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Noelle's gut twisted in indignation How dare he accuse her of being a junkie when she'd never touched the stuff in her life? "I don't do drugs, not that it's any of your business"
He put the light away but blocked her exit so she couldn't turn away in a huff the way she wanted "Everything about you is ned to keep you alive, so you won't so ned? By whoether into a thin, silent line
"I see So you get to know everything about et to knoho sent you?"
He nodded once "You got it"
"You must be military No one else would be that full of the" She tried to push past hi to swat a redwood out of her way
"We need to getnow that you're up," he said as he turned away fro her i? No wait, let uess You could tell ht?"
One corner of hisit"
Noelle sighed She wasn't getting anything out of hi her to his superiors, where she would at least be able to ask some questions She knew that he was here to protect her and that someone had tried to kill her for the work she'd been asked to do for the governot to talk to soh rank to et this whole htened out and she could be back to her old life by Monday
Not that her old life had rade and the reward for her dedication being a pink slip at the end of the year But hey, at least it was her life Her choices Her pink slip That's what really mattered
Noelle washed herto rid it of the essence of decaying stuffed animals From the corner of her eye, she saw David hold out a tiny tube of toothpaste and a toothbrush wrapped in plastic
Hallelujah!
"We can grab so When you're done there, let's get you geared up"
Noelle raised a questioning eyebrow at hi device, a sun if you'll carry one"
"Not likely"
"Didn't think so"
Noelle made quick work of her teeth and pocketed the toothbrush for later use She didn't even have her purse with her No
Except her laptop David had taken that and only that from her house
The sleeve of her loose KU sweatshirt was stained with blood and so oily The darts hadn't leftto be pretty noticeable against the pale graythe two T-shirts she wore beneath Normally, she only wore one, but her house was cold, and every time she wore a jacket, the loose sleeves would send her stacks of papers careening onto the floor
David watched her as she scrubbed the bloody spot with a tiny bar of soap at the sink
"Does your arm hurt?" he asked, as if he just now remembered that people could feel pain He was obviously a real tough guy
It did hurt, but Noelle didn't like hie "It's fine"
"You're a pitiful liar" He dug in a black canvas duffel bag and pulled out a small first-aid kit
"Yeah, well it co by it, Mr Mysterious"
He grunted again and took the bar of soap from her hand He lathered up a washcloth and cleaned the small holes with a delicate touch for a man of his size who apparently didn't feel pain
The long, tanned fingers of one hand held her in place while he worked They were a stark contrast to the e deal with Noelle's natural red hair and scattered freckles His fingers wrapped all the way around her ar her look almost childish in comparison
His eyes slid to where he held her She knew that he couldn't help but notice that she looked like a scrawny kid
She always had It hadn't bothered her for a long time Until now
Now, she wanted to be beautiful and glas up to her neck That was doubtless the kind of woman that David liked As far as she could tell, all men did:
"You're smaller than you looked in the surveillance photos " he said in a low, deep voice--the kind he ht use to calm a child
The idea that she'd been covertly photographed was an unpleasant violation of her privacy, but she decided that it was best just to let that cos to spend her strength on
"Yeah, well, I like loose clothes They're more co, anyway?"
She looked doanting to cover her ss that added to the total immature look of her body Of course, the bold letters across her chest reading "I left the house for this?"
didn't help hershe were anyone but herself She was senerally liked who she had becoe would bother her at a time like this, but it did And that pissed her off
"I' two pairs of pants as well--jeans over leggings