Framing Felipe, page 9
and joined Dana in her pacing.
Sarah poked Felipe with the hand he wasn’t suppressing and drew his attention away
from the pacing couple.
“Sí?”
“Is the troupe ever permitted to leave the grounds unsupervised?”
FRAMING FELIPE – 56 – Holley Trent
It was a smart question. Felipe took this one in English. “Very rarely. The only time it
happens, really, is when it benefits Jacques in some way. Promotion, for instance.”
Patrick stopped pacing and snapped his fingers. “One of the cats works for the big daily
paper out of Asheville. I wonder what would happen if one of their reporters took a sudden
interest in fortune-‐tellers. People love that New Age shit.”
“I like how you think.”
“Great. I’m going to go see what I can rustle up and check on the hurt cats.” With a brief
farewell kiss for Dana, he loped out of the room.
Sarah wrenched her hand free of Felipe’s grip and stood. “I’ll see if I can squeeze any
information out of those Visas.”
“Nope.” Dana crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head. The hard set of her
jaw said she would be taking no arguments. “You need sleep. The task you were assigned to
has evaporated and the stuff with the circus and the bears is on hold until we connect some
dots. I’ll talk to Doc and deal with the medical stuff here. Take Felipe, get a couple of rooms,
and check into the usual place for tonight. I’ll see you in the morning. Bring donuts.”
“But I—”
“No. Whatever it is, save it. You’re no good to me if you’re exhausted, and nothing’s
going to happen here in twenty hours or so that’s going to surprise us any more than we
were today. Go rest, and we’ll debrief tomorrow at seven.”
Felipe expected Sarah to rebut, and she’d even opened her mouth to say something, but
shockingly, no words came out. He looked from Sarah, to Dana, whose eyes had narrowed
into slits, and back to Sarah, who sighed.
“I hate feeling out of the loop on these group things,” she confessed.
“Sweetie, you’re worried about feeling replaceable at a time like this? What happened
to you up in Baltimore during those six weeks?”
Sarah lowered her gaze to the tabletop.
What had happened that would make a woman like her turn red from the neck up at
the mere mention of that time? Whatever it was, if there was even a small way he could
make her forget it, he was willing to try. Seeing her anxious sparked emotions him he didn’t
know how to tamp down. He squeezed her hand, and this time she didn’t pull it back.
FRAMING FELIPE – 57 – Holley Trent
Dana’s voice softened. “Don’t worry about it. Like I said, we’ll debrief tomorrow. Have a
good meal on us and sleep well. You too, Felipe.” With one final wan smile, she turned on
her heel and walked out.
A heavy quiet settled into the room now that they were alone again. Before they’d been
interrupted by Tamara, Felipe had been feeling amorous. Flirty. Now he felt something on
the other end of the spectrum. Territorial. Protective. Not even twenty-‐four hours, and he
knew without a doubt that, yes, they were pairing off just like Tamara said. Maybe Sarah
didn’t know it yet, though.
He twined the fingers of his left hand through those on Sarah’s right and pulled her to
standing along with him. She didn’t struggle—just followed. On the way through the living
room, he picked up her keys and her bag without breaking his grip, and drew her out the
front door. “I’m sitting in the front seat this time,” he said.
Her face was a blank as they descended the stairs, but her eyes were the red of
exhausted defeat. “Fine.”
FRAMING FELIPE – 58 – Holley Trent
CHAPTER SEVEN
They sat in silence as Sarah steered the pick-‐up down the mountain toward a small
nearby town. Occasionally, she felt Felipe’s scrutinizing gaze on her right cheek, but didn’t
turn to him. Didn’t acknowledge him. Her body was aware of his presence enough without
her having to look at him. She was thankful for the blessed silence, and not because she was
so averse to conversation, but because her mind reeled from that last interaction with Dana
and Patrick.
Sarah had left the impromptu meeting feeling a bit dressed down—maybe a bit
worthless. Like her opinions didn’t matter. But, of course they did. They always had to
Dana. Hell, Dana would follow Sarah into a firefight with no questions asked, but having
Felipe there, inserting his two cents and making Dana reshuffle Shrew priorities, had
chafed her.
If she had her druthers, she’d deposit Felipe at the safehouse as planned, lock him up
like they had the Visas, return to the circus and burn it to the ground with Jacques in it,
then return to Paddy’s mountain to deal with the were-‐bear bullshit. That’s the way Sarah’s
mind had always worked. She was constantly triaging things, making fast choices.
Now a stranger had gone and pulled the rug out from under her and made her second-‐
guess her place. Her usefulness. Certainly Dana didn’t want it to seem that way, but Sarah
couldn’t help how she felt. Whether she was sickeningly tired or not, she felt her place was
with the Shrews and being sent away like this to “rest” after being away from her girls for
six weeks had a special kind of sting.
She parked the borrowed pick-‐up on the backside of the lodge she and Shrews so often
frequented. Astrid’s immigrant grandparents had built the Bavarian-‐style three-‐story
structure during the mid-‐twentieth century, but it was now owned and operated by her
brother. He liked to call his style of inn-‐keeping “German Nouveau.” All that really meant
was that sometimes there was bratwurst for supper, and other times there was barbecue.
“I hope you like good Southern cooking,” she said to Felipe, finally meeting his gaze as
she cut the ignition. “Eric has a fondness for white gravy.”
“I’m sure it’ll be a special treat. Better than the anemic buffets I’m used to.”
FRAMING FELIPE – 59 – Holley Trent
“Maybe.”
They sat there in the silence for a while, Sarah drumming her fingertips against the
steering wheel sides and Felipe occasionally shifting in his seat. When Sarah swiveled her
head to face him, he was giving her an inscrutable look.
“What?” she asked.
“Are we waiting for something? Valet service, perhaps?” His lips twitched up at the
corners.
Something inside her uncoiled and she let the irrepressible laugh escape. “No. I…I’m
just feeling a bit ill at ease. Makes it hard for me to concentrate. I hate being away from the
Shrews when things are up in the air.”
“But Dana told you to go. It was an order, not a suggestion, best I could tell.”
“That doesn’t make it any easier. Aren’t you feeling out of sorts being away from
Fabian?”
“Yes, but I try not to fret over things beyond my control.”
“That’s a nice trick. I hope to master that one some day.”
“When you come from a world like mine, you learn all sorts of tricks to stay sane.”
His smile wilted a bit at the corners. She didn’t know anything about him, really, but
from all she’d learned so far, it was possible that in his own way Fabian had seen more
“war” than she had. Smaller scale, but just as demoralizing. He’d seen senseless death and
known hopelessness, too. She needed to stop thinking of him as some defenseless civilian.
Just because he had never worn a uniform didn’t mean he didn’t have some fight in him.
“Ven.”
The pad of his thumb stroking her jaw startled her back into reality.
“Good hot meal will do us both good, I think?” His smile, now returned, warm instead of
mocking. Comforting, even. It was obviously meant to disarm her, and as much as she hated
to admit it, it worked. Why he cared enough to disarm her—well, that was something she
didn’t have energy enough to speculate on.
Since she wasn’t going to argue with him, she toggled the lock switch and pushed open
her door. She hopped down from the vehicle, but before she could slam her door, Eric had
appeared in the attached tavern’s rear entrance. The handsome, auburn charmer grinned
and waved a kitchen towel at her.
FRAMING FELIPE – 60 – Holley Trent
“Hey, hot stuff. Astrid called about five minutes ago. Said you were on the way on the
boss lady’s orders. I’ve got chicken in the fryer.”
Felipe met Sarah at the front of the truck and looped an arm around her back, pulling
her close.
She let her forehead furrow, and when she tilted her face up to give him that look, she
found his expression was a friendly blank. She’d seen that same blank an hour earlier on
Patrick’s face, right before Patrick had assessed Felipe as non-‐threatening. Right before
Tamara had accused them of pairing off. Is that what he was doing? Making a pair? Was this
guy crazy?
He’d probably fallen off his trapeze onto his head a couple of times too many, but she
didn’t bother shrugging off his arm. It really didn’t annoy her that much, and apparently he
thought he had something to prove. Lord knew what, though.
“Hope there is enough for two,” he said.
Eric raised one auburn eyebrow and gave Felipe a studious stare. His gaze flitted from
Felipe, to Sarah, back to Felipe again, and then ended on Sarah.
She shrugged.
Eric whistled low and scratched his head. “Surprised that didn’t shake out of the Shrew
grapevine.”
“It’s very new.” Felipe grazed his left hand down Sarah’s left arm and gave her a
squeeze that in a small way reminded her of that much-‐needed massage back in the cabin’s
kitchen. For the first time in a long while, she’d experienced complete distraction when his
hands, then lips, roved over her. She didn’t ponder about the fate of those sex workers at
the club. She didn’t think about those Visas locked in the bread truck. She didn’t
contemplate the results of her last testing array with Doc and wonder what they’d meant
for her long-‐term livelihood. Her only thoughts had been things like Lower, and Oh yeah,
right there.
She didn’t know if she was just that tired, or if he really did make her feel that safe. She
suspected the former, but either way, she could just talk to Eric later and explain it all.
Felipe could have his little ruse for the moment.
“I’ve got the game turned on in the great room,” Eric said. “Go on in and make yourself
comfortable. We’re almost fully booked because we’re hosting a family reunion group, so
FRAMING FELIPE – 61 – Holley Trent
that means everything is operating on a schedule tonight. No room service, but you’re
welcome to help yourself in the kitchen as always.” He turned on the heel of his Converse to
retreat into the tavern, but stopped and spun back around to point at them. “Uh,
housekeeping is still working on clearing out the last couple of rooms. It’ll be a while before
your rooms—”
“Room,” Felipe interjected.
Sarah rolled her eyes.
Eric shifted his weight to his other leg. “Right, your room. It’s gonna be a bit longer. Just
leave your bags in the truck and housekeeping will put them outside your room after
they’re done.”
He turned once more, and Felipe and Sarah followed him into the kitchen.
“What happened?” Sarah asked. “You’re usually a bit more efficient than that.”
Eric tossed his towel onto the counter and accepted a bowl of whole red apples from
the line cook as he passed by. Sarah knew they’d end up in the famous strudel.
“Thanks for noticing. If you don’t know, that means Astrid hasn’t heard about it either.
Keep it that way, will ya?”
Eric wasn’t particularly trouble-‐prone, although he wasn’t one to back down from a
fight. Although Astrid was the far more belligerent of the two, Eric had his own reputation
for brawling. He didn’t start the fights, but he sure finished them. When it came to his
business, though, he kept all that stuff squeaky clean. Sarah couldn’t imagine what kind of
kink would have him so far behind schedule.
“What happened?”
Eric flicked his paring knife over the first of the apples. “Did something dumb and
signed up with one of those daily deal companies. Offered a fifty-‐percent coupon since
we’re in a shoulder season. Had a bunch of folks visiting who would have never otherwise
afforded it. Trashed the place.”
Sarah cringed. Yeah, she wouldn’t tell Astrid. The teasing would be far too epic.
Eric pushed the bowl down the counter toward Felipe and cocked up an eyebrow. “If
y’all don’t want to go relax before dinner, feel free to grab a knife and start peeling.”
Sarah did reach for a knife, but Felipe said, “Nope,” and pulled her in closer as he
started his stride away from the sweltering kitchen.
FRAMING FELIPE – 62 – Holley Trent
When they’d cleared the kitchen and dark dining area to enter the airy great room, she
tried, finally, to duck out from under Felipe’s arm. Enough with the play-‐acting.
Felipe sank into one overstuffed sofa Sarah knew to be particularly sleep-‐inducing and
pulled Sarah down on his lap.
“Quit struggling. Do you have somewhere you need to be?” He leaned back so his neck
was against the armrest, and his ankles were crossed at the other end of the sofa. Looping
his arms around her waist, he pulled her down on top of him and rolled her over.
Because she felt like he expected it, she struggled somewhat ineffectually to get up. He
was wiry, but strong, and she was tired.
She sighed. “I’d like to have my own seat, is all.” Truth be told, he made a pretty nice
pillow.
“Just be still.” He pulled her shoulders down, so her torso was pressed against his, and
her face nuzzled against his neck.
“What are you doing?”
“You need to relax.”
Yeah, she was getting there. Still… “I can do that over there.” She pointed to the
flanking sofa—a plaid one Tamara regularly claimed as a favorite. It had good, firm
cushions and was situated for a perfect view of the television.
“Maybe I’m cold and need a body to keep me warm.”
“You’re full of shit,” she murmured against his neck. His warm, musky neck. Her lips
were gliding over his Adam’s apple before she realized what she was doing. She pulled back
and tried to push up on her arms.
He held her still. “Do that again,” he said, and there was a note of command in his voice.
“Feels nice.”
“No. I shouldn’t have done it the first time. Let me up.”
