She stopped just on the other side of the threshold.
Not a good sign.
“Told you it was small,” he said quickly.
Nothing.
He cleared his throat. “You know, I just realized…We should have stopped to pick up some things. Toothbrushes. Well, no. I have this humongous pack I bought on my first and last visit to one of those giant discount stores. A comb and hairbrush, then. No problem. You can use mine. Although if you prefer…”
He clamped his lips together.
Jesus.
He was as nervous as a kid on his first date.
Maybe he’d been crazy to bring her here. Not to California. To his home. It wasn’t too late. There were endless motels and hotels up and down the coast. Sure, they’d both said they’d had it with hotels, but—
Bianca swung towards him, her eyes, her lips, her entire face bright with pleasure.
“It’s perfect!”
Perfect? He looked around him. Well, the room had all the right appliances, and two walls of glass-fronted cabinets. It had a Mexican-tile floor—the original owner must have had a thing for Mexican tile because the floors that weren’t oak were tile. And, yeah, there was the kitchen table he’d made himself from one hell of a chunk of driftwood…
But perfect?
“Well,” he said cautiously, “I don’t know that I’d call it—”
Bianca put her arms around his neck.
“I grew up in a monstrosity my mother called an antique. The Wilde house is gorgeous, but you can get lost going from one room to another. My New York apartment… Well, you saw it. This—this is perfect.”
Chay laughed, put his arms around her and linked his hands at the base of her spine.
“I think Goldilocks said something similar.”
She shook her head. “It couldn’t have been Goldilocks.”
“I’m pretty sure it was, honey. You know: ‘This one is too big, this one is too small, this one is just—’”
“I remember Goldilocks,” she said softly. “And I remember Cinderella. And Sleeping Beauty. I remember all those fairy tale princesses who were surely happy wherever they were, because they had their princes with them.”
Chay gathered her to him.
“Trust me, baby,” he said in a husky whisper. “I am light-years away from being a prince—but you are a princess straight out of any one of those stories.”
Bianca rose to him and kissed him.
“Aren’t you going to show me the rest of your house, Chayton?” She smiled. “Especially, if it isn’t too much trouble, the bedroom?”
Chay kissed her, swept her into his arms and carried her to his bed.
• • •
“I,” Chay announced a while later, “am starving!”
As if in response, Bianca’s stomach growled.
He laughed, tipped her face up to his, and kissed her.
“I take it that was a yes.”
“It certainly was.”
“Okay.” He got up, stepped into his jeans, pulled on his T-shirt. “How about we get some food? Takeout okay? Pizza. Chinese. Thai. You name it, I’ll find it.”
“Do you have anything we could throw together?” Bianca zipped her jeans and smoothed down her shirt. “I’d rather stay right here, if that’s all right with you.”
He smiled. “It’s great with me. Let’s raid the kitchen and see what we can come up with.”
What they came up with, according to Bianca, was a feast.
Steaks in the freezer. Idaho potatoes in the cupboard. A big Maui sweet onion. A couple of newly ripened tomatoes on the kitchen windowsill. And, in the fridge, romaine lettuce and a few bottles of ale.
“Sorry, honey. No vino. We’ll pick up some tomorrow.”
She smiled as he kissed her shoulder on his way past her to the charcoal grill on the deck.
Tomorrow, Bianca thought.
What a nice word.
She’d wake up in this house tomorrow. Wake up in her lover’s arms. They’d make breakfast together. Go shopping together. Return here, to their private world, together.
It all sounded wonderful—as long as she didn’t think about the—the artificialness of it.
Was there such a word? Or was the word artificiality? If not, there should be. Because it described things perfectly.
This wasn’t a lovers’ tryst. It was a necessary step in the process of finding the person who wanted to hurt her. She knew, without question, that Chay would find him. That Chay would keep her safe until he did.
And that once all that was done, this—this lovely interlude would end.
“Hey.”
She looked up from the onion she was slicing. Chay reached for her hand.
“Sweetheart? What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. She didn’t trust herself to speak.
“Honey.” He drew her close. “You looked so happy a couple of minutes ago…”
She laughed. Laughing was often very close to crying. If she were careful, she’d be able to substitute the one for the other.
“It’s the onion. I always have trouble slicing onions.”
“They make you cry?”
She nodded.
“These sweet ones aren’t supposed to do that. Tell you what. I’ll do the onion. You cut up the tomatoes. Deal?”
“Deal,” she said, and she gave him a quick kiss and turned away.
• • •
They ate on the deck, by candlelight, and talked about lots of things.
How delighted he’d been to make the SEALs, and how amazed and thrilled he’d been when he was selected for STUD.
How she’d loved growing up in the Sicilian hills, and what a shock it had been to discover she had half-brothers and half-sisters in America.
“A painful shock at first,” she said, “but then, as I got to know them, I came to love them all. I know you—” She caught herself in mid-sentence. I know you’ll come to love them too, she’d almost said, but wasn’t that foolish? He’d spent time with them when Alessandra was kidnapped and again at Alessandra and Tanner’s wedding, but there was no reason he’d ever see her family again. “I know you liked them when you met them.”
He nodded. “But your father wasn’t there.”
“The general.” Bianca stabbed a piece of tomato with her fork. “No,” she said quietly. “He’s pretty much been, you know, banished from our lives.” She looked up. “I’d probably be accused of treason by the rest of my family if I ever admitted that sometimes I think maybe he’s been punished enough. I mean, he did what he had to do.”
“We all do what we have to do,” Chay said. “The thing is, sometimes we’re not sure exactly what that is.”
She nodded. “Yes. Exactly.” She smiled. “In fact, spoken like a true shrink.”
They both laughed. She reached for his open bottle of ale. Surprisingly enough, it had a taste she thought she might just come to like.
“Tell me more about you,” she said. “About what you were like growing up.”
“What I was like,” he said, with a quick smile, “was hell on wheels. I lived only for trouble. Riding horses. Hunting. Fishing.”
“Hunting?”
“Yeah. For meat. I get how some people feel about hunting—”
“No. I think it’s different if it’s for food.”
“Well, that’s what it was.” Chay took the bottle of ale from her and tipped it to his lips. “In fact, Tanner and I had this thing we did whenever we came across trophy hunters.”
“What?”
“We’d send them in the wrong direction. Or, if we knew there were animals they’d want in the area, we’d scare the animals away.” He laughed. “One time, there was this big old male grizzly. We sent him running, except he apparently stopped and ask
ed himself how come he was running when he outweighed us by a thousand pounds, so he stopped on a dime, turned around and took off after us.”
“Oh my!” Bianca put her hand to her heart. “But you got away!”
“Did you ever see that old movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? That scene where they leap off a cliff into a river?” Chay grinned. “That’s exactly what we did.”
“You could have been hurt. Or you could have died!”
His expression softened. “And what a waste that would have been,” he said, “because then I’d never have found you.”
• • •
His bed was oversized, but they slept tangled together.
And awakened to the buzz of Chay’s cellphone.
“Mmmf,” Chay growled.
Bianca gave a sleepy laugh. “That’s supposed to be my line.”
He dropped a kiss on the top of her head as he reached across her and fumbled for the phone, which turned out to be on the floor next to the bed.
“What?” he said.
“And a charming good morning to you too.”
Chay sat up and ran his hand through his hair. “Sanchez?”
“Sorry if I woke you,” Sanchez said, not sounding sorry at all.
“What time is it?”
“Seven.”
“Not on the East Coast.”
“Yeah, well, according to Liam, you’re not on the East Coast. And if you were, it would be ten in the morning. Time to get your ass in gear, bro.”
Chay sighed and swung his legs to the floor.
“You’re right. And I would have called you in another couple of minutes.”
“Bull,” Sanchez said cheerfully.
“Yeah. Sorry, Declan. I just haven’t had much sleep lately.”
Sanchez chuckled.
“Things have been happening is what I mean.”
“Right. So it would seem. Look, the reason I called is because I’m free today. So if you’re gonna need me, now’s the time to say so.”
“I need you,” Chay said. “My place or yours?”
“Your choice.”
“Here, then. Say in two hours?”
“Done. Just clear me a space and make sure your printer’s up and running.” Sanchez paused. “Okay if I bring someone along?”
“What someone?”
“A girl. She’s a student. At UCSB. The University of California at Santa Barbara.”
“Dude. Don’t tell me you’re into cradle-snatching.”
“She’s twenty-four.”
“Hey. I was only joking.”
Sanchez gave a long sigh. “Yeah, right. Anyway, she’ll be happy to stay out of whatever it is we’re going be doing with your lady’s computer.”
“She’s not…” Chay cleared his throat. “Fine.”
“Or she might be able to help. I don’t know what the issue is, but Annie’s working on her master’s degree in psych—”
“She’s a psych major?”
“Was a psych major. Now, she’s going for her master’s. Listen, if this is a problem—”
Chay shut his eyes. Another shrink in his life. Who would have believed it?
“Olivieri. Look, I’ll just come alone.”
“Chayton?”
Chay almost laughed. His very own personal shrink was sitting just behind him, her naked body warm against his back, her breath soft in his ear.
“Bring her,” he said into the phone. “Of course, bring her. I have the feeling it’s gonna be an interesting day.”
• • •
Showers.
One shower, actually. And during it, a fast but wonderfully sweet and sexy morning hello.
Then coffee. Toast. A promise to go out later to buy wine and whatever else they needed or wanted.
And, last of all, most important of all, a short conversation.
Chay took Bianca’s hands in his.
“So,” he said, “here we are. My magic guy is on his way. Will you give me the names and information I need, or am I going to send you off to walk the beach with the woman who’s apparently his girlfriend—an amazing thing in itself, and remind me to explain that later—collecting seashells while Sanchez downloads the stuff on the sly from your computer?”
She blinked. “Wow,” she said softly.
“Yeah. Wow.” He smiled. “I can’t lie to you sweetheart. I mean, I could—but I don’t want to. The thing is, we need answers. And those lists in your computer might just contain them.”
Bianca sighed. “I know. And I’ve been thinking about it.” Another sigh. “Let your friend download everything you want.”
Chay kissed her just as the doorbell rang.
Bianca smoothed back her hair. She knew what came next was all business, but meeting a buddy of Chayton’s was still an event, and it made her nervous.
“Do I look okay?” she whispered.
“You look gorgeous,” he whispered back, kissed the tip of her nose, and opened the door.
Declan Sanchez was tall, like Chay. Leanly muscled, like Chay. He had a killer smile—well, not as much a killer smile as Chay’s, but Bianca could see that it could surely break a few hearts.
Everything else about him was precisely what his name promised.
He had the almost black eyes of a sexy Spaniard and the dark blond hair of an equally sexy Irishman. It was a dazzling combination.
He also had an easy grin.
“Lieutenant Declan Sanchez at your service, m’lady,” he said, with a dramatic, sweeping bow.
Bianca returned the grin. “Bianca Wilde,” she said. “It’s lovely to meet you.”
“And this,” Sanchez said, sliding his arm lightly around the waist of the hazel-eyed brunette standing beside him, “is Annie Stanton.”
Annie smiled shyly. “Hi. I’ve heard a lot about you, Lieutenant Olivieri.”
“It’s Chay,” Chay said. “And whatever Dec told you, don’t believe a word.”
They all laughed and Bianca felt herself begin to relax.
Sanchez had brought two laptops, his smartphone and what looked like a dozen different kinds of cables.
Annie had brought the really important thing.
A box of freshly made doughnuts.
They gathered around the kitchen table, drank coffee, munched on doughnuts, and then Chay turned to Bianca.
“Okay,” he said. “It’s time. I think I have to tell Dec what this is all about before he gets to work. Do you want to stay here while I do—or would you prefer not to hear it all again?”
Bianca’s lips were dry. She went to the sink, poured a glass of water and took a long drink.
“I’ll stay.”
Annie pushed back her chair. “And I’ll wait out—”
“No,” Bianca said. “It’s nothing you can’t hear. Besides, you’re a psych student, right?”
Annie nodded and shoved a strand of dark hair behind her ear. “I studied psych. Right.”
“Well, you might just be able to offer some suggestions. Please. Stay.”
Everyone waited while Chay went into the bedroom and retrieved Bianca’s laptop. He put it on the table and opened it. It was an ordinary computer, but for a couple of seconds nobody did anything except stare at it.
Then Sanchez looked at Bianca.
“You have a password?”
She nodded.
“Okay. Type it in, but don’t do anything else. I need to check for bugs.”
Bianca swallowed hard. Entered her password. The screen lit and Sanchez leaned in. Typed a string of letters. The screen went black. The laptop gave a soft hum and the screen brightened.
Sanchez smiled.
“Clean as a baby’s…bottom.”
And they were in.
• • •
Downloading was fast. Printing came next.
“Dec?” Chay said. “Are we going to be doing anything for, say, the next twenty, thirty minutes?”
Sanchez shook his head. “Not unless you think watching paper spew out of a printer is something special.”
Chay nodded.
The small plastic bag that held the condom he’d taken from Bianca’s apartment was in his pocket. He knew its value was limited. It probably could not be considered actual evidence, because it hadn’t been logged in and entered in a police report, but once they had a solid suspect, the condom’s contents would confirm his identity.
The law might not see that as evidence, Chay thought grimly, but there were different ways to mete out justice.
“I’ll be back in half an hour,” he said.
Bianca looked at him. “Don’t…”
Don’t leave me.
He could almost hear her unspoken words.
He’d phoned a friend, the CEO of a highly reputable lab. They’d been in the SEALs together until the guy was wounded, wounded badly enough that he’d had to take early retirement. His friend already had a degree in science; he’d added another in biomed, and that had led him to starting a lab often used by the military and the police.
“Sure,” he’d said, after Chay clued him in. “Bring me the sample. I’ll run a DNA check ASAP and then I’ll put the rest in storage.”
Chay hadn’t intended to mention any of that to Bianca. She didn’t need to be reminded of what they’d found in that dresser drawer.
But one look at her now and he knew he couldn’t leave her. Besides, this was about her. She deserved to know what was happening.
He held out his hand.
“We’ll be back in half an hour,” he said, and the look on her face made his heart swell.
• • •
They were back in exactly that.
The baggie was safely stored—Bianca had been fine with that. They’d made another quick stop, and they were each carrying a big paper bag.
“Sustenance for tonight,” Chay joked as they entered the kitchen.
“And excellent timing,” Sanchez said.
Dec had both his laptops going. As Bianca emptied the bags and put things away, he motioned for Chay to sit in front of the computer he wasn’t using.
“I have a laptop,” Chay said. “You didn’t have to bring one for me.”
Privilege: Special Tactical Units Division: Book Two Page 22