Lights Out

by Andersen, Jessica

  Each of them had grown stronger and gotten better, because of Liam’s revenge.

  At the thought, Ty glanced down at his hand, which was still joined with Gabby’s, then up to her face, which was tipped up to his in inquiry, as if she, too, was wondering where they were supposed to go from there.

  He couldn’t believe he’d fallen so hard so fast, but he supposed it wasn’t really that fast. They’d been working up to it for more than five months. Some of what each of them had written might have been lies, but the emotions had been true.

  “Gabby,” he began, turning to face her. “I—”

  “Jones!” SAC Epps barked. He strode out of the small maintenance room, jogged down the stairs and joined the group in the road.

  Epps scowled at Ty, but then shot an uneasy look that included Shane, Chase and Ethan. The four members of Eclipse formed an imposing unit, and Ty was aware that they were the subject of several rumors more or less based on fact.

  No doubt that was why Epps’s voice bordered on conciliatory when he said, “Glad you’re alive. We’ll talk about you shooting Ledbetter after you’ve been debriefed. Nice job getting Patriot away from that bastard alive.”

  Once, that had been Ty’s only goal. Now he growled, “Do you have him secured?”

  Epps’s scowl deepened. “Of course. We got your message and arrived to find him trying to get a motorcycle started outside the tunnel. He put up a bit of a fight, tried to get away. Must’ve gotten confused and thought we were working with that guy back there.” He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

  Ty tensed, but he knew now wasn’t the time to defend Liam or defame the vice president.

  The time for that would come later, but he damn well intended to fulfill his promise.

  Grant Davis was done in politics, starting now, and if Ty had anything to say about it, he’d be doing some time behind bars, as well.

  “Miss…Solaro, is it?” Epps said, switching his scowl in her direction. “I have agents waiting to escort you home so you can get cleaned up and change. After that, Agent Wilder will escort you to our field office for debriefing.”

  “You keep Wilder.” Ty stepped partway in front of Gabby. “I’ll be in charge of escorting Miss Solaro, and I’ll damn well sit in on her debriefing. Just try and stop me.”

  But Ethan touched Ty’s arm, pulled him aside and said under his breath, “We’re supposed to be wheels-up within the hour. Dana’s going over Epps’s head to get you cleared from the debriefing. We’re headed to the desert, back to those caves we hit a few months ago. The rebels killed a family at the embassy, then took hostages. Dana says it’s bad.”

  And if Eclipse’s seen-it-all Pentagon contact said it was bad, then it was bad.

  Ty’s gut knotted and he glanced back over to Gabby, only to find her watching him, her expression unreadable. He said to Ethan, “I don’t think I should—”

  “Go,” she said firmly, loudly enough to bring Epps’s head up. “I’ll be fine.”

  Ty shook his head and grimaced at Ethan. “No. I can’t. I need to start making different choices, beginning now. Gabby needs me. I’m staying.”

  “Excuse us.” Gabby took his arm and pulled him aside, gesturing for him to find someplace private. When they’d reached the edge of the gathered rescue vehicles and stopped, Gabby turned to face him, her expression pensive.

  “Don’t worry,” he said before she could speak. “I’ll tell them I can’t go, that you need me here to go over what happened with Liam and Grant Davis. You won’t have to go through this alone.”

  Instead of looking relieved, she shook her head. “Let it go, Tyler. I’m not Mandy.”

  The name hit him like a fist to the throat, followed by a punch of anger. He lowered his voice. “I never thought you were.”

  “But that’s how you’re acting,” she countered. “If you’d stayed home that night, you might’ve been able to get her to the hospital in time. Maybe. But you weren’t and she didn’t, and that’s the awful truth.” She shook her head, seeming to withdraw behind an invisible barrier separating them. “But it doesn’t mean you need to stay for me.”

  “It’s not a problem.” He took her hands in his and stroked his thumb across one of her wrists, trying to soothe her. “I’ll stay.”

  She looked at him for a long moment before she said. “I’m not asking you to stay.” She paused. “In fact, I’m telling you to go. Please. Just go.”

  The world went still around him. Sound and motion and touch ceased to exist as he waited for her to take the words back, to say she hadn’t meant them. But just like that final goodbye e-mail, when she’d said they wanted very different things, her words now held the ring of certainty, of immovable, granite belief.

  “Go,” she said softly. “I’ll be fine without you. I promise.”

  After a long, shuddering moment, he did exactly that. He turned away and left her standing at the end of the action.

  He turned back. “Gabby?”

  She only smiled and stood there as though the past six hours hadn’t meant anything to her.

  As he watched, rosy light spilled through the far end of the tunnel, silhouetting her against the dawn. It was the beginning of a new day.

  And, apparently, the end of something wonderful that never had a chance.

  Chapter 13

  Gabby sweetheart, I know you think this can’t possibly work and we should just call it quits. So, logically, what’s the downside to meeting in person? I’m in Boston for the night and the Big Guy’s meetings were canceled because of the blackout. Meet me at ten o’clock tonight. Please. Anywhere. You pick it and I’ll be there, even if I have to fight the entire National Guard to reach you.

  Love, Ty.

  [Sent by TyJ; Aug 2, 8:30:07 p.m.]

  9:55 p.m., August 20 Ty stood in the shadows outside Zia Maria’s, a small restaurant in Boston’s North End, wishing like hell he were somewhere else.

  Strategically placed floodlights broke the darkness and lit Hanover Street, casting warm shadows for pedestrians to pass through as they walked in the balmy summer air. Nearby, a couple walked hand in hand, the woman tipping her head against the man’s shoulder as he laughed aloud.

  The scene and setting should have been almost painfully romantic. Instead, it gathered a hard knot of nerves in Ty’s gut. He hated the idea of meeting the others here, in the restaurant run by Gabby’s best friend, when things remained so unsettled between them. But it had been Ethan’s call, Ethan’s invitation, a command performance for the members of Eclipse and their new families to meet in person for the first time since the blackout.

  Ty didn’t know how Ethan had come to choose Zia Maria’s. Ethan had ducked the question when asked, but he’d made it clear the dinner was nonnegotiable. There was business to discuss, he’d said. Serious business.

  So Ty had finished up another round of interviews with the task force investigating the now ex-vice president’s improprieties and drove up from D.C., his emotions in turmoil. He was in Gabby’s hometown, no more than a few blocks away from her apartment, but he wasn’t even sure he was going to see her.

  She’d been evasive, refusing to commit to a meeting via e-mail or phone, dodging each time he’d pressed, just as she’d been doing in the weeks since he’d taken off for the Middle East, leaving her to handle the Grant Davis fallout on her own.

  She’d told him, repeatedly, that she hadn’t minded, but if that were the case, why wouldn’t she see him?

  “You going to stand out here all night?” a familiar voice said from behind Ty, interrupting his thoughts.

  He turned and forced an easy grin. “Hey, Chase. I was just checking out the menu.” Ignoring his teammate’s snort, he nodded to the petite woman at Chase’s side, who had a profusion of red curls sprouting from her head—Little Orphan Annie all grown up and turned into a tiny dynamo of a bombshell. An even tinier bombshell rested in the crook of her arm, looking like a feminized version of Chase, but with her mother’s snub nose and dev
ilish smile. “You’d be Lily, then. Congratulations on the engagement. And the little one, of course.”

  Lily leaned into her fiancé with a secretive, satisfied smile and offered her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Ty. I’ve heard a great deal about you.”

  Ty mocked a groan. “I can only imagine.” He waved toward the restaurant. “Shall we?”

  The others were waiting inside—Shane with Princess Ariana, Ethan with his wife, Rebecca, and their son, Jesse, all apparently recovered from the harrowing experience Liam and his sons had put them through. Ty nodded and smiled and joked with his teammates, keeping up a front of normalcy, while his insides churned. He should’ve gone to Gabby’s house and pounded on the door until she let him in, despite what she’d said. She should be here with him right now, at his side, forming a unit, a couple.

  But she’d said that even though she loved him, she wasn’t ready for that. He feared she’d meant he wasn’t ready, but he was. Mandy had been gone nearly eight years, and it was time for him to start living again, to start loving again.

  If only he could get Gabby to sit down and talk to him long enough to make her believe.

  “What do you think, Ty?” Ethan said.

  When he looked up and found the others staring at him expectantly, he shook his head. “I’m sorry, I was—” He broke off. What exactly was he doing? This was ridiculous. He pushed his drink aside and stood. “I’m going to step out for a minute. There’s something I have to take care of.”

  “Sit,” Ethan waved him back. “We need you for a vote. I want to add a new member to the group.”

  “What?” Ty dropped back into his chair without thinking, not sure which part surprised him the most—that Ethan was actually talking about adding a fifth member to Eclipse, or that they were discussing it over breadsticks in an Italian restaurant, with their significant others present.

  Then again, he supposed, each of them had been touched by what it meant to be a member of Eclipse—the danger of it, the excitement—and had been forced to acknowledge what those things could mean to the women in their lives.

  To Ty that had been a hell of a lesson, which was why he said, “Actually, you may not want me voting on this one. I’ve been thinking of retiring.”

  “Of course we want you to vote,” Ethan said as though he hadn’t heard the R word. “But I want everyone to get a chance to meet her first.”

  “Her?” Ty frowned. “You’re bringing Dana into the field? I know we talked about it before, but—” He broke off as the door swung inward and a knockout walked into Zia Maria’s.

  Her fiery chestnut hair was cut in a sassy bob that swung near her shoulders and sent the natural waves into an energetic halo. Deft makeup accented her high-boned cheeks and full lips, and dusky rose-colored sunglasses perched on her nose, even though it was nighttime. Her killer curves shouted from inside a pair of low-cut jeans and a soft suede jacket, with a glimpse of firm stomach showing when she turned and said something to the olive-skinned young Romeo manning the front. The maître d’ tipped back his head and laughed outright before turning and gesturing to the table where Ty and the others waited.

  The knockout turned and strode across the restaurant with a loose, confident stride that added a sexy wiggle to the whole package. It took Ty a moment to notice the pitch-black German shepherd at her side. The glossy-coated animal strode with equally loose strides, its triangular ears pricked and a look of intense concentration on its canine face.

  Gabby. Ty didn’t say her name out loud—at least he didn’t think he had—but she came directly to him, her expression lighting with pleasure, and a glint of the devil.

  “Hello, Ty.” She touched his arm lightly, orienting herself, and leaned up on tiptoe to brush her lips against his cheek. “Surprise.” Then she smiled at the others. “Everyone else here?”

  “Waiting on you.” With Ty frozen in place, Ethan rose and pulled out a chair for Gabby, then made a round of introductions that made it clear this wasn’t the first time she’d met the women. Gabby and Rebecca seemed particularly tight, with Gabby winking at the other woman. “Thanks for recommending that salon on Newbury Street.” She touched her hair lightly. “I was ready for a change.”

  “Apparently more than one.” Ty shook his head, trying to clear it. When that didn’t work he said, “Gabby? What’s going on here?” He looked around the table. “Chase? Shane? You knew about this?”

  She took his hand and tugged him down to his chair after making sure her guide dog was safely off to one side. “Don’t be mad, Ty. I swore them to silence. I wanted—” she broke off and corrected herself “—I needed to get to this point by myself. I had to find a happy medium between the teenage terror I’d been and the insecure woman I’d become. I couldn’t let you do that for me. I needed the space to figure it out on my own.”

  Ignoring the others, and the sight of Maria’s dark head peeking out from around the kitchen door as she blatantly eavesdropped, Ty said, “Then you weren’t mad that I left?”

  She laughed. “Mad? As I remember it, I practically had to load you on the plane myself.” Leaning in, she framed his face in her hands. “I don’t want you to take care of me. I want you to share things with me. I want us to back each other up.”

  “Please tell me you’re not talking about working in the field.” The thing was, he could almost see it, and the idea sent a chill of fear, a thrill of excitement through him.

  “Not exactly.” She flexed her fingers onto an imaginary keyboard and pantomimed typing. “I’m going to be your computer backup. I can run searches with the best of them, and, as you can attest, I can hack into just about any database there is. Which is what got me into this mess in the first place.” But her tone was light, teasing, inviting him to join in on the fun. “I might even work with Shane to design a few gadgets for his security company.”

  “That’s…” Perfect, Ty realized. She’d be exactly the sort of centralized info-gatherer they’d needed more than a few times on assignment, and from the new sparkle in her eye, she’d found just the adventure she’d been looking for. But where did that leave them?

  “I vote in favor of the new member,” he said, standing and reaching a hand down for Gabby. “And now we’re leaving.”

  Ignoring Ethan’s blatant grin, Ty hustled Gabby out of the restaurant, doing his damnedest not to get tangled in the leash when her startled dog leaped up and tried to guide her, only to find Ty in the way. He was close to cursing by the time he got her outside, into the dark of night. He turned and marched them down the street nearly a block before he stopped and turned to her. “Why didn’t you tell me you’d been talking to Ethan about working for Eclipse?” He paused. “Strike that. Why have you been avoiding me?”

  For the first time since she’d walked in the restaurant door, her new gleam of confidence faltered. She dropped a hand to trail her fingertips over the dog’s head. “I needed to figure out who I am, Ty. I couldn’t do that with you around. You would’ve tried to fix too many things for me. I had to do it myself.”

  “And now?”

  She lifted her hand, touched her new haircut and smiled a soft, feminine smile. “I’m getting there. I like myself. I like the direction I’m headed.” She took a deep breath. “If we were still just online friends, I’d be ready to meet you in person. As it is, I’m ready to…” She trailed off, fidgeted with her hair and finally let her hand drop, so she was standing open and accessible. “Did you mean what you said back in the tunnel? More important, do you still feel that way?”

  The sudden flare of nerves in her pale eyes gave him all the answer he needed. All the confidence in the world, and the belief that this time he wouldn’t mess it up. He was different now. She was different.

  Together, they were different.

  He took a single step, closing the gap between them as pedestrians strolling Hanover Street eddied around them. “Are you asking if I still love you? How about you tell me first?”

  She took a deep
breath, caught her full lower lip between her teeth and then whispered, “I love you, Ty Jones.”

  Those five small but so important words unfurled hope within him. Joy bloomed. Relief.

  Love.

  He dropped his forehead to touch hers and exhaled. “I love you back, Gabriella Solaro. We may have gotten here in a pretty unorthodox way, but I promise you I’ll do everything in my power to get it right from here on out. No more tricks, no more lies.”

  She laughed and leaned into him. “I think that’s something we can both promise.”

  He eased in for a kiss, and the hard, hurting ball that’d been lodged in his chest for the past few weeks dissolved in a rush of warmth and anticipation. Not caring that they were in the middle of the sidewalk, he wrapped his arms around her and held her as tightly as he could, as tightly as he dared, then tighter still as he kissed her again.

  The dog barked and nudged him, and Gabby pulled away to laugh. “This is Fawn, by the way.”

  “Nice to meet you, Fawn. Let’s go for a ride.” He held his hand down for the guide dog to sniff, then took Gabby’s arm and urged her across the sidewalk. He guided Gabby to the vehicle he’d meter-parked a block down from Zia Maria’s.

  When Gabby felt the edge of the T-top, she threw her head back and laughed aloud. “You didn’t!”

  “I sure did.” He slid an arm around her waist and lowered his voice to a growl. “I promise we can go as fast as you like, and then some.”

  She leaned into him, looked up at him with a devilish light in her eyes. “Does this mean you’re glad I finally agreed to meet you in person?”

  “It means I don’t intend to ever let you go again,” he said, suddenly serious. “And I want you to promise me something. I’m going to quit the Secret Service and do something that requires less travel. I can work with Shane, maybe, or Ethan. But if I’m staying with Eclipse, jobs are going to come up on short notice. I need you to promise me that you’ll tell me if you need me to stay home. Ever.”