With quiet steps she opened the door to the bathroom off the bedroom Gabe said Andy sometimes used when he stayed there. This room and Brandon’s shared the same bath. Peeking through from one door to the other, she could see the one to Brandon’s room stayed open a crack. Her gaze zoomed past the opening to the lump in his bed. Thanks to the darkness she couldn’t make out much else.
Careful not to make noise or drop anything, she reached across the counter of the double sink. Her gaze stayed locked on the unmoving figure asleep in the bedroom, but she kept going. She snagged the toothbrush and dropped it in a plastic bag, replacing it with the new one. Same color and same type. She hoped he didn’t figure it out.
Sneaking back around the corner she made it into the empty bedroom without getting caught or having alarms flashing or sirens roaring. She rested her back against the nearest wall and let out a quiet sigh as she struggled to bring her breathing back under control.
She was partially done. With Brandon headed back to school tomorrow, she’d had a relatively small window within which to act when it came to getting something with his DNA. Collecting Gabe’s would be much easier.
Now to get back to her bedroom without being seen. She had no idea what kind of security Gabe had in the house. Well, some idea. She’d staked out the place earlier, checking for cameras and such. She knew what she could see, but he would be just paranoid enough to own some new technology that she couldn’t even pick out when looking at it.
She slid into the hallway and tiptoed back down toward her room. Right as her hand touched the doorknob she heard a sound. Turning around, she watched as Gabe’s door swung open.
With only seconds to make a decision, she pitched the closed bag into her room, hoping it landed somewhere easy for her to find and hard for Gabe to see. Frozen by the soft creak of the hinges, she stood there. Gabe appeared in the opening. Even in the low light from the rooms behind each of them she could make out his frown.
He took a few steps and got closer. That’s when she realized he wore only a pair of boxer briefs, and those were on kind of sideways with the seam running at an odd angle. The man clearly slept naked and rushed to put something on.
“Why are you up?” she asked, dreading what he might say.
“I heard a noise.” He rubbed his head. “Why are you walking around?”
She thought through every possible answer and decided to go with the true one. “I was hoping the offer to share that big bed was still open.”
She’d grown accustomed to sleeping by his side, to the noises he made. Being in a strange house, in a strange room had her on edge. So did her mystery project.
But he didn’t invite her in. Instead, he stood there watching her.
Finally, he held out his hand. “You should consider it a standing invitation.”
She was down the hall and by his side in two seconds. Forget the DNA test she planned to run and all the other barriers in their way. Forget climbing into bed without him. After that comment she doubted she’d ever be able to sleep again.
TWENTY
Andy walked into his office in the morning and came to a stop. Almost dropped his beloved coffee and the briefing file in his hand. There sat Rick, in the big chair with his feet up on the desk and arms folded behind his head. It was enough to make a guy want to reach for his gun. Andy refrained, but he did plan on firing someone for this. No one got in here without his permission, and Rick certainly did not have permission.
“Move.” The tone worked, because as soon as Andy barked out the word, Rick’s feet dropped to the floor. It took another minute and some glaring to get him up and on the right side of the desk.
Rick didn’t bother to sit down in the visitor’s chair. Just hovered at the edge of Andy’s desk. “As suspected, they left Montana.”
“And good morning to you.” Andy set his cup down. A guy should have at least five minutes of breathing room in the office before dealing with yelling. He planned to institute that rule right after he finished with the firing.
“They took off.”
So much for pleasant conversation. Since he knew who the “they” were and wanted this over before it became a scene, Andy answered. “Their plane crashed . . . or don’t you watch the news?”
“The subterfuge angle. Damn it, Gabe.” Rick started pacing. More like walking in circles as he muttered under his breath.
“He’s not even here and you’re swearing at him.”
This was new. Not the anger. Andy had witnessed more than enough of that in the MacIntosh family over the years. Something else plagued Rick. His normal detachment slipped.
“They’re definitely together. Very cozy,” Rick said, as he massaged his temples then stared at the floor.
Not a surprise to Andy. He’d seen the way Gabe looked at her, the way Natalie looked back. Heated and a bit uncomfortable to anyone watching, so Andy had tried not to. Just accepted that Gabe felt more than protective toward Natalie. But who knew what the hell was going on in Rick’s head. “Does that piss you off?”
He stopped stomping around and shot Andy a confused glance. “Why would it?”
The easy answer proved to be a little too easy in this case, so Andy let it drop. “Honestly, I’ve given up trying to read you.”
“I cared about her, you know.”
It took Andy’s brain a second to catch up. When he did the emotional shields slammed down and his hands came up. “No way.”
Rick frowned. “What?”
The last thing—absolute fucking last—Andy wanted to hear right now was some convoluted explanation for why Rick thought it made sense for him to poach from Gabe all those years ago. “You are not unloading on me. Whatever you have to say about Gabe’s ex, you say it to him.”
“I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
Hell, no. Andy sat back in his chair to keep from coming up out of it swinging. “Your dick just slipped? Admittedly, I don’t date women, but I know how the body parts function.”
“You’re not funny.”
He wasn’t trying to be. Andy wanted, no needed, for Rick to understand how his words made it all worse. Maybe then he’d stop with the same tired refrain and take some responsibility. “And you can’t sell this as a mistake.”
“I don’t see Brandon that way.” Rick’s voice flattened and his mouth pulled tight at the edges. While he fought and engaged in what amounted to just the newest round of posturing, he looked different. Haggard. Exhausted, as if he aged in rapid acceleration the more he stood there.
Andy refused to give credence to any of it. “Truth is you went after Gabe’s girlfriend, slept with her, lied to him and created a mess. You did that. Not him.”
“I didn’t force her.”
As if that was even up for debate. Andy knew where to place the blame, firmly on Linda and Rick. Both of them. Together, their actions created the black hole that sucked Gabe in. “Is that really your defense for screwing over your brother?”
“I’m stepping up and helping now. Isn’t that what you want to hear?” Rick came to the edge of the desk. Something new moved into his expression. A note of desperation, maybe?
Andy leveled the one thing that stood a chance at mending the breach. “Then drop the talk about the DNA test.”
“Would you?”
That one was too easy. “I would never be in this position.”
“Because you’re gay.”
Rick could really be a clueless jackass sometimes. Andy did not love this side of his big brother. Those blinders. The denial. “Because I would never go out of my way to hurt Gabe.”
Rick shook his head. “It wasn’t like that.”
“It looks exactly like that, or are you trying to say you were a twenty-something in love with a seventeen-year-old?” Andy picked up the file on the fake crash aftermath and started blindly paging through. He’d had enough of this conversation. Enough personal stuff for seven o’clock in the morning.
“I have an appointment with my clients.”
Rick leaned against the side of Andy’s desk, trapping a short stack of files under his thigh. “About this situation.”
This he could handle. Andy lowered the file to glance at Rick and gauge his sincerity. “You mean with the CIA assholes tracking Natalie.”
“I never actually admitted that was happening.” He shrugged. “Deniability.”
Right. There were limits to what he could share. Andy got it. He worked in this area as well, but he didn’t pretend to be stupid about reality. “Didn’t have to.”
“I’m trying to clear this up so she can get on with her life.” Rick’s voice dipped low and what little emotion remained in it vanished. “If that includes Gabe, fine.”
That was the least sounding “fine” Andy had ever heard. “You don’t sound too excited about that.”
“Do you think she’s his type?” Rick winced as if the words tasted bad in his mouth. “Linda was quiet and sweet.”
Talk about revisionist history. Andy had to bite back the smartass comment on his tongue. “And cheated on him.”
“Natalie is kind of . . .”
“No.” He shut this down. Had to, because if Gabe came back and heard Rick bad-mouthing Natalie, that battle they’d been promising each other would happen. Life would break out into a holy war with no survivors. “You might want to choose your words carefully.”
“Now you’re her defender, too?”
“I like her.” Andy thought about the words as he said them. They were true. Natalie had been dealt a shitty hand all around. She could have hid and played the victim but never did. He could see where Gabe might find that interesting.
“Why?”
“She’s tough and smart. She won’t take Gabe’s shit and can handle his moods and work demands.” Simple words but they worked here. “She’s not my type, of course, but I can appreciate a hot woman when I see one.”
“He needs someone who isn’t so damn difficult.”
That sounded exactly wrong to Andy. “See, it’s that type of comment that makes me think you don’t know Gabe all that well anymore.”
“Oh, really?” Rick stood up, full battle stance and sharp tone back in place.
Whatever had weighed him down when he walked into the office seemed to be gone. Andy hoped Rick hadn’t released the guilt, because he deserved to wallow in it a bit longer. He also owed Gabe an apology and Brandon a life that didn’t include doubts and huge changes.
But Andy went with the most obvious point, the one he thought he could sell. “What our brother needs is a challenge, someone who equals him. Pushes him.”
“Sounds exhausting to me.”
“And I bet he likes that, too.” Not that Andy wanted to spend one second thinking about what Gabe and Natalie did together in that department.
“What happened to the whole loner act?”
“Maybe he was just waiting for the right woman to wander along.” Worked as good as any explanation, but the truth probably had more to do with the work and the energy needed to raise Brandon alone and in safety.
Rick actually sneered. “Oh, come on.”
The men in this family needed some work on the romance front. Gabe was wounded and pretending not to be. Rick was . . . who the hell knew. And Andy had to admit that he still had a thing for a guy who had moved on. Fucking Eli.
“I guess we’ll know soon enough,” Andy said, because that was easier than launching into a statement about how they all sucked at this.
“Which brings me back to my point.” With each short sentence Rick banged his fist against the corner of the desk. “The men I work for do not like being threatened. Your fake plane crash worked to the extent that it convinced some she wasn’t looking to be out in the open, causing trouble. Others remain skeptical. Those two factions are fighting it out right now.”
“I’m pretty proud of that operation.” He’d never staged something so elaborate in so little time. The number of moving pieces was staggering, but the photographs and press coverage impressed him.
“Just knowing Natalie is out there and has damaging information on them is making those last few doubting holdouts twitchy. They should back off but there are contingency plans in place for another course of action.”
The men she once worked for continued to underestimate her. Andy had no idea how that was possible. “Do they want her to release the intel?”
“I think they’re trying to figure out how to find it before she can. They view this as a race.”
No way. But that meant it was up to Rick to convince them otherwise before someone did something really stupid. “You said you were doing this for Gabe.”
Rick shrugged. “Yeah, so?”
“Handle it.” When Rick just sat there, Andy doled out a bit of truth. “Redemption is a bitch.”
• • •
Gabe couldn’t put his finger on what he enjoyed more, watching Brandon settle in at home and eat everything in sight or the look of horror on Natalie’s face as she watched it happen. Either way a feeling of calmness settled over him. This, them together, struck him as right. Not really a guy to seek out or depend on comfort, he appreciated it all the more when it blanketed him without warning.
Natalie inched closer to the opposite side of the counter from Brandon with every mouthful he swallowed. He stood over the sink, not even bothering with a plate as he feasted on a piece of chicken. He held a napkin and ate with a bit less than his usual gusto, so Gabe let it go. He picked his battles, and a chicken leg wasn’t one of them.
She put her palms on the edge of the counter and rested a foot on the bottom bar of the stool next to her. The move pulled her slim jeans tight across her ass. Gabe tried not to notice but his gaze kept bouncing. He had eyes and a functioning dick. No way could he ignore the way she looked, all casual and cozy, in his house. Made him extra happy he’d asked for her sizes before hunting down clothes for her for the Montana trip.
“You eat enough for three grown men,” she said with more than a little awe in her voice.
Brandon took the time to wipe his face and finish chewing before answering. “You sound like Dad.”
“He drinks a gallon of milk every three days.” Gabe’s grocery budget expanded and groaned every time the kid came home.
Natalie kept frowning. “Maybe we should check him for a tapeworm.”
“Wait, what?” Brandon froze as he stood locked in a staring contest with her. “How would you do that?”
“You don’t want to know.” But Gabe was pretty tempted to explain how it all worked just to see Brandon’s face.
Brandon dropped the chicken leg. “Sounds gross. I’ll pass.”
Damn, he missed his kid. The semester had only started a few months ago, but that didn’t matter to Gabe. Not having Brandon around after having him underfoot for so long tugged at him.
He’d thought he’d be the tough dad who appreciated his son’s maturity and let that satisfaction be enough. Instead, he’d spent every night of the first week sitting on Brandon’s bed glancing around the room. Pathetic stuff but Gabe didn’t fight it. Brandon meant everything.
“You sure you don’t want me to drive you back to school?” Gabe didn’t mind, and Natalie might like the diversion of mindless sightseeing through the countryside and being on the move might be safer for her than being still.
“Nah, my friends are coming through.” Brandon didn’t even look up as he dropped his backpack on the counter and started loading it with boxes of crackers and protein bars.
Natalie glanced over her shoulder at Gabe. “They come here?”
“No.” Not until he checked them out and knew they were safe. None of these kids rose to that level yet.
Brandon headed for the pantry. “Not even close.”
“So, we just drop him off on the side of the road somewhere?” That judgment moved back into her voice.
Gabe decided to ignore it. “Tempting, but there’s a cabin.”
She rolled her eyes. “Of course there is.”
&n
bsp; Gabe knew she thought about the one in Montana with the homemade water heater, but this was not that. The structure functioned as a guardhouse of sorts but didn’t look like one. Two floors and two bedrooms. Where he and Brandon lived while the main house was being built. The same place Andy tried to claim before Gabe set it up as a security feature.
“It sits on a plot of land and looks like that’s it. Just the house and some yard.” A place with sentimental value. Watching Brandon move around the kitchen, acting as if it were a grocery store, the memories hit Gabe. “We take him there and wait. If everything looks fine, he goes, but he carries a tracker and some other things on him at all times.”
Natalie smiled. “How very covert of you.”
“You’re not the only one with training.”
Brandon’s hand dropped to his side, the water bottle in his palm all but forgotten as he stared at Natalie. “Wait, you’re an Army sniper, too?”
She snorted. “Lord, no.”
That seemed like a bit much to Gabe. “I’m going to pretend you didn’t sound appalled by that possibility.”
“I used to work in intelligence.”
Brandon’s eyes grew wide and stayed there. “Computers?”
They’d be at this for hours, going round and round. Gabe cut it off with a simple comment. “Spy shit.”
“Gabe—”
“Cool.” Brandon made the word last for three syllables. A new expression crossed his face. A mix of respect and curiosity.
Gabe couldn’t blame his son. He felt the same way every time he looked at her, which was about every two seconds. His usual I’ve-got-this reserve slipped around her.
Seeing her in the hallway last night had almost done him in. Took every last ounce of control he had not to scoop her up and drop her on his bed. Instead, he went with holding her. The cuddling thing was new to him, but he didn’t hate it.
“Brandon learned long ago not to use my job or the jobs of some of our friends and family to impress his friends.” Gabe meant it as much as a hint to Natalie as a reminder to Brandon that dads remembered every last thing.
She picked up on something, because she turned back to Brandon with a look of curiosity that rivaled his. “What did you do?”
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