Page 46 of Booked for Kidnapping

Double busted. “I do not want to be rejected right now, Bradley.”

He reached over and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “We’re not going to reject you. It’ll work out, you’ll see. Now, settle in and get some sleep. If you need me, wake me up. If you need to be close, we won’t tell a soul if you end up crawling into bed with us. And if you want me to crawl into bed with you, I’m game.”

I scooted towards the other edge of the bed. “Save yourself having to change beds, and for the sake of my pride, maintain silence. We never speak of this ever again.”

“I won’t say a word,” he promised. “I’m going to take a quick shower, and then I’ll be back. Dad’ll be nearby if you need him, all right?”

“Bubble baths are better than showers.”

He laughed. “Would it make you happy if I took a bubble bath?”

“Only if you’re relaxing with a book.”

“I have your e-reader, and it’s waterproof. I’m sure there’s at least one good book on there,” he teased. “But I shall do as you wish and take a bubble bath with a book and relax for a while. I’ll even turn on the jets and the heaters and be properly spoiled.”

“We have a jet tub in here?”

“Fortune smiled upon us. This is a nice hotel, and I was willing to pay for a good room,” Bradley’s father said, and he laughed. “You want to take a bubble bath now, too, don’t you?”

“Yes,” I groaned, worming out from under the blanket and swinging my legs off the bed. I got up, leaned over, and grabbed Bradley’s hand before marching in the direction of the bathroom, dragging him along with me, although he didn’t put up a fight. He held me back long enough to grab my big purse, which had survived as promised. “Don’t wait up for us, Mr. Hampton.”

“I think I will enjoy a book and get some sleep. Just keep your bathtub adventures quiet. Bradley, if she takes a nap in the tub, make sure she doesn’t drown, get her into her pajamas, and tuck her in. There is birth control in your purse should you decide to indulge. Just keep that portion of your adventure quiet. I’m an old man with a weak heart.”

I halted, turned, and narrowed my eyes. “Do I need to do some work on you?”

“I’ve been seeing doctors appropriately, but you can satisfy yourself with a proper checkup after you’ve gotten sufficient sleep. So, yes you do, but it can wait. I have my medication, and I’m taking care.” Mr. Hampton got up, went to his briefcase, and pulled out an e-reader. “Have a good time, kids.”

I planned on it.

Bradley had gotten himself an e-reader just like mine, and while we shed our clothes and shared a tub, I limited my display of interest in his person to snuggling close to his side while browsing my digital book collection. As I’d always expected, a lean man lurked beneath his clothes, and I looked forward to exploring him when exhaustion didn’t weigh me down. I’d grown so accustomed to medical staff seeing me in various stages of undress I’d forgotten how to be embarrassed without a thin barrier of clothes blocking his view of me.

Sometime after settling in with an old-fashioned western, I glanced up from my book and asked, “Have I ruined bikinis for you yet? We did that slightly out of order.”

“Bikinis are mysterious, and just because I’ve seen you naked does not mean the allure of a bikini has been ruined,” he replied without looking up from his book. “And right now, our clothing is in bubble format. I’m waiting for you to fall asleep so I can dry you off, wrangle you into your pajamas, and tuck you into bed. I have a slight advantage. I caught a nap on the plane. I figured rather than indulging in anxiety and apprehension, I would catch a few winks in case you were actually there. And look, you were. I’m surprised your mother was as laid back as she was, though.”

“Me, too. Your dad made it sound like she was really miffed with me.”

“Well, that’s the impression I was under, too. I’m thinking she was more miffed with me for not dragging you back home sooner.”

I would need to have a talk with my mother to make certain she didn’t actually have a problem with Bradley. “Well, it’s certainly not your fault. I did go to a dinner meeting with a senator. I invited trouble. I do deserve to be yelled at a little for that.”

“There are things I’d rather be doing than yelling at you over doing your job. I’m sure I’ll be able to come up with something mutually beneficial, which will require we delve into the dark depths of your purse for the birth control our parents have been squirreling away in there. Also, I’m pretty sure there are more condoms than any one couple needs at one time in that thing. Considering I located your stash of various adult entertainment products under the bed, I think we’re covered across the board. I didn’t have the heart to tell our parents we already had a healthy supply of condoms.”

I giggled at the thought of our parents trying to send a hint about what they wanted us to be doing. “They’ve been putting condoms and birth control in my purse?”

“Yep. Since most of your guns are locked up at home, I think they wanted to fill the space with something else. I did manage to get Lenard to give me Prejudice. She’s in your purse. We even did all of her paperwork to get her into cargo on the plane, and when we arrived, we made sure she was in a locked case so we stayed legal until back in your possession. I have your Federal license with us; everyone who qualified was issued a permit. The cell laws override most state rules on concealed carry, so you’ll be able to keep her with you. I just couldn’t carry your gun on the plane.”

“That implies you could carry your gun on the plane.”

“It’s one of the perks of being in a cell. One of the downsides of being in a cell is that we can be recruited by law enforcement if needed. My mother got certain upgrades on our cell. Now that you’re back, we’ll be able to make use of them.”

“Upgrades? What upgrades?”

“The Federal concealed carry permit is one of them. It’s basically a fancy license that informs the states that they can’t charge us for having concealed weapons if we’re working. We’re currently listed as actively working on a case with jurisdiction in all states and US territories. That was issued after your kidnapping. We can also work with the FBI and local law enforcement if we think we might be onto a hot lead. Right now, we’re paper shuffling. We got access to the full files of the shootings a few weeks ago, so Beatrice and Mickey are working on making sense of it all. Once they’ve gone through everything, we’ll start at the very beginning and do a top to bottom of financials, the murder locations, and so on.”

“Wait, you got full access to the FBI’s files on the shootings?” Senator Westonhaus’s warnings stirred in my memories, and for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how it would benefit the government to give us more intel if they were behind the killings. “You have the financials of the victims?”

“Yeah, that one surprised me, too. Ultimately, the FBI is involved with the regulation of the cells, and they can opt to treat a cell as an unconventional group of agents, offering additional privileges. Since we check off so many of the general boxes for qualifications, we got upgraded. It also means the FBI might hand us cases they can’t investigate on their own. We’re supposed to handle one such case a year. We did one already.”