Page 34 of All Twisted Up
“Do you like Twilla?”
“Of course. She’s a sweet girl. Why do you ask?”
She looked pensive. “Hmm…because I think I’m in love with her…and considering the fact that I had to play“I Kissed a Girland I Liked it”five-hundred times before youfinallyfigured out that I wanted to date girls, I was really hoping you approved of us.”
I chuckled, pointing to my head. “It took a while to sink in and here I thought you just liked Jill Sobule a whole hell of a lot.” I hugged her again as she laughed. I really hoped we’d be together soon. Not hearing that laugh for some time was going to be hard.
“I’m so happy you like Twilla.” She smiled and pulled out of my hug, looking past me to the bed. The puppy was standing, looking around. “Uh oh.” She ran over and scooped him into her arms, then handed him to me. “Better take care of business.”
I chuckled softly. “Good catch.” I leaned in and kissed her forehead before going back to the living room with Garbanzo cradled in my arms. Nash was back in his chair at the kitchen table. “He needs to be walked.”
Nash stood. “Let me have him. I’ll take him out.” I passed him the puppy and he eyed me seriously. “Lock the door behind me and put the chain on. I’ll knock two times, then three when I come back so you’ll know it’s me. Don’t open the door until you’ve checked the peephole and heard my voice.”
“Okay.” I nodded vigorously and did exactly as he’d asked. I shut the door behind him and locked up. Nevertheless, I sat there with jangling nerves until he returned ten minutes later. I took the puppy from him, kissing the black spot on top of his little head. “Let me just put him in the other room so we can sit and talk.”
“Good.”
When I returned, he was sitting on the couch with a bottle of water in his hand. He looked up at me as that niggling sense of attraction I’d been feeling ever since we’d talked thisafternoon, came rushing back. When he smiled at me, his hazel eyes twinkled. In the sunlight this morning, I’d noticed the gold flecks in them and thought such intriguing eyes shouldn’t belong to such a jerk.
Now that I’d gotten to know what a good man he was, I decided they suited him perfectly. He was beautiful inside and out. My whole family seemed to adore him and they were a good judge of character. They were the most suspicious people I knew…for good reason. They’d put up walls, not wanting to let anyone in so they wouldn’t be hurt when they vanished from their lives. They didn’t let anyone close.
“I have a few Gatorades in my bag,” Nash said. “Would you like one? They’re not cold but…”
I smiled. “Gatorade would be great.”
He shuffled through his duffle until he found what he was looking for. He pulled out an orange one and I took it, sitting on the couch beside him. He watched me drink half the bottle in one go and I couldn’t help but smile as I recapped it.
“I was so dehydrated. Needed the electrolytes. Thank you, Nash.”
“You’re welcome, though, I’m not surprised. You went through some pretty shitty stuff today.”
I ran fingers through my hair. “It’s been a very long day,” I said around a yawn.
“Okay, I’ll make what I need to tell you brief.”
The way he paused made me think I wasn’t going to like what he had to say. “What is it, Nash? After what went on today, I think it’s safe to say I can take bad news.”
He pursed his lips. “I’m not so sure that I can keep you safe at work. If it was my whole team, then I’d tell you there wasno problem. But, while you were in the shower, I pulled up the website for the collectible you work for.”
I snorted a laugh. “It’s called a collective, not a collectible.”
He chuckled. “Collective…collectible…it doesn’t matter. I’ve been to this one before. In fact, my apartment isn’t that far away from it and I really like the farmer’s market. I don’t remember eating at Tango’s but still, I pulled up the website to look at pictures just to make sure it was the same place I was thinking about.”
I sat back in the cushions, almost dreading what he was about to say.
“Joshua, it’s an open-air meeting space with not only the four restaurants and the farmer’s market but a whole lot of other boutiques and stores. There are multiple ingresses and egresses, not a single front door to a closed building. When I was there, the place always had throngs of people walking in and out, especially around the restaurants’ rush hours. That means there could be a hundred people or more milling around, shopping, eating, etcetera.”
I opened my mouth to object and tell Nash that my job meant everything to me, but he stopped me when he raised his hand.
“Please, let me finish.”
“Go on.”
“That environment would be a challenge even if I had all eight guys on my team with me, but for one person, looking at all those people and trying to figure out whether they’re concealing a weapon or not, is going to be near impossible. In addition, your job doesn’t entail sitting in a chair but instead, you’re constantly going back and forth from the kitchen to the individual tables, always in motion as you work. It means I have to not only keepa constant eye onyourlocation but also look at whoelsemight be approaching you or chasing after you to ask for a lemon for their water. The bottom line is…I’m good, Joshua. I’m just notthatgood.”
He narrowed his eyes. “I’m a RECON Marine, Joshua, and without getting specific here, I’ll tell you that I’ve had some experience in following a terrorist into a bazaar-like environment, similar to the way the Collective is set up. It’s hell on earth tryingnotto bring attention to yourself, while keeping an eye on your suspect—which translates to you in this scenario. I’ll wait for my captain to get back to me with the FBI’s assessment once they’ve had the opportunity to do it in the morning, but I thought it was only fair that I give you a heads up as to what they’re gonna say.”
I glanced away from him, trailing my fingers along the top of the couch. “That makes sense. But you don’t know for sure.” I pinned him with a serious look. “If I have to tell Bruno that I’m going to be away for God knows how long, I don’t know what he’ll do.”
