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“Are you okay?” He encircled her wrist with his fingers. “Do you need to sit down for a minute?”
“I’d rather get out of here.” She jerked her thumb at the mess on the bed. “We can leave that.”
“Wait.” He strode across the room, shoveled Marten’s things back into the suitcase, zipped it up and placed it in the corner. “Let’s go.” When they got to the elevator, Joe looked over his shoulder. “Too bad we didn’t notice that camera before you literally looked into its lens. We could’ve pretended we didn’t see it and I could’ve waited for the person who planted it.”
Hailey punched the elevator button three times. “Too late for that now?”
“They know we saw the camera. They lost their element of surprise—and so did we.” When the elevator opened onto the lobby, Joe dropped the device into a trash can. “Hope they like looking at garbage.”
* * *
TWENTY MINUTES LATER, Hailey let the Jag idle at a stoplight. She flexed her fingers on the steering wheel. “Joe, would you mind spending the night at my place tonight? I—This isn’t a come-on or anything. It’s just after what happened to Ayala and finding that camera... I don’t want to be in that big house by myself—security system or not.”
“Do you have an extra toothbrush?”
“Tons.”
“Then I’m your man.”
Oh, she was beginning to believe that.
“Great.” She punched the accelerator and the car leaped forward—pretty accurately mimicking her heart.
On the way to Pacific Heights, Joe theorized about the hidden camera and what Marten’s key unlocked, but all Hailey could hear was I’m your man.
If only Joe meant it the way she felt it. She could be confusing Joe’s natural protectiveness for genuine tenderness, but the way he touched her went above and beyond. Then he’d catch himself and draw back—except for tonight.
For all she knew, they could get to her place and he’d take up his post across the street again...after brushing his teeth with one of her many toothbrushes.
She drove into the driveway and opened the garage door. She pulled into the three-car garage that housed her father’s ’66 Thunderbird and her stepmother’s Range Rover.
Joe whistled. “Now, that’s a car.”
“You can take it for a spin if you like.” Hailey cut the engine and pressed her lips together. Did that sound like she was trying to bribe him?
“That would be the type of car I’d like to take on Highway 1 down to Big Sur.”
“You’ve taken that drive before?”
“Not in a classic T-Bird.”
Hailey stepped from the car and waved toward the open garage door. “We have to go back outside and through the front door. There’s no connection from the garage to the house.”
“I’m disappointed. I would’ve expected a car elevator.”
She snapped and pointed her finger at him. “I’ll have my dad get right on that.”
She entered the code on the side of the garage door frame and turned away.
Joe caught her arm. “Don’t you stay to make sure nobody sneaks into the garage while the door is closing?”
“If someone did that, it would trigger the garage door to go up again.”
“You—” he touched a finger to her nose “—need to be more careful and aware of your surroundings. You think you’re safe just because you’re in San Francisco instead of Syria?”
“I know I’m not safe here anymore.” She waited until the garage door settled and spun around again. “And maybe if I’d been more alert in Syria, I would’ve suspected that the people who kidnapped us wouldn’t have been willing to just let us go. We should’ve known they weren’t done with us.”
“If anyone should’ve been suspicious, it was Siddiqi. He’s a guide in the area, for God’s sake. He should’ve known the drill.”
Hailey stopped on the bottom step and twirled around to face Joe, almost meeting him eye to eye. “Get off that idea. Naraj didn’t set us up. In fact, maybe he’s in danger, too. I should ask Agent Porter to request a check on him.”
