Chapter 14
Chapter Fourteen
Seth emerged from his room to make a sandwich and got caught in the middle of a conversation because of course he did. Nikki pelted him with questions until Callie finally distracted her with a promised TV series viewing.
While the two of them sat down to watch a show about a teenager who wanted to lose her virginity to the high school pretty boy, and whose life story was inexplicably voiced by tennis great John McEnroe, Seth had peaced out. He didn’t need that kind of drama in his life. And not when he’d be watching it with two women. Uncomfortable didn’t even begin to cover it.
He’d gone to check the cameras at that moment because he wanted to get out of the house. He could have checked from his phone or laptop, but he’d needed to be in the open air where he could breathe.
By the time he was done with the cameras and a perimeter check, Nikki had gone to bed and Callie was no longer watching a teenager try to lose her virginity. Thank sweet baby Jesus.
Callie was in the kitchen, cleaning up the ice cream dishes, when he walked back in. Her face wasn’t puffy anymore. Nikki had finally noticed when she’d returned from her shower, but she’d accepted Callie’s explanation that it was journaling about a book she’d read that had made her weepy.
Seth thought it was a bullshit excuse if he’d ever heard one. But Nikki had rolled her eyes and acted like it was a common occurrence. Then she’d asked him if he liked to read. He’d said yes, but when she asked for book titles, he’d had to name magazines about guns and books on cybersecurity. He’d left it vague, and she’d been disappointed before she launched into a description of a book that had horses and romance in it. Then she’d moved on to fairies or some such thing.
Callie had told him when he was establishing their routines that Nikki got up early to feed and take care of Charlie before school. Then she often rode after school at her trainer’s barn, cleaned tack, and did chores there. She was worn out by evening time and didn’t usually stay up past nine o’clock. He couldn’t say he was sorry about that. It was quiet again.
“Sorry about all the questions,” Callie said as if she’d read his mind. “Honestly, I think she’s crushing on you a little bit.”
Seth apparently couldn’t hide the horror on his face because Callie laughed and shook her head. “Don’t worry, she’s not really thinking of you as a potential boyfriend. You’re new and interesting, and you’re here. Plus you don’t actually interrupt her or seem uninterested in what she’s saying, so she chatters on. Surprisingly so, I have to admit. But I’d be lying if I said it bothered me. She’s almost herself again when she’s doing that.”
“That’s nice.” The last thing Seth wanted was a sixteen-year-old crushing on him. “I don’t mind her talking. I can tune it out. But you’ve got me worried with this boyfriend thing.”
She finished drying a bowl and hung the towel on the oven handle. “There is no boyfriend thing, promise. But you’ve got to know you look like you could have rolled off a movie set. It makes people stare.”
Seth frowned. A movie set? “I’ve spent a significant portion of my life not attracting attention. For the job. You’re wrong.”
She laughed. “If you say so.”
“New plan,” he said, pointing at her. Because he wasn’t taking a chance. Not even a little bit. “I’ve got lead paint and you were kind enough to invite me to stay here, but now we’ve gotta admit we’re feeling a little more than friendly. You’ve agreed to go out with me. This could be the beginning of something big.”
She stared at him, her mouth hanging open a fraction. “You aren’t serious.”
“Deadly serious. You’re putting an end to any romantic notions your sister may have by staking a claim on me.”
“Seth. You’re too old for her, and she knows it. Really.”
He shook his head. “Not taking a chance that kid’s going to get her heart stomped on when I don’t reciprocate her crush. You’re my new love interest. Congratulations.”
Callie gaped, her mouth moving like a fish’s as she seemed to be about to say something and then thought better of it. She sighed. “Okay, fine. If it makes you feel better.”
“It does.”
“Then how’s this going to go? You showed up today and asked me out tonight after Nikki was in bed?”
“Sounds good to me.”
“Okay. But you realize we can’t just say we’re dating. You’ll have to hold my hand once in a while. Maybe kiss my cheek or something. Just to make it look real.”
“Your cheek? Really?”
She looked exasperated all of a sudden. Hell, he felt exasperated, too. This idea had come out of nowhere, and now it was running away with him.
“Then what do you suggest? Bending me over your arm and ramming your tongue down my throat?”
He pictured himself doing just that. Without the tongue ramming, though. He kinda liked the idea.
“I’ve got more finesse than that.”
“Okay, Mr. Finesse. What do you suggest?”
There was a devil in his brain that activated at her question. That was the only explanation for why he strolled toward her, twined his fingers with hers, and tugged her against his body. She gasped as she gazed up at him. He let his gaze follow the contours of her face—the lush mouth, the nose that was slightly larger than it should be, the big green eyes, the pale skin that told the story of how she spent most of her time indoors.
He brought his other hand up to her face, skimmed the line of her jaw, tipped her head back and cradled it. Then he bent and put his nose to her neck, inhaled her.
She was sweet like roses, rich like vanilla. Tart like whiskey, he’d bet.
Her hands lifted to his torso, curled into the fabric of his shirt. A raw, lonely part of him wanted to sweep her up, carry her to the bedroom, and strip her naked until he was buried inside her, taking them both over the edge of oblivion.
The urge stunned him and turned him on at the same time. He’d gotten to a place where he didn’t believe she was a traitor, but that didn’t mean he trusted her completely. When lives were on the line, he didn’t trust anyone except the men he’d served with. The five men back at the range who were his family, his brothers. Them, he’d trust with his life.
Seth ran his tongue across the throbbing pulse point in her neck and growled at the sound of her moan.
He could eat her up. Right now.
He wouldn’t, though.
Instead, he lifted his head and gazed down at her. The closed eyelids, the parted lips. The hair that spilled like silk from her top knot. It was askew and he wanted to take it down. Except he wasn’t sure if she had hair pins, and he didn’t want to pull it.
“Look at me,” he commanded.
Her eyes opened. He intended to kiss her, to take the sweetness of her mouth and plunder it. But first he wanted to see those green eyes look up at him in wonder.
They did, too. For all of three seconds.
Then she was pushing him away, stumbling backward, her eyes wounded instead of wondering. He let her go. Stood with his fists at his sides, his dick aching, and wondered where it’d gone wrong.
“Point made,” she croaked, turning to grasp the edge of the counter and take a deep breath. He started to apologize, but she whirled to him again, her eyes on fire this time. Sparking, flaring, glaring. At him.
“What point?” He was at a loss. Completely.
Her face was red. She waved her hands. “I don’t want to discuss it. Cheek kisses, Seth. A peck on the mouth. Nothing like that, especially when you don’t mean it.”
“Okay.”
She was too upset to explain that he’d meant it, that it was about sex not romance. He got the idea she wanted the romance though. The frilly, girly bedroom and the table full of paper and stickers that she glued into a journal she tried to make pretty told him that.
The anger in her expression ebbed a fraction. She reached up to fix her top knot, winding the hair furiously before snapping the elastic onto it again. “I’m sorry I overreacted, but I just don’t have it in me right now to take things that far when it’s all a game to you.”
He wanted to growl. He didn’t. Maybe. “I’m here because you need me. I’m protecting the two of you because you need me. This is definitely not a game to me.”
“I meant the dating part of it. You’re suddenly not satisfied unless we pretend to date so my sister’s infatuation will die on the vine. I get it. You’re uncomfortable with the idea that a teenager can view you as hot. Newsflash, Grumpy Gus, but teenage girls have been thinking you’re hot for years now. Trust me, I was one once and I had plenty of crushes on men way too old for me. Usually actors who starred in my favorite shows, but sometimes they were people my parents knew. It didn’t mean I intended to do anything about it. Teenage girls mostly want the romance. It’s not about sexual feelings, though of course they get those too.”
Now how the fuck was she starting to make him feel guilty about the dating idea? “I’m not trying to make it a game, Callie. You have to admit that inviting a man you don’t really know to stay at your place just because you’re nice isn’t a great excuse. A man you’re interested in who’s also interested in you? Makes a lot more sense.”
She sighed. Her top knot listed, but mostly stayed in place. She shoved loose strands behind her ears. “It does. You’re right.”
“I’ll hold your hand. I’ll flirt with you and kiss you chastely when appropriate. That work?”
She nodded, her cheeks still red. “Yes. Thank you.”
He got the impression somebody had hurt her at one time. He wanted to know who, and he wanted to fucking pound their face in. He didn’t ask because it wasn’t his business. No matter how badly he wanted to know.
“I don’t have any sisters. I don’t know the first thing about teenage girls. You think I’m overreacting, but I have no context here.”
She huffed. “Actually, I think it’s kind of sweet that you’re weirded out. Means you aren’t a creeper who’d take advantage of a young woman. Nikki is sixteen, but eighteen is the age of consent. To some men that’s perfectly acceptable.”
Ice formed in his veins as he thought of Mia. Was she safe? Was someone watching out for her and making sure some asshole with a thing for teen girls didn’t get close to her?
He closed his eyes as pain stabbed him. He’d never know and there was nothing he could do about it. Nothing.
Seth shoved a hand through his hair. It did no good to think about the past. It was done. He’d made a choice because he’d felt like he had no other. He couldn’t go back in time and make a different one.
“She’s a kid for fuck’s sake,” he grumbled.
“With the body of a woman.”
Sometimes he hated the way the world worked. What the fuck was wrong with grown men who found teen girls attractive?
“I’ve checked the cameras,” he told her, changing the subject before it made him crazy. “Everything’s working as it should. If anyone crosses the perimeter, I’ll get an alert.”
“What about animals?”
“I’ve filtered it to only ping me on the big stuff. Deer will set it off. Bears. It’ll be easy to see that’s what it is, though.”
She looked worried. “And if a person were to cross the perimeter?”
“Then I’ll deal with them.”
She went over to the table where all her stuff was laid out, sat down, and stared at it. “I hate the uncertainty,” she finally said. “The not knowing if anyone is out there.”
He went over and stood with a hand on the back of a chair, made his voice softer. “It’s not likely they are. The lab burned last night. Volkov is dead. Whoever did those things isn’t waiting in the dark to break in and kill you. Not yet anyway. They haven’t asked you for anything, but they intend to. If you don’t deliver, that’s when they’ll act.”
Her eyes were wide as she looked up at him. He vaguely thought he could drown in those green pools. He didn’t usually think that way with a woman, but her damned frilly bedroom had him thinking about romantic shit.
It needed to stop.
“Do you think the fire was meant for me? Or do you think it was just a coincidence?”
This was territory he understood. He wanted to tell her it was an accident. That it had nothing to do with her.
He couldn’t lie, though. Not even to make her feel better.
“Before we knew Volkov was dead, I’d have said it had nothing to do with you. Now I’m not so sure.” He dragged the chair out and sat down so he could look at her on her level. “The fire wasn’t a risk to the information they want because it’s held on the server, and the servers are backed up to secure cloud storage. The only thing they risked was you. But I’m not sure it was a risk to you either. They wanted you scared, pliant, willing to cooperate. So they’re going to try again to get you to give them access. If you don’t, they’ll escalate.”
She seemed to take it all in and then nodded. He liked that she didn’t fall apart or get that wild animal look that said she wanted to bolt. He knew she was fighting it inside, and he admired that she was.
“I think I’m really glad I went to One Shot Tactical today. You guys were the only thing I could think of.”
“It was a good decision.”
That was an understatement. Ghost Ops now had a lot more information about who was trying to steal government secrets, and they were acting on it. Without that fire, without Callie coming to see them, they wouldn’t have known about Mikhail Volkov for, quite possibly, weeks.
“When do you think I’ll hear from them?”
“Soon. They’ll use Volkov’s phone, pretend to be him. The identity of the body found in the Potomac hasn’t been released yet, so they won’t know that you know the truth. You can’t let on that you do, either. That’ll escalate their timeline, which will put you in the crosshairs that much faster.”
She swallowed. “I won’t.”
“Have you heard from your boss about when you can go back to work?”
“Not yet. The last email said that the affected areas would be closed indefinitely, but they’re working on accommodation for our team. The building will stay empty for the rest of the week while it’s inspected and cleaned. But they don’t want us idle for long. They’ll make room for us in one of the other SCIFs. I think we’ll be back to work on Monday. Nikki will be out of school, though. She has a summer job at the stable, cleaning stalls and exercising horses, so she’ll be gone most of the day. But not all of it.”
He could see the worry on her face. “We’ll watch out for her. One of the guys will shadow her when she’s in transit, and we’ll put a tracker on her car. I’ll be taking you to work and picking you up. You won’t be in the building without others around. No more late nights for a while.”
“I’m fine with that. I wouldn’t have stayed last night, but my boss asked me to finish something up.”
“Does she usually ask you to stay?”
She shook her head. “She has nothing to do with what happened if that’s what you’re thinking. We’ve got a deadline, and Dr. Robbins has asked other team members to work late before. Including me. The fire happening after she asked me to stay is most definitely a coincidence.”
“I didn’t say it wasn’t. But we have to consider every angle, no matter how remote.”
She blew out a breath. “If she were going to ask me to stay in order to set me up, that would mean she’s on the side of whoever’s pulling the strings. She could just replace the cable herself since she has access.”
“True.” He watched the play of emotions across her face, the worry. She knew something she wasn’t saying. “Is there anything you’re doing that nobody else can do?”
She glanced down at the table, fiddled with a pair of tweezers she had lying there for positioning her stickers. Then she looked back up at him, meeting his gaze directly. Coolly.
“No, there’s nothing. I’m a junior programmer. I mostly proof the code, like I said.”
Seth stared at her for a long moment. She stared back. And then she dropped her gaze.
His stomach bottomed out. He might not know a lot of things in this world, but he did know one thing.
Callie was lying her ass off.