Page 51 of Girl in the Water

“At first you wanted to be a teacher.”

“That’s because the missionary was the most respected person I knew. I wanted to be respectable. It’s not like I had a wide variety of occupations to choose from in my village.”

He clamped onto that as he sat up and faced her. “See, you wanted to be like the missionary because that was all you knew, and now you want to do what I do, but only because it’s the one thing you’ve seen up close and personal.”

She gave him another patient look. “Give me some credit, Ian.”

And he had to, because, God, she was so damn bright. She’d gotten her GED and was in college within a year of him bringing her to DC. And she finished pre-law in three years. She had a brain that, once set free, soared like the harpy eagles over the Amazon. She could be anything. She didn’t need to risk her life in some damn hellhole halfway around the world.

His forehead beaded with sweat. He needed to turn on the car, blast some AC, and get out of here. He didn’t.

He couldn’t make his brain work.

He could not, absolutely couldnottolerate the thought of Daniela being in danger. The idea made acid bubble up in his stomach, and he didn’t have stomach problems anymore, dammit. He wished, for the first time in years, that he had a drink handy.

“Do you want me to drive?” she suggested softly.

“No,” he barked back, despite knowing that she could drive as well as he could. He’d made sure she’d taken defensive driving classes—at the same level as Secret Service agents did. He had a buddy in the business and called in a few favors.

Just like he’d made sure she’d had the best weapons training a civilian could get short of joining the military. And she had self-defense training to the point where the only reason she couldn’t beat him was the extra eighty pounds he had on her.

He accomplished what he’d set out to achieve: Daniela Wintermann would never be anyone’s victim again. What he hadn’t ever dreamed was that she would use her self-confidence to disregard his advice, advice he was giving for her own good and safety.

“Where is your car?”

“I took the subway. I don’t have a parking pass yet.”

With resignation, Ian backed out of the parking spot and drove out of the parking garage. Part of him liked that she had grown into a strong woman, strong enough to stand up even to him. But, now what the hell? Because no way was he going to let her rush headlong into danger.

“We’re going to make a great team.” She was smiling.

He grunted.

She laughed, and the soft trill of her laughter filled the car, filled the space all around him, and maybe even inside him.

God, he had a hard time staying mad at her when her laughter was his favorite sound on earth. He’d known her for over a year by the time he’d first heard her laugh. And she still did it too infrequently.

“Okay, so no law school, but why not something else here in the US?” he asked as he drove into the bright sunlight from the dim parking garage. “Even in the government.” He grabbed his sunglasses from the visor. “You speak three languages fluently.”

She grew up with Portuguese, learned English, then she’d taken up Spanish in college. She soaked up languages like a sponge. If there was something she couldn’t learn, he hadn’t seen it.

“I’m grateful beyond words for what you’ve done for me.” Her tone turned serious, her eyes solemn. “You ever need a kidney, Ian, you say the word. But I’m going to start making my own choices.”

She managed to be gentle and firm at the same time. And completely adult. While he felt like throwing a fit like a kid.

He drew a slow breath and tried to dial back his frustration a notch. “I thought you were applying for positions at a couple of nonprofits.”

Only a flinch of her eye betrayed her frustration. “The best they had was making photocopies in some tiny cubicle on the twenty-fourth floor of an office building in the middle of the city.”

He watched her.No, that’s not for her.She was all life and sparkle. She needed to be out there, needed to be free.

“I can’t believe you went behind my back to apply for a job at CPRU.” He winced.Shit.He was playing the guilt card now? He was turning into an old housewife.

“I can’t believe I had to,” she responded.

She always had an answer for everything.

“You need to listen to me on this—”