Chapter 22 #3
“Hey, Gray,” she finally answered before the call went to voicemail.
Wyatt brought his elbows to his thighs and stared off in the distance where cars buzzed by on the road opposite the trees.
“Jack’s worried about you,” her brother said right off the bat. “He thinks you might do something crazy, so this is me being the best brother ever and checking on you.”
She couldn’t help but smile—her brother had that effect on her. “Jack’s paranoid. I’m fine.”
“Sure,” he grumbled. “Where are you? You need my help? Baddies to take out?”
“I’m good, I promise.” A sound, like a loud clap, popped in the background over the line. Was that suppressed fire? “Where are you?” She hoped he was playing a video game and not in the middle of a real gunfight, but with Gray, either was possible.
“It’s nothing.”
“Gray,” she scolded. “Why don’t you call me later? That’d better be a game you’re playing.”
“I’m totally fine. You know me.”
“And if you make phone calls while in the middle of gunfire to women you’re dating, it’s no wonder you’re still single.
” She could feel Wyatt’s gaze on her, and she stole a quick look at him, catching a smile on his lips, and it was a nice sight to see.
It did something funny to her insides. “Now hang up the damn phone.”
“You sure you’re good?”
Am I? Her stomach muscles tightened. “Yes, and now I’m hanging up.
” She ended the call before Gray could shoot her a rebuttal and tucked her phone back into her jacket pocket.
“Sorry about that. He has spectacular timing.” She rolled her eyes.
“Who makes a call to their sister when under enemy fire?”
He held his palms open, and his eyes glittered as if there was a story there.
She pivoted on the bench. “Tell me.”
“I may have been talking to my mum once when I took on some unexpected fire, and I may have kept talking while shooting back.”
“Trying to worry her, huh?”
“Sometimes I forget getting shot at isn’t everyone else’s typical Monday.
” He straightened his spine, bringing his back to the bench and his right ankle over his knee.
“My mum, she had to have known about Gwen. How could she not? I knew the second I saw her photo.” He looked toward the sky.
“Anyway,” he said, dragging out the word as if he desperately needed a change of subject, “I thought your brother got out of the Army. Medical injury?”
“Yeah, um, his helicopter was taken down and part of his leg had to be amputated.” She’d rushed the words out quickly, hoping it’d make the memory less painful. “We’re lucky he made it out alive, though.” Not everyone did.
“Damn, I’m sorry.” Wyatt reached for her hand, which felt good since her fingers were getting tingly from the cold, and he was a ball of heat.
“I was worried the amputation would destroy him, and it almost did, but he bounced back. But that’s Gray, a fighter.
He does what you do now. He doesn’t let his injury stop him.
” She managed a smile. “Well, I should say he does what I thought you did. He handles private military contracts, as well as some security gigs.”
“We do that, too.” He gently squeezed her hand. “When we have time, at least. The side gigs, I mean.”
“Sounds like you’re one busy man.” And she’d bet that was another reason why he didn’t want a relationship. “It must be hard keeping the secret of what you do from everyone you care about.”
“Is it for you?”
“Pretty much everyone I care about has top security clearance, which makes my life easier.”
“And the men you date? Are they in government?”
“I, um, usually date guys who have similar security clearance to me,” she admitted. “The Agency hires officers who are honest but can also easily lie—that contradictions thing again.”
“Like when you faked me out by calling yourself an agent at the wedding?” He shifted on the bench to better face her.
“Ah, you remember that.” Her cheeks warmed, and she was probably blushing. “It was sort of my way of telling the truth without—”
“Actually telling it,” he finished for her. “I get it.”
And speaking of the wedding night, she couldn’t help but whisper, “You really want to kiss me, don’t you?”
“I remember you saying those words to me that night very clearly.” The deep timbre of his voice had the hairs on her arms standing.
“I, uh, don’t know why I brought the kiss up. I’m sorry. Poor timing. I tend to do that, and I—”
“Is this the start of a ramble?” he asked with a sexy smile.
“I’m awkward me right now.”
“Not the badass?” He arched his brow, and the scar bisecting it had her reaching for his face as if on autopilot.
“No, definitely not the badass one,” she answered in a daze, then pointed to his eyebrow. “How’d you get that?” There were other marks on his body she remembered when seeing his naked chest in Colorado, but this one was in her line of sight at the moment.
He could get hurt.
He could die.
Same could happen to her.
A tightness developed in her chest as she traced the line of his jaw before he captured her hand inside his own and held it between them once again.
“It’s not from my time in the service.” He lowered their hands to her jeaned thigh but kept hold of her palm. “Someone broke a beer bottle across my face one night at a bar.”
Her eyes widened. “Why would anyone do that?”
“He was pissed his football team lost, and I”—he showcased an inch between his thumb and forefinger of his free hand—“may have gloated a bit.”
“And this is the sport you think I should watch?” She smirked.
“It’s the best damn sport out there. We’re passionate about football in England, among other things.”
“So, shooting, sex, and football? The trifecta?”
“I can’t play the bloody sport, so no. But I’m damn good at betting on who will win.” His accent slid harder through his words, deeper than normal, and it warmed her in inappropriate places.
Wrong time, she reminded herself.
“Now I’m the one vibrating.” He dipped his hand into his pocket and brought the phone to his ear. “Harper, what’s up?” He paused to let her talk, then told Natasha, “The Cyber X Twitter account posted a challenge for the Bug Bounty competitors to try and find where Felix will be tonight.”
“What’s the catch?” she asked.
“Decrypt a ridiculously complex code to get the time and location.”
“It looks like Felix is trying to get an early read on who the top contenders are.” It was Felix’s style. He loved to recruit the best hackers in the world to work at Cyber X.
“Harper can go tonight and take one of the guys with her since she’s competing.
” He held the phone to his ear again for a few seconds and then shifted it to the side to say, “We don’t know where Jasper is staying yet, so we’ll have Finn and Chris on overwatch at the location tonight, and if he shows, one of them will follow Jasper back to where he’s staying. ”
“I’d like to go, too.”
“You’re not a competitor,” he reminded her.
She checked her watch. “I can be. The last chance to register is tonight. I can always drop out later, but if Felix is there, then The Knight might be, too. And if Gwen shows . . .”
His face changed at the mention of Gwen’s name, worry flooding his eyes, hardening every line of his already super hard body. “I have no idea how good she is.”
Our chance to find out.
He let go of a deep breath and brought the phone closer to his ear. “I guess we’re going, too.” He exchanged a few more words with Harper before ending the call.
“What happens if Gwen is there. Are you planning on talking to her?”
“Maybe, but I hate lying to her, and surely, I can’t lead with the whole dad thing.”
“Is Charlotte planning on telling Gwen about you?” she asked once they’d started walking back to the hotel.
“I think she was going to tell me back in London after Arthur’s wake.”
“But you got called away to Romania.” She stopped walking at the realization, and he turned to face her. “I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault at all.” He reached for her elbow, and his grip was gentle but firm enough to signal with his touch he truly meant his words. “She wanted me to call her, and I never did, but Charlotte could’ve reached out. Maybe she was worried I’d only disappoint Gwen.”
“Wyatt.” She didn’t want him going back down that rabbit hole again.
“I had a shit role model for a father,” he admitted while letting go of her and stuffing his hands into his jacket pockets. “I don’t want to be like him.”
She squeezed his arm this time. “I think you’ll be an amazing father.”
He tipped his head to the side, bringing his gaze to her hand before his blue-gray eyes found hers again. “How do you know I’ll be any good?”
“Because no matter what you think, I believe you are capable of love, or you wouldn’t care so much about disappointing her. About losing her.”
“I—”
She pressed a finger to his lips to silence whatever rebuttal she knew was coming. “It’s true, and I wouldn’t be standing here, trusting you the way I am, if I didn’t believe it.”
His eyes turned to slits as he observed her with parted lips. “And maybe it’s you who’s always showing up when I need someone,” he said in a soft voice, “not the other way around.”