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Iraisedaneyebrowat Matteo when he arrived back at the jet. If the scripted A.T. logo on the tail hadn’t clued me in, the luxurious and spacious interior would have been a warning that we weren’t on the standard plane we would typically use.
“What?” he asked at the look on my face. “Technically, you’re a shareholder, and using this thing is one perk of the position.”
“Is that the story I’m supposed to go with when I get home? You know my brothers likely know by now that I’m not at home, and I’m not sure I can pass off that Brody and I snuck off for some time alone with you and this thing missing.”
Matteo’s sheepish expression had me on alert.
“Don’t tell me they know I was kidnapped?”
Brody’s hand on my back anchored me, pulling me back an inch from my almost-panicked state. “Let’s sit down, sweetheart. We need to get this thing in the air, and the three of us have some catching up to do.”
Because I couldn’t find any argument with that plan and my legs were still a bit wobbly, I plopped down on a chair, snagging a blanket off the back to cover the seat before doing so. I was likely in enough trouble, and I didn’t want to add ruining company property to my tally by getting anything bloody while I was at it.
Once we were cloud-high, I motioned for Matteo to continue catching me up, but he shook his head. “Let’s get you debriefed and changed first.”
Well, shit, I thought. Matteo wasn’t normally the kind of man to put things off, and while it was protocol to get the paperwork in order when the experience was as fresh as possible—in my case, the range for that opportunity could vary from hours to a week or longer—but the fact that he couldn’t seem to meet my eye for more than a second or so told me he wanted all work-related details taken care of before the possibility of a meltdown occurred. Though with me, meltdown might be the wrong word … Inferno may be a better word choice?
I almost jumped when Brody touched my shoulder. “Do you want something to eat?” he asked as he handed me a water bottle.
“I … uh … not right now.” I was hungry, but my stomach was too knotted to eat. My upcoming showdown with my brothers wasn’t the only source of my uncertainty. I hadn’t anticipated Brody being there, and I wasn’t sure what to do. I’d ended things because I couldn’t tell him the truth. Now he knew the truth, but I wasn’t sure if finding out that the woman he thought he knew was mostly a façade had him feeling differently about me. Not everyone could handle what I did for my job—hell, most couldn’t. It was one thing to kill in the middle of battle, but even hardened military types couldn’t always accept someone with my skill set. They might agree with it in a distant, someone-needs-to-do-the-job type thing, but to know me as a person, and to be okay with what I did, was a completely different animal entirely. And that I was wasting mental energy being all girly and worried about if a boy I liked, liked me back pissed me off.
“Why don’t you go find a TV or something and chill?” I told Brody.
I meant to hack him off, but he only smiled softly at me. “Trying to dismiss me, sweetheart?”
I looked him dead in the eye. “I’m about to admit to letting myself get kidnapped so that I could prove what kind of man Albrecht was. My assignment was to take him out if I had the opportunity to manage it or to stay safe until my team could come to get me. I killed three men in keeping to that order, practically bare-handed, still a bit drugged, and with the help of a stiletto heel-turned-torture device. That’s not a conversation I particularly want to have in front of someone who yelled at me for shooting some flowers the last time I dealt with a potential threat.”
“I wasn’t upset at you shooting,” he explained. “I was upset you were keeping secrets from me.”
I scoffed. “So, you’re mad I was keeping classified information from someone who didn’t have a proper security clearance? Something I’m sure you’ve done so many times you’ve lost count?”
“I’m not mad any longer, and I admit I might have overreacted.”
I wanted to knock the placating look off his face, but I was too tired to stand. “Mighthave?”
“Can we get work stuff out of the way so that I can be somewhere else when you two have this argument?” Matteo cut in, focusing on his tablet in front of him and not on the two of us. He didn’t bother waiting for what I was sure would have been a smart-ass reply on my part before putting the tablet down on the coffee table between us and hitting the standard red button to record our conversation.
Brody took a seat next to me as Matteo stated the date and other pertinent information. Brody snorted when he heard my code name but otherwise stayed quiet as I began my report, starting with my arrival at Sweet Nothings and my observations on the street before my kidnapping. When I turned to the more active parts of my retelling, he froze. I was acutely aware of him, barely two feet away, but I kept my emotions locked down tight, my voice calm, controlled, and remote. I couldn’t focus on him right now, not if I was going to get through the next hour. My worries about his reaction, about us—if there even was an us—would have to wait. I had a report to finish.
Chapter 27
Brody
ItwaseverythingIcould do to stay in my seat. Hearing how she killed the two guards and Albrecht cemented just how elite she really was. How quickly she evaluated her options, eliminated the threats against her, and the way she conducted herself, both then and when we’d arrived, clearly illustrated she was a badass. But I also couldn’t help but notice how her hands stayed balled into fists throughout her conversation with Matteo and how straight and proper she stayed in her chair, studiously avoiding looking in my direction.
I realized she was nervous, and I was the cause. I thought back to all the conversations Alessia and I’d had over the past week about how she wasn’t the woman she portrayed to the public and how true those discussions had been. Alessia, despite being placed between a rock and a hard place, had done her best to be herself with me and to stay truthful. When I had idiotically pushed her beyond what she could actually divulge, she’d cut me loose instead of lying to me.
I shifted slightly, watching as Lessia stiffened almost imperceptibly before making herself settle back in her former position. I wanted to take her hand in mine, to give her that small peace of mind that I wasn’t upset with her, that I was happy she was okay, but everything about her body position said I’d better keep my hands off any part of her, lest I wanted to lose a limb.
So, instead, I stayed where I was, able to do nothing but listen to her give the details, watching as she patiently answered when Matteo asked for clarification before I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Done?” I asked Matteo as he clicked off the recorder.
Looking up at me, I saw a flicker of amusement behind his stoic expression. “Yes, I believe we are.”
Before Lessia could protest, I pounced, picking her up into my arms and heading to the tail of the plane.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” she asked icily.
