Under Fire (Love Over Duty #1)(43)

All thoughts of his plans, his rules for himself, were evaporating fast.

Plus, even she couldn't deny what had just passed between them in his bedroom. Somewhere along the line, she'd found her way under his skin, and he was beyond intrigued, though determined not to rush things. She had enough to deal with without him dirtying the water. What she needed now was for him to behave like the trained operative that he was and help her figure out what the hell was going on in her life. Which required a plan. And action that wasn't even remotely sexual in nature. The rest could come in time, and for now, he was resolved that the only action his dick was going to get would come from a bottle of baby oil and his hand in the shower.

"You want me to stay here?" she repeated, and wandered over to a painting on the wall, which she straightened.

"Yes. I do. The house might be a mess, but the one thing I've done since I got home is install security." A buddy of his had hooked him up with everything from door and window alarms to security lights to CCTV that not only captured what was going on around the perimeter of his home but was also angled toward the stop sign at the end of the road so that anybody coming in and out of the street would be captured. It was all fed live to his laptop and recorded. "I also have a gun safe, fingerprint controlled, that has everything I need to protect us. I sleep with my loaded SIG in the bedside table. You can sleep with one in yours if you want, but only after I've taught you to shoot the damn thing."

Six shut up and waited for her to finish straightening the pillow she was currently fixated on.

"I'm sorry for imposing on you like this," she said, and finally looked at him again.



       
         
       
        

How could it be that the world seemed to fall into place when she did? He walked over to her and placed his hands on her shoulders. "You aren't imposing, although you might well get sick of my house before I get sick of you." He pulled her in for a hug and kissed the top of her head gently, but even though she felt perfect in his arms, he stepped away quickly, keeping it brief and friendly.

"First thing we need to do is call Meeks back and tell him where we are and that you are safe. I'm sure we are going to need to go in and see him, or at least have him come here and make an official statement. We'll keep the police informed from here."

"So what happens now?" she asked, and flicked her bangs to one side. Damn. It only made it harder to keep his distance when he knew how much the small act cost her.

"First, roomie, we need to get set up to hunker down. Like go get groceries. And as cute as that dress is on you, you are going to need more than that to stay here for a few days. I'd loan you some shorts and T-shirts but they'd be way too big for you." A small part of him lamented that he wasn't going to get to see her in his T-shirt anytime soon, but he knew his chances of keeping his hands off her would diminish if he did.

"Is there somewhere around here I can get some things, like pajamas and some toiletries?"

He was seconds away from telling her that she didn't need anything to sleep in, but he bit his tongue before answering. "Yeah. It may not be the fancy labels you're used to, but we'll get you set up. Then we come home, sit down with a pen and a pad of paper and go through all of this piece by piece. See if we can't make some sense of what happened by ourselves and get the ball rolling on some intel."

"Is it safe for us to go outside?" Louisa asked him.

"It is, because it will take them a while to figure out where you went. The truck is registered to the company, so it won't lead them back here. And let's say they are highly connected individuals-even then there's no way they can trace us using CCTV or anything like that because I took routes I know don't have them. So at best Eagle Securities will be their starting point, assuming they can even get that far. Then they'll have to narrow down which of us has the car and then figure out a home address. That'll keep them busy for a while, so we should go get what we need now and hunker down. Then I'll contact my guys and will see what we can figure out."

Louisa stood silently for a moment and then nodded assertively. "Okay. Is there any reason we shouldn't call them now? I think I'd feel safer if more people knew what was happening, but the only person I have really is my mom, and I don't want to scare her. Wait. Shit. You don't think they'll use my mom to get to me, do you?" 

The truth was that it had crossed his mind. "Okay, let's talk as we go because we only have so much time." Unable to resist, Six took Louisa's hand and led her out of the house, grabbing his backpack off the hook in the hallway as they went by. It was only a couple of minutes' walk down the hill to the grocery store, but the fresh air would do them both good. Then they'd get in the truck, and he'd take her over to The Forum mall in Carlsbad for clothes.