CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
As Shayla stood in the middle of her kitchen with activity swirling around her, she realized that she was never going to be alone with Peter again.
Well, at least not until they found Maddie, and whatever danger the girl was in was finally over.
Hugely pregnant Lindsey Jenkins was parked on Shay’s sofa in the living room, trying to track down a cop friend who had a lawyer friend who knew Fiona’s aunt Susan. Apparently, Fiona’s parents weren’t picking up, and hadn’t returned the messages that Lindsey’d left. And Susan still wasn’t in her law office. Lindsey was hoping her friend of a friend might help.
Peter was “walking the perimeter” with Timebomb and Hans, while the young man named Seagull was at the kitchen table, attempting to create a schedule for guard duty from a long list of volunteers, taking into account the various times each person was available.
Tiffany, Frank, and Tevin were attempting to help, but probably making life significantly harder for the SEAL candidate. Particularly Tiff, who was leaning over from across the table to check the list of names every chance she got. Poor Seagull was going to have an aneurysm from all that boobage in his face.
Hiroko sat at the other end of the table, her own laptop open in front of her, arms crossed, earbuds in. Shay had no idea what the elderly woman was watching, but she didn’t want to get too close and find out for sure. This way, Shay could at least conjure up a small smile as she pretended that it was porn.
Izzy had dropped Hiroko and dashed back to Van Nuys—if one could call a two-and-a-half-hour drive adash,especially since he was heading directly into the Los Angeles Hellmouth of terrible afternoon traffic. But he’d gone willingly and cheerfully to stake out the Dinglers’ house, in case Dingo and Maddie—or the bad men chasing them—showed up.
Izzy was, without a doubt, one of Peter’s very best friends.
Although, glancing at that long list of SEALs and former military personnel willing to volunteer their time to help keep them safe…
Peter had a lot of very good friends.
He came into the house through the kitchen door, filling up the room as only he could. It was funny how that happened. Izzy was taller and broader than Peter. Both Hans and Timebomb were, too. But when Peter walked in…
He smiled at her, and the room got even smaller.
“Hello.” Shay put almost no voice to the word, but he heard her.
The flare of heat in his eyes was proof of that, but it was accompanied by disbelief as he glanced over at the crowded kitchen table before giving her aSeriously?look. She also could see that he was actually doing the math equation in his head. If they snuck out now to rendezvous in his garage, could they be back inside before anyone even knew they were missing…?
But then, as he realized she had been only kidding, Shay could see his amusement and chagrin, along with that ever-present slow burn.
“Sorry,” she murmured, at a level for his ears only. “I couldn’t resist. We’ll have to somehow stay strong.”
Peter laughed as he moved in to put his arms around her, and everyone at the table looked up and over. At them.
So he backed up and pointed to the door instead. “I have, um, a, uh…question about the fence,” he said loudly. “If you don’t mind stepping outside…?”
Shay followed him out into the backyard. “You know, that fooled no one.”
“Yeah,” he said, finally pulling her in for that embrace. She wrapped her arms around his waist and enjoyed the feel of him, solid against her. “I’m sorry about before.”
“That’s okay,” she said.Was it love at first sight?“You kind of had to, you know, say what you said. I mean, Frankie was in your face.”
Peter pulled back to look down at her. “I was talking about tackling you.”
“Oh,” she said. Oops. “Well, I’d tell you that you can make it up to me by kissing my scrapes and bruises, but that’s not going to happen with our current cast of thousands.”
Peter smiled. “Safety over sex.”
“Is that, like, another Navy SEAL slogan?” she asked.
He laughed and then kissed her. Briefly. Sweetly. “You know, sadly, it might be.”
And now they were both smiling at each other.
He came back to earth first. “Any word from Adam?” he asked.
Shayla checked her phone, pulling it from her pocket. Adam was still at the hospital, with Daryl. “Just thatNo changetext that I told you about. It’s only been ten minutes.”
