Page 54 of Good Enough

He couldn’t stop himself from doing any of it. He was breaking the ultimate rule. His “real” self was a dead man. But, here, in this room, just the two of them cocooned away from the rain and the rest of the cast and crew, it was easy to conveniently forget they weren’t really alone. Just to prove how much he’d lost his mind, his fingertips slipped up above the elastic at her ankles, softly massaging the bare skin of her calves now.

“If you tell me, do you have to kill me?” She was trying to lightly tease, but it came out more like a breathy whisper.

He smiled; his eyes still focused on where he was touching her. “Taylor. Taylor Miller.” He paused. “My sister…” His voice broke. He cleared his throat. “My sister called me Taj for short. So until I went into the Navy, that’s what my family called me.”

“Taj. I like it.” She glanced down at the pillow in her grip, playing with the fringe.

Fuck it. Might as well just screw it all up at this point.

He cast a quick glance at the television, which he knew had a webcam link for Midas to watch through. Quickly, he mouthed “Stanley” at the camera, knowing whoever was on duty would turn off the camera with the prescribed code word until he signaled to turn it back on.

When he saw the black dot in the upper corner disappear, which looked like a bad pixel to anyone else, he grabbed her ankles firmly and pulled her across the leather couch until her feet were over his legs and flat on the couch next to his hips. She squawked at the surprise movement but just lay where he left her in front of him. The pulse point in her neck began to beat a little more rapidly, and he desperately wanted to cover it with his mouth. He wanted to feel her hummingbird heartbeat, knowing that he made her breathless. Mark her skin to claim her.

“Are you interested in Lazarus?”

“God, no,” she laughed. Noticing his serious expression, she frowned. “I certainly like him as a person, but I’m not ‘interested’ in him. Did he say I was?”

“He mentioned being interested in you, but the timing didn’t work out.”

“Well, I’ve made it a policy never to date any Hollywood types.” She thought about it for a moment. “I guess maybe he had an interest not too long ago, but then I took a trip to Cairo.”

He inhaled. “Cairo?”

She gave me an in. I didn’t even need to come up with a line of questioning.

She nodded. “Yeah. Kent, sorry… Ka-Bar, emailed me when I was in Europe for work and asked if I could stop by the consulate and pick up a package he left behind before leaving for a mission.”

He heard a clicking sound in his brain, like an edge piece was locking into place in a jigsaw puzzle that came with no picture.

And so it begins. Now, we may be getting somewhere.

He watched her closely. “Why didn’t you mention to us that Ka-Bar was your brother?”

She blushed. “Well, we’re both adopted, so technically, he isn’t, although we might as well be siblings. I guess at the time, it didn’t seem relevant. Does it matter?”

Tread carefully. Don’t spook her.

“To me, personally? No. I was just curious. It came up during our workup on you, and in my line of work, people are usually quick to try and trade on relationships.”

She nodded. “In hindsight, I probably should have mentioned it. I figured you all would know him somehow since he recommended you, but who I was to him wasn’t all that important. Is that why you took the job? Because he’s my brother?”

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t a consideration. But if God didn’t want to take the job, he wouldn’t have taken it, regardless of who you were. And neither he nor I knew your brother personally.”

His hands stopped their movement, palming her calves beneath her pant legs.

He switched back to the line of questioning regarding the package and her trip to the embassy. “Seems odd, though. He couldn’t just have someone where he was stationed mail it wherever? You had to physically go to Egypt to pick up a package? And not from his base? Sounds presumptuous, even for a brother to ask.”

“Stopping in Cairo wasn’t a terrible hardship. It’s where I spent a good part of my childhood, so I visited some friends while I was there. I don’t get back often.”

“So what was so all-fire important?”

“No idea,” she admitted with a shake of her head. “I went to the consulate to pick up the package, but when I got there, the guy whom I was supposed to pick it up from wasn’t there. The clerk didn’t seem to know anything about it, either. By the time I had to return home, the clerk had said the guy still wasn’t at the embassy, so I left my address, and he said they’d pass along the information and ship whatever it was to me when he arrived.” Her expression turned thoughtful. “Thinking about it, I still hadn’t gotten it by the time we came here. Guess I better email the consulate later to double-check.”

“I’m sure it will turn up. I mean, Ka-Bar obviously wasn’t in a panic about it, was he?”

“No.” She had stretched out the word a little. She looked thoughtful at his question, though. “I’ll have to email him and make sure. I mean, it must have been somewhat important to him, or he would have just waited until he got back from wherever he was to take care of it himself. Of course, who knows how soon I’ll hear back from him.” She nudged him with a foot. “He’s like you. Can’t tell anybody anything.”

His fingers slid a few inches up her legs. “I told you my name.”

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