Page 44 of Guarding Bristol

Tristan nodded, leaned forward and reached out for her hands.She felt a little jolt when his fingers closed around hers, heat suffusing her chilled skin.He’d never touched her before, and she didn’t like the little velvet flip deep in her belly one bit.She resisted the urge to snatch her hands away, get up to pace and burn off this overload of anxious energy.He was just being kind.

“Did you contact Beckett?”he asked, now leaning close enough for her to see the light dusting of freckles across his nose and catch the scent of his cologne.Subtle, clean, and woodsy.As sexily understated as the rest of him.

She gently pulled her hands from his, feeling awkward and not liking the way her nervous system had gone haywire at the innocent contact.“Called him twice.He didn’t pick up or respond to my messages.I’m hoping Walker can help.”

He was CPS’s intelligence expert with a million connections in the industry.

Before Tristan could answer, a door opened somewhere down the hall and voices floated out.Cassie jumped up and hurried to look out the doorway just as Walker came out of another one near the end of the hall, followed by Beckett a moment later.They both stopped when she stepped out into the hall.

“Cassie, hi,” Walker said.

He was a physically imposing man in his mid-forties, his short black hair graying around the temples.He was the most reserved of the CPS management.Quiet and intensely observant, not surprising given his background in Army intelligence.

“Hi.Did you get my—” She went silent when a woman emerged from the same office.“Ivy.”Walker’s fiancée.

Cassie had met her several times, but didn’t know her well.Though she got the feeling that very few people probably ever did.She wasn’t sure what Ivy’s background was, but it was also something to do with intelligence.She’d heard about some of Ivy’s hacking abilities from the twins after Ivy had guided Gavin through the violent mob to save Carly during the Portland riots.

“Hey.”The brunette’s expression was polite enough, but it gave nothing away.Although it didn’t take a genius to know what the meeting they’d just finished had been about.

Cassie’s gaze swept from her to Walker, then Beckett.“You were meeting about Bristol.”

“Come into my office, and we’ll talk,” Walker said, his deep blue eyes kind.

“I’m heading out,” Beckett said, then looked over at her.“I’m supposed to pick up a bag at your place.”

“I’ve got it in my vehicle.”

“Give us a few minutes,” Walker said to him, then curled a hand around Ivy’s hip and kissed her temple.

For some reason, witnessing that simple gesture of affection triggered an ache deep in Cassie’s chest that she quickly blocked.

“See you at home.Tell Shae I’ll be there by six-thirty.”

“Will do,” Ivy said to him.“Although dinner might be delayed, because I heard she might be having a call with Finn.”

“Ah.From Djibouti.”

“The place all Marines dream of being deployed to at least once in their career,” Ivy said wryly.She followed Beckett, offered Cassie an encouraging smile on the way by.

Cassie glanced over her shoulder to see Tristan still standing in the doorway of the office they’d been in.“See you.”

He gave her a nod.“See you.”

She followed Walker into his office.After shutting the door behind her, she took a chair in front of his desk and got straight to it.

“So, Bristol called me thirty minutes ago.”She repeated what Bristol had said, still worried as hell and doing her best to appear completely calm and professional in front of one of her bosses.“Do you know anything about this TJ guy, other than he’s a former Ranger who wound up on the streets?”

Walker nodded.“Beckett came in after getting a call from him around the same time as Bristol talked to you.I reached out to some contacts to verify what TJ told him, and everything checks out.”

“What did he say?”

Walker waited a beat.“TJ’s undercover DEA.”

Shock ripped through her.It hadn’t even occurred to her that he was anything but a down-on-his-luck vet, but Walker seemed convinced it was true.“You’re sure?”

“Positive.”

Wow.“So...that’s why Ivy didn’t find anything about him before when she did some digging?”

---