There wasn’t much talk as they hit the highway and drove south, except for some small talk between Phillips, Alex and Matt. Thankfully no one tried to pull her into the conversation, instead just letting her be.
A few miles up the freeway the lead SUV turned off at a different exit and they continued on. Jordyn drove them to a residential neighborhood and pulled up in front of a two-story stucco-exterior house that looked identical to all the others on the street except for the color. She waited in the vehicle while the rest of them got out and Briar found herself escorted to the front door by three very large, very lethal men.
Even though she was armed and just as capable as them of dealing with a threat, she decided there were worse places to be than in the center of that protective circle.
Alex went in first, he and Phillips doing a quick sweep while she and Matt stayed just inside the door, out of sight of the street. Less than two minutes later they both returned, holstering their pistols. “Everything’s secure,” Phillips told them.
“There’s a scrubbed laptop in the den for you to use, and two encrypted burner phones there as well. I know you know to keep your contact with the outside world to a minimum, but if you need more phones one of us will get them to you. Fridge and pantry have been stocked with the things you asked for,” he said to Matt, “and the bedrooms and bathrooms as well. You both know how to reach me.”
Briar nodded, taking in the space. The house was clean and cozy and smelled of lemon polish. Someone had been in here to clean recently, maybe even as little as a few hours ago. It wouldn’t surprise her if Alex had managed to set this all up during the relatively short time they’d been waiting for their pilot up in Lake Placid.
“Either Zahra or I will be in touch if we hear anything, and of course let us know if you hear something on your end.”
“Will do,” Matt said.
Alex nodded and started for the door with Phillips but Briar stopped him with a hand on his arm. He looked down at her, his expression unreadable.
“Thank you,” she told him. “For everything.”
His eyes warmed as he smiled. “Thanks for helping save my vacation house from getting blown up. Grace would’ve been so pissed.”
Briar chuckled and lowered her hand. “How are you gonna clean that whole mess up, by the way?” Their tracks telegraphed every move they’d made on the mountain, and there was a dead body with two bullet wounds lying at the base of that cliff. It was definitely going to attract unwanted attention, almost certainly make the news.
“Don’t you worry about that, I have my ways and they’re doing damage control right now, along with a cleanup crew I called in. With any luck we’ll have the shooter’s prints by mid-morning and then we’ll run them through our system.”
“Fingers crossed that gets us a good lead.”
“Sure as hell can’t hurt,” he said, and left.
Matt shut and locked the door behind them, then turned to face her. Now that they were alone she once again felt that invisible electric vibration in the air between them, almost like faint static electricity on her skin. Much as she wanted him, she was too damn tired to finish what they’d started earlier.
“You hungry?” he asked.
“I could eat.” And then she wanted to fall into the nearest bed and crash to get her system back online. All these days and nights without sufficient sleep were catching up to her. She could go for a couple days and stay on the move without sleep if necessary, but with all the emotional turmoil and action lately, she needed a solid eight hours or more of uninterrupted coma time.
She followed him into a clean, white, country-style kitchen and stood next to the counter while he opened the freezer. She assumed he’d pull out a frozen meal or maybe a pizza to heat up, and was surprised when he took out what looked like ice cream. “You seriously want that right now?”
He carried it over to the counter, a smile curving his lips. “No, but I think you do. It’s maple walnut.”
A squeezing sensation bloomed in her chest. He’d remembered the security challenge she’d answered to Janaia the night of the Ramadi op. The man was just so damn sweet and thoughtful, how the hell was she supposed to resist him?
After scooping a more than generous portion into a bowl, he grabbed a spoon from a drawer and handed it to her. She took it with a murmur of thanks and waited for him to get his own before joining him at the kitchen table. Their spoons clinked against the bowls as they ate, the only sound in the cozy, intimate silence. She hadn’t been on that many dates, but to her mind this definitely counted and it was the most enjoyable one she’d ever had.