Chapter 11
KYLE
Getting out of the police station without planting my fist in someone’s face, preferably Forrester’s, was quite a feat.
When he’d started on the bullshit about Cami’s sister, my blood pressure had shot through the roof and I’d clenched both fists.
It was Bella’s whimpers that snapped me back to good behavior.
She didn’t need to be around any more humans behaving like assholes.
Kat acted as a buffer, too, one who could get shit done, so I let her do her job and did my damnedest not to make it harder for her.
My fury had dropped several notches when I saw Cami face to face. By the time she’d agreed to come home with me—not that she’d had a choice, but it made it easier to have her comply—my mood had ratcheted down to low-level pissed off.
“Time to go,” I told Cami and Bella.
At the front of the building, I handed Bella’s leash to Cami. “Give me a sec.” I stepped into the bullpen and stopped in front of Officer Downey’s desk.
She slid a thumb drive over to me. “I put in your request that the interview footage not be erased, but just in case.”
“Thanks.” I slid the drive into my pocket. “I owe you one.”
“I’ll remember,” she said. “I have a feeling I just scored a favor from someone who can make things happen.”
We left the station just as the heat of the afternoon was reaching its peak.
In the car, I cranked up the air and adjusted a vent so it would hit Bella on the back seat, then pulled out of the parking lot.
I knew we were being watched by Forrester’s friends.
I could spot each one in the various positions in the parking lot and along the street.
I kept my eye on them as we drove away. Luckily for them, no one was stupid enough to follow us.
An hour later, with two of Cami’s suitcases in the trunk, I turned onto the narrow, poorly paved county road that was my new address.
I drove half a mile, then I headed down my long dirt driveway.
I didn’t mention the buried cables or point out the infrared cameras we passed.
I also wouldn’t tell her about the bullet-proof window glass, steel cores of the office and owner’s suite door, and the advance-warning alarms that outfitted my house.
It was over and above normal HEAT-agent home security because, in a pinch, it could double as a safehouse if our HQ building were ever compromised.
Lang and I had proposed the idea when the agency had picked the town for our team’s central location, although somehow, I’d envisioned his property as being HQ 2, not mine.
Now, despite the remote possibility and low-level nature of the threat Cami might be facing, I was glad for the overkill. But she didn’t need to know the details, which might make it seem like she was entering a locked fortress. I wanted her to feel protected, not imprisoned.
“It’s pretty back here,” she said. “I love old stone houses.”
“That was one of the reasons I bought the place. Also, it has good bones and a new roof, and it’s in the perfect location for me.
It needed an electrical overhaul, but the plumbing was sound.
” I switched off the engine. “Don’t expect an old farmhouse on the inside, though. Come on. I’ll give you the tour.”
She loved the wide, wrap-around front and side porch I’d built. “Have you thought about porch swings?”
“Thought about it, ordered two, and expect delivery next week.”
“Great minds,” she said.
At the front door, I punched in the security code and pressed my palm against the reader as quickly and inconspicuously as possible.
We stepped into the cool foyer. She immediately oohed and aahed over the light-colored, refinished wooden floors.
Bella trotted across the planks, her clipped nails pattering lightly.
I pointed to our right and explained that renovation on that side of the house was completed.
“Living room slash family room here in the front. I took out the wall so it flows right into the kitchen in the back right corner. Above us on this side is the owner’s suite with the upgraded full bath.
It has the only working shower in the house. ”
She arched an eyebrow. “I thought the plumbing was sound.”
I smiled. “Thanks for paying attention. It is. But the bathrooms needed upgrades. The fixtures are out in the upstairs guest bathroom. The new ones should arrive around the same time as the porch swings.”
I pointed to a door that led to a room positioned under the staircase.
“This powder room is also finished, as well as a guest bedroom at the top of the stairs, but—” I pointed to the left side of the house “—previous to getting the new roof, there was water damage on this side of the house. I’ve replaced some drywall and floorboards, so the hard part is over, but there’s still painting and baseboard installation to be done. ”
“Upstairs and downstairs?” she asked.
I nodded.
She stepped into the room to the left of the entrance, the only closed off space on the first floor, and one of two safe rooms. She touched the blanket that covered the office furniture piled in the middle of the room, away from the primed but unpainted walls. “And what’s this room?”
“It’ll be my office once I’ve painted it, installed the baseboards, and put the furniture back in place.
On the other side of the wall, in the left back corner of the house, is the dining room.
It runs into the kitchen, too, although there’s a partial stone wall with.
..” I inclined my head. “I’ll show you.”
I led her to the back of the house. Actually, Bella led us both.
She’d been here for less than an hour yesterday and hadn’t come inside the house, but she was so excited, trotting from room to room with her tail wagging.
It was as if she’d always belonged here and was happy to be home. Both of which, I realized, were true.
The hallway ended in the kitchen, which took up two thirds of the back of the house. Directly across from us was the triple-wide, accordion-style glass door that had been a bear to install. She noticed it right away.
“That can’t be original to the house.”
“It’s not,” I said. “During the week the electricians installed the new wiring, my dad and brother came to visit. We took out the picture window that was there and cut away more of the wall to make this fit, rebuilt the frame, hung it, and voila.”
“Sounds easy,” she said.
“It was a fucking nightmare.”
She furrowed her brow. “The way you talked about this.” She spun in a slow circle, taking in the modern gray and white kitchen, then the partial stone wall with the large fireplace that created a small divider between the kitchen and dining room. “Did you do all the work yourself?”
“Most of it. With the help of some friends with strong backs.” I nodded to the huge glass door. “And Dad and Jamie. Dad was a general contractor. I spent an untold number of summers working on construction sites.”
“That explains a lot. Did you ever think about going into the business? This place is amazing. Really beautiful. You’d be great at it.”
“Thanks, but no, I never seriously considered it.”
“Why not?”
I rubbed the back of my neck just thinking about the aches and pains that followed a day of construction, the sunburn and hardened skin from working outside in every kind of weather, the exhaustion that felt good at the end of the first couple of days, but got old fast when you woke up just as wiped the next morning.
“Probably because of all those summers. It can be brutal.”
“So, you picked an easier line of work.”
I actually hadn’t. There was nothing easier about living in shit conditions for weeks on end, dodging bullets and surviving attacks, extracting buddies from behind enemy lines. And worst of all, sometimes watching comrades fall. “The Army wasn’t easier. Different, for sure.”
“And what about working in private security?” She watched my face carefully like she was trying to read something in it.
I grinned, making sure to reveal nothing that would make her suspect there was more to my current job. “Living my best life.”
“Even when you’re acting as a bodyguard?”
That one was trickier. Everyone on the team was a bodyguard for each other, but that was really stretching the definition of the word.
And Christ, I hated lying to her. “The worst part of my job is dealing with the occasional asshole. Even that’s not so bad after I win them over with my charming personality. ”
Bella sniffed around the edges of the glass door, putting nose prints on it. She glanced at me and whined.
“It appears it’s time to show you the back deck.” I slid the doors along the track. The three of us stepped out onto the deck and I closed the door behind us, even though the humidity and the bug population were lower than normal.
“Wow, I love this so much.” Cami spun in a circle again as Bella stepped off the deck into the grass, her nose pressed to the ground. “Wait, do you have a fence, because dogs can get carried away following the scents of squirrels or other animal.”
“It’s a natural wood one. It’s a little hard to see it from here, but it runs right along the tree line on both sides and the back.” I pointed to the gate. “And that leads to a footpath through the woods.”
She wrinkled her nose and turned from side to side, looking at the forest. “I’m trying to picture where the path would lead.”
“To Garnet Street.”
“Garnet. I wouldn’t have guessed that. Isn’t that where your office building is?”
“Yes. It’s two-and-a-half miles from here, going through the woods, with a couple of turns along the way. I run there most days to get a warm-up before PT. Physical training. It’s an important part of my job.”
But I didn’t want to talk about the job because that meant more dodging and subterfuge. With Cami, I just wanted to be easy. To be normal.
“I should show you the rest of the house, but it occurs to me you might be hungry,” I said. “I can throw some steaks on the grill.”
“That sounds great. Maybe in an hour or so?”
“Something to drink, then? I have iced tea, juice, milk, something stronger.”
She closed her eyes. “I would kill for something stronger, especially if you have wine.”
“No need to start a crime spree. Not only do I have wine, I have a wine cellar.”
“Really? Fancy.”
“Don’t get too excited.” I liked the way her lips quirked up when I said that, but I didn’t follow up on it. Not yet. “I only have six bottles in it, and three of them are the same kind. They’re what’s left of the case my brother brought as a housewarming gift.”
“Let’s hope I like it.”
I did hope she liked it, and the steak and salad I would feed her for dinner, and everything about my house because I liked having her here.
Visiting, staying over, getting comfortable.
I should blame Hayes and his state of wedded bliss for making me think so fondly about inviting a woman into my space.
But the truth was, my thoughts were more about being with this particular woman than my friend’s bad influence.
Maybe Bella wasn’t the only one who belonged here with me.
“Let’s go pick a bottle,” I said. “And I’ll show you where I keep the glasses.”
“After a glass of wine, I’d like to take a shower.”
The memory of how our day had started, with me in her shower, flashed through my mind. I took a calming breath and willed my body to stand down. Which worked about as well as I’d expected, which was not at all.
“Sure,” I said, hoping she wasn’t looking too closely at anything below my beltline. Then again, it wasn’t anything she hadn’t seen before. “I’ll show you where the towels are, too. Sorry, though, I don’t have any shampoo that smells like fruit.”
“That’s okay,” she grinned. “I don’t, either, although I do have leg-shaving cream that smells like strawberries.”
“That was shaving cream? I guess my high school French is a little rustier that I thought.” I ran my hand through my hair, which did feel a little gross. “I’ll need a shower tonight, too.”
We smiled and held each other’s gazes. I swear I felt her heartbeat, and my own sped up to sync with it.
Just like this morning, her pupils were blown and her breaths were quick and shallow.
Last time she’d looked at me that way, I’d nearly kissed her.
Then all hell had broken loose. Maybe this time—
She turned and pointed to the house. “We should get that wine and those towels.”
Her words broke through my daze. I’d hesitated and missed my chance, the exact opposite of what I’d been trained to do in the field. But I didn’t regret it. Cami had been through enough today. She had a lot to process.
Besides that, the woman was a guest in my home, and a potential witness placed under my protection.
There was no way in hell I was going to make her uncomfortable for even a minute, or create the slightest appearance of expecting something from her in return.
If anything was going to happen, she would have to make the first move.
After that, I’d be happy to make the second, the third, the fourth through tenth.
“Kyle?”
I nodded. Stuff. She needed stuff. I was good at stuff. Christ, I could barely think in complete sentences. “Right. Let’s go. We’ll get your stuff.” I sighed and tried again. “We’ll get you everything you need to feel at home.”