Page 16 of Forgiving His Past (Eagle’s Nest Securities #5)
“How’d it go last night?”
Van stared out over the water as Logan’s voice filled his right ear.
“Fine.” He answered the man using his hands-free ear buds. He lifted the mug filled with fresh coffee to his lips and took a sip.
“That’s it? Just…fine?”
“We got here; I gave her the nickel tour, and then we went to bed.” Realizing how that last part could possibly sound, he amended his words with a clearer and more precise, “She took the couch.”
Of their own accord, Van’s eyes slid from the sunlit water to the cabin door. Through the glass panes, he could see enough to know Kam was still sleeping. He refused to acknowledge how gorgeous she’d looked when he’d walked past her on his way outside about an hour before.
“So no problems, then?”
“Nope.” He returned his focus back to the water. “You talk to Webb?”
“Right before I called you.”
“And? ”
“He agreed that keeping her out of sight was a smart idea.”
The almighty Webb actually agreed with something he’d said? Van was tempted to look down for another sign that hell had finally frozen over.
“He know she’s here?”
“No.” Logan cleared his throat. “He didn’t ask where we had her stashed, so I didn’t see the need to tell him.”
“What about the other?”
A stretch of silence ensued before Logan spoke again. The man’s careful tone was impossible to miss.
“If you’re asking me whether or not I accused the secretary of the United States Navy of setting her and us up, the answer is no.”
“Good. Don’t.”
“Don’t?” His friend sounded surprised. “This mean you’ve changed your mind about Webb being involved?”
“It means the last thing we want to do is tip the guy off that we suspect he could be.”
Logan’s annoyance came through loud and clear when he blew out a harsh breath and began defending his family friend.
“Listen, man. I don’t want to get into another argument about this?—”
“Then don’t.”
“—but Kam is our target.” The other man kept on as if Van hadn’t said a damn word. “Not Webb.”
His former team leader was absolutely right. The woman sleeping on his couch was the team’s initial target. Based off of information they’d received from…you guessed it.
Webb.
“I’m not saying he’s our target, Logan.” Van kept his voice low to avoid inadvertently waking her. “But answer me this. If you’re so sure she’s guilty of what the intel we’ve been given says, then why were you okay with her being at Archer’s house last night?”
“What?” The guy sounded incredulous. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“She took a shower in Archer’s bathroom, borrowed clothes from Cassie…hell, Kam was upstairs with the other women for like half an hour before they all came back downstairs. All while your son slept in a playpen in the spare room down the hall.”
“Watch yourself, Braddock.” Logan’s warning came with a low and careful voice. “That’s my family you’re talking about.”
“That’s exactly my point. Which, by the way, you seem to be missing completely.”
“I’m not missing anything.”
“Yeah, brother,” Van argued. “You are. Listen, all I’m saying is if your gut was telling you she truly was the mastermind behind all the shit that’s gone down, I don’t see you being okay letting her anywhere near Natalie, let alone leaving her in the house while you and I stood outside talking on the deck. ”
“And you were ready to put a bullet between her eyes that night at the hotel. So what is it that’s made you go from wanting to kill her to jumping to her defense?”
He gave his friend the truth. “My gut.”
“Your gut?”
Logan grew quiet, then, just as Van had expected. If there was one thing he was known for on the team—besides being a grumpy asshole—it was his instincts when it came to shit like this were usually right.
“She could’ve killed me in that alley, Logan,” Van admitted aloud.
“You and the team were in my ear, so I know you heard everything that went down, but…you weren’t actually there.
You didn’t see her put that knife to my throat.
” He hadn’t been the one to feel its blade being pressed against hi s skin.
“She could’ve kept her mouth shut, sliced my carotid, and left me there to bleed out. ”
Because I was so hell-bent on finding her sweet ass, I let myself become reckless.
It wasn’t something that happened often. Or ever, for that matter. But everything about this case…and this woman…was different from any others he’d ever known.
“She may have gotten the drop on you at first, but you turned the tables on her in record time.”
“You’re right,” he agreed. “I did. And it was as easy as taking candy from a fucking baby.”
“You’re nearly a foot taller, and you’ve got at least, what…like sixty pounds of solid muscle on her. It’s no wonder you had no issues taking control of the situation.”
“No, you’re not…” Van blew out a breath as he raked a frustrated hand over his short, black hair. “What I’m trying to get at is if she really was some terrorist mastermind, don’t you think she would’ve fought harder to regain the upper hand? But she didn’t.”
Not really. Not in the way he’d expect from someone who was out for blood.
“So she sucks at hand-to-hand combat,” Logan countered. “That doesn’t mean?—”
“And then there were the RPGs at the hotel,” he went on before the other man could even finish. “When the strike came, she didn’t try to use it to her advantage or escape in any way. She fully complied, not hesitating even a second to follow every one of my commands.”
He could still see the fear in her eyes from that night. Felt the way her hand had held onto his as if he’d been her lifeline.
In that moment, Van supposed that was exactly what he’d been.
“And then there was the jet,” he drove his final point home .
“What about it?”
“When we got to that airstrip outside of Kandahar, she couldn’t seem to board the damn thing fast enough. You think she’d do that if she knew there was a bomb strapped to the damn thing?”
“Maybe she fancies herself a martyr.”
The man still wasn’t listening.
“I saw the look in her eyes when that explosion first hit the hotel, Logan. And again when shit went down on the jet.” His gaze was pulled back to the woman still sleeping on the other side of the door. “Kam was just as surprised by it as we were.”
“So…what? You saying you trust her more than Webb?”
“Never said I trusted her.”
“Come on, Van. You know what I mean.”
Yes, he did, which was why he needed to be absolutely sure about her…and the man in charge of the Navy.
“I’ll see if I can get her to talk more while she’s here. If she’s hiding something, I’ll figure out what it is.”
“Yeah? And how exactly are you gonna do that?” Logan’s tone shifted from confusion and frustration to having an almost humored touch. “You planning on winning her over with your charming personality?”
Despite the tension that had been rolling between the two men, Van felt his lips twitch with the urge to grin. The flippant comment his teammate had made let him know they were back on solid ground.
Not that one disagreement would be enough to shake loose the trust and brotherhood they’d built throughout the years. It would take a hell of a lot more than that to cut through a friendship as solid as the one they shared.
“Just do me a favor,” Van muttered low. “If you talk to Webb again, don’t tell him Kam’s with me.”
Silence filled the tiny speaker in his ear before he heard…
“You wanna tell me why? ”
“You’re so sure he’s not our guy…” He waited a beat. “I want the chance to prove it.”
For a moment, nothing more was said, making him wonder if Logan was going to go against him on that, too.
But then…
“I’ll hold him off as long as I can. But at best, that’ll only last until he gets into town, which will be in like two, three days.”
It admittedly wasn’t much time to fully gain Kam’s trust. But it’s what he had, so it would have to be enough.
“Thanks, man.” Van voiced his appreciation to his friend.
“No problem. Oh, and Van?”
“Yeah?”
Another quick pause. “Just be sure you don’t go off and do something stupid like letting her kill you in your sleep.”
He did smile, then. A rare occurrence, for sure.
“Don’t worry, brother. That’s never going to happen.”
“Because she’s not a killer?”
“Because I sleep with one eye open.”
Logan was still laughing when Van tapped the screen on his phone, effectively ending the call.
“You have a nice smile.”
The corners of his lips dropped instantly at the sound of her voice. Swinging his widened gaze back toward the door, Van found it wide open with Kam leaning a shoulder against its wooden frame.
She was dressed in a shiny pink pajama set Cassie presumably loaned out. Her long, dark hair framed her face as it fell well past her shoulders, the thick strands in slight disarray from sleep.
Only the look didn’t make him think of sleep. No, his brain went straight to sex. Hot, wild, no-holds-barred sex. The kind that made a man forget his own name, or…the fact that she could be a cold-hearted killer.
“You’re awake. ”
“You’re very observant.” A sparkle of humor flickered in her beautiful gaze.
He was tempted to call her out for being such a smartass but stopped himself last-second because…
We’re not there quite yet.
His eyes followed her as she stepped fully outside, her bare feet padding slowly across the outdoor carpet he’d put down shortly after purchasing the boat. Van’s attention was pulled to her adorable toes with their nails painted a vibrant red.
What the hell was happening to him? First, he volunteers to bring her to his home, and now he’s thinking her toes are adorable?
Careful, Braddock. She could be more dangerous than you first suspected if her damn feet are a distraction.
“You hungry?” he blurted with a scowl he didn’t actually mean. “I don’t usually eat breakfast, but I think there are some eggs in the refrigerator. I could fry you up one, or?—”
“I’m not much of a breakfast person, either.” She crossed her arms at her chest as if to stave off the morning chill.