More impatient and alarmed, she demanded again, “What do you want withus?”
He faced her and leaned against the closed door, watching her just as intently as he had before. It was all she could do not to squirm in hershoes.
“I owe you anexplanation.”
Her mouth dropped open in shock. She’d expected him to order her around, storm out and lock the door, but not this. “Youdo?”
“Yes,” King pushed off from the doorframe but instead of advancing toward her, he paced over to the large locked window facing the sunset. The warm light illuminated his sculpted shoulders from behind. “But I’d like to talk to you alone, not in front of thekid.”
Laura managed to drag her eyes off of him and turned to see Faith bouncing on the massive bed like it was her own personal trampoline. Kitty flopping up and down with her, in serious jeopardy of losing an arm. “How about you let me feed her and bathe her and then put her tobed?”
She thought that sounded reasonable enough, considering the fact they were being held against theirwill.
Her initial fear that King and Diggs were some type of villainous mad men had been already put at ease by hearing the team’s conversation downstairs about her brother. She already had no doubt that they’d known him. What she did have doubts about was if they’d been teammates and what they thought of himnow.
“What does she like toeat?”
“Corndogs andmustard.”
“Done.”
Laura stood in stunned silence. “Really?”
No crusty breadcrumbs and stale cheese like in themovies?
The right side of King’s mouth tilted up slightly in the closest thing she’d seen him come to smile since being around him. Although really it just made him not frown. “Absolutely. Why don’t you follow me down to thekitchen?”
“We can leave the room?” she saiddumbly.
“Yeah, I’m sorry they locked you in. I think they were just being safe while I was out.” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his black warm-ups, tiny new muscles rippled across his shoulders and Laura just stared at the frustrating man’s perfection. Why did she always have to be attracted to the badones?
“You mean when you fainted downstairs,” shesaid.
The ghost of a smile disappeared, and King was back to being serious. “Passed out. I didn’tfaint.”
The image of King fainting downstairs filled her mind but she kept her mouth shut. For whatever reason, he seemed to be in a better mood and she wanted to keep the scales in her favor. “Corndogs?”
King strode to the door and pulled it open. “Bring thegirl.”
She half expected him to disappear through the door, instead he waited, giving her enough time to gain Faith’s attention and maneuver her off the bed. Once on the floor Laura smoothed Faith’s tangled mess of hair back from her face and signed, “Ready for somecorndogs?”
“Yes!” Faith quickly signedback.
Careful to keep her back to King and block their interaction from his view, Laura said, “Stay close to me,okay?”
She waited on Faith’s nod of agreement before taking her hand and leading her over to King. When they were about a foot away he exited the room and led the way down a long, wide hallway. The same paintings and pictures they’d passed on the way up here stood sentry along the walls, only this time Laura wasn’t so distracted that she couldn’t notice the fine quality of the artwork. Everything about this place screamed compound. “Why do you live here? This doesn’t look like any militarybase.”
And she’d seen plenty of them when she went to visit her brother during his various trainings andgraduations.
“It was the best place that suited our needs at the time.” He kept walking without lookingback.
“How did you afford it?” Anyone with any slight military ties knew soldiers didn’t exactly earn a greatliving.
That is, if he was even a soldier. He could work for some private dark firm for hire. Like a mercenary. It would definitely explain how they could afford a place likethis.
“You ask a lot of questions,” he answered withoutanswering.
“The hazard of my profession,” she countered just ascoolly.
