Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Devon woke up on the couch. The house was quiet, so he guessed Aurora wasn’t up yet.
He got up, rolling his neck, trying to get the crick out of it. Chase had a shitty couch. But at least Aurora went to bed early and seemed to have slept well.
Devon let his mind go over everything Max had said to him last night.
Just before the attack on Aurora’s building yesterday, Max’s people had detected suspicious activity on their network—a brute-force attempt to access their databases. They’d immediately gone into defensive mode.
But that had also helped cut off Bennett’s team from Aurora’s building.
Unfortunately, Max couldn’t yet rule out someone working from the inside. Or perhaps a vendor or someone who knew their office and its system. Max had their computer expert, Sylvie Trousseau, working on it.
While he’d had his boss on the phone, Devon had made sure that Chase was being taken care of.
Max assured him that he put up Chase in a luxury apartment in one of his other buildings, complete with an on-site food delivery service.
It sounded like Chase was going to be having a little TLC out of all of this, at least.
“You made me proud today,” Max had told him. “You kept Aurora safe in the worst possible circumstances. Thank you. I’m not going to forget this.”
“Just doing my job, sir.”
“And you did your job damned well. I’m glad that I can count on you.”
Would Max have said that if he knew what had almost gone down between Devon and Aurora? Maybe, after taking out three bad guys and getting Aurora out of there, Max would’ve forgiven him even that. But Devon wasn’t going to test that theory. He couldn’t step out of line again.
Even if Aurora was worth the headache of facing Max, which he suspected very well might be true, Devon could not afford to let himself get distracted.
Before now, the threat had been abstract. They hadn’t known for sure that Crane would go after her, and certainly hadn’t expected that her identity would leak so soon. There were a lot more factors at play than even Max had realized.
Now Devon had to expect another attack at any moment. If he was going to see Aurora safely through this, then he had to shove any interest in her way down deep.
By the time Aurora stumbled out of the bedroom, Devon had brushed his teeth and found some toast for breakfast.
“Morning. Chase has extra toothbrushes in his sink cabinet.”
She mumbled something and disappeared into the bathroom.
For most of the day, they kept out of each other’s way. Devon stayed in the kitchen, while Aurora watched TV in the living room. Devon kept staring at the phone, expecting it to ring with word of the pending relocation.
But no call came until almost dinnertime.
“Dev? It’s Tanner.”
One of the other bodyguards on Max’s team.
“Just got word from on high. Max needs you to stay put at least until tomorrow. Everything status quo?”
Aurora stood up from the couch, arms crossed, watching Devon speak into the phone.
“Nothing to report. Is Max going to send someone to relieve me? There are guys with more experience. Like you.”
“Can’t risk it. Even I don’t know where you are, so don’t tell me. And I saw you during that defense workshop we all did. You can handle this. Call if you have any issues. We’ll update you if anything changes here.”
“Got it.” He set down the phone. “We’re stuck here another night.”
Aurora groaned. “I guess I’ll take a shower then. I was hoping to wait until I could get my own clothes to change into, but I feel disgusting.”
She didn’t look it. But Devon kept his mouth shut.
While Aurora showered, he dug into Chase’s refrigerator for some dinner. They needed real food, not just toast and leftover pizza.
He found some tortillas, salsa, and ground beef. In a couple more minutes, the beef was sizzling in a skillet.
The water shut off in the bathroom. Devon was just setting their food on the table when Aurora came out, wearing a fresh, too-large shirt, along with a pair of pajama pants. Chase’s clothes. She’d rolled them up at the waist and cuffs.
Aurora posed when she saw him looking, sticking out one foot. “Yes, I realize how silly I look. Does Chase own a washing machine?”
Devon pointed over his shoulder. There was a laundry set-up in the room behind the kitchen. She went to dump her clothes inside the washer.
“You made dinner?”
“We had to eat something.”
“This looks great, thank you.” Aurora accepted the plate that he handed her, but then she said, “Wait, I need to say something. I came up with a whole speech while I was in the shower, and I better say it now before I forget it.”
Devon braced himself for another lashing.
“I’m really grateful to you for everything you did yesterday. I couldn’t remember if I’d said that yet. It was definitely the most frightening thing I’ve ever been through, and you were so calm. I’m scared to think what would’ve happened if you hadn’t been there.”
He opened his mouth, but she held up her hand. “And don’t just say you were doing your job. At least let me thank you. Don’t act like it was no big deal. Because it was for me.”
“You’re welcome. I did it because Max hired me, but also because I care about you.” He quickly added, “As a friend. I wouldn’t want to see you hurt.”
She rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry, I’m not getting any wrong ideas. I’m over that stuff from before. The kiss, whatever else I might have said…”
She did a wiggly little dance in her chair, like she was ridding herself of all those unpleasant memories. It was pretty cute, actually.
“I’m calling a do-over,” she said. “We’re good now.”
“I’m glad to hear it. So, you’re not mad at me anymore?”
“Mad? Was I mad? It’s all getting fuzzy. That’s the do-over magic at work.”
He grinned. They ate dinner, Aurora complementing his cooking multiple times, noting that she wouldn’t have expected either an army grunt or a hedge fund manager to have such skills in the kitchen.
“Actually, I was a lieutenant.” His friends had loved giving him shit for it.
“My apologies, Lieutenant Whitestone.” She saluted. “I should’ve known you weren’t a ‘Rick,’” she muttered. “And how did I believe that hedge fund story?”
“I barely even know what a hedge fund is.”
She arched an eyebrow. “Don’t play dumb. You went to West Point. Pretty sure you know all kinds of things.”
Their eyes locked. His mind had gone straight into the gutter, and judging by the pinkness to her cheeks, she’d gone there with him.
Aurora broke the eye contact. “I do want us to be friends, but I have one condition.”
“And that is?”
“That you don’t lie to me anymore. Not even to protect me.”
He screwed up his lips. “I guess I can do that. But it goes both ways—you have to tell me the truth, too.”
“I haven’t lied to you. About anything.”
They were both quiet for a while. Aurora played with the last bit of tortilla on her plate. “Have you…killed anyone? Before yesterday?”
“Yes.”
He didn’t volunteer any information, and she didn’t ask.
He’d done what he had to as a Ranger, and he didn’t think about it too much.
Some of his friends had PTSD. But for Devon, it was just something that happened, and it made him neither upset nor proud.
He would’ve avoided harming anyone if he could.
But in those moments, he hadn’t hesitated to act, and he had no regrets.
His kills weren’t the memories that haunted him at night. Only the people he’d loved and lost kept him awake. His fellow Rangers who were killed in action. Kellen. His dad.
“I keep thinking that those men are dead because of me,” Aurora said. “Like maybe they didn’t want to be there, but they thought they had no choice. Or maybe they really just wanted to talk, like that first guy claimed on the terrace.”
“They had guns. Those men would have killed you. Maybe hurt you in other ways first.”
She pressed her lips together, swallowing. “I’m not saying you did anything wrong. But you were defending me. If not for me, you wouldn’t have those men’s lives on your hands at all.”
“It’s not your fault. None of this is your fault.”
She held his gaze, blinking back tears.
He was amazed at how little she had cried. Not because he thought she was weak. Just because any sane person would cry after the things she’d been through.
Aurora reached for his hand and squeezed. Immediately, she let him go, and he missed the feel of her skin. Missed it too much.
“Why don’t you go to bed?” Devon stood and started clearing the plates from the table. “I’ll clean this up. I’m sure you’re exhausted.”
Aurora glanced at the door to Chase’s bedroom, which opened off the living room. “Wait. There’s only one door here. Where’s the room you slept in last night?”
“You’re looking at it.” He pointed at the couch.
Her eyes bugged. “You slept there? It’s three feet too short for you. How did you even fit?”
He laughed. “I can sleep standing if I need to. There’s only one bedroom, and it’s yours.”
“I’m not some spoiled little rich girl, remember? I’ve slept on sofas before. You take Chase’s room.”
He shrugged. “You can sleep wherever you want. But I’m not taking that bed.”
“Fine, you know what? We could keep arguing, but neither of us is going to back down. We’ll share the bed. You’ll have your side, I’ll have mine, and it will all be very platonic and professional.”
She marched off toward the bedroom. And she was right—when it came to Aurora, there was no use continuing to argue. Devon hadn’t known her long, but he’d learned that much. She could be just as stubborn as he was.
So they’d be sharing a bed. It wasn’t such a big deal. He’d bunked with fellow soldiers plenty of times. He could handle himself around Aurora Bennett.
Right.
He threw his clothes into the washer along with hers and set the machine going. Then he checked each window and door—yet again. Aurora was done in the bathroom, so Devon took his turn. He brushed his teeth for around eight minutes.
Yeah. He was stalling.