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“Morgan and Freya don’t have to admit to anything to do with that, and Gardner doesn’t know my name. I don’t see Boyd as the type to volunteer the information. Are you in?”
She considered his offer. If they left within the hour, they’d arrive sometime after midnight.
She’d have to ditch her phone and wouldn’t be able to reach out to anyone the State Department might question. The list was small, but it included Salim’s parents. They would worry if they knew she’d disappeared, but she didn’t see how that could be helped.
She pulled out her phone and set it on the counter. She’d already pulled the battery, but now she removed the SIM card and set it on the cutting board. She took the meat cleaver from the drawer and split it in two with one stroke. Then she dropped the pieces in the garbage disposal and flipped the switch.
Chapter Thirty-One
The rain on the road proved to be hypnotic for Diana, who fell asleep not long after Chris completed a surveillance detection route before heading out of the city. It was well after two in the morning when they reached his neighborhood, and she roused herself as he pulled into the garage of a two-story house.
The door rolled closed behind them, and Chris’s voice was soft in the dim garage. “Do I need to carry you in, sleepyhead?”
She smiled. It was very tempting to let him carry her, but she needed to get her bearings.
“I think I can handle it.”
“I’ll get your suitcase, then.”
She climbed from the vehicle and waited by the interior door while he grabbed both their bags. “I’ll do a quick recon before giving you the tour, but my security is solid, and there’ve been no pings on my phone.”
Inside, he reset the alarm before leaving her in the pass-through utility room to ensure the house was clear.
He returned a minute later and took their bags. “All clear.”
She stepped into a large open-floor-plan living space. The kitchen had a long bar-height counter that faced the living room. The space was barely furnished. There was no dining table, just barstools at the counter. On the other side of the room, there was a sofa, recliner, coffee table, and large wall-mounted TV.
Diana smiled at his furnishing priorities. “Nice TV.”
He smiled, but showed a hint of being embarrassed. “I uh, only moved in two weeks before we were deployed. I was going to order a dining set, but it was going to be delivered while I was on the carrier, so didn’t bother. But they had the TV at Costco, no waiting.”
His embarrassment was so sweet, she rose on her left toes and brushed her lips over his. “I wasn’t judging.”
“Yes, you were.” His arm caught her around the waist, holding her against him.
He lowered his head and kissed her, his tongue dipping into her mouth. Her drowsy state fled, and she kissed him back, but he ended it nearly as quickly as he’d moved in.
“C’mon. I’ll show you your room. Sorry, but both bedrooms are upstairs. My office down here doesn’t have any furniture yet other than a desk, so you’ll want to be upstairs.”
“No problem. It’s a lot easier to do stairs now with the walking boot.”
She wasn’t sure if she was disappointed he was shunting her off to the guest room, but she did know it was the right thing to do.
Unfortunately, Chris’s guest room didn’t yet have room-darkening curtains, and hours later, Diana found herself raging against the rising of the light. She’d bet Chris’s room had dark blinds.
She toyed with the idea of crawling into bed with him, but instead pulled a pillow over her head and went back to sleep. She emerged sometime around noon, woken by the tantalizing scents of bacon and coffee.
She descended the stairs and found Chris sitting at the bar, a heaping plate of scrambled eggs before him. He smiled when he saw her and jumped up. “Coffee?”
“Please.”
He circled the counter and filled a mug from the pot. “Cream or sugar?”
“Cream if you have it.” In the field, she always drank her coffee black, but she’d take the treat if she could get it.
He went to the fridge and pulled out a small carton of Half and Half and brought it to her. “How’d you sleep?”
“Fine until the sun came up. I was tempted to crawl into bed with you.”
