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“No.” She scowled down at a photo of some celeb he didn’t recognize. “I need to stay alert at all times.”
Kyle rubbed his hand over his face and inched the car forward. This was killing him. Yesterday, when he’d assigned locations to his team, he’d thought sticking close to Natalie would mean pooling their resources. So far, though, all it had done was bring the tensions between them to an all-time high.
Seemed all Natalie wanted to do was block him at every turn, question every move he made, and try to outsmart him and outmaneuver him on every little detail.
He was competitive, too, but jeez. There were limits.
A green interstate sign appeared ahead, and he nudged his way into the right lane of traffic and then into the line waiting on the exit ramp.
Perfect. They weren’t the only ones with the same idea.
“So, where are we going, Rand McNally?” she asked. “Besides nowhere.”
“Cute.” He gave her a side-eyed glance. “I figure if we take the back roads, it’ll be quicker.”
“Hmm,” she said when they finally reached the intersection at the end of the ramp. “Well, I don’t care as long as we stop soon. I’m getting hungry.”
“You ate an hour ago.” Kyle squinted at the road signs, doing some quick mental calculations. Heading east to Cookeville, then south, should put them in line to meet up with I-75 again near Chattanooga. He signaled, then turned right. “How can you possibly be hungry again?”
“I have a fast metabolism.”
“Yeah, I remember.” At her first Thanksgiving dinner at the family farm, they’d all marveled at the amount of food she’d put away. She’d managed to eat both him and Nick under the table and still gone back for more—not an easy feat with two Navy SEALs involved.
He gave her one last look, then focused on the road ahead. Natalie had curves in all the right places, but everything was toned and tight. Flawless. Tempting. Not that he had any business thinking about her that way. Nope. None at all. He decided to distract himself with a safer subject of conversation. “What’s happening in Hollywood?”
“Well, the lead singer for that hot boy band just broke up with his fiancée for the fourth time.” She flipped several pages ahead. “And this actress that I’ve never heard of before is starring in a movie I would never pay money to see.” Natalie closed the magazine and scowled at him. “When can I get a burner phone?”
“Never.” Kyle had wondered how long it would be before she brought that up. “I let you call in before we left Nashville.”
“I don’t like being without a phone. What if we have an emergency?”
“If there’s an emergency, we can use mine.” He patted the pocket of his leather jacket and smiled. “What did your department say when you talked to them?”
She scrunched her nose and crossed her arms, looking out the window beside her as she spoke. “They’ve got techs working on how we can best get into the center where the servers are housed.”
“Huh.” Kyle made another right, following the signs for the two-lane highway. It wasn’t as straight a shot as the interstate, but at least they were moving faster now that they were out of the traffic jam. Morning sunshine glowed through the green foliage on either side of the road, and his mood lightened. “My team always figures that out once we’re on site.”
“Yeah, I know.” She shook her head.
The way she said that rubbed him the wrong way. “I take it you don’t approve of my technique?”
“I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with your technique,” she said. “I just prefer to take the guesswork out of things as much as possible. You know, have a game plan and not just wing it.”
“I never ‘just wing it.’” He took his hands off the wheel to make air quotes, then slapped them back down. “Whenever I’m on a mission, lives are at stake. I take that very seriously. Sometimes, though, you and your Agency overplan to the point of paralysis. I’m an action guy.”
Natalie gave him a slow once-over, and his pulse kicked higher. “I’m sure you are.” She sniffed and squinted out the window. “This scenery reminds me of Virginia.”
“Yeah?” Kyle glanced around. “It does, kind of, huh?”
He hadn’t paid much attention until she brought it up, but all the lush green and dappled sunlight was pretty spectacular. A stab of homesickness pricked Kyle’s chest. “I miss the farm sometimes.”
“Me too.” Natalie smiled, small and sad, looking at him. “Nick and I were planning a trip there, right before he got that last deployment.”
“He always loved being home.”
“He said he wanted to see your folks again, and he couldn’t wait to walk barefoot down by the creek.”
“Oh, God.” Kyle grimaced. “I never understood how he could stand to sink his toes into that muck. There are leeches down there as big as your head. Nick never seemed to mind, though. Always ran back there as soon as we hit the property. Yuck.”
