by C. J. Miller
Griffin most certainly was. But could Kit keep him in her life?
* * *
Kit was alone in the lab. Alone except for Griffin, who was working on something on his computer. The hum of the computer fans and the air-conditioning created a soothing white noise. But Kit still felt agitated. She and the team were not making progress as she had planned, and she sensed information was being held back. The less she knew, the longer they would be at this, trapped on this island, trying to find the security holes in the Locker and close them and to find the locations of Incognito’s version of the Locker.
It was past five o’clock, and the other engineers on the team had returned to their apartments for the day. Kit had stayed because she needed the quiet to think. The team lobbed questions at her all day, and the constant interruptions made progress slow. She could share what she knew and being that open was refreshing, but explaining the details of the Locker wasn’t simple. The skill sets of the engineers varied, and Kit wasn’t masterful at communicating.
The project manager continually pressed her for dates when she would have accomplished significant progress. He also asked if he could get her anything to help.
She tried to be diplomatic and evasive, but she wanted to scream that it would take as long as it took and he could help her by not interrupting her ten times a day with inane questions.
Being near Griffin was distracting. Not that he said much to her in the lab unless she spoke to him. Having him around made her want to shorten her hours and spend more time with him. She didn’t voice those thoughts because if he were pulled from the project, she would be destroyed. She didn’t want to be on this island, but having Griffin with her made it bearable.
“What are you working on?” she asked, turning in her chair.
Griffin looked up from his computer screen, his green eyes serious. “I have the mission specs for my next assignment.”
His next assignment? Was he bailing on her soon? Her stomach dropped. “When does it start?”
“As soon as possible.”
“Are you leaving?” she asked.
“When you don’t need me anymore,” he said.
She needed him, and she couldn’t put an end date on that. He was her strength and her friend, and it had taken her whole lifetime to connect with someone the way she’d connected with him. How did he feel about her? Her body was sore from the nights in bed with him and those memories were so fresh, she had trouble believing that he felt nothing for her.
How could he hold her and make love with her and then tell her he was thinking about his next mission, a mission that didn’t include her? What would happen when they parted ways? Would she be able to speak to him? Was Griffin Brooks his real name? If he didn’t want to be contacted, he could make that happen.
“What’s the mission?” she asked. She heard shrillness in her voice and tried to calm herself. She had to play it cool.
“I can’t discuss that,” he said.
She’d expected an evasive answer but had hoped it would open the dialogue between them. “Does it involve getting punched?” When they had first met, he had been punched a number of times.
He laughed. “I would say there’s a high probability of that happening.”
Her thoughts jumped to other unpleasant scenarios. Would it involve him meeting someone else? Having an affair with another woman? Kit felt sick to her stomach. She turned back to the computer, but she was too distracted by what Griffin had said to continue working. She stared at the screen for a few more minutes and then tried again. “Griffin.” She didn’t know what else to say to him. So many words overwhelmed her.
He looked at her with intensity blazing in his eyes. “You can tell me anything. Say what you need to say.”
She wished she had the words to express what she was feeling. Her anxiety and nervousness about the project persisted. Having Griffin nearby made her feel safe and sane.
He came closer. “Are you hurt?”
The room was under surveillance, and she didn’t want to have this conversation here. “Can we go home? I’m not making progress, and it’s frustrating.”
He nodded. “You might feel better after dinner.”
Unlikely food would change anything, but in their place, they could talk without security watching them. She could be more open and honest, assuming she had the courage to speak her mind.
Kit gathered her belongings, and they followed the security procedures to checkout. Every item they took from the lab had to be screened.
Griffin walked her home, though he didn’t hold her hand or touch her. After the nights they’d spent together, that stung. If they had a relationship, why was he hiding it? Was he worried what his boss would think? Was he embarrassed to be seen with her?
Kit felt the urge to throw herself into his arms. Instead, she threw down. “You want to leave. You want to go on another mission.” One that was likely far away from her. A fresh start for him, a stinging loss for her.
“You don’t need me here.”
She arched a brow at him. “How so? Incognito is still looking for me.”
“You’re safe here. There’s military crawling all over this place.”
Except she didn’t feel safe with soldiers. Lawrence had been a soldier and had turned on them, selling her and Zoya out to Incognito. “We haven’t destroyed the copy of the Locker, and I haven’t secured the new one or launched a counterattack.”
“You will.” He sounded certain.
She narrowed her eyes at him. “While I appreciate the vote of confidence, I think you’re looking for a reason to leave.”
“Why would I want to leave?”
She threw her hands in the air. “This was never what you set out to do. You were supposed to bring me in and leave me at a safe house for someone else to handle. That didn’t happen because Incognito is good. Too good. They’ve outsmarted us too many times. I made you stay with me, but I saw in your face that you didn’t want to. I needed you to stay.”
“You don’t need me,” he repeated.
Kit felt as if she were staring at him from across a huge divide. “That’s where you’re wrong.” She needed him like she needed the air around her. He was a constant in her life, the person she could look to when life was rough. “I need you.”
He looked at her unblinking, completely emotionless. “There’s a reason I work in extraction and retrievals. I’m not a bodyguard. I’ve been playing one, but our luck will run out.”
She couldn’t talk to him when he was like this. Shaking off the hurt, she turned away. “I have work.”
She needed space from him, somewhere to be alone.
“I thought you wanted dinner at home,” he said.
“Suddenly, I’m not hungry.” He was in a mood to ice her out, and she wasn’t in the mood to oblige.
“Are you returning to the lab?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“I have to come with you.”
“I thought you said I didn’t need you. If I’m safe here, then you might as well take a break.”
“Kit, don’t be like this. What happened between us was great, but how long can this last? I sit in a lab and watch you work. We’re surrounded by trained military men and women. Have you considered how boring that is for me?”
“Then that’s the reason. You’re bored here.”
He shook his head. “You’ve known from the beginning that my area of expertise is not in protection. I want to be placed where I can do some good.”
He was doing good. He had saved her on multiple occasions. “I don’t want you to leave and take a new assignment.”
“That isn’t up to you. Not entirely,” Griffin said.
“Who makes the call?” Kit asked.
“Connor West.”
Kit c
ould call Connor and express her desire to have Griffin stay with her, but trapping Griffin wasn’t in her best interest. He would resent her unless he made the decision himself. Why couldn’t she convince him to stay? What were the words he needed to hear?
“I’ll be safe in the lab. Please, give me some space,” she said.
She returned to the lab and didn’t look back. She ignored the guard who checked her in, seeing that he was the man who had out-processed her a few minutes before.
She entered her lab and sat down at the computer.
Kit had worked long, late nights on the Locker years before. She couldn’t count the number of nights she was alone in the lab, working all night, but it had to be hundreds. It was how she worked best. Now it depressed her. This wasn’t the life she wanted. She didn’t find constant solitude appealing.
Even working in the greenhouse had been more fulfilling. She craved privacy at times but acknowledged a difference between being alone and loneliness.
As she worked, her thoughts wandered to Griffin. Why was she pushing him for answers? Her sister had advised her to show Griffin she cared for him. She had done the opposite. He had baggage, and until he was ready to put it down, it would burden him.
She dove into her work, concentrating on the parts of the Locker she had control over. Something about this part of the Locker she was working on seemed different. As she scrolled through the code, she realized that the Locker must be housed somewhere local. The calls were over a local area network. She considered interesting possibilities.
A red light high on the wall flashed, interrupting her. She turned to the monitoring screen hung near the door. The words Unauthorized Overhead Activity scrolled across the screen with no further information given. A plane off its flight path? She had been through several false alarms in the past. When working out of a secure location, any unknown was cause for investigation. It was usually nothing.
A sense of dread washed over her when the light didn’t stop after a few moments. She didn’t know the policies and procedures of this base, but red flashing warnings were bad. She strode to the door and pressed her fingers over the biometric lock to open it. If the base went into lockdown mode, she didn’t want to be trapped in this room alone for hours or days. She wanted to be near Griffin. The door slid open.
Griffin was sitting on the floor, and surprise shook her. He rose to his feet, and her annoyance with him dissipated.
“Overhead activity,” she said.
“I saw the alert. Couldn’t get into the lab without you and the guard told me the most he’d allow was to let me wait out here. Until we know what’s happening, we should move somewhere safe. The guard left his post, likely to find out what is happening.”
“It could be friendly traffic,” she said. Her experiences in the past told her it was probable.
“I don’t want to wait around to find out,” Griffin said. This time he took her hand in his. She found comfort in his touch.
A shrill alarm sounded. The situation was escalating.
Chapter 12
Griffin pulled Kit toward the exit. “Come on.”
“Where are we going?” she asked. She didn’t have a plan. Their apartment wasn’t necessarily the best place to wait. They had little information to go on.
His face was intense, like it was every time they were in danger. “I have a plan.”
How could he think he wasn’t a good protector? He took the job seriously, and he was engaged in finding a safe place for her. Kit’s head spun. “We have to stay here. We can lock the door to the lab.” Panic was setting in. How close was the danger? Being in the lab with Griffin wasn’t as scary as being there alone.
“I’m not locking us in a room and waiting for someone to bomb their way in and then slaughter us.”
That sobering thought cut through her panic. “Lead the way.” She had trusted Griffin before, on many levels, and she would trust him now.
They fled the lab. Outside the building, the sky was dark and quiet. Had it been a false alarm? A test?
“I’m scared,” Kit said.
“I won’t let anything happen to you.” He touched the side of her face and pressed a kiss to her lips.
Her love for him and the trust she had in him swelled inside her. “I know you won’t.”
* * *
Griffin hadn’t liked this place from the day they’d arrived. The secret location and the lack of information had made his skin crawl. What was occurring? Did he want to know?
“We need supplies. We need the satellite phone. Connor will give us a straight answer,” Griffin said.
They ran toward their apartment. Griffin kept a backpack stocked with necessary items. If they were to survive in the wilderness for a time, he needed the bare minimum: a knife, striker and flint and a compass or his watch.
They hurried into the apartment, and Griffin grabbed his pack and his satellite phone.
Someone knocked on their door, and Griffin pointed to his bedroom. He didn’t want to be taken somewhere to wait. He wanted to be free to move around at his discretion. They ran into the bedroom and climbed out through the window.
They ran. Griffin and Kit found a place to hide in the jungle in sight of the base. His first call was to Connor.
“We heard a message that the base was investigating overhead activity, and now there seems to be panic all around us,” Griffin said.
He heard Kate’s voice in the background. “Let me find out what’s going on. Are you and Kit safe?” Connor asked.
“For now,” Griffin said. “We’re on our own, though.” As a West Company operative, he worked alone on many assignments. While he liked to assist others, he had learned not to rely on them. He could make faster, better decisions alone.
“Kate says she sees a boat moving toward the island. Not a United States vessel. And we see air traffic.”
“Where are we? I haven’t tracked our location on the sat phone,” Griffin said.
“Military base on an unmapped island off the coast of southern California,” Connor said. “The base sees the approaching vessel, too. They have alerts going out for sea and air support.”
“What’s my next move?” Griffin asked.
“Get Kit and yourself off that island,” Connor said. “If you can’t do that before you’re trapped, you’ll need a place to lie low and hide out. I’ll send an extraction team.”
“Ten-four,” Griffin said.
“We’ll message you as information becomes available,” Connor said.
Griffin disconnected the call. He had thoughts similar to Connor’s—either to run or wait for the crisis to pass. Griffin wasn’t a fool. He didn’t wait around for a problem to explode in his face. He knew where a few helicopters were stored, gassed and ready to fly. It would take time to get to the location, but the sooner he did, the better. He could avoid the air attacks and fly Kit to safety.
“Maybe it’s nothing. I don’t see anything,” Kit said. Her fingernails were digging into his arm. Some of the noise seemed to have subsided. The military on this island might react to every unknown or threat like DEFCON 1 due to the sensitive intel they were guarding.
A whistling sound cut through the air. Griffin reached for Kit, tucking her against him. That sound was too familiar. Ammunition was being fired, far enough from them to avoid the energy wave, close enough to see the fireball rise in the darkening sky.
This was not a drill. Drills didn’t involve live missiles.
The base was organizing. All the soldiers knew their roles and where they needed to be. Could they counter this attack? The nearest help could be an hour or more away.
A plane roared overhead and rained bombs down. Their target was likely buildings. The jungle was safer.
“The Locker. They’ll steal the rest of it,” Kit said.<
br />
“Doesn’t matter. What matters is your safety,” Griffin said.
Kit jerked away from him. “It does matter. If Incognito acquires a copy of the entire system, they’ll have access to every classified document the United States wants kept under wraps. We’re putting people at risk—CIA agents undercover, NSA operations overseas and black ops around the world.”
They needed to focus on the life-and-death situation in front of them—namely, Kit’s life. “We’ll worry about it later after we get ourselves out of here,” Griffin said.
Kit’s face was a mix of fear and resolve. “We’ll worry about it now. I need access to the underground shelter on the west side of the island.”
He didn’t know what she was talking about. “What’s there?”
“An access point to the Locker. I’ve been remoting into it from the lab. I figured out today that the island houses a piece of the Locker that’s running live. I can access it directly and maybe protect it.”
They’d have to run through the jungle to an inexact location to accomplish what she was proposing. “How fast can you work?”
He heard the rat-tat-tat of gunfire from the overhead planes and the retaliation from the ground. Shouting and blasts surrounded them. They could be caught in the middle of the attack. He hadn’t decided if he should throw her over his shoulder and force her off the island or let her work on the Locker from the access point. The Locker was likely housed in a secure area. Secure enough to provide shelter during this bombing?
In the dimness of the night, Griffin glimpsed several boats gliding through the water toward the island. More assailants would be on the shore in thirty minutes. The boats could launch their own attacks against the island. Where had Incognito gained access to boats and planes for a military-style attack? With enough money, anything could be bought, but Griffin hadn’t realized Incognito was that prosperous and well-connected.
“How did we not have warning about this?” Griffin asked.
