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“Yes,” came Fitz’s voice clearly. He must have been in the room with Kasey. “There is a 3% chance that he is Canadian, who may live close enough to the U.S. border and spent his childhood with American parents and TV to influence his vernacular.”
“Okay, so he’s American,” Mal said, breaking into the lecture Fitz was gearing up to make. “Anything a little more helpful than half the population of over 300 million?”
“49.4% of the American population is male actually,” Fitz started before there was a shuffling sound, a soft curse, and then silence.
“He’ll stop that now,” Kasey said, and where I would normally feel embarrassed by their lack of professionalism in the presence of federal and foreign agencies, I took some comfort in the routine of their bickering. I needed a little normal to ground me, especially after going through the information dump with the other agents. “As I was trying to say,” he continued, “if we are starting four years ago, we actually have a lot of ground to cover. If the offender has been watching Lake this long, there’s no way he hasn’t been caught somewhere. Surveillance, background of a picture. I can input facial recognition to search, but I need to know how you want me to start searching.”
At this I leaned forward, excitement swirling through me. “Start with the list Lake made of enemies.”
“Yeah, no can do. She had no list, remember? The only list we had was the people with a hate-on for Daddy Dearest.”
The room at large chuckled at the comment and I saw Cabot fake a long suffering sigh. But it was his suggestion that gave us a starting point. Have her make a list of people she met four years ago. If she can’t remember everyone, go by her social media and tabloid pictures. They’re finally good for something.”
“Our little brute is all grown up,” Kasey fake cooed into the phone and Cabot opened his mouth to reply, but I held a halting hand up. We didn’t need an argument right now. “Okay, okay, I’m on it. I’ll start with social media then see if she can fill me in on anyone else.”
There was a distinct click, letting us know he’d unceremoniously ended the call and we were left to stare at each other at the fast moving steps Jack Kasey had just spread out in front of us.
“Well, I think that’s all we have, gentlemen-” Geiger’s words were cut off by her phone wailing along with Murphy's. Both of them looked down at their phones and then up to each other, finally looking at the rest of us. “They found Bailey Voss’ body.”
CHAPTER 29
LAKE
Iwoke to the smell of bacon and smiled, eyes still closed at the idea of Decker in the kitchen, sleep pants slung low on his hips, abs on full display as he made breakfast. Little domestic moments seemed to hit me the hardest, only allowing myself to fantasize about a normal life with him in the moments when I first woke up and just before I fell asleep completely. The fact that they were the times I was most relaxed also happened to be the times I was with Decker the man and not Decker the bodyguard was not lost on me.
Hearing a pop beat coming from the kitchen, I sat up in bed, remembering that Decker had left the evening before. My heart began to slow as I recalled Avery arriving, dropping her bomb about their past, and then taking tacos to bed.
Deciding that I’d already made a fool of myself in front of her after walking out in nothing but Decker’s shirt, I had to get this third meeting right. First a shower, then make myself look presentable to the older sister of…
I stopped with one foot off the bed. What was Decker to me? I wanted him, he wanted me, but we hadn’t actually talked about what we were doing. Just fucking? Doing a friends with benefits thing? Starting an actual relationship? I had no idea, but I didn’t really have time to dwell before the phone I’d finally turned back on pinged with a message.
Decker:Sorry to leave you longer, but we got called out to another location.
Lake:Don’t apologize for working your ass off to keep mine safe. Where are you going now?
Decker:Provins
My heart felt like it stopped painfully in my chest. Provins was in France. Bailey and Monica immediately shot to my mind and I was almost afraid to ask more. I honestly didn’t know if I could take the news without him being here with me in person to hold me up. Even before we’d shared a bed, he’d been by my side through all the hard shit, a silent century standing guard until I was ready to suck it up and deal. I didn’t know if I could without him.
Instead of answering his last message, I set the phone down and hurried to the bathroom to take the world's quickest shower before attempting to hide the circles under my eyes with enough makeup to bring me back to the land of the living.
“Hey, girly!” Avery called as I padded down the hall and into the kitchen to see her whipping up a feast, and leaving a mess around her as a result. Yup, Hurricane Avery had struck the kitchen again. I scooted onto the barstool and immediately had a large plate of waffles, scrambled eggs, bacon and cut fruit sitting in front of me, making my mouth water.
“I could get used to waking up to this,” I said with a grin, using a butter knife to spread butter onto the waffle. “I might end up fat and having a heart attack, but what a way to go.”
“Yeah, but sadly you normally wake up to a yogurt parfait if I still know Deck’s eating habits which I do.” She piled food onto her own plate and joined me at the island counter. “I figured after dealing with emotions, you might have a hangover. So a big breakfast means more fuel!”
She was right. The emotional upheaval of the last few days had left me feeling like I hadn’t slept at all, and there was a slight dizziness that did remind me of a hangover. Who knew stress could make you feel just as bad as a night of drinking? It didn’t help that I couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Decker’s last text. The food turned sour in my stomach, and after only a few bites, I pushed it away and stood, moving around the kitchen to grab the containers to pack more of the breakfast I’d wanted to enjoy.
“What are you doing?”
“Making a bribe.” I grabbed some silverware before slowly packing everything into a small tote.
“For who?”
“Kasey. Decker is going to France now, and it has something to do with Bailey and Monica, but I know they’ll downplay it or keep it from me to spare my feelings. I want real answers and to stop feeling like I’m just a pawn on a chessboard I can’t control.”
“Don’t forget napkins,” Avery said, ditching her own food and running to slip on her flip-flops. I didn’t need to ask where she was going; I knew she was coming with me.
