“Helen someone. Apparently she was in our year at school.”

“Helen Niven?”

“Maybe. Blonde girl, quite pretty. Her dad?”

“Yes, that’s her. Helen Niven.”

Cain’s face had lit up. “I need to see her.”

I nodded. “I got her number. Maybe if I ask her to meet me somewhere, you can come along too. If you watch us from a distance you might recognise Helen. If she’s one of your faces then you can come over and I’ll introduce you.”

“When?” There was an urgency to his tone.

“Uh, tomorrow maybe? She’s caring for her mother so I’ll need to find out when she’s free.”

“Message her now,” he said, nodding at my phone.

I complied, sending Helen a brief text message to ask if she wanted to meet tomorrow. Unsurprisingly, the message hung. The signal was unpredictable at best in this underground stone chamber. I figured it could wait to send until I was going home but Cain, noticing, offered to take my phone up to ground level to ensure the message went through.

I got to my feet. “I can go myself.”

He came with me anyway. I moved clear of the ruin and stood in the bright moonlight to watch the message finally blink with a sent time. Behind me, Cain slipped his arms around my waist and squeezed me close. “You are so goddamn amazing,” he breathed into my hair. “You can run into a girl at a coffee shop and identify the next member of our group
from a couple of words written in her notebook.”

“Uh, slow down,” I said. “We haven’t confirmed anything yet.” It was hard to focus on anything except his touch, especially when he pushed my hair to one side and pressed his lips to my neck. I tried to be business-like, repressing a shiver of pleasure as I checked my phone. “Do you want to go down now?”

“Do I want to go down?” he asked with a low laugh. “Oh, hell
yes!”

“Cain!” I got flustered. “That’s not what I meant.” However, he liked his meaning better and slipped a hand under the front of my shirt, kissing down my shoulders.

“We can’t do this.” My knees trembled as his hand made contact with the skin above my navel and inched its way upwards.

He nipped at my earlobe. “Why not?”

“Because one of the others might follow us up here.” I was rapidly losing conviction in my own argument. I twisted my head around to get my lips onto his. He pushed his fingers underneath my bra and I made a noise that sure didn’t sound like a protest. My phone chose that moment to beep with a new message, startling us both. I adjusted myself hastily and checked the screen. Cain groaned, trying to get his lips back onto my neck, but I twisted away. “Look. Helen’s replied.”

For a moment his desire warred with his sense of duty.

Before either could claim victory, I pushed him back from me and held my phone
up in front of his face. “She said tomorrow is good for her. Three-thirty at
the same café I met her in today.”

He nodded, defeated. “I’ll wait nearby. If I recognise her I’ll join you.”

“Come on.” I took his hand. “Let’s go back inside. They’ll think the worst if we stay out here any longer.”

“They’d be just about right,” Cain said, pulling me back effortlessly and locking me in his arms. “I’ll go back inside with you now but you, Francesca, had better stay around after everyone else has gone home tonight.”