Page 35 of Knight Watch

Chapter Fifteen

Sydney woke from a dead sleep,her eyes flying open from a dream as the answer came to her. She knew what the key was for. Excitement tinged her belly as she remembered, the thrill of the chase burning her blood. She slid from beneath Kingsley’s heavy arm across her belly and reached for the key she had set on the nightstand beside the clock. It was six pm she noted as she picked up the key and turned it over in her hand.

“Syd.” Kingsley’s voice came to her ears and she twisted to see him on one elbow in the bed looking sexier than sin in a tousled way that stylists the world over spent hours trying to recreate.

“I remembered, Kingsley. I know what this key is for.” She knew she sounded hurried and excited.

“You do?” His grin widened as he reached for her, stopping short of touching her. Allowing her to move to him but not demanding it. She crawled across the bed to him, curling into the crook between his bent legs and torso as he curled his arm around her waist in a light hold.

“It’s from an old textile mill. See!” She shoved the key at him so he could see it. The key had the name Milton on it and was hard to see unless you knew to look for it.

“And this key is for a mill?” His voice was alert now but still soft when he looked at her.

“Yes, I had completely forgotten about it. My mom’s great grandfather owned it, but it was run down. He had left it to one of my grandmother’s cousins. My mom took me a few times. Apparently when she was young, she and my aunt would play there.”

“Looks like we have our next clue. Get dressed, and I’ll contact the team and update them on where to go. Write the address down.” She went to roll away to do as he bid, but he stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Earlier, what happened between us…” he started, and she stilled at the rejection she expected. “It meant something. It meant a lot. I don’t know what the future holds, Sydney, but I know I want you in it.”

Sydney was shocked by his words. Braced for the worst when the sweetness that was Kingsley flowed over her, she was unprepared for it. “Kingsley.” She lifted a hand to cup his face.

“You don’t have to answer, but I want you to know where I stand.”

Sydney remained silent processing what he had said, wondering if she was brave enough to take a leap with this man who, in a few days, had come to mean so much to her. “Thank you for telling me.” Her voice was but a whisper and she touched her mouth to his.

“You’re welcome.” His grin went all the way to his eyes.

They got ready in comfortable silence. Kingsley contacted the team while she dressed and then made sure the room was clear while she snagged her hair into a ponytail.

As soon as they walked outside he tucked her into his side, his arm around her, his eyes on their surroundings as he went into full-on protection mode. They made it to the car and silently he helped her into the passenger’s seat and then climbed in the driver’s side.

The drive to the rendezvous point with the team was uneventful and any other time would have been pleasant if it wasn’t for the memory of her uncle’s poison still festering under her skin. Sydney refused to allow it taint what was happening with her and Kingsley, and mercilessly pushed it back.

Kingsley pulled up a mile from the mill on an old, dirt track. He’d left the engine running but muted the headlights. The mill’s surroundings had been industrial at one time or another, but the town seemed to have moved all its factories to the other side of town closer to the highway. Now all that was left were memories and derelict, or near-derelict, buildings. It made Sydney sad thinking about it. Life had forgotten what these businesses had done for families in days gone by.

“What’s up, Syd?” Kingsley glanced at her in the near dark.

“Just thinking about these buildings and everything they meant for towns like this has been forgotten. It’s sad that they are left like this, once big cogs in the industrial wheel and now reduced to broken windows and rotting wood.” For so long she had guarded her inner thoughts not wanting anything to make her vulnerable, but now she aired them knowing Kingsley would keep them safe.

“It is sad, and you see so much of it, not just here but in the UK and around the world. We build, and then we lose interest and move on. Big companies should be forced to utilize places like this or restore them. Sell them to families at a reduced cost so they could build cheap homes and a future for their kids.”

She heard the truth in his words and thought about what he’d said. Kingsley was a man who cared—about people, about the world he lived in, and wanted to make it better. “Why did you join the military?”

“I wasn’t much good at anything academic. Honestly, I joined because my brother couldn’t.”

“You have a brother?”

“Had. He died when he was nineteen. He caught adolescent meningitis at Uni. He was doing his degree to join the RAF as an Air Operations Officer. He thought it was the flu and kept ignoring it. His roommate found him and called the ambulance, but it was too late and he died of sepsis.”

“Oh, Kingsley, I’m so sorry.” Her heart broke from the emotion in his voice.

“Me too. He was the best older brother. There were four years between us, and I worshiped him. I decided if he couldn’t see the world in the military, I would do it for both of us. My mom took his death hard, but she was the proudest woman there when I graduated from the Royal Navy.”

She touched his hand with hers. “I bet she was. Thank you for telling me.”

He linked his fingers with hers and kissed her hand. “I like sharing with you.”

Her belly did a little flip at the sweetness in his voice. She had no time to respond as out of the darkness, shadows began to descend on the car. Her body tensed and she almost stopped breathing.

“It’s okay, it’s our guys.” He exited the vehicle, and she followed suit.

“Hey, Sydney.” Caitlin smiled at her, Killian, her faithful dog like a black shadow at her side. The sight made her go from terrified to relaxed in seconds. James and two other men she hadn’t met were there too. Kingsley moved closer to her, his arm going around her back in a proprietary way nobody would miss as he quickly introduced her to the new men. She found she liked it. “Sydney, this is Cain Davis and Mason Bentley. Cain’s former ATF. Mason worked with SO14, which is the UK’s Royal Protection Unit, before moving to the US and joining the Secret Service.”

Sydney smiled at the newcomers and shook their extended hands. “Nice to meet you.”

“Any word?” Kingsley took a comm unit and extra clip for his gun that Mason handed him.

“No, they’ve been maintaining complete radio silence, so we have no idea where they are or how long we have. What’s the plan?”

“If you go on ahead to scout and secure the area, Sydney and I will follow and do the search. We get in, get out, and get home. I don’t like being this far from Alliance. Are Emme and Shane up to date with what’s happening?”

“Yes, they’ve called a meeting for tomorrow morning. Something big is afoot.” Mason’s frown caused Sydney’s gut to tighten. Whatever it was, it wasn’t good.

Kingsley motioned at Sydney to get back in the car as the team dispersed. Fifteen anxious minutes later they got the all-clear, and Kingsley looked at her. “We go in, we find the clue, and get out. If you want to reminisce, I’ll bring you back when this is over.”

“Fine, bossy-boots.”

Kingsley laughed at her answer, erasing the tension from the situation and making her smile.