Bean didn’t want to be far from her. He trusted his team, but he wanted to have eyes on her. “But?—”
“Get some rest and shower. Eat some food, and get your head on,” Chase said.
Chase was right. He needed to take a break, but he didn’t want to. He moved to Garnet, taking her hands. “They’ll keep you safe.”
She nodded. “I trust you, and them.”
Bean pulled her in for a hug. He shouldn’t. This wasn’t a personal trip, but in the time he’d spent with her, they’d grown much closer.
Garnet worked quickly.The guys stayed with her as she moved from one room to another. She only had to check two more rooms, and she would be done.
Whoever had set this place up had been thorough. They had really wanted her over here. She needed to go over her notes for her last few conferences, see if she’d said anything that would lead people to believe she could hack into a weapons system.
The guys switched out, and now Chase, Mick, and Link were with her. She missed hanging out with Bean, but he needed to rest. He’d been watching her almost constantly, with only a few breaks, since she’d been rescued. He had to be tired of her.
Then again, he’d hugged her earlier. That hug hadn’t been totally impersonal. The warmth from his hug made her think he cared.
Did he care about her? She had feelings about Brady. Could she have real feelings for someone she’d only met a handful of times? Maybe.
Her dating history had been very limited. She’d been too young in college to date anyone, and then after college, she’d been busy with work. If she thought too much about it, she was sad that she never experienced the typical coming-of-age type of thing when she was younger.
When she finally started dating, it wasn’t a great experience. Guys wanted to have sex just for buying her a twenty-dollar meal. She could make more as a hooker, not that she would do that, but after three guys tried to force her into sex after a simple meal, not even a great meal, she found it to be too much.
There had been one guy she dated for four months, but he lost interest, and honestly, so did she. Really, they had only gone on a few dates, and they weren’t great. It was more like an excuse to have someone at the same table when she went out to eat. Then the guy started pushing their next date off, stringing her along. She finally told him she thought they should end it, and he seemed relieved.
With Brady, it was different. Maybe it was because he wasn’t in his twenties. The real question was, would he care for her when he realized she really was weird?
She was almost done when Brady entered the room. His eyes connected with hers, and she swore they softened as he smiled. Her heart sped up, and a smile splashed across her face almost without her even trying. Being excited to see him felt natural. It was absolutely a new thing for her, being excited to see a guy.
“I’m almost done,” Garnet said as she turned back to her work.
Chase nodded. “I’ll tell them we’re almost ready to leave.”
“I think another forty minutes, and I’ll be able to wrap it up.”
She focused on the problems, thinking someone had to work hard at this to make it so messed up. They hadn’t just put in one line of code to fuck things up. They’d changed things on multiple platforms, meaning she had to go to almost every computer to check it.
This had to go much deeper than she’d first thought. Someone set this up. They could have just grabbed her from the USA. No one would have even known she’d disappeared. Her work would have eventually gone to check on her, but not for a few days. By then, no one would have had any idea where she’d gone.
Chapter 13
Bean had never been happierfor a plane to lift off than he was when they took off from Beirut with Garnet sitting next to him. She had her hand on his knee, and it honestly felt darn good.
He glanced down, studying her hand. Her nails weren’t painted, and they were trimmed close, but her tapered fingers were delicate, feminine. He liked touching her and liked it even more when she touched him.
Did she want to date him? Maybe. He didn’t want her to go home alone, so he had already arranged with Chase to stay at her place for a few days.
They all agreed this was bigger than just one attack on the embassy in Beirut. He had a suspicion this was a huge operation, and he feared Garnet wouldn’t be safe for a long time.
If he left, she would be at risk. Maybe he could convince her to move to North Carolina. No one would know where she was if she stayed with him. It wouldn’t be forever. Maybe a few months until they could figure out exactly how deep this thing went.
Garnet glanced up, and their gazes met. They were seated a few seats away from the rest of his team, so there was some privacy.
“Are you good?” he asked.
She nodded. “I am.”
“So home. I don’t know that you’ll be safe if you stay in your place. I think you should come to North Carolina and live at my place. No one would know where you are.”
