Page 42 of Out of the Shadows

Straightening, he turned and let himself out.

The door closed softly behind him, and she finally remembered to breathe. Her forehead still tingled where his lips had pressed, had lingered.

She wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but something had definitely changed between them. She couldn’t define it, but what she did know was that despite everything that happened tonight, she’d enjoyed being with Gavin too.

Probably more than she should have.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

After a restless night plagued by dreams of car chases, intense helicopter rides, and some not quite appropriate moments with her boss, Bean arrived at the office at seven. She’d already guzzled four cups of coffee and was beginning to feel somewhat human. Her first objective was to avoid Gavin at all costs. She didn’t have the greatest poker face and knew if he took one look at her, he’d know something was up. The seriously filthy dreams she’d had about the man were the last things she wanted revealed this morning.

Her face heated as she entered their building’s empty lobby. Since it was Sunday, their receptionist, Mel, was most likely lounging at home unlike Bean and her fellow workaholic coworkers, whose cars she’d passed in the parking lot. After using her security card and typing in her personal code, the door made a quiet buzzing noise and slid open to allow her to enter the secure part of their building. Well, the entire building was secure, but this part was like Fort Knox. As the door slid closed behind her, she paused a moment to take it all in.

The main area was basically one giant room withnumerous workstations. Each of the security teams were grouped together with the cyber division’s group being the largest cluster of workstations in the center.

Off to the right side were four conference rooms of various sizes, the restrooms, and the kitchen, which included a break room with couches, televisions, and numerous video game consoles. Along the left were private offices for Gavin, herself, Alvarez, and Esme, along with a utility and storage room that also housed a secure weapons cache. They were a security company, after all.

The far wall was floor-to-ceiling windows—one way and bulletproof, of course—so the place didn’t feel claustrophobic. Gavin had spared no expense when building the place. All in all, it was a gorgeous place to work.

As she made her way to her office, she noticed the cyber division team—Samantha Abbot, Slade Witherspoon, Isaiah Torres, and Jace Oliphant—were busy at their workstations, plates of pancakes, eggs, and other breakfast goodies in front of them. They waved at her as she passed.

“You better hit the kitchen ASAP,” Abbot called out. “Xander, Wilson, and Alvarez just showed up, so there may not be any food left once they’re through.”

“Thanks for the heads-up,” she replied. “Give me thirty minutes and then come on in and we’ll do a quick catch-up.”

“Sure thing, Bean,” Abbot said. “The good news is we actually have some intel to share.”

That’s what she loved about working at Hudson Security. Even though it was a Sunday, no one complained about coming in to figure out what the hell was going on. She was sure it helped that everyone was very well compensated for their time, but the entire team’s attitude was top-notch. She was also certain everyone was taking this latest incident personally. After all, she sure as hell was.

No one was messing with their boss. Not on her watch.

Entering her office, Bean flipped on the light and dropped her purse onto the coffee table. She sat at her workstation, but as she was about to boot up her computer, she froze. Next to her keyboard was a paper plate with a maple bar and a chocolate glazed donut with rainbow sprinkles. Her two favorites.

She glanced at the note next to the plate and sucked in a breath. Even if she’d tried, she couldn’t have stopped the grin from spreading over her face.

Bean,

Snagged these for you before the heathens descended.

I’ll find you later and we’ll touch base.

Gavin

Taking a bite of the maple bar, she smiled. She wasn’t quite sure what was happening between them, but things certainly felt... different. If her dreams last night were any indication, she was definitely thinking about the man in a very non-boss, non-platonic way. She’d always acknowledged that he was ridiculously good-looking. She wasn’t blind. Added to that, she’d known Gavin for so long that she knew him to be a genuinely good human. Intelligent, empathetic, fair, and loyal.

As the maple sugary goodness melted in her mouth, she let out a sigh.

No, she didn’t know what was going on between them, but the more she thought about it—the more she thought abouthim—she wasn’t opposed to finding out.

However, first things first.

She had work to do.

An hour later, Bean had been briefed by the cyber team.As she’d expected, the license plate they’d pulled was from a stolen vehicle. Regardless, she ran it through one of her programs that would triangulate the original car’s location and backtrack it for the last forty-eight-hours. Perhaps if they could figure out where the last known spotting of that original vehicle was, they’d be able to get footage of whoever had taken the license plate off the vehicle.

However, as Abbot had said, there was good news. Because the cyber team were absolute badasses, they’d been able to get a partial facial image of the shooter by way of a reflection off a nearby building. Complete badasses. The image was currently being run through Bean’s facial-rec software, and she was cautiously optimistic they’d be able to narrow it down to a manageable number of possibilities.

Satisfied her programs were doing their thing, she sent a video-call request to Tiny. Seconds later, his face appeared on her center screen.

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