Under Fire (Love Over Duty #1)(11)

Didn't move any of the samples. Too focused on postmortem of failed test, and board meeting. Sorry. Check with Aiden.

First thing in the morning, she was going to orchestrate a thorough search of the lab. Top to bottom they were going to check every shelf, not because the missing sample was dangerous, but because it was the innocuous one with the poisonous one's label on it. They couldn't afford to have something like that happen ever again. After all, what if an actual dangerous sample disappeared?

"Everything okay, Louisa?" Six asked. 

She looked around and realized that she had stopped walking. "Yeah. Just some lab stuff that's going on. Sorry." Louisa started to walk again. "So what made you leave?"

"In all honesty, I'd always thought I was a career SEAL. But two of my friends decided they wanted to be out by our mid-thirties and that we should start saving to open a security firm. So we did. And that time we spent saving just flew by. Before I knew it, I was packing up my bag and moving back home."

"You're from around here originally?" Now that she was paying attention it made sense. He had that laid-back vibe about him.

Six nodded. "Yeah. Born and raised in Encinitas. Drank more seawater than milk growing up. Spent more time in the ocean than out of it. That, and being on the swim team in college, gave me a huge advantage during training."

Their hands brushed against each other as they walked, and it was hard to miss the way Six quickly retreated from her. His hand had been warm against hers, and she wondered what it would feel like if she took the plunge and linked her fingers with his. But she'd obviously scared him off when she'd stepped away as he'd brushed the hair from her eyes, not realizing that her bangs were her shield.

"Sounds like you were made for the navy," she said.

"What about you, Louisa? How did you end up doing what you're doing?"

She considered taking a step to her right and putting them in closer contact so she could possibly feel her hand brush against his one more time. It was one of those things, however, that felt relatively simple as a thought but was impossible to put into practice. "My father died when I was twenty as a result of having Huntington's disease. He'd been living with the symptoms for a while longer than that. So I made up my mind quite young that I was going to go into research to see if I could find a cure. After getting my MD and spending time as a neurology resident and then fellow at Johns Hopkins, I moved into private research because I found the bureaucracy of the big hospitals tied my hands." She left out how she'd blown through her degrees, doubling down on courses, always scoring the highest GPA.

Six placed his hand on her lower back, his palm warm through her T-shirt. "I'm sorry, Louisa. That really sucks."

Feeling uncharacteristically brave, she pushed her bangs to the side and looked at him. "Thank you," she said quietly. Time could only be stopped, she knew, if the body was traveling at the speed of light, and even then it was only a perception of the body itself, relative to space and time. But when Six's eyes caught hers, she could have sworn that it happened.

She sighed deeply and turned into the lot where her car was parked. "I'm over here," she said. She dug in her pocket for the key and pressed the button to open the locks.

"That's me." Six tilted his chin in the direction of a silver truck. "Look, about what happened back there. Can we keep it to ourselves?"

Unable to resist, she reached out her hand and rested it on his arm. "That goes without saying. It's nobody else's business but your own. But I know a thing or two about the brain. And whether the damage is neurological, psychological, or anything at all pathological, it is very rare that it just heals itself."

Six looked back out over the canyon and sighed. The sunset was beautiful, rich shades of orange, red, and purple all painted into a fiery sky. She wondered whether he saw the pretty colors, or whether he was so lost in thought he didn't see them at all.

"I know I said it already today, but thanks, Louisa. And I hear what you're saying. I just  …  I don't know  …  I guess I just want to see if this'll fade with time first."



       
         
       
        

It wouldn't, she was certain, but it wasn't her place to tell a man she barely knew how to live his life. "Wait here," she said as a crazy idea took shape in her head. She jogged over to her car and opened the trunk, where she'd put her purse. After rummaging through it for a business card, she hurried back to him. "I'm sure you've got tons of friends and family, or a girlfriend or wife that you can talk these things through with," she said, extending the card to him and willing her hand not to shake. "But if you ever need someone to talk to, I do great motivational pep talks through whatever app you like to use."