredible eyes to learn every single thing about him. Even after only a few days, she recognized rare and special when she saw it. “What did you say?”

“I want to know why you kissed me.”

“I figured one good turn and all that.”

“Yeah? That’s it?”

“Okay, I wanted to.”

He nodded slowly. “Good. So did I. Did I mention I like your smoke taste?”

“Which time?”