12 Jax #3
can of Play-Doh from the grocery store, but my mom made me take it back and pay for it. Plus I had to write an apology note
and hand-deliver it to the manager. Trust me, stealing is not worth it.”
“Play-Doh?” She laughed, the legit kind again.
“It was neon orange. Do you know how many cool things you can make with neon-orange Play-Doh?”
“Mini traffic cones?”
“Um, yeah.” He gave her a look like obviously .
“The creativity options are endless. I might’ve been the next Michelangelo if I’d had neon-orange Play-Doh to work with.
But as I previously stated, I didn’t get to keep it.
” He sighed and let his shoulders droop under the weight of his disappointment. “Stealing is bad.”
Cora laughed. “So that’s a no to being an art thief?”
“I am not an international art thief.”
“So then what do you do? And don’t give me that nonsense about not being able to talk about it.”
“I am a security logistics consultant.”
Her eyes narrowed, and she looked skeptical. “I’m going to say this with the upmost respect. What the heck is that?”
He chuckled. “It’s... complicated.”
“Try me.”
“The short answer is I work in the private security industry.”
“And the long answer?”
“It’s a long story.”
She leaned back against the railing and crossed her arms as if she were getting comfortable. “I’ve got time.”
Yeah, but did he want to tell her? It wasn’t a story he usually shared with people. “A buddy from my Army days has been going
through a tough time, and I’ve been helping him out.” The words even surprised him. Apparently, he was doing this.
“You were in the Army?”
He nodded. “Four years after I graduated from high school. Army Ranger.”
“You didn’t mention the Army on your bio sheet.”
He shrugged. “I wasn’t hiding anything. It just didn’t feel relevant at the time. Similar to the way I know you went to college,
but you never said where.”
“Rice University. For both undergrad and master’s.” She tilted her head as she studied him. “But this isn’t about me. It’s
about being a security logistics consultant.”
A grin tugged on the corner of his mouth. He liked her. She was tenacious. “It’s a fancy name for ‘bodyguard and transport
team.’ We specialize in moving people and objects that need increased protection during the trip.”
“And what does that have to do with your Army buddy?”
He paused for a second, since he normally didn’t get into this part of the story. In fact, he could count on two fingers how
many people he’d told and both of them were related to him.
But for some reason he couldn’t quite explain, he wanted to tell her. He wanted to share things with her. “He started the private security firm right after we got out of the Army.
It became a pretty successful business. But he’d been struggling with some mental health problems that eventually took over.
His marriage started falling apart, and his business was taking a hit. He needed help. That’s where I came in.”
“You went to work for him.”
“Not at first. Not exactly.” He tried to sort through all the complicated pieces that had made up his life for the past five
years. “I started off just filling in on assignments he needed to bail on. Sometimes those calls would be last-minute. But
it didn’t matter how much warning I got. If he called, I’d go.”
“Which is why you have the reputation for leaving town suddenly.”
He nodded. “But as things got worse, the calls got more frequent, and it was more than just filling in on a job. He was having
trouble running things. Recruiting. Setting up the jobs. Plus, I couldn’t keep up with my responsibilities here when I was
always flying off at the last minute.” He shrugged. “I quit my position with my family’s company and have been working full
time with him for the last three years. Sometimes from here. Sometimes from his office in Chicago. Sometimes on jobs.”
“Why didn’t you just tell people that’s what you were doing? Why all the secrecy?”
“Private security is a funny business. It runs on reputation. If it got out that he needed help because he couldn’t handle
it on his own, his company would’ve tanked. I couldn’t exactly say why I was going. And the clients value their privacy, so I couldn’t talk about where I was going. I wasn’t trying to be secretive. There just wasn’t a lot I could say.”
“That explains the whole, ‘I can’t really talk about it.’” She nodded as if she got it. “And when you say nothing, people
fill in the gaps on their own.”
“Exactly. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. The longer I kept everyone looking the wrong direction, the longer my buddy
had to figure everything out.”
“Does your family know?”
“They know enough. But the less information I gave out, the easier it was to keep things contained.” He waved at the air around
them. “You’ve seen how information travels in a small town.”
“I work in a small industry where rumors fly faster than our camera shutters.” She paused for a second, mouth twisted to the
side. “How’s your friend doing?”
The fact that she asked touched him. “Really well. He’s getting the help he needs. He and his wife are seeing a counselor
and figuring it out. He’s back to running the business mostly on his own.”
“And that’s why you’re back in town.”
“Yes.” It was most of the reason, anyway. He considered stopping there, but as long as he was being honest, he might as well
go all the way. “There’s actually a pretty big promotion I’m hoping for. It’s the job I’ve wanted for a long time, and it
just came open.” Okay, almost all the way.
Cora nodded as if it made sense. “Which is why you’re back now .”
She didn’t miss much. “It did help speed up the timeline.”
She stared at her shoes for a beat as she sorted through the information. “So you never pulled a single heist?”
“Not even one.” He gave a shrug. “But I did have a job flying with a Monet.”
“I’m guessing that client didn’t talk too much.”
“No. Art curators, on the other hand, never shut up. I have a whole arsenal of random art history facts, thanks to that ten-hour
transatlantic flight.” He gave her a wide-eyed look of being overwhelmed.
“I hope you charged extra for that.”
“You better believe it.”
She laughed again. She had a great laugh. It was deep and authentic, like it came from a place of pure joy. He found himself
wanting to make her do it more often, which seemed to prompt the words that came next.
“I’d like to see you again.”
The comment seemed to catch her off guard. The most authentic expression he’d seen all day flashed across her face. It was
a mixture of shyness and nerves and excitement and hope and intrigue. It was a peek at what she was hiding behind those walls,
and it made him more motivated to figure her out. After all, he loved a good mystery.
A second later her carefully composed, guarded exterior returned along with her signature sass. “You do, huh?”
He leaned in. “I do.”
She seemed to consider the question, then gave a What-the-heck? shrug. “Fine, but this time I get to plan the date.”