Chapter 10
Garnet felt like she wouldn’t ever be not tired. The intricate work of fixing the problems demanded an excessive amount of concentration. The one technical employee who hadn’t gone on vacation or stopped showing up for work was young and inexperienced.
The guy was an intern who was using this job to learn and had no idea how to even search for the issues Garnet had found. She had spent time teaching him what to do for a few hours, but thankfully, that person had to go help the staff fix the copy machine.
She’d been a young intern years ago, so she wasn’t mad at the guy. She just wished a more experienced tech person had stuck around to help. She figured she had another six hours of work to complete when Brady showed up at the embassy after going to look for the woman who hadn’t shown up.
He found her on the fourth floor, sitting on the carpet behind a desk. “You look like you’ve been busy.”
She snorted a laugh. “Very. So did you find the woman? Is she coming in to help?”
Brady’s gaze slid to the side, and his expression went serious. “About that. Here,” he pulled a chair out for her. “Take a seat.”
Stopping what she was doing would only delay her. But maybe she should take a break. Brady was a great guy, and she liked spending time with him. It sucked that the time they’d spent together had been because of weird circumstances.
She sat in the chair facing him, and he leaned in, taking her hand. “Listen, I don’t know how to put this, but she was murdered.”
“Oh shit.”
“Yes. It was bad. The police will probably have questions for you.”
“Oh, I don’t know that I really knew her. I showed up, and she was leaving, saying she didn’t feel good.”
“Yeah. We heard that she got sick. They are having their medical examiner look for poisons or toxins in her bloodstream.”
Garnet shook her head. “This is awful.”
Brady nodded. “Yeah. That makes us think the other guy, the one who is taking a vacation, might be the culprit.”
“Could be. He was advanced. No question, technically he could have done it.”
“Did you know either of them well?”
She shook her head. “No. I’m not even sure why they called me here to help. Maybe because of his vacation.”
“Maybe. Do you think they did it because they thought you could figure out a way to send a missile to DC?”
His question hit at something she’d been mulling over in her mind. “I think so.”
She hated being used as a pawn in someone else’s sick game. There was no way, even with the threat of harm, she would have sent a missile to DC. Too many people would have died. And that was something she couldn’t ever do.
Bean leaned back in his chair, weaving his fingers together behind his head. “How much longer do you think you’ll be?”
“Too long not to take a break. I need to eat and sleep.”
“What do you want to eat?”
She shrugged. “Anything.”
“Any allergies, or massive dislikes?”
“I hate slimy food, but I’ll eat it if I’m hungry.”
“So no slimy food. I’ll round up some food. The Marines are still watching out for you. Stay with them and tell them if you’re using the restroom or going to get something to drink.”
She made a face but then nodded. “I hate having extra protection. I’m used to working alone.”
He reached out to squeeze her shoulder, but as soon as he touched her, electricity shot through him, ramping up his desire.
This was dangerous. He stepped back, but could see by the way her eyes widened that she felt it, too.
Her cheeks went pink, and her lips parted.
If he knew her better, he would kiss her.
But they didn’t know each other, and he wasn’t going to blow it with her by kissing her here at the embassy.
Later, once they were back in the States, he would ask her out.
Bean texted his team, asking them about food. Chase had already made an order with the company the embassy used and had added extra for Garnet. The food would arrive in about five minutes.
He made his way downstairs and grabbed food for both of them when it arrived. The guys were talking about the murder and that they were searching for the guy who’d taken a vacation.
“His name is Carl, and he’s supposed to be in Egypt. The US embassy is searching for him there,” Chase said.
“So, Carl. Maybe more than just the embassy needs to be looking for him,” Mick said.
“He’s probably behind this,” Link said.
“Garnet said she didn’t know him. But it sounds like he asked for her specifically,” Bean said as he checked the bag of food, making sure it was enough.
Keel shook his head. “I wonder if she is someone who gives speeches at conferences these people attend. Otherwise, how would he know to ask for her? He had to have seen her somewhere.”
“I’ll ask her.” Bean headed upstairs, glad he would be able to give Garnet a break. Keel was right. This guy had to have seen Garnet somewhere.
When he made it upstairs, she wasn’t in the office he’d left her in. Panic fired, and he leaned out, asking the Marine if he’d seen Garnet. The guy shrugged, then shook his head.
“I just got on shift. I haven’t seen anyone.”
For a moment, he feared that maybe he was wrong about her. What if she were the one behind all of this? There was no way she was guilty. Then he was panicked for another reason. What if someone had come in here and taken her captive again?
Then the door at the end of the hall opened, and she came out, wiping her hands on a paper towel. Relief slid through him. How had the Marine not known she was in the bathroom?
“Oh, you are back. I thought I could get to the bathroom before you came back. The Marine—oh, you’re a different person,” Garnet said to the young Marine standing in the hall.
“Yes, ma’am. I took over for Nevis.”
Bean blew out a breath. It was ridiculous that he even considered that Garnet could be guilty of anything. She wasn’t a bad person, and he didn’t need to think that she would run off while he was getting them food. She wasn’t guilty of sabotaging the computers here. She’d just gone to the bathroom.
“I have food for us.” Bean held up the bag of food.
“Thank you. I really am hungry, and I need a break. I feel like my concentration is crap.”
“Good. I have food, and we can talk about anything you want.”
“Anything, hmm, that’s interesting. Let me think.”
He set up their food as she settled at a table in one of the nearby conference rooms. She grabbed cups of water from a cooler, and they sat down to eat.
“The first question is, what is your favorite holiday meal?”
He threw back his head laughing. “Sorry. That’s a great question for someone who isn’t a military lifer.”
“What do you mean?”
“My parents did the best they could, but my mom didn’t cook, and they were poor. Then she died when I was twelve. We didn’t do holiday meals. In the military, you get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit.”
“Fair enough. I’m sorry about your mother.”
“It’s okay. My lack of strong family ties led me to where I am.
These people are my family.” He unwrapped the food he’d picked up, seeing it was beef wrapped in flat bread.
“There was this one time I was in Australia during Christmas. It was hot, and totally not typical Christmas weather I was used to, but my CO’s wife made food for us and brought it in.
It was the best meal I’ve ever had. I don’t even remember everything she made, but there was turkey, beef, and ham, along with three types of pie. I’ve never eaten so much in my life.”
“Nice. That sounds great.”
“What about you?”
Garnet took a bite and chewed, looking very thoughtful as she thought about the question.
She swallowed, then her lips screwed up to one side.
“I think my favorite is when my mom made lasagna. It was always so good. She made this really good garlic bread, and she would make these amazing dessert cannolis.”
He moaned as he thought of the food. “That sounds good.”
“I enjoyed it. I was an odd child. My parents didn’t get why I was so into certain things.”
“Like what?”
“I’d hear something about a political or historical figure, and I had to dig in.
I’d spend hours at the library, finding out everything I could.
I made them send letters to politicians where I asked very intricate questions.
I’m sure I was very annoying, but I needed all the information.
Then I found computer programming. That changed everything. ”
“I’m sure you weren’t annoying.”
She shook her head and laughed. “Oh no, I was totally annoying. I was ten when I ended up catching a bus to a university that was close by and finding a professor. It could have turned out much worse, but the guy was nice and not sketchy at all. He answered my questions for an hour. When he realized I was ten years old, he was shocked. He also realized I shouldn’t be there.
He made me call my parents and tell them where I was. They were so mad.”
“Oh crap, what did they do?”
“They threatened to ground me. The professor asked them if it would be okay if I attended classes online. So at ten, I was allowed to sit in on his computer classes. Then I started sitting in on physics classes.”
“So you were a brainy kid. When did you finish college?”
“When I was fifteen. My parents hated it. I would have finished at twelve or thirteen, but they forced me to do other things. They wanted me to be a kid, but my brain wouldn’t stop.
Regular school was too dull, and the teachers hated me.
I mean, I did tell them how to do their jobs, and they got mad when I corrected their mistakes. ”
“So do you feel like you missed out on childhood?”
Garnet shook her head, her red hair bouncing around her face. “No way. I had a great time doing what I loved. I was able to spend time learning really cool stuff.”
“That’s great. I wasn’t really into school. I thought it was too easy. I liked history, though.”
“History was interesting. I wanted to know everything about people. It’s hard sometimes because when you dig into some people’s backgrounds, you find some really terrible stuff. I found out that I love computers more than history.”
Her words hit hard. “Ouch.”
Her gaze flew to his. “What?”
He shook his head. “It just hits hard. There are a few military guys who are deemed historical figures or people to look up to. When I dug into their pasts, it was bad.”
“Never meet your heroes. At least some people say that. I think it’s because we’re complex people. Sometimes people do great things in one area of their life, but are idiots in other areas.”
Bean nodded. She was right. He knew people who were great at their jobs, but sucked at being good humans. There were guys he knew in command who had it all together at work, but ended up in prison for beating their wives or doing unspeakable things to their children.
He wanted to be the type of man whose character was steady.
It was why he’d delayed getting into a relationship.
He didn’t want to screw up someone’s life just because he wanted more time partying with friends.
Now that he was in his thirties, he wasn’t as into parties and doing wild shit.
The wild shit he wanted to do now was stuff like go camping and wake up at the crack of dawn and drink coffee by the fire with his woman.
If he’d married back when he was younger, he would have screwed everything up badly. Now he had perspective. He wanted someone he could be himself with, someone who accepted and loved him, not someone to party with and forget half of what they did together. He wanted a real-life partner.
Right now wasn’t the time to ask Garnet what she wanted out of a relationship. Eventually, they would talk about that. He was going to make sure they had time together to get to know each other as soon as this chaos ended. They had Garnet safe, and he hoped she stayed that way.