Page 75 of Shadow Blind

He wasn’t giving up on her.

He wasn’t giving up on them.

Chapter thirty

Day 14

Denali, Alaska

A cursory glance when Aiden walked through his sister’s front door showed Kait’s personality all over the place. The open floor plan, the endless windows, the red and green color scheme, even the high ceiling with the dozens of tiny, diamond-shaped windows. He didn’t see Cosky anywhere in the design or decorating of their home. But then he wasn’t looking for his brother-in-law’s artistic stamp. He was far more focused on the aqua-haired beauty across the room.

She was standing so still and stiff, with such wariness on her face. His chest tightened and ached. He hated seeing her so uncomfortable around him. They’d never been uneasy around each other—not before they dove into bed, not while they were doing the dirty, and sure as hell not after. Until today. Until now.

“Have you heard anything about those nanobot things?” Kait asked, looking almost as uncomfortable as Demi.

Her eyes were bouncing between him and Demi so often, she was going to sprain them if she wasn’t careful.

“Not yet,” Aiden said. Dammit.

“Have you talked to your teammates’ families? Explained to them what happened?” Kait shot a worried look toward Demi.

Aiden tensed. “Not yet.”

He clipped the words out, hoping she’d get the message. SEAL deaths and family bereavement were not subjects he wanted to discuss in front of Demi, who was already skittish about such things. Relief hit when Cosky appeared from the other side of the kitchen.

“Babe,” Cosky walked across the living room to the front door and pulled a crimson coat off the coat tree. He held it out to Kait. “We need to get on the road.”

For the first time, Aiden realized Kait was dressed to kill. Hip-hugging black stretchy pants. A patchwork crimson and black jacket over a deep burgundy blouse. Her boots were crimson too, matching the jacket. Cosky looked like a bum by comparison. Although he had showered back at base before hopping on the Bell, and changed out of his BDUs into charcoal slacks and a light gray dress shirt since returning home. The accompanying jacket was—surprise, surprise—dark gray.

Cosky stuck to gray or black. Probably came from a life spent operating in the shadows, a life where standing out could get you and your brothers killed. No doubt, Kait was the only spot of color in his brother-in-law’s drab life.

Which was another touchy subject, one he mentally added to his list of things not to talk about in front of Demi. Because his life mirrored Cosky’s in every way, except for the woman by his side and the organizations they worked for. Although it was a tossup, whether Aiden even worked for WARCOM anymore. HQ1 might have declared him AWOL by now and sent the master-of-arms after him. Although, if that were the case, Dev would have mentioned it. Probably.

After a round of goodbyes, Kait and Cosky disappeared down the hallway next to the kitchen. The silence in the living room grew deeper and wider until the opening and closing of a door down the kitchen hall sounded as loud as an M14 blast.

“Their garage is through the utility room, which is down that hall,” Demi offered awkwardly.

The heavy silence must have been getting to her too.

“Good to know.” Aiden already knew how to access the garage in case they needed to escape the house through a secondary access point.

Earlier that afternoon, at the base, Cosky had unrolled a set of house plans across their cafeteria table and marked the access and escape points with a red marker. The more the dude talked about entrances and exits, the more obvious it became that while he might profess confidence in The Neighborhood’s shield, he wasn’t taking chances with Kait’s safety.

“How’s your cat?” What he really wanted to know was whether the damn thing was still scratching her to hell and back every time she got close to it. But asking that would just remind her of their last argument.

“He’s doing great.” Her dark eyebrows rose, and she nailed him with a knowing look. “Taking his meds like a little trooper. Hasn’t scratched or bit me since we arrived.”

Huh. That verified what Cosky had said, but such a dramatic shift in behavior seemed odd.

“But we both know you don’t give a shit about the cat.” There was a hint of challenge in Demi’s voice.

Aiden kept his face flat. No, he didn’t care about the damn cat. He only cared that it had hurt her. He added her cat to the list of topics to avoid discussing.

The silence grew to astronomical levels—until it resembled an emotional black hole, sucking the peace from the room and filling the space with unbearable tension. Driven to break the silence, he said the first thing that came to mind.

“How are you settling in?” Christ. He cringed. Talk about stupid questions.

“Fine.” Demi’s arms tightened around her waist. “What did Kait mean when she asked about nanobots?”

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