Page 40 of An Epic Voyage (The Epic Beauty Salon Files #1)

E vangeline led the men out of Indigo’s room.

She’d seen the way Indy’s eyes had lit up when she’d spotted Griffin Decker.

And she hadn’t missed the term of endearment he’d used for her.

Evangeline sighed. She didn’t want to lose Indigo, but she wouldn’t stand in the way if she had a shot at true love.

Evangeline had her chance once and blew it.

Jackson looked up from his phone. “They’ve arranged rooms for us to get some sleep.”

Good. They’d been awake for over twenty-four hours. Plus, she wanted to shower and change into one of the extra sets of clothes she’d brought with her. No doubt Jackson wanted to rinse off since he’d taken a dip in the ocean.

Evangeline shuddered, recalling the helpless feeling of watching him plunge into the water below. Yes, he’d been a Navy SEAL, the best of the best, but he was older now and didn’t get the chance to practice jumping out of a helicopter very often—or ever. Something could’ve gone wrong.

“If you two don’t mind, I’m going to check on Jordy Crier and Franklin Shepard, and then stay with Indigo.”

Yep, Evangeline was going to lose her.

“I’d feel better if she weren’t alone,” Evangeline answered honestly. Indigo was the most self-sufficient person on the planet, but that didn’t stop Evangeline from worrying about her.

“We’ll be back this afternoon.” Jackson shook Griffin’s hand and then placed his palm possessively against Evangeline’s back to guide her forward.

She must be exhausted if she wasn’t scolding him for such an aggressively male move.

She’d never admit that she liked him touching her. It’d been too long.

“You picked up on it too, didn’t you?” Jackson asked once they were out of earshot.

“Uh huh,” she said, knowing exactly what he was talking about.

“I don’t want to lose her.”

She glanced at Jackson. His gaze was focused straight ahead.

“I don’t either.”

He turned his head to her. “Love complicates things.”

She forced herself not to wince. It was the same thing she’d said to him years ago before she’d walked out on him and ruined her life.

#

G riffin hated leaving Indigo’s side, but he needed to check on Jordy and Franklin. He spoke with a nurse, who gave him their room numbers. Jordy’s was closest, so it was his first stop.

Jordy was asleep in his bed with an IV attached to his arm. Instead of waking him, Griffin backed out and found Franklin in intensive care. Griffin could view him only through a glass wall. He looked horrible, ghostly white with all kinds of tubes, wires, and monitors surrounding him.

Griffin stopped a passing nurse and asked about his condition.

She apologized for not being able to give him any information.

She wanted to know who to contact in Franklin’s family, but Griffin was clueless.

He gave her a Bureau tech’s phone number, the one who had performed a background check on Franklin before Griffin had started his mission a few months ago.

He would have access to Franklin’s records.

On his way back to Indigo, the nurse who had been in her room when he first entered stopped him. “Are you Griffin?”

“Yes.”

She handed him a bundle. “There’s a shower you can use down the hall.” She pointed in the direction.

“Do I smell that bad?”

“Oh, no, not at all. But I spoke with Ms. Adair earlier. She told me you saved her life by pulling her out of the water when she was unconscious. She asked me to make sure you were taken care of when you arrived.”

A lump of emotion clogged his throat. She’d been the one who had been shot, yet she was worried about him. He could only nod his thanks to the nurse. Words weren’t possible.

He found the shower and washed off the stench of the Atlantic Ocean.

His clothes were toast, so he stuffed them in the garbage and donned the blue scrubs.

The nurse even included socks, a toothbrush and paste, mouthwash, shaving cream, a razor, and a comb.

She’d done as Indigo asked and taken care of him.

Griffin recoiled when he looked in the mirror. His jaw was black and blue, his upper lip twice its size with a scabbing cut. There was nothing he could do about it, so he used the toiletries and ran the comb through his wet hair.

Then he headed back to Indigo.

She was still asleep. Griffin pulled a chair close to her side and gripped her hand. She squeezed his fingers in her sleep.

The next thing he knew, someone was playing with his hair. He jerked upright to see Indigo smiling at him.

“Good morning, or maybe afternoon. I have no idea what time it is.”

Griffin stood and gently kissed her. He’d wanted to do that earlier, but he didn’t think her bosses would have appreciated it.

“I’m so happy to see you.” His voice was gruff.

“Me too, seeing you, that is. What do you say we blow this popsicle stand and find somewhere we can canoodle?” She wiggled her brows, which looked strange with her swollen face.

His lip twitched. “Canoodle? A little archaic, don’t you think? And here you chastised me for using words such as ‘lovely’ and ‘hold your horses’.”

“Would you prefer getting jiggy with it? Do the horizontal hustle? The mattress mambo?”

He chuckled, loving her sense of humor. “All work fine, but not until your doctor gives the all clear. You need to rest and recuperate.” She was already leaving with an extra hole in her body.

Indigo sobered. “I remember telling you that you owed me, or at least I think I did. It’s all a little fuzzy. But, Griffin, that’s not true. You saved my life too, and I haven’t thanked you.”

“There’s no need. I’m just so sorry you got shot. Worst moment of my life. I’d have taken the bullet if I could.”

“I’m fine, and a sadistic killer doesn’t have possession of a nuclear weapon since it was fake, so mission complete.”

“It wasn’t.”

“What? We didn’t complete it?”

“You did, but the nuke was real.”

Her brows furrowed. “I remember the doctor saying it was a fraud.” Her eyes widened, and she tried to sit up. “Did it explode with the bomb? Should we be worried about radiation poisoning?”

He eased her back to the mattress. “No, we’re fine, and it wasn’t on the yacht. Dr. Cheung lied because he didn’t want Abdullahi to get his hands on it. I sent him to the speedboat with Jordy. It survived the blast. Your bosses took possession of it.”

She exhaled. “Thank goodness. How is Jordy?”

“Sleeping when I checked on him. Franklin doesn’t look good, but they won’t give me any information.”

She reached up and traced the bruising on his face. “Did you have someone check your jaw?”

“Sure.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Are you lying to me, Griffin Decker?”

He took her hand and kissed it. “It’s fine. That’s not what I want to talk about.”

#

G riffin had turned serious, and that made Indigo’s gut clench. Now that the mission was over, was he ready to move on? Go back to his old life? He’d been undercover for months. She’d only did it for a couple of weeks at a time, and that was tough. It had to have been hard on him.

She wasn’t ready for their . . . whatever it was, to end. It felt like more than an affair. Her feelings were fully engaged. Maybe it was too soon to think long term, but the thought of never seeing him again would’ve brought her to her knees had she been standing.

She sucked it up and asked, “What do you want to talk about?”

“Us. This.” He motioned between them. “What’s happened is—”

A knock sounded on the door, and Jordy’s head appeared through the crack.

“Hey, can I come in?”

Argh! It would be rude to tell him to come back later, wouldn’t it? “Hey, Jordy. Of course.”

He looked worse for wear, but better than the last time she saw him.

“How are you feeling?”

“Okay. You?”

“Okay,” he parroted. He turned to Griffin. “Thanks for arranging transportation home.”

“You’re welcome.”

“I came to say goodbye. My flight is leaving as soon as I speak with the authorities.”

“Come here.”

Indigo hugged him as best she could with one arm while lying in bed. “You’d better keep in touch.”

“I will. And Indigo, I still think there’s more to you than meets the eye.”

“What you see is what you get.”

He shook his head.

Griffin held out a hand to shake, but Jordy ignored it and hugged him. “Thanks for saving my life.”

“No problem.” Griffin reached into his pocket and handed Jordy a piece of paper. “Get some counseling when you get home. I had someone make a list of the top trauma psychologists in the Los Angeles area. They should be able to help you process all that’s happened.”

“Thanks. This is awesome. You saved me hours of research.”

With a wave, he was gone.

Indigo wasted no time. “You were saying before he arrived?”

“That I’m so glad I met you, Indigo Adair. I’ve never felt—”

The door swung open to reveal Jackson and Evangeline.

Ahhhh! She wanted to scream at her bosses to go away. Dang, they had bad timing.

Griffin dropped her hand and turned to nod at them.

“How are you feeling?” Evangeline asked.

“Better.”

Jackson addressed Griffin. “The cavalry has arrived, and there are many. They need to speak to you.”

Griffin looked like he wanted to jump out the window to get away. He sighed, resigned to his fate.

“There’s a rep waiting outside to drive you to the meeting on the base. I’ll take you to him.”

Griffin smiled at Indigo. “I’ll be back.”

“I’ll be here.”

Evangeline watched the men leave and then pinned Indigo with her icy-blue gaze. “You fell in love, didn’t you?”

There was no sense in denying it. Evangeline was the most intuitive person she’d ever met. “Yes.”

Evangeline sighed. “I knew it had to happen eventually. Are you planning on resigning?”

“What? No, I love my career.”

“What about his job? He’s based in Los Angeles.”

“We haven’t discussed anything yet.”

“Well, I won’t stand in your way, but I don’t want to lose you either.”

There was no sense in even thinking about it until she talked to Griffin. Instead, she asked, “How did you guys track us down in the middle of the ocean?”

Evangeline gave her a rundown on how they flew to Van Houten Island when they couldn’t reach Indigo, and then traced Abdullahi’s helicopter, leading to the yacht seconds before it exploded.

“Do you remember the first day I met you?”

Indy smiled wistfully. “Like it was yesterday.”

“I told you that the information I was going to reveal was classified. Do you recall what you said?”

“I asked if you would toss me in Gitmo if I blabbed.”

Evangeline spread her arms. “And here we are.”

They were both laughing when Jackson returned with a man and a woman in dark suits.

“Ms. Adair, these agents want to get your statement about what happened,” Jackson said.

“Okay.”

Jackson and Evangeline leaned against the wall and listened while she recalled everything. She gave Griffin all the credit, downplaying her role since they thought she was Jinger’s beautician.

Once they left, the doctor came in and released her to return home.

“We’ve got a flight waiting for us.”

Panic tore through her. “No, I can’t. Griffin . . .”

“He’s not here anymore,” Jackson informed her. “They whisked him away to Washington, D.C.”

Misery like nothing she’d ever felt before washed over her. “He didn’t say goodbye.”

# # #