Nadia turned and blocked her way. “Let’s go somewhere else,” she whispered, catching Sophia’s arms.
“Why? We like it here.” Sophia looked over Nadia’s shoulder and saw Marla at a table with a group of women she didn’t recognize. A pitcher of margaritas sat almost empty in the middle of the table. Sophia leaned in to whisper in Nadia’s ear. “My therapist said to do nothing that gives her power, ignore her as much as humanly possible and be neutral. Sociopaths feed off those who show any weakness to make themselves feel powerful. So, we move to our table. We sit down. We ignore her completely, or we embolden her.”
“Is everything okay?” Thorn put his hand on Sophia’s back and leaned in.
“Peachy.” Nadia smiled and turned back to the hostess who gestured them toward their seats. Luckily, they were a comfortable distance from Marla and her entourage.
Thorn gestured for Nadia to slide in, and he took the outside seat, facing the restaurant. Sophia slipped in on the other side, happy that she was out of Marla’s view. The hostess mentioned the day’s specials and moved away.
“All right, now can you tell me what’s up?”
“Sophia’s neighbor, Marla the sociopath, is here. You should be ready for something nuts to happen.”
Thorn shifted his gaze to Sophia as he took Nadia’s words seriously. “She’s been diagnosed? She’s a known sociopath?”
“I have no idea,” Sophia said under her breath. “I described her actions to my therapist, and he diagnosed her in absentia in order to give me some coping strategies.”
Thorn raised his menu, but Sophia could tell he was using it as a tactic to observe Marla’s table. “This is the chick who sits on her car in her bikini for hours on end?”
“Yup. Insane.” Nadia put her menu down. “I’m getting the usual. When is Brian getting here?”
“Probably by the time our food arrives.” He glanced at the time read out on his phone. “I’ll order for him.” A spitball landed on Thorn’s menu. He stared down at it. “Really?”
Sophia reached out and laid her hand on Thorn’s. “We’re going to ignore her completely. Let’s talk about Peru. Did you see the report that came in? The mystery was solved. How cool is that?”
Thorn looked at Nadia
“Puquios. Heard of them?”
“No, sorry. Is that what you’re getting to eat?
“Ha, you must be hungry.” Nadia looked through her lashes at Thorn, running her fingers through her hair.
Was she flirting? Sophia wondered with amusement. Well, Nadia always had a thing for bad boys. Thorn missed the flirtation, though. He had been scanning the menu. Sophia tucked that little scene away to tease her about later.
“Puquios are enormous holes dug into the earth. The mystery of why they existed was an important question that was recently solved from space. Ta da!” Nadia stopped to indulge in a self-satisfied smile. “There’s a region in Peru called Nazca that is famous for something called the Nazca lines. Ancient people developed these enormous carvings in the landscape. They’ve found ceremonial burial areas and signs of a complex society. The thing that perplexed archaeologists was how the ancient people were able to not only survive, but to flourish. We can tell from research that droughts in the area could last for years. It turns out that those big holes in the ground created a complex hydraulic system that pulled water from underground aquifers, turning the inhospitable region into one where their society could thrive.”
“Satellite imagery to the rescue,” Sophia said. “The information helped archaeologists and anthropologists see how the Puquios were distributed across the Nazca region. How they were situated compared to the various settlements.”
“Is that where we’re headed?” Thorn put the menu down and signaled the waitress.
“It’s a bit farther from where we’re setting our study, but I’m planning a quick side trip to see the Puquios in person.” Sophia leaned back as the server came to take their order and collect the menus. When Sophia ordered a glass of wine with her meal, Nadia leaned in to whisper that she shouldn’t mix her sleeping pill with alcohol. And alcohol on its own would disturb her sleep. Sophia turned to the waitress. “Make that a water instead, please.” Though a glass of wine might stop her nerves from buzzing. Marla, in such close proximity, set off her danger sirens. She wished the ladies’ night out table would finish up and leave.
Nadia opened the cloth that covered the basket of steaming rolls the server had left to tide them over, passing them around before she helped herself. “We have a colleague, Alejandro, who grew up in both America and Peru. When he was a little boy, his grandparents would tell him about the Spanish conquistadors who were looking for gold. The Spaniards wanted to go into the Amazon to find their fortunes, but the locals warned them that there were man-eating snakes, wildcats that stalked their prey and pounced without warning, and rivers that could cook a man with their boiling waters. Of course, these were just bedtime stories for him like Little Red Riding Hood or Winnie the Pooh.”
“Until they weren’t,” Sophia said.
Another spit ball hit the table, and before Thorn responded, Sophia said, “Look at me. Smile. Give a little laugh. She has no power at this table.”
Thorn did as she asked, and Sophia relaxed a little. The last thing she needed was for GI Joe to go over and flex his muscles. “Alejandro was with his in-laws having dinner when he told his nephews the story about the conquistadors. His wife’s aunt says, ‘I’ve been there, it’s absolutely beautiful.’”
“Where? The boiling river?” Thorn leaned in.
“Yes, it’s so hot that if an animal falls in, it cooks right there. The locals use the river like an automatic hot water dispenser. They cook their food. They do their laundry. They bathe. It’s an incredible resource for them.”
“You’d think it would be a huge tourist destination. Why haven’t I heard of it?”
“The locals don’t want the intrusion of the modern world,” Nadia explained. “They recall the stories of the destruction and illnesses that outsiders brought to the South American peoples. They’re content to be quiet about it.”
“Alejandro respects their decision. The AACP does as well. We’re going into the area very quietly, with the blessing of the village shaman. Small footprint. Our archaeological inquiry will be under the radar, so to speak. We absolutely do not want to be disruptive to the native peoples. But we do want to get some answers to greater questions, like those discovered at the Puquios.”
“Wait, I thought you were Middle Eastern specialists,” Thorn said, sitting back to let the server distribute their drinks.
“In a way, that’s true. But we’re not the ones who will be doing the excavation. We’re simply going in to lay grid lines and drill core samples to see if what was found with satellite technology can be verified. You remember my telling you about the beta searchers—the novices we had trying out our system we hope to open to the interested—” Nadia turned toward Thorn. “What did your colleague call it?”
“Armchair archeologists,” Sophia responded before taking a sip of her water.
“That’s right.” Nadia stuck her hand in the air with a little wave. “Here comes Brian. Anyway, several of the beta testers pointed out this particular area as interesting. Sophia and I agree. It’ll be good to get out of our desk chairs and into a jungle. Clear our heads.”
Brian arrived and with a nod slipped into the bench seat next to Sophia. The seat was narrower than it looked, and Sophia found herself hip to hip, thigh to thigh against the sheer size of Brian Ackerman.
“I ordered you a steak.” Thorn pushed Brian’s glass of water over to him.
“Thanks. What did I miss?”
Another spitball landed on the table with a splat. Thorn and Brian stared at it. “Really?” Brian asked.
“Since we’ve been here…” Thorn quirked a derisive brow. “We’ve been following Sophia’s advice from her therapist and not giving the sociopath the satisfaction of a response
.”
Brian turned bright blue eyes and a warm smile her way. “How are you doing?”
Sophia wished the booths in this restaurant were a little bigger, that there was more space between them. She wished he didn’t smell like lemon soap. It reminded her of her days back before she went on the dig that turned her life to hell.
“Sophia!” Marla yelled. “Sophia!”
“Holy hell, she’s coming this way.” Nadia shifted in her seat, planting her elbows on the table and hiding her face behind her curtain of long black hair.
Brian reached for Sophia and pulled her into a kiss.
“Sophia’s busy at the moment.” Laughter bubbled up with Thorn’s words. “Can I take a message?”
After a moment, Nadia whispered, “She’s gone now.”
Brian released her. He blinked several times like he’d been thrown off-kilter. That’s exactly how Sophia felt. “Sorry,” he muttered. “It was all I could think of, spur of the moment.”
The blush painting over Sophia’s face burned her cheeks. She turned and drank down her glass of water. Brian touching her and kissing her wasn’t okay. She had torn herself away from him the night they met in order to protect him. Every step he got closer to her, the more endangered he became. She needed to get him away from her, out of her life. But even if he wasn’t assigned to her directly, he’d still be on the team. Short of quitting her job, Sophia couldn’t think of a way out of this predicament. She reached up and twisted her gold bracelet around and around her wrist.
“That woman is not normal.” Thorn unwrapped his cutlery from his napkin.
“That’s an understatement,” Nadia said, following suit.
Brian’s, “Are you all right?” was interrupted when the server arrived with their plates.
No, Sophia thought, I’m not all right at all.
13
Brian
Wednesday p.m.
Brian excused himself from the table when his phone pinged. Someone had passed through the infrared sensor he had just established around Sophia’s house. Outside, under the buzz of the flickering parking lot light, he opened his phone app to see Nadia’s sister, Lana, climbing out of her van and going into the house. She moved into the far corner of the living room, standing beside the curio cabinet, texting. Then she went into the den to pick up what Sophia had told him was Chance’s “wubby”—a beloved and well-chewed stuffed rabbit. He waited until Lana had pulled out of the drive before he headed back toward the restaurant. As he sauntered up the sidewalk, Thorn and the women pushed through the restaurant door, walking through the gentle warmth of the night toward Sophia’s van. Brian cut across the lot, timing it so he arrived as they did and joined the huddle of goodbyes.
“Sophia, Nadia told me you were planning on taking a sleeping pill tonight that’s pretty potent.” Brian pushed his hands into his pockets and rocked back on his heels. “It’s dangerous to sleep at your place alone. If there were an emergency—a fire, or what have you, you wouldn’t be able to respond. Nadia has plans tonight with some friends that include drinking, so she’ll probably end up staying at one of their apartments. Do you have someone else you could call to stay the night with you?” Brian held his breath, hoping that he’d left it until too short a notice to get anyone else to come over.
Sophia shook her head. “I don’t have anyone to call, and anyway, I wouldn’t dream of imposing on one of my friends. I don’t need babysitting. I’m a grown woman, for heaven’s sake. The boys are safe with Lana, that’s my only worry.”
“I’m going to stay with you then. I’ll crash on the couch.” Brian used a certain tone of voice to deliver that information. He’d learned this trick when he was in Iraq, needed compliance, and had a limited vocabulary to make it happen.
Sophia gave another little shake of her head, looking confused.
Thankfully, Nadia got involved. “Oh, Brian, would you?” She put her hand on his arm. “That would make me feel a thousand times better.” She pressed her fist to her heart. “I’ve been torn about this all day. I have a friend going through a breakup, and she needs me, but then so does Sophia.”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” Sophia said again.
Both Brian and Nadia pretended not to have heard her.
“Are the boys coming back in the morning?” Brian asked.
“No, Sophia has to catch up on her sleep, the doctor suggested five uninterrupted nights, so Lana is keeping Sophia’s kids until Monday to give her the time she needs. But we’ll all be together on Saturday when the community pool is having its potluck. Do you think you could stay with her through the weekend?” She turned to Sophia when Sophia pinched her arm. “Ouch!”
“Nadia! You’ve not my mother, arranging a sleepover. I’m not a baby, and I’m Standing. Right. Here.” Sophia’s dark-chocolate eyes were vivid with anger.
“I’m sorry, Sophia,” Brian said. “I don’t want you to feel disrespected, but I’ve been doing this kind of work for a long time. I’ve been around when people have been through hell, I know for a fact they can make bad decisions while under extreme stress. Choices that put them and others at risk. Crazy things like not being able to sleep for days and deciding to go for a drive—that’s what killed a man I was tasked with protecting. I bear the weight of that death to this day. I’m just glad he didn’t hurt someone else that night.” They were toe-to-toe, looking into each other’s eyes. Brian desperately wanted to touch her, wanted to run his hands down her arms, gather her close so her cheek rested against his heart, wanted to kiss her hair and take her home. He blocked those feelings, knowing that stupid-as-hell kiss in the restaurant, while effective in getting Marla to move on, might have been a fatal error. If she reported it, Brian would be off the case. Period. Maybe even out of a job. “I want you to rest. I want you to know you’re safe while you sleep. My hitting the rack on your couch doesn’t inconvenience me—it’s part of my job.”
“It’s not you who would be inconvenienced,” Sophia muttered so softly, Brian almost missed her words.
“My teammate dropped me off earlier. I’ll drive your van home.” He held out his hand for her keys.
“Don’t you need a bag or something?” Sophia was obviously grasping at straws.
“Nope, I left one at your house earlier.” He waved his hand for her keys, which she reluctantly handed over to him.
Sophia looked thoroughly deflated as she turned to kiss Nadia on the cheek then moved toward the passenger seat of the van.
Brian felt victorious.
The restaurant was only five miles from Sophia’s house. Sophia had scrunched herself over toward the door as if to create more space between them. Brian had his eye on the rearview mirror. A car had pulled up on his tail so close that it looked like they were sitting in the backseat. He pushed the gas down, and the person behind him held tight. Brian wouldn’t be surprised if they were touching bumpers. A passing car lit up the other driver’s face as they passed. Marla. Son of a bitch.
“Sophia, do you have trouble with Marla riding your bumper?”
“All the time.” Her forehead was resting on the window. She seemed unaware that they were being followed. “I can’t slow down when she does that. One false move, and it would be a car accident. She scares me. I don’t know what she’s capable of—how far she’d push things. My therapist says there’s no way to tell in advance. That doesn’t help my anxiety.”
“I’m sure it doesn’t.”
“I’ve talked to the police about it, and they just shrug their shoulders. They think she needs to cause me harm before they can do anything.” Sophia sat up and turned around to see Marla behind them. “It’s uncanny how she always seems to find me.”
Brian whipped the car to the right and slammed on the brakes, reaching out his hand to steady Sophia. Marla flew on by. Brian yanked the wheel to the left and got right on Marla’s bumper as he followed her all the way home. “This, Sophia, is against the law. It endangers you and your kids.”
Sophia was gripping at the door handle. “Then why are you doing it?”
“Giving her a taste of her own medicine.” Brian stopped at the top of Sophia’s drive where he wanted Sophia to park from now on. “Wait here.”
Marla had turned in the cul-de-sac and parked in front of the Sheppards’ house, jumped from her car, and was racing toward the van with her fists up like she was ready to rumble. It would have been laughable, except this woman thought she was coming to pummel Sophia. Brian stepped out of the van and put his hands on his hips. He had the woman by eight inches, a good sixty pounds of muscle, and the fierce hand-to-hand combat training of his Marine anti-terrorism unit.
Marla came to a screeching halt. Her mouth hung open with shock. She looked toward the van, but Brian moved into her line of sight so she wouldn’t see Sophia. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to; his body radiated hostility. Marla turned on her heels and beat a fast retreat. He watched her until she was all the way home.
Brian walked around the back of the van, stowing his combat energy. Sophia needed calm. By the time he opened the passenger door for her, he was fully back to his impassive guise. “This is where you park.”
“Got it,” she said. A few steps later she stopped him with a hand on his arm. “Is this a good idea?” she asked.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think so.”
“I need to make sure that we’re clear on this, especially after you kissed me.”
Brian wasn’t about to mention that she’d kissed him back.
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