“Yes?”
“I'm Daniel and this is Eli, we're here to transport you.” Bright lights from the airport strained against the dark, casting Daniel's shadow over her and she tried not to shiver as he focused on her with flat gray eyes. “If you'd like to accompany me to the car, I've been assigned as your personal bodyguard.”
Eli stayed near the car, toking on a cigarette like it was the last shot of crack for a junkie, shifting from foot to foot as his beady gaze flickered across the empty lot.
Celine took a step back, uneasy with the two men, and bumped into a familiar hard chest. “It’s okay, Colonel Grey sent them.” Aaron's hand dropped on her shoulder, heavy and reassuring.
Daniel, his expression about as welcoming as a pit bull in a cage fight, turned to Aaron and said, “I was told you might be leaving with the plane to resume your mission overseas.”
Celine spun, unable to hide her sense of betrayal, but Aaron’s expression had changed, going blank, just like she remembered from the wedding party. She could feel him distancing himself from her even though he never let go of her shoulder; the mental withdrawal another blow.
“My mission is to safely escort Miss Latimer home. I will not leave her side until that mission is completed.”
Mission. She was a mission, wasn't she? The way he said it irked her; so clinical, as if she were a thing and not a human.
“Roger. Let’s go, I’m tired of standing in the rain.” Daniel turned and went to his sedan, holding the back door open. Aaron grabbed their one duffel bag and escorted her to the car, squeezing in the back seat right beside her.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
Aaron stared straight ahead when he answered. “The Pentagon.”
Chapter 15
Celine stayed tuckedup close to Aaron as they walked quietly down the maze of hallways inside the Pentagon. Somehow, she never pictured it like this, so...normal. Like the inside of any other office building, minus the windows and the fact that they were there in the middle of the night. And yet people rushed up and down the hallways, all dressed business casual, carrying on with their jobs.
The group took the elevator down, to what floor she had no idea, but Eli had to swipe his card and enter a code for access before they started moving. The doors finally dinged open and she stumbled out first, eager to get out of the claustrophobic space. “Where are we now?”
“Below ground. This level is secure. You have to have clearance to enter,” Eli answered and took over as line leader this time. “If you will follow me, please.”
Once again, Celine stayed close to Aaron as they followed Eli down the hall, Daniel bringing up the rear of their little entourage. Eli stopped in front of a common brown door, near the end of the hallway, and swiped his card. The door buzzed open and Eli held out his arm, inviting them to enter. “Have a seat, someone will be with you shortly.”
Celine entered the room, first unable to shake the uneasy feeling she'd had since they'd stepped off the plane. The roomwas small, with a single plain table in the middle and a couple of chairs on each side. A large mirror stretched across the opposite wall and Celine nearly gasped at her reflection. She'd lost weight, she could tell that simply by the way her bones protruded beneath her skin, but the hollowed-out cheeks and the purple smudges under her eyes showed more evidence of it – she looked like a recovering drug addict.
And Aaron had been up close and personal with her the whole time. Uggghhh.
“We’ll be right outside if you need anything.” Eli pulled the door shut.
Aaron stalked to the mirrored wall, his brows narrowed and lips pulled tight. Her unease slipped into fear. “What's wrong?”
Aaron did that thing again, where he made his face go completely blank, something she'd started to hate. “It's nothing, just the CIA. I always hated working with the sneaky bastards.”
Celine stared hard at him, concentrating on his rich brown eyes. There were tight lines around them now that hadn't been there on the plane, and his blank expression couldn't hide the flat lines of his mouth. Evidence that he was as uneasy here as she was. “I thought you guys were run by the CIA.”
He didn't even blink, just stared at her without speaking.
After a few seconds the urge to fill the silence overtook her patience. “So, don't you sort of work for them?”
He kept staring and she had to fight the urge to twitch. “You're doing that on purpose, stop it.”
“Just trying to figure out how to answer your question when I can't really answer your question.”
“I think you just answered my question.”
Finally, his tight lips eased into a soft smile. “Yeah, I guess I did.”
“Ms. Latimer?”
Aaron shoved her behind him and faced the open doorway. “Who wants to know?”
