Chapter 13
Bean had never been happier for a plane to lift off than he was when they took off from Beirut with Garnet sitting next to him. She had her hand on his knee, and it honestly felt darn good.
He glanced down, studying her hand. Her nails weren’t painted, and they were trimmed close, but her tapered fingers were delicate, feminine. He liked touching her and liked it even more when she touched him.
Did she want to date him? Maybe. He didn’t want her to go home alone, so he had already arranged with Chase to stay at her place for a few days.
They all agreed this was bigger than just one attack on the embassy in Beirut. He had a suspicion this was a huge operation, and he feared Garnet wouldn’t be safe for a long time.
If he left, she would be at risk. Maybe he could convince her to move to North Carolina. No one would know where she was if she stayed with him. It wouldn’t be forever. Maybe a few months until they could figure out exactly how deep this thing went.
Garnet glanced up, and their gazes met. They were seated a few seats away from the rest of his team, so there was some privacy.
“Are you good?” he asked.
She nodded. “I am.”
“So home. I don’t know that you’ll be safe if you stay in your place. I think you should come to North Carolina and live at my place. No one would know where you are.”
“Your place?” Her eyebrows shot up, and he realized he hadn’t told her he had a nice guest room.
“It sounds weird, but I have a guest room. It’s nice. You’ll have your own bathroom, and I’m gone during the day. It would be a better setup than you staying in a hotel or having to move.”
“And you wouldn’t mind?”
He shook his head. “No way would I mind. I want you to be safe. We need to figure out exactly what happened and who was behind this.”
“Do you think you can? Like, how will you know?”
“We’ll trace the money and track down associates. We’ll find the connection and stop them.”
She nodded slowly, her gaze far off, though they were stuck in this plane. “Okay.”
He moved a little to meet her gaze. “Okay? So you’ll stay in North Carolina with me?”
She nodded. “Yes. I’ll stay there with you. You have an alarm on your house, right?”
Bean nodded, amazed that she’d agreed to stay with him. He didn’t need to get too excited. This was him protecting her, nothing more. She wasn’t coming to his place to be with him. She would be there to stay safe.
Garnet couldn’t believe she would be staying at Brady’s place and spending time with him. It probably wouldn’t lead to anything. This was just Brady trying to keep her safe. That was all.
She forced herself not to get too excited. This was a means to an end, not a way for her to hook up with him. Besides, she didn’t hook up with guys. It wasn’t logical to hook up, at least not for her.
At some point, she fell asleep and woke as they were landing. She rubbed her eyes and glanced around. “Where are we?”
“We landed at Fort Bragg. We’ll take a flight to DC so you can get your clothes and other stuff.”
“I guess I’ll need to talk to my boss. Let him know I’ll be working remotely.”
“Just don’t tell him where you’ll be. No one can know.”
She nodded. It wouldn’t be hard to keep that information secret. There wasn’t really anyone she needed to tell. No one would miss her because she didn’t have any close connections.
“I won’t tell anyone where I’m headed.”
He nodded. “We’ll have to do military transports, or drive. But you can be traced by traffic cameras. We should arrange military flights. I’ll get on that as soon as we get to my place.”
She put her hand on his forearm, noticing how his muscles flexed under her hand. “Are you sure you’re okay with this? With me staying with you?”
His lips tipped up a little before he spoke. “Absolutely. I’m glad you’ll be there.”
“Thank you for helping me. You don’t know me, so I’m not really sure why you’re being so nice.”
The plane rolled to a stop, and before they opened the cabin doors, he leaned in, his lips close enough that his breath tickled her neck. “Because I want to help you, and you deserve someone to be nice to you.”
He leaned back, his lips curved up in a smile as they stood. He put his hand on her lower back and indicated she should walk in front of him. She followed his team off the plane, taking in the area as they made their way down the stairs.
“I need to store my pack,” Brady said. “Come with us, and then we’ll head to my house. We can go up tonight or in the morning.”
She wasn’t sure how to make that decision. Being with Brady made her nervous. They hadn’t spent a lot of time together, but hopefully, he wouldn’t be too disturbed by her intense focus. She really was a geek, and few people could deal with her quirks.
Bean was thankful he kept his place clean. He lived two doors down from Link and Ansley, and Link had texted him, telling him that Ansley had made lasagna and was bringing it over. At least they would have food.
Once they were in his car, he told Garnet about the lasagna. She squeezed her hands in her lap, and her body stiffened just a bit. Was she nervous?
“Is that okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah, I’m just not great with people. They think I’m standoffish.”
“Ansley won’t judge you. She’s a good person.”
Garnet still looked worried, but he knew once they met, it would go smoothly.
He pulled into the driveway and stopped his car. “Oh, do you own a car?”
She shook her head. “No. I take public transportation.”
“Well, that might be a good thing. At least your car won’t be tracked to this area.”
“Yeah.”
She glanced around, looking a little lost as she stepped from the car. He didn’t blame her. Her life had turned upside down in the last week. A lot of bad things had happened to her and around her. She had to be afraid that it could happen again.
He would make sure she stayed safe. No way would she be a pawn of some terrorist cell that wanted to create havoc. They would search out everyone responsible and take them down.
Garnet didn’t need to spend her life afraid of living. She deserved to have a great life, whether it was with him or someone else.
He led her inside his house. “It’s not much.” He looked around, making sure he hadn’t left anything out that would embarrass him.
“It’s perfect.”
He couldn’t help but smile. He was glad she liked the place.
“Thank you.” When he moved in, he hadn’t wanted to rely only on his fashion sense, so he hired someone to help him decorate.
He hadn’t taken all of her suggestions, but he didn’t have neon signs on the walls, and the place didn’t look like a bar.
He did have a bar set up in the corner, but it was hidden in the furniture, and it looked good.
“It’s really nice. Better than my place.”
“Honestly, I hired someone to help. I didn’t want my place to look like a sleazy bar.”
Garnet laughed. “I should have hired someone. My place is functional. There honestly aren’t many decorations. I have one picture on the wall, and it’s a photo of a bear I took while I was in the Appalachian Mountains.”
“Wow. How close was the bear?”
“Close enough for me to smell it. I didn’t like the smell. I’d gone out to Appalachia because someone I worked with told me I should take a vacation. It wasn’t bad, but I spent the entire time reading technical magazines and manuals. I ended up going home early because I ran out of things to read.”
“Oh, wow. So you don’t really take vacations.”
She shrugged and shook her head. “I’ve not really had anyone I’ve wanted to spend time with, and spending that much money on myself never made sense.”
“But you are worth it. Trust me, you are worth the expense.” He felt for her. She was smart, but he could tell that she had some hangups about herself.
The conversation they’d had at the dinner in DC had shown him one side of her, but she was complex. She had layers, and he wanted to get to know her better.
The doorbell rang, and he flashed a smile. “That must be Link and Ansley.”
“Yeah. Great.”
Garnet didn’t sound convinced that everything would be okay, but hopefully she would see soon enough that everything would be good. Ansley was nice, and he knew they would hit it off.