Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Emily’s forearms rested atop the railing of the hotel rooftop bar, her gaze on the indigo and amethyst sky. So much more colorful than what he was used to back home.
“The empanadas we had at dinner were crazy good, but now I feel like I’m stuffed with cheese.”
He lightly laughed and switched his focus to her. She was far more interesting to look at than the sky.
“Worth every calorie, though.” A close-lipped smile deepened the dimple in her right cheek. Kryptonite for him. “This is not how I anticipated the trip going, though.”
“Yeah, this is definitely not how these sorts of trips normally go.” He’d never spent the evening buying weapons illegally with a gorgeous attorney at his side, that was for sure.
“It’s like someone took a paintbrush to the sky. Never seen such beautiful colors before.” Her graceful hand raced through the air as if she were throwing shades of purple onto a canvas.
“I’ve been to Chile quite a few times, but I never really noticed how nice it is.”
“I thought you noticed everything.” She faced him, fidgeting with the zipper of her leather jacket and pulled it all the way up.
“I don’t always notice beauty, I guess.” Not until it’s right in front of me, staring me in the eyes, stealing my focus. My thoughts. My breath like a dying man. “You must be cold.” He pointed to the sofa in front of a fire off to their side.
He grabbed one of the rolled blankets, which were set out for guests, and draped it over her shoulders once she’d taken a seat.
“Thank you. Much better.” She leaned back on the sofa but kept her eyes trained on the fire that burned bright from the bed of what looked like hundreds of three-carat diamonds.
A light breeze had the flames flickering his way as if reaching out for him like a demon trying to rope him back to the hells of Afghanistan, to the day he watched a Humvee of Marines get hit by an IED right in front of him nine years ago.
He coughed into a closed fist, trying to force away the thoughts. “Would you like something to drink?”
“Do you normally drink on assignment?”
“No.” But there was nothing normal about this night or the company. “One’s fine.”
“Wine, then. Something red. Thank you.”
He went to the bar tucked beneath an overhang not too far from their couch and ordered their drinks. He scanned the area, checking for anyone or anything abnormal as he waited.
“I thought you needed my help with Spanish,” she said with a smile when he returned with their drinks. “I heard you order,” she added when taking the glass he offered.
“I never said that, you did.”
“So, you do speak the language?” She tightened her grip on the blanket with her free hand. “How come you didn’t when you were, uh, making the purchase from that man tonight?” The flames threw shadows on her face when a slight gust of wind hit them again.
“Because Heidi and Decker don’t speak Spanish.” And his Spanish was only decent; his Arabic, Mandarin, and Urdu were much better.
He thought back to an hour ago when he’d clutched Emily tight to his side as they navigated the bustling streets to buy a 45 and 9mm from an illegal vendor. Yeah, not the most thrilling moment of his life.
“You want to come back here and take that arms dealer down, don’t you?” She sipped her wine. “I saw the way you basically inventoried every detail about him and his operation in your mind.”
“He sells weapons to criminals. Of course, I want to come back here and take him off the streets. Wouldn’t be my first time either.”
No flutter of her lashes or downturn of her lips at his words. Maybe she didn’t view him as a killer? “A double-tap to the chest. A bullet to the head, perhaps.”
She angled her head, thinning her eyes as she studied him. “That’s what you’d like to do to him?”
“Yes,” he answered through barely parted lips. “And if that son of a bitch had even looked at you sideways I would’ve snapped his neck.”
No flinch. Zero reaction. How was that possible?
He was attempting to press on a nerve. To see if the softness of her eyes would harden with every beat of the truth he dropped.
His job was to kill. To sit on the long gun and wipe scum from the face of the earth. And he was okay with that. He meant what he’d said back at the White House, those deaths were about keeping people safe. Keeping his brothers in arms safe. So, no regrets.
“Do most snipers keep count of their kills? I saw the movie about that well-known SEAL and—”
“It’s a force of habit, I guess.”
She took another sip of wine and stared into her glass. “Well, this part of the night is much more my speed. I’m hoping that was my first and also last weapons buy.”
A touch of silence ate up the space between them, allowing his mind to quiet, a nice change from the constant parade of details rolling through like an early morning fog.
“I love the smell of a fire. Reminds me of when my brother and I used to go camping with our parents.” She set her glass on the wide ledge surrounding the firepit and lowered the blanket from her shoulders.
“My brother has always been protective of me. He’d bring my dad’s gun when just the two of us went hiking, worried a bear would try and maul me. ”
“And what about with guys? Did he have a gun on our dinner date the other night?”
She cracked a broader smile. “Probably. But he really liked you. I’ve never seen him like that. You have an effect on people.”
She scooted over a hair and rested a hand on his knee. Ideas of her hand in other places on his body popped to mind.
“It has to get exhausting, though. I mean, the woman at the front desk downstairs when we checked in earlier couldn’t take her eyes off you.”
He wasn’t sure about that, but then, he didn’t notice other women with Emily at his side.
“I wasn’t much to look at growing up. I had to work my ass off to get in shape,” he admitted.
“I was kind of a geek. My brothers loved to play American football—they were obsessed with the Cowboys—and they always made me play, even before I learned how to make use of a gym.” His throat thickened at the memory.
“Brandon, my oldest brother, he’d always be the quarterback, but he could never remember the plays. ”
“So, he had you memorize them and tell him, huh?”
He shifted his beer bottle around, the liquid sloshing up. “They said I couldn’t ever be a SEAL because I was too weak. Mum said my brain was my greatest asset. My biggest muscle.”
“And now you have both.” Her teeth skirted her bottom lip, and he forced his focus away from her mouth before his dick tented his jeans.
“I still have to work out a lot. Six-packs are irritatingly annoying to keep up with.”
“Yeah, I prefer food to a perfect body myself, but—”
“Whose definition of perfect are you using?” He leaned a little closer, covering her hand with his free one.
“You’re not insecure. You’re confident and strong.
” He was sure of it. He saw how she handled herself at the apartment with the hitman.
And he could picture her slaying it in court as well.
“But someone got to you. Someone somehow made you feel like you’re less than, at some point.
Sometimes I see the vulnerability. I see what he or she did to you. ”
“I was engaged,” the admission came quick.
A deep, almost painful sounding breath followed as if she were reliving a memory or letting one go.
“He’s a lawyer, and I met him at a conference.
We tried the long-distance thing since he lived in London.
” She pulled her hand from his knee and gripped the blanket, pulling it back around her body.
“But I couldn’t give him what he wanted, and so he broke things off almost two years ago. ”
There had to be more to her story, but he wouldn’t press.
“Sounds like an asshole to me.” He brought the rim of the bottle to his lips and swallowed, trying to cool off the flame of anger burning up the center of his body. There was a fizzy after-kick he wasn’t used to in his beers, but he drank it anyway. “He’s why you’re not looking to settle down?”
She deserved way more than her wanker ex could ever give her, that was for sure.
“With my track record, can you blame me?” She reached for her wine and finished it in one long swallow.
“At least the guy from last year got what he—”
“A bullet might be a bit extreme.”
“More like too generous. Anyone who hurts you should have a fate worse than death.” And he meant every damn word.
She grew quiet, her lashes lowering as if considering his words. “I, uh, remembered something from our night in Vegas.” She set the empty glass down.
He arched a brow. “Oh, yeah?”
“You were kissing me in the hall near the hotel room door, and then you pulled back and said, ‘You’re nothing like her, are you?’” She paused for a moment. “Your ex, right?”
A stone dropped in his stomach. Skipping a million times.
He leaned back and rested his beer bottle on his thigh, his eyes on the fire.
“Melissa and I had been dating since high school. She knew all I’d ever wanted was to join the Navy.
She didn’t like the idea, but she said she supported me and would move to the States. ”
He touched the beer bottle to his forehead, needing to cool off even though it wasn’t warm out.
“But she didn’t?”
“She kept putting the move off while I was in BUD/S. She started acting distant.”
Emily took his hand and squeezed.
Hell Week. It was hell in more ways than one. It was the first time he truly felt her pulling away. Or maybe it was him who’d drifted? He couldn’t be sure. But memories of Melissa had begun to fade while he focused on the drive to complete his training and become a SEAL.