“I’m employed by the government in a security capacity. At the moment, I’m off for a while. I had quite a bit of vacation and sick time coming to me, and the boss was insistent I take it.”
She glanced up at him, amusement in her eyes. “Are you a workaholic?”
He shrugged, flashing another grin her way. “I live alone. Don’t even have a cat. I’m not that good of a cook. I do have a great rooftop though.”
Those green eyes studied his expression, and then she laughed. “You’re definitely a workaholic. Good excuses though. I especially like the one that you’re not a good cook.”
“I can cook,” he clarified. “I’m just not great at it. And who wants to cook for one person? I wouldn’t mind showing off my skills for you, which admittedly aren’t much, if we get that far. Cooking for two is far more fun than one. You any good in that department?”
“I watch the cooking channel, if that counts.”
The amusement in her voice sent heat streaking through his veins. Before he could reply, the waiter was there to take their orders. She was all about the soup and shrimp. She was also ready to try the house bread. He was willing to share that with her and gave his order as well. As the waiter walked away, he was shocked to see two members of his team take a seat at a table behind Rory.
Gideon knew it wasn’t a coincidence that Brian Hutton and Ethan Meyers had come to the restaurant. They weren’t following him. That meant something serious had to be communicated to Gideon.
“It has to count as much as my abilities do,” Gideon conceded. “You said you moved here recently. Where is your family?”
“I lost my parents a long time ago, and I don’t have any other family, so I decided to see as much of the United States as I could. Well, at least the parts that interested me. I don’t like the heat, so I tend to stay away from places that get really hot. I visit during the good weather. I wanted to see New Orleans, so I went during the cooler weeks.”
“That makes sense.” He took a quick scan of the table behind her. Brian signed, keeping his hands close to his chest. It was their private street code. Rory had been followed from her apartment building.
Gideon’s gut tightened into knots. Javier had assured him just a few days before, when they’d been in the bar, that she didn’t have a stalker. Now, in broad daylight, she’d been followed? He took care to keep his features clear of the alarm he felt. The man had been careful to stay a block or so back from her and in the shadows.
“What about you? Does your family live here in San Francisco?” she asked.
“It’s difficult to explain my family. The simple answer is yes. Igrew up a street kid. No real home. The kids I hung out with eventually became my family. We ended up sticking together. Just up the street from where you work is a huge warehouse. Jaimie, a woman I grew up with and consider my sister, is a computer genius. The man you saw me with in the bar, Javier, he is too. Nothing gets by them. That warehouse is home to Jaimie and Mack and Rose and Kane, as well as the computers that allow us to do our work. Our family is still together, only now we work together.”
“That’s fascinating,” Rory said. “Are there more of you?”
He nodded. “Quite a few more. We get in each other’s business. Kane and Rose have a son now. We all take turns spoiling him. Rose acts tough, but she isn’t. She’s a marshmallow inside and doesn’t mind us giving Sebastian attention. She’s good about sharing him with us.”
“Your voice goes soft when you talk about Sebastian,” Rory said.
Gideon noted thathervoice sounded soft. He liked that. Her green eyes certainly looked at him with approval.
“Why security?”
He should have been expecting that question. “We didn’t always feel safe on the streets. It wasn’t safe. We had to learn to protect ourselves and each other. It was a natural progression to protect others.”
Rory glanced toward the rolling waves, and Gideon took the opportunity to tap on his shoulder in code to Brian and Ethan.Where is the man following Rory now?
“That makes sense. Do you like living here?”
“San Francisco? The harbor? Yes. Jaimie found the place first. She was renovating the warehouse, and we all thought it was a great idea. I found a building that had survived the 1906 earthquake and fires but needed so much work it was condemned. It was four stories high, and the rooftop was so unbelievably cool, like agiant eagle’s nest. I had to find a way to save it. The building was an odd shape, built of brick. Everyone wanted to demolish it but me. I had to have it, which I suppose was silly, but I’ve never been sorry.”
He followed her right into the restaurant,Ethan coded.
“I know exactly what building you’re talking about. It’s beautiful now. You saved it from being torn down after all.” There was admiration in Rory’s voice. She reached out and brushed her fingertips over the back of his hand. “Saving that building wasn’t silly at all.”
His entire body reacted to that featherlight touch. He felt it like a hot streak of lightning rushing straight to his groin.
“Ididn’t save it. I brought in a couple of experts who knew what they were doing to make sure it could withstand earthquakes and anything else thrown at it. Then Jaimie found a couple of other experts to design the outside to look the way it did back when it was first built, but with up-to-date seismic codes that we know are going to hold up when the earthquakes hit. I need open spaces, so inside, I wanted the spaces to flow into one another. In all honesty, I don’t spend much time on the lower floors. A service comes in to clean them once a week. I live mainly on the top floor and rooftop.”
“I’m not going to lie. I might have to keep seeing you just to see inside that building and go out on the rooftop. I rented a top-floor apartment just to get a rooftop patio,” Rory admitted.
Gideon couldn’t help exchanging a smile with her. “Some people have a problem with heights.”
“I never have. I don’t like to be inside very much,” she said. “When I was a little girl, I was trapped in an attic, and it was very stuffy. There were no windows and there was so much dust. I couldn’t get out.” She hesitated for a moment and then shrugged. “You may as well know now, I have the worst lungs. You know Ihave asthma, but it’s really bad. I can barely breathe sometimes and need to use a breathing machine to give myself treatments. I thought I was going to die in that attic, and ever since, I can’t stand closed-in places.”
