Gideon liked the sprinkling of freckles across her nose and her generous mouth. It would be easy to fixate on both. “You did a background search on her?” Javier was a genius with computers. Gideon knew Javier had. He’d read the report multiple times and committed it to memory. He hoped Javier had updated it.
“Not much to find. She moves around a lot. Lost her parents early. Put herself through bartending school and uses that to earnher way. She doesn’t stay in one place very long. She goes to a state, travels within that state for a little while and moves on to the next one.”
“Anyone following her?”
“Not that I can find.”
Gideon slid his fingers around the neck of the beer bottle and rolled it back and forth. “I’m really drawn to her, Javier, more than any woman I’ve ever been around. The chemistry for me is off the charts. That doesn’t happen. Not like this. Not just with the sound of her voice. Her laughter. Now, watching other men around her, my attraction to her could be a little on the dangerous side, and you know I’m really not that man.”
Javier studied him, one eyebrow arched.
“Not over a woman,” Gideon clarified. “How can I trust it? You know Whitney pairs us. Would he pair someone who isn’t a GhostWalker just to experiment?”
Javier shrugged. “I wouldn’t put it past the bastard to do anything, but what would it matter even if he did pair the two of you? Look at Kane and Rose. They’re happy together. Whitney didn’t make that happen. He might be able to make you attractive to each other, but he can’t manipulate your emotions.”
“And if she’s a plant?”
Again, Javier shrugged. “Then she’s an enemy, Gideon, and I’ll kill her. Whitney doesn’t get to have spies in our home.”
Every cell in Gideon’s body instantly rejected Javier’s casual threat. “Not happening, brother. I wouldn’t be able to let you do it,” he admitted. “That’s another black mark to put in the column against her.”
Javier tapped his beer bottle to the neck of the one Gideon was drinking. “If you don’t stop staring at her, we’re going to get kicked out of here.” There was amusement in his voice, something extremely rare for Javier.
Ordinarily, Gideon would have been pleased to hear Javier’s laughter, even at his expense, but not when it came to Rory.
“Full name again.” He made it an order.
“Gideon, it’s not like you don’t have the memory of an elephant. I’ve told you three times, and you read the report I gave you. Laurel Chappel. Everyone calls her Rory. She has a few health problems. A fairly severe case of asthma. Or it appears as if it’s asthma. One doctor took an X-ray of her lungs and he suspected a fungus, but she was gone before he could biopsy and find out for certain what he was looking at. She is careful and keeps up with her prescriptions for her breathing treatments, but she doesn’t go to the doctor as often as she should. She also has allergies.” Speculation crept into his voice.
Gideon turned his piercing gaze on his friend. “What are you thinking?”
Javier frowned and shook his head as if trying to clear away his thoughts. “I don’t know, Gideon. The lung thing. It just feels off to me. It’s interesting that most of the doctors she went to in all these clinics just diagnosed her with asthma or went along with that diagnosis and gave her the nebulizer and whatever medicines would help her breathe better, but they didn’t bother to really check to see what the underlying problem was. Not until that one doctor did. He was very thorough. She had already planned to move, and by the time her test results came in, she was gone.”
“Was that a coincidence, or did she leave because she didn’t want to know?”
“I think she left before she got the news,” Javier said. “But that’s a guess. She doesn’t seem like the type of woman who dodges bad news. She seems like she faces everything thrown at her head-on.”
Gideon liked Javier’s assessment of Rory. Javier was astute when it came to people. He had a gift when it came to knowing what a person was like within a very short time of being around them.Because Gideon was so drawn to Rory, Javier had taken it upon himself, while Gideon was healing from the gunshot wounds, to find out everything he could about the bartender.
“You like her,” Gideon stated.
“I don’t like anyone outside our family,” Javier denied. “To me, everyone else is a potential threat. She doesn’t add up the way she should, and you’re really into her, so she’s really a threat.”
Gideon continued to look at him with hooded, watchful eyes until Javier sighed.
The younger man said something ugly under his breath and then capitulated. “All right, then. I do kind of admire her. She’s pretty cool in a lot of ways. I tried to find Whitney’s stamp on her somewhere, but I couldn’t. I got close to her on several occasions, and I didn’t get the GhostWalker vibe coming off her... but...” He broke off.
Gideon turned his attention back to the woman behind the bar. There wasn’t anything he didn’t like about her. He was attracted to the entire package. That hair of hers shining under the lights fascinated him. He found himself watching the way she was with the male customers. She wasn’t a woman leading men on. She was friendly but not too friendly. She wasn’t looking for extra tips. She talked to them and laughed at their jokes. She remembered their names and their drinks. To her, she was doing her job. To them, she was making them feel special.
Gideon sighed. She was gentle when she turned down advances. Sometimes he wasn’t certain she recognized when a man made an actual pass at her. She was too busy moving on to the next customer, but she could so easily acquire men fixating on her.
“You haven’t seen evidence of a stalker or stalkers?”
Javier shook his head. “If she has one—and honestly, I’d be shocked if she doesn’t have at least one—he’s good at hiding. I did nose around a little because I was worried, but other than the twotimes a couple of drunks tried to follow her home, I didn’t find anyone watching her.”
“That’s a miracle.” Gideon sent him a wry smile. “I guess we can be considered stalkers. You’re worse than me. You’ve been following her for a couple of weeks.”
Javier grinned at him. “I never thought of myself that way.”
