Absolute Trust

by Piper J. Drake

  There was silence on the phone for a moment, then the woman’s cadence turned crisp. “Are you having car trouble? Spent time in the hospital recently? Or maybe experienced a recent break-in at your home? Our attorneys can help you get the money you might deserve.”

  Well, that was a triple coincidence.

  “Yes, I’ve had some car trouble in the last couple of days, had to spend time in the hospital after that, and someone broke into the apartment I was in this week, too.” The appropriate phrases were pretty obvious in this situation.

  “All right, sir, I’ll transfer you to someone who can help you right away.”

  Not the most formal sign, countersign procedure he’d ever experienced, but it was pretty organic as conversations went.

  “Zerta.” A male voice picked up the line. “Thank you for calling us, Mr. Forte.”

  Forte wasn’t in the mood for word games. “This is starting to sound like a cheesy spy movie. What are you offering me?”

  There was a pause, then a slow chuckle. The man on the other end of the call cleared his throat. “I apologize. I hope my laugh didn’t add to the B-rated movie theme. To be concise, we’d like to offer you a position with our private organization. We’re prepared to make the same offer to both of your partners. We feel each of you would be a valuable asset.”

  “Why do you think I would be interested in private contracts?” Forte had had the option, even been approached by one or two other private military organizations. He didn’t have the same negative opinion of mercenaries as others might, but it hadn’t been what he’d wanted for his future.

  “You haven’t lost your edge, Mr. Forte. Not even after five years of retirement from active duty. We need seasoned, experienced leaders of your caliber. Your knowledge of military working dogs would also allow us to broaden the range of services we can provide to our clients.” The man on the other end of the line delivered his reasoning smoothly. He probably wasn’t lying, either.

  But Forte had the distinct desire to up his personal fitness regimen immediately and maybe get in some extra training on a few skill sets. Whatever he could manage on his own out here. Because this organization had financial means to send more than just one hitter after a target. They were going to be harder to discourage than a single stalker would be. No. This was going to have to be a thorough takedown.

  Either way, it was time to end the call before it could be traced. Cruz had a redirect set up for the disposable numbers so it’d given Forte a few extra minutes and they probably knew he was on the continent. But he needed to drop off before they figured out the time zone.

  “I’ll think about it and call you back at this number.”

  The other man chuckled again. “Excellent. Please don’t take too much time. We’ll be waiting.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  The chef responsible for the meals sent so far was equally good at presentation and flavor. Right in the middle of the afternoon, Brandon had intercepted the proprietor coming down the road from the main house to deliver a large picnic basket.

  He’d been distracted today, though, and only laid out the food without asking her what she thought about it.

  “Everything okay?”

  Brandon paused and looked at her directly for the first time since lunch. There was that stranger in his gaze again, the man she didn’t know from their school days. “For the immediate moment, yeah. I’m sorry I haven’t been good company.”

  His words, his tone, the set of his jaw—none of them gave her a hint as to what was going on beneath the surface. This was the facet of him she was still learning. And she might never actually know what he was capable of or what he’d do.

  He was still her Brandon, considerate and caring without being overt about it. But he was more, with a sharp edge and a deeper potential for…darker things. Now that she thought about it, he’d never trained in front of her. Rojas, and sometimes Cruz, trained in the open adult classes at Revolution MMA. Brandon only ever trained in private.

  There was still plenty for her to learn about him, and she could spend a lifetime doing it, she realized. But only if he let her in.

  She shook her head. “Is there anything I can do?”

  He pulled the chair opposite the settee around the low table to sit next to her. Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees and touched his forehead to hers. She closed her eyes a moment and savored his proximity, then she opened them and got a good look at his arms.

  The position showcased his very nicely defined forearms.

  Yum.

  As he straightened, she bit her lip to hide the tiny loss she felt as he moved away. Silly, probably, but this was a new level of…whatever it was and she was savoring every moment.

  “You’re doing exactly what I need right now.” The corner of his mouth lifted in a lopsided grin. “It’d be a lot harder to keep you safe if you were being difficult about it.”

  She swept her hand out in a gesture to indicate the entire table covered in an impressive afternoon tea spread. “How can anyone be difficult when you feed them like this?”

  He plucked a small tent card from the picnic basket. “There’s a selection of teas in here, too. It says all this should be enjoyed with the tea of your choice.”

  “Our choice.” She hoped he’d join her. “Don’t tell me you’re going to leave me to try to eat my way through this alone?”

  He’d been going out on irregular security sweeps. When he did, she was left in the empty cabin with her imagination and anxiety, wondering what the chances were that he’d encounter the threats he was guarding against. At least when he was present, she could pretend they were on a romantic getaway.

  He snagged a few brown paper bags from the basket, individually labeled with tea descriptions. “White plum, peppermint, orange blossom and tangerine, Lady Grey, Darjeeling, and Early Grey.”

  As she looked over the spread on the table, she spotted a small covered container. Leaning out she stretched her hand out to snag the container and peek inside. “And there are actual brown and white sugar cubes. Yes. Could we brew a pot of the Lady Grey, then, please?”

  He tossed the rest of the packages back into the picnic basket. Turned the selected tea package in his hands. “Oh, cool. There’s actual, sensible instructions on the back of this.”

  “You mean for the temperature of the water and how long to steep the tea?” She leaned as close as she could without tipping off the settee. This might be the first time he’d ever taken notice.

  “Yeah. That’s a thing?”

  She nodded. “That is actually a thing. The electric hot water kettle is high tech, too. It has buttons for different water temperatures with added labels for corresponding teas, like whether you’re heating water for white tea versus green tea or maybe oolong or black. So you should be able to fill the electric kettle and just hit a button, then go get the teapot to hang the tea bag into it.”

  “Copy.” Brandon stood and grasped her shoulders gently, pressing her back onto the settee. He remained braced over her for a long minute, holding her gaze, then he kissed her. She was completely scrambled by the time he let her up for air, and he was already headed for the kitchen by the time her vision cleared. “Can you try one of the sandwiches and tell me what the heck they are?”

  She was fairly certain the basket contained another card describing the food, if the chef had included a note about the tea. Still, he was prompting further conversation, and she was happy to talk about the food. Then again, he could be teasing her like this just to see what happened to her words when she got distracted.

  If all his kisses were going to be that mind-blowing, she was okay with this particular game.

  “There’s a couple of different kinds of finger sandwiches here.” She picked one up. “Ooh. This one is egg salad with thin slices of cucumber and microgreens.”

  “Why all the green stuff? Whatever happened to a plain egg sandwich?” He was handling the water and teakettle tasks fairly easily, even wi
th Haydn underfoot in the kitchen with him.

  Her cat hopped up onto the back of the settee and sat perched just behind Sophie. “This is a nice twist. It’s on white bread with the crusts cut off.”

  “You don’t usually cut the crusts off your sandwiches.”

  “No.” She finished off the one sandwich in a few bites and reached for a second. “But these are all about the presentation. The whole point is for everything to look appealing and snackable. Tasty tidbits. Finger foods. This one is roast beef and watercress with what looks like a tomato jam, maybe?”

  She bit into it to confirm. Because of course she needed to know if her guess was on target. She licked her fingers to catch every bit of the fantastic tomato jam. “Mmm. Yup.”

  He snickered. “Finger foods.”

  She widened her eyes at him in mock dismay. “Naughty!”

  He only grinned at her and took a sandwich, inhaling it in one bite then slowly licking his fingers.

  Instant nipple tightening. She cleared her throat. But she was saved from replying to his sally by the beeping of the hot water heater.

  The water had heated in record time, and he was already pouring it into the teapot to steep the tea. “So what’s the difference between Earl Grey and Lady Grey?”

  She swallowed her bite of sandwich before answering. “I don’t know specifically. I just know I feel like I want that more today. It’s got a lighter taste to it, and I like the flavor when I add a lump of brown sugar.”

  “That’s fair.” He made sure her teacup and the container of sugar cubes were in easy reach. “How are the sandwiches?”

  “So good.” She handed him a finger sandwich. “This one looks like chicken and pesto with sundried tomato. I want to try the crumpets next.”

  He looked around on the table. “Since I recognize most everything else here, I’m guessing the crumpets are the pancake-looking things stacked next to the scones.”

  She nodded. “I haven’t quite got the knack of making them yet. Mine don’t ever show this many air pockets.”

  She proceeded to butter one, then added a dollop of strawberry preserves.

  “Too sweet for me.” He popped the chicken sandwich into his mouth whole, chewing thoughtfully.

  “There’s a place in Seattle near Pike’s Place Market that serves crumpets and they’re hearty breakfast sandwiches. There’s a green eggs and ham with cheese crumpet where they mix pesto into beaten eggs and cook them to stack with the ham and cheese. It ends up being huge.”

  “When did you go to Seattle?”

  “Hmm?” She glanced up and was caught by the intensity of his hazel eyes. “I don’t think you’d come back yet from the military. I used to go traveling on long weekends every once in a while. Just to see places I’d been wanting to visit.”

  The lopsided grin was back. “Yeah? Where else did you go?”

  Nowhere that hadn’t made her wish he’d been with her.

  “Oh, I don’t know. I’d remember better if I had my phone so I could show you my favorite pictures from each place.” She tried to remember when she’d started her adventures. “I think I started the long weekend trips right after my first internship. I had to save my pennies for each and every one. First on my list was Baltimore.”

  He reached for another sandwich. “Why Baltimore?”

  She shrugged. “I wanted to see the Inner Harbor on my own, without anyone dragging me to go see anything in particular. I explored a couple of restaurants off the main tourist path, a few blocks away from the harbor area.”

  He nodded, a sparkle in his eyes.

  It was sort of funny that they’d never talked about her trips in detail. She’d never brought them up because they were both usually so caught up in the present. What could be done to solidly establish the kennels, how to gain acceptance and support from the community, and more considerations to make now last as long as possible.

  She nibbled at her crumpet and continued. “I mostly visited cities. Denver, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston. I wanted a change of pace from the usual suburbia.”

  He reached for the teapot and poured tea into her cup. “Do you like cities better? Would you want to move to one?”

  She added a lump of brown sugar to her tea and stirred with the amazingly cute teaspoon. “No. If I wanted to live in the city, I’d have gotten an apartment in Philly. The old city area is really nice. But I like living in the suburbs. It’s quieter, with more room to breathe, but the fun of the city is only twenty or thirty minutes away. It’s really easy to have whichever surrounding I’m in the mood for where I live right now.”

  “But what if you moved someplace else? Is there somewhere in the country you’d rather live? Some other country you’d want to try living in for a while?”

  This was a faintly familiar conversation. She smiled. “We talked about places we wanted to go back in high school. I’ve been working through my list, visiting and having fun. I’m pretty satisfied with that.”

  He paused. “You could’ve gone anywhere. Why did you decide to stay in Pennsylvania? Why did you stay in town?”

  She’d had enough of his dodging. “Why did you leave?”

  He froze.

  She set her teeth and waited him out. It wasn’t fair for him to know what she’d been up to without him sharing the same.

  “There were reasons,” he said finally. “Multiple.”

  This was going to be like peeling back the layers of an onion. Fine. She could go one layer at a time as long as he didn’t shut her down.

  He sighed. “The simple answer is because I needed change.”

  She tipped her head to the side, watching the way he held himself still, completely controlled from his center of gravity out to his fingertips. “We were going to travel for a change in scenery.”

  He shook his head in a sharp, tight motion. “The kind of environment I was looking for wasn’t any place I’d ever want you to see. I wanted a crucible.”

  Ah. She blew out her breath slowly and let go of the tension in her shoulders. His reason was something she could accept. Maybe try to understand a little at a time. This was so much better than just wanting to leave everything behind, including her.

  She’d been selfish over these years, obsessing over what she might have done to make him go. It wasn’t about her. “I was wrecked when you left. I won’t lie. But I’m glad you went where you needed to go.”

  His jaw was still clenched, the way it was when he still had too much bottled up inside.

  “I’ll listen, if you want to tell me about where you were.” She wasn’t sure how else to invite him to talk to her without pushing. It shouldn’t be about her wanting to know. Not for this.

  “The places didn’t matter.” His gaze finally came back to her, and the impact of his hazel eyes stole her breath. “I thought about you every night.”

  “I thought about you, too,” she whispered.

  He smiled. “I plan to be the only thing you think about tonight.”

  She opened her mouth and inhaled, intending to respond, but ended up choking on crumpet crumbs. He reached across the table and held up her teacup. She took it from him and sipped carefully, glad it had cooled enough to drink without burning her tongue.

  He chuckled. “So why did you choose that apartment complex?”

  She prepared more tea for herself to give herself a chance to change gears, or calm down, whichever. She was off-balance, but she planned to follow the conversation where he led it this afternoon. Otherwise, he’d know he could distract her with sex whenever she asked a tough question.

  “I dunno. I guess I didn’t really think about it. It just made sense.” She thought back to when she’d decided to move into her apartment. “I mean, living at home through undergrad let me save money. My parents would’ve freaked out if I moved far away for my first apartment. It took weeks to get them used to the idea of me living where I do now.”

  There’d been daily shouting matches over her decision to move out.
Her mother would dissolve into tears and ask what she’d done wrong raising Sophie if Sophie wanted to leave so badly. And that was just to an apartment in the same town.

  “It was very practical to stay close to home for the first few years, especially since I landed the job in Philly.” She huffed out a laugh. It was a job she didn’t have anymore. “My parents were so proud of the solid start to my respectable career, they eased up on their stance against my moving out and actually listened to me.”

  It’d been the first time she’d felt like an adult. She had no idea what her parents would say when they got back.

  “I’d like to have a new job before they get back.” She spoke about the near future quietly, because she wasn’t in a position to plan for it. Someone wanted her dead, and she couldn’t forget that for long, even when she tried. “I’m just not sure I actually want the same kind of job.”

  He shrugged noncommittally. Thankfully, there was no judgment in his expression. “Everyone can change careers once in a while. I did, for sure.”

  She picked out a custard tart covered in an apricot half. “You mean from the military to training dogs at your kennels?”

  He nodded slowly. “That’s the major example, yeah, but I progressed through a couple of different positions on active duty. It works differently in the military than it probably does in corporate America, but the opportunity to change course is available.”

  He’d never talked to her about his time on active duty from this perspective. There’d been a couple of quiet mornings when he’d first returned when he’d warned her he’d been through some awful experiences. Even those, he hadn’t shared in much detail. But he hadn’t talked about life in the military, the day-to-day.

  “I guess what I’m trying to say is you could change course if you wanted to.” He picked up a crumpet, took an experimental bite, then put it down on his plate.

  She smiled. “Maybe we should try topping that with eggs and ham for you.”

  “Maybe.” He took up another sandwich from the endless pile.