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until Trey had been arrested in Mexico. Two days later Bryan had shown up out of the blue looking like a live action hero from the movies, and offering to help Trey any way he could.
    Sassy had recognized him immediately standing on her mother’s doorstep, but it had still been a shock. And while Bryan might have changed dramatically since she’d known him in high school, the expression on his face the first time he’d kissed her was exactly the same as he’d worn just moments earlier: positively stricken.
    “L ET’S EAT, ” B RYAN said as he stalked toward the room ser­vice cart. “It’s going to be a while before we hear back from Marissa.” He was so mad at himself, his tone sounded much harsher than he intended. Sassy brought out the absolute worst in him, every time.
    He never cursed around women, yet with Sassy he felt as if he was in a constant state of having hit his thumb with a hammer. What was it about this girl . . . this woman?
    She sure as hell wasn’t “a girl” any longer. Sometimes it felt like he could just look at her and raise his body temperature. That’s why he’d left home so abruptly. Nothing good would have come of his staying in Springwater the summer he graduated. He wasn’t going to seduce his best friend’s baby sister then, and he wasn’t going to do it now, either.
    Trey Smith had enough trouble. Six months ago in Mexico, he’d been found early one morning passed out and covered in blood in a boat he’d rented the afternoon before with Elizabeth Yarborough to take a sunset cruise.
    No body had been found, but witnesses claimed to have heard Trey and Elizabeth arguing in the hotel restaurant before they’d left for the marina. Trey had no memory of what had happened beyond renting the boat and leaving the dock. He admitted to having had a heated discussion in the restaurant beforehand, because he’d been worried for Elizabeth’s safety in the village where the Peace Corps had had her stationed.
    Cartel violence had increased dramatically in that same area, and he’d wanted her to come back home to the U.S. early or request to be moved, but she’d refused. The next morning everything had gone to hell. Elizabeth was missing, presumed dead, and Trey had been arrested.
    Sassy was convinced Elizabeth was alive. But while Bryan didn’t think Trey had murdered the woman, he wasn’t so sure she was still alive.
    He snuck another glance at Sassy, perched on the edge of the bed in that ridiculously oversized robe, and felt his heart rate bump up. Jesus. It was going to be a long night.
    He flipped on the television to a BBC news channel. The Christmas Eve mass from the Vatican was being broadcast. Bryan wasn’t Catholic or particularly religious, but his Gran had gone to church, and he’d attended with her often. Until now he’d only thought about today’s being Christmas Eve in terms of how it would affect their getting out of Africa. The mass seemed an appropriate background for dinner.
    Peace on earth.
    He stared at the screen. Peace was such a foreign concept. He wasn’t opposed, but with everything happening right now, it felt extraordinarily out of reach. He listened to the chanting and tried to focus on the liturgy. Anything to keep his mind off Sassy and that one bed.

 
    Chapter Five
    December 25
    Late afternoon
    B RYAN HAD GOOD memories that involved Christmas. But this had been a bizarre holiday, filled with waiting, impatience, and awkwardness. Being shut up in a hotel room for most of the day with a half-­dressed Sassy had been surreal.
    Despite the manager’s assurances of last night, the hotel shop had been closed all morning, along with every other shop immediately around the hotel. Bryan didn’t want to go back to the Casbah, so he’d decided to wait a few hours before trying again. He and Sassy had passed the time catching up on what their lives had been like since Springwater, even playing Texas Hold’em for a while until she suggested they switch