Page 52 of Once a Killer

“You got it, babe.”

She reared back. “Babe? Really?”

“Sorry,” he muttered, looking away from her. “Wasn’t thinking.”

“You’d better not make that mistake at the lab,” she said. “Kind of wrecks the whole ‘I’m doing an article on your lab’ vibe.”

“Yeah, Bree,” he said, an edge to his voice. “I know how it works, okay?”

She tilted her head and studied him for a long moment. Finally asked, “What crawled up you and died?”

He drew a deep breath and turned to stare out the window. “I worried about you all day today, okay? You were confronting a dangerous guy, and I was,” he swallowed. “I was concerned.”

She slid over on the couch until she was closer to him and put her hand on his arm. The heat from her fingers burned into his skin, even through his shirt.

“I didn’t even think of that, and I’m sorry you were worried about me,” she said, her voice soft. “I haven’t had anyone who worried about me for a long time.”

“Don’t you have friends? Family?” he demanded, swiveling to face her.

She took her hand away from his arm, and he wanted to grab it. Put it back where it belonged. Instead, he watched her as she spoke. Listened to her words.

“My friends are mostly the people I work with. I’ve lost track of my older friends after serving overseas then joining Blackhawk Security.” She sighed. “Do they worry about me? Probably. I worry about them. But we’re all good at our jobs, and we trust each other to be smart and careful.”

“What about your family?”

Her shoulders tensed, and she looked away. “Don’t have much of a family. My father took off when my mom told him she was pregnant. It was just the two of us after that, and she did a good job taking care of me. Worked two jobs but was there when it counted.” She looked away and curled her arms around herself. “When I was a senior in high school, she was hit by a car walking home from work one night.”

“God, I’m sorry about that,” he said, and reached for her hand.

She curled her fingers around his and clung, allowing herself to accept the comfort. “I miss her. A lot. But I managed to finish high school and then I enlisted in the Marines. Went overseas, and…” she shrugged. “Here I am.”

There were a lot of gaps between joining the Marines and ending up as a security agent at Blackhawk. But he wasn’t going to push for more. When she was ready, she’d tell him the rest of her story.

She turned to study him. “What about you? Lots of family? Friends?”

“My parents live in California. The Bay area. I have one sister, and she and her husband and their two kids live there, too. I go to visit them every year at Christmas, and my parents usually manage a trip to Chicago once or twice a year. My sister?” He sighed. “With three-year-old twins, it’s hard to travel across the country. They’ve tried a couple of times, and I love having them visit, but it’s exhausting. For everyone.” He shrugged. “When the boys are older, it should be easier.”

“Twin nephews, huh?” she said, and he heard envy in her voice. “They must be fun.”

“They are. I love visiting them. Just wish I could do it more often.”

She nudged him with her elbow. “Once your program is finished and you’re raking in the money, you should have lots of time to travel. And plenty of money to make it more comfortable.”

“I hope so,” he said quietly.

She nudged him again. “How long do you think it’ll be?”

He shook his head. “I’m hoping a year. Could be more if I run into problems.”

“A year will fly by,” she said. “When I was deployed, I thought the days would drag. Some of them did, but mostly they flew past.” She tilted her head, and he felt her watching him. “Will you keep the lab going once you’ve wrapped up your own program?”

He shrugged one shoulder. “Probably. I don’t want to boot out any of the engineers who rely on the lab.” He smiled. “And I’ll probably come up with another project when I finish this one, so I’ll still need a place to work.”

He stifled a yawn, and she grabbed his hand. “You look exhausted, and I’ve been yammering away. Why don’t you go to bed?”

“I should.” He hadn’t slept well last night, worried that Diego and Bree were hooking up. He stood up, then looked down at her. “You joining me?”

Color flooded her face, and she swallowed as she looked away. “Nope,” she said, and although she tried to sound casual, he thought he heard regret in her voice. “I’m going to grab some sleep so I can get up and see if John Smith shows up here tonight.”

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