“Answer me,” she bit out again, back in the present. “What the hell do you want? Is it money? Because you’re not going to get a cent.”
“I just want to see my sweet girl.”
“So your brilliant idea has been to send me creepy flowers, to try to get me to see you, huh? I don’t believe you. You want something, and it’s not going to happen.”
“Miranda,” he sputtered. “You’re getting it all wrong. I’ve been trying to establish a relationship with you from the very beginning. You broke my heart when you threw me out of that SEAL’s house three years ago. I saw how upset you were, I never wanted that. That’s why I left you alone for two years.”
Why in the hell was she even listening to this drivel? Oh yeah, because she wanted him out of her life once and for all so there’d be no more secrets.
“Just tell me what I have to do to make you dead to me like you were for the first twenty-eight years of my life, Heinrich.”
“Can’t you at least call me Roger?”
“No,” she snapped out.
“I need to see you. This isn’t something I feel comfortable talking about over the phone.”
“There is no way I’m going to meet with some monster from my past who sends me threatening flowers, and calls me from a blocked number. Just tell me what you want, so I can scrape you off my shoe, once and for all.”
“So there is no way I can get you to relent? No way I can appeal to your better nature?”
Was he serious?
“I want you out of my life. For twenty-eight years, you’ve been dead to me. I want those blissful days back. Crawl back under your rock. If I call you Roger, will you go?”
“Angel, I don’t believe you. I think you do care.” Roger Heinrich’s voice had changed, he sounded more confident. “You would do a lot of things for me. You taking the time to have me investigated, and taking this call, proves it.”
“Think you’re kind of smart, huh? All that proves, is that I want to analyze all the bugs that crawl out from underneath the rocks near me. Low and behold, your shell is one of the most fragile I’ve ever come across.”
“When did you get so allergic to sunflowers, Angel?”
Miranda felt her breath saw out of her lungs. She had trouble taking in the next one. Her mind scrambled to think of who in the TAID building would have been aware of her sudden allergy to the flowers she’d received.
Her head swiveled around, looking at the window that showed a beautiful cloudless blue sky. Her office couldn’t be bugged, it was swept for surveillance equipment twice a week.
“I can hear you breathing hard. Be careful, I would hate for you to trigger another migraine.”
She hung up the phone.
It was two o’clock. She grabbed her purse and marched out of her office. Susan looked up, startled.
“Where are you headed?”
“Heading home. Call me if anything pops up.”
Susan looked like she wanted to ask another question, but she ignored her as she walked by the receptionist’s desk and headed for the elevator. Griff was at base. She was headed to the daycare to pick up Livvie. She needed to see her daughter, and take her home. How in the hell had that monster known what the fuck was going on in her office?
How had he known?
Her shoulder hurt. That’s when she realized she was pulling on her purse so hard that the shoulder strap was digging a deep groove into her flesh.
Think, Slade. Think.
She was on the fourteenth floor. Second from the top. The entire building was filled with TAID employees. The technology center had eight buildings and TAID took up three of them. Even with thirty-two hundred people, the rumor mill was rife with petty gossip. Hell, she would bet her bottom dollar that at least fifty people knew that she and Griff were trying to have another baby, maybe even as many as a hundred knew.
So if Susan gave away her flowers to some lucky employee because she had an allergy, that little nugget of information could have gotten to any number of people. But what about the migraine?
She surged out of the elevator and rushed to her cross-over SUV. She drove within the speed limit to get to Livvie’s daycare. By the time she got there, she was breathing normally and thinking rationally. She’d blown this out of proportion. Heinrich had just used a dumb little DHS trick and found out a tiny bit of useless information about her. Still…
“Who’s my good girl?” Miranda asked as she buckled her daughter into her car seat.
Livvie giggled. Miranda knew it was probably because of the toy giraffe she gave her daughter more than her teasing. She hopped back into the driver’s seat and touched the connection to her phone, dialing her friend, Ellen.
“Hey, Miranda. What’s up?”
“Remember that guy Roger Heinrich I had you check out?”
“Sure.”
“The first order of business is that you need to cash the check I sent.”
“Not going to happen,” Ellen laughed. “You were my mentor at TAID, there isn’t a chance in hell I’m going to take your money.”
Miranda knew it was a losing battle. “Fine, but this time I want you to cash it, because I need more info.”
She heard Ellen’s chair squeak. “What’s up?”
Miranda needed to tread carefully. Ellen was bright. So far she hadn’t asked any questions, she’d just taken Miranda at face value. But if she thought she was in trouble, she’d start pressing her.
“I just think there’s a little bit more than meets the eye,” Miranda said casually.
“Can you be more specific? Is it about his job?”
She should have figured she would zero in on the topic.
“Got it in one. He seems to be a little more plugged-in than I originally suspected.”
“Miranda, is he a threat to you?”
The giraffe landed on the passenger seat in front of her. She had about two minutes before Livvie would let loose.
“Nah.”
“Who is he to you?”
Miranda pulled up to the stop sign two blocks from her house. She looked to her left and tried to come up with something plausible, and failed.
“Ellen, can I ask a solid?”
“You’re not going to tell me, are you? How much trouble are you in? What does he have over you?”
Miranda scraped out the best sounding laugh she could. “Ellen, your imagination is out of control. He has nothing over me. Nothing at all. If I thought he was a threat, I’d tell you and pull in Griff. I promise you.”
There was a long pause. “Dammit, Miranda, you’d better. If I find out anything that points to him having a proverbial gun to your head, all bets are off, got it?”
“Hell yeah.” And she meant it. She had far too much to lose to be stupid. “I just need you to dig a little deeper. There’s more going on than just him being a deadbeat. He actually has a brain. I want to know what his job was at the DHS. Was it always the same thing? Did he have anything to do with Intelligence?”
“I’m not liking this.”
“I promise you, Ellen, I’ll call you and let you know if anything hinky is going on. In the meantime, can you make this a priority?”
Her friend took a while to answer. “Of course I’ll make it a priority. But if one flag comes up, I’m flying in from Denver.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else,” Miranda put a smile into her voice. “I’ll talk to you later.” She disconnected the call and hit her steering wheel. “Dammit!”
Livvie let out a startled cry.
“Sorry, Baby Girl. Mommy didn’t mean to be loud.”
11
Griff quietly unlocked the front door. He hadn’t parked in their garage, because the sound of the door going up would have alerted Miranda that he’d come home early, too. After last night maybe his wife was actually taking care of herself. She’d scared the hell out of him with her migraine. Something was definitely up. He’d seen her work on hellish projects before, but they’d never put this kind
of stress on her. He’d bet his bottom dollar it wasn’t because they wanted to have another baby, that had been her idea.
No, there was something going on, and he was going to get to the bottom of it.
Chill. Quit being a paranoid fuck.
As he closed the door behind him, he heard little girl giggles and then he heard older girl giggles. It warmed his heart, and he went down the short hallway and turned the corner. All of the dining room chairs were in the living room, the coffee table had been shoved aside, and two sheets were strung out between the chairs and the couch. He could see his little girl’s head pressed against the inside of the sheet.
“Careful Livvie, or the ceiling might fall down again,” Miranda said gently.
His adventurous little girl wormed her head through the connection point of the two sheets and grinned when she saw him.
“Dada,” she cried out, then giggled. She motioned for him to come into the fort.
“Griff?” Miranda scrambled out from under the sheets. “What the heck are you doing home?”
“I heard there was a blanket fort at the Porter residence, and I didn’t want to miss out.” He gave her a quick kiss and Livvie emerged with her arms out.
“Up Dada.” He swung her up in his arms and gave her a kiss.
“Down,” she said pointing to the floor. Both adults laughed as she quickly crawled back under the sheets. Then she poked her head out again. “Want smores.”
“That’s your fault,” Miranda said. “And if you give in, you have to deal with the sugar high.”
Griff did a mental inventory of the kitchen and realized they were out of marshmallows. “If I go to the store, what would you want me to pick up for dinner?” he asked.
“You are such a soft touch. You’re going to make her S-M-O-R-E-S,” she spelled out.
Griff chose to believe that it was getting warm in the house and he was not blushing. SEALs did not blush.
Miranda laughed.
“Besides, I feel like cooking,” he defended himself. “So what should I get from the store?”
“Chef gets to decide.”
“Store?” Livvie said as she crawled out back out of the fort. She looked up at Griff. Riding in the grocery cart was one of her favorite things.
“That’s right, Munchkin, I’m going to the store. Want to go with me?” he asked.
“Store!” she crowed. She sped out of the living room toward her bedroom. His kid was a runner.
“I’m thinking I should leave this up, what do you think? Smores in a fort sounds like a treat, right?” Miranda went to straighten the sheets.
“Definitely,” Griff agreed as he helped. “So what made you decide to leave work early? You weren’t getting a migraine, were you?”
She looked up at him and gave him a reassuring smile. “Nope, nothing like that. I just needed some family time. Friday’s the big meeting and I’m thinking I might need a sleeping bag at the office.”
“That’s not funny.” Griff stared at her.
“I’m kidding,” she smiled.
“I’m serious, Miranda. You need your sleep. You have a perfectly fine home office. Don’t make me go Neanderthal on your ass and drag you home.”
He watched a myriad of emotions cross her face until finally she relented. “You’re right. My days of one hundred and twenty hour work weeks are long gone.”
“Damn right they are, you’re a Porter now.”
“Didn’t Dex mention something about you going thirty-two hours straight when you were in a sniper position?” Miranda asked sweetly.
He was going to kill his teammate.
“Store!”
They turned when Livvie came out holding her socks and one shoe.
Saved by the bell.
Miranda bit into her second smore of the night as she sat in front of her computer. The dinner and dessert she’d had with Livvie and Griff in the fort five hours ago had long worn off, and now that they were both asleep she could get busy. She opened her work e-mail and downloaded the encrypted file titled Pegasus. The project was for a highly-advanced ghost bomber that was undetectable by any radar that had yet to be devised. The cherry on top was that it was green screen technology which allowed it to act like a chameleon with its surroundings and was barely discernable to the naked eye. The reason it was referred to as Pegasus was a nod to Wonder Woman’s invisible jet, which had been created when they transformed the winged horse into the super hero’s plane.
After a couple of hours poring over spreadsheets and schematics, she got up from her desk and rubbed her lower back. She took her empty plate into the kitchen and poured some marshmallows into a bowl and debated whether she wanted a cola or milk. Looking at the clock on the microwave, she went for the milk.
As she sat down in her chair, she almost dropped her bowl when her phone dinged.
“Dammit.”
She’d forgotten that she’d taken it off the night time mode in case the Lartronics CTO wanted to get in touch with her. Maybe she should have gone for the cola. Evan Banks probably wanted her take on the file he sent. She picked up her phone.
Rage shot through her. It was a text from that damned blocked number. She resisted the urge to throw her phone across the room. She was an adult, for God’s sake. She took a deep breath. She had a mega shit-ton of work to get done. She could not and would not deal with this now.
Carefully placing the phone upside down on her desk, she went back to focusing on the files on her computer screen. When it got to the point that she couldn’t concentrate anymore, she powered down and called it a night. She might, just might, have made a rude gesture at her phone before turning off her desk lamp.
When she got to the bedroom, her husband she stopped short when she found Griff up reading a book. This was not normal.
“Hey,” she smiled.
“Are there any marshmallows left in the kitchen?” he asked.
Ease into it.
She gave him a quizzical glance. “Not buying it, Porter. What’s on your mind?”
“Maybe I want some fluffy goodness,” he teased.
She yawned, “Tell you what, I’m going to the bathroom and changing for bed. You get your thoughts together, or grab the last of the marshmallows if you’re so inclined, and we’ll meet back here? Is it a deal?”
God, she looked exhausted.
“Just two more days and the presentation is finished, right?” he said as she peeled out of her sweater and went to the dresser to take off her earrings.
“Right.”
His wife was a tough nut to crack, but last night had scared the shit out of him. It was time for a ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting. He’d been on the receiving end of a few in their time together, but she hadn’t.
For God’s sake, it had taken him three weeks after bringing her home from the hospital before she would admit that she couldn’t remember a lot of things. His woman held things close to her chest. After three years together, he’d realized a lot of it was due to how she’d been raised. She’d learned her to keep of cone of silence at her mother’s knee. Olivia had been a single woman who’d been left pregnant by some dead asshole, so she didn’t trust anyone.
Of course that wasn’t the way Miranda told the story.
Nope, Miranda’s version was way the hell different. She talked about a happy shiny childhood, where she and her mom did everything together and they were one another’s best friends. But Griff read that as isolated. Miranda also explained how her mother always made sure she was cared for and provided Miranda with everything she needed. Griff easily discerned that meant Miranda rarely, if ever, got the things a little girl wanted. Yeah, she had an warm apartment, clothes, food and braces, but there were no extracurricular activities for little Miranda. She didn’t get to go to camp with her friends.
Nope, it was her and Olivia Slade against the world. In some ways, Miranda still felt that way and Griff felt like he was still breaking down those barriers.
He got out of the bed and follow
ed into the master bath. “Let me run you a bath.”
“I’m fine with a shower,” she said in a tired voice.
He plugged the tub and started the water running. He poured in the bath salts that she liked.
“Is this about last night’s migraine?”
“And you working on your computer for five hours tonight.”
“Only four and a half,” she protested.
“Five.”
“You’re intent on pampering me, huh?” She sat down on the side of the bathtub.
“I’m giving it my best shot.”
“What’s wrong?”
“That’s my line.” Griff winced when he heard how hard that came out.
“Honey, I’m sorry I worried you. I didn’t mean to.”
“And therein lies the problem,” he sighed. “You know, leaning on me isn’t a crime.”
She drew back and searched his face. “What are you talking about? I lean on you all the time.”
Griff used the biggest gun in his arsenal and stayed silent.
“I do. I lean on you a lot,” she insisted. “I miss you like hell when you’re on a mission, and when you come back, I practically fall into your arms.”
“Miranda, why don’t you wake me up when you have nightmares?”
She turned her face and looked into the rising water. “I told you, I don’t remember those.”
He would have called her a liar again, but he couldn’t stomach it. It hurt. They were three years into their marriage, they had a child together, and she still didn’t share the things that hurt her.
Fuck silence.
“Wouldn’t it feel better to share what’s hurting you?” he ground out.
She turned back to him, and her eyes were wet. “I love you more than I’ve ever loved anybody in my life, besides Livvie. I trust you more than I’ve ever trusted anybody in my life. I know you don’t believe me, Griffin, but it’s true. But there’s just some things that I need to work out on my own.”
He looked at her. Looked deep in her eyes. He pulled her hand and placed it over his heart. “You have to trust me. This isn’t just you and me, this is Livvie. This is the child you might be carrying right now. I need you to dig deep. I know it hurts. I know it’s scary. I know it goes against all of your beliefs to trust that I’ll love you no matter what. That’ll I’ll never go away. But I won’t. Even if I get angry, I won’t go away. Even if I’m pissed as hell, I’m going to love you until the earth crumbles. I’m going to love you past forever.”
Her Honorable Hero Page 12
