Defenseless, p.6
Defenseless, page 6
Ryan chuckled. “Mitch and Cody screamed when the clown tried to give them a balloon animal.”
Sabina laughed, a warm, husky chuckle. “I bet the press had a field day with that. A sweet innocent clown was given a photo opportunity with the president, the first lady, and their beloved grandchildren, and it all ends in tears.”
“There was nothing innocent about that clown,” Mitch said, joining the group. Chad hadn’t heard him come in, and his gaze swept over his cousin as he came to a stop beside Ryan. He hadn’t seen much of Mitch since arriving, and Chad took in his bloodshot eyes and the fatigued movements of his body. It was still peak fire season, and while they may not have had any big ones this year, the team was on constant watch. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. It was taking its toll on his cousin, but Mitch and the crew wouldn’t have it any other way. No one wanted another Paradise or Caldor fire.
Sabina snorted. “You all are too cliché,” she said. Mitch shot her a look but said nothing. Instead, he took two steps to the coffee carafe and poured himself a big cup.
“What are you all doing here?” Mitch asked after he’d taken his first sip. Sabina had met his brothers, cousins, aunts, and uncles as they’d all stopped by the offices in the first few weeks. In fact, the only members of his family she hadn’t met were the twins and his grandfather. And of course, his parents, but they’d died long ago in a car accident. Sabina had never asked about them, so he assumed that she—like the rest of the United States—knew that William Warwick’s oldest son and his wife had died in a seven-car pile-up on a mountain road blanketed in fog. Gramps was only a few months into his second term when it happened. To everyone’s surprise—except the family’s—he and Nana had scooped up their three orphaned grandsons and moved them into the White House. In retrospect, he recognized their decision as being the right one for him and his brothers, but also a way for his grandparents to ease their grief.
“I’m paying my rent,” Sabina said, answering Mitch’s question and surprising Chad with her forthrightness. Then again, he already knew she’d been paying her rent, so that horse had left the barn.
Mitch glanced up. “You the one who rented the upstairs?” She nodded. “Nice place. One of our new firefighters was looking at it, but his girlfriend decided she wanted a yard. Although I might trade my yard for the views you have.”
Sabina smiled. “I love it. I set my bed up to face that big slider on the top deck. I like watching the sunrise.”
Ryan and Mitch shot him less-than-subtle looks when Sabina mentioned her bed. He scowled at both.
“I’m here to pick up the doughnuts Chad owes me,” Ryan said.
“And here you go,” Bethany said, bringing out four large pink boxes.
“Wow, all of those are for you?” Sabina asked.
“I can sense your barely leashed desire to make a snarky comment,” Ryan said, taking two of the boxes. Chad reached over and took the other two. “Thanks, Bethany,” he and Ryan said at the same time.
“Me?” Sabina asked, her eyes wide and her tone mocking.
“I lost the poker tournament last week,” Chad said. “The cost was doughnuts for the department once a week for a month.”
“You? You lost the poker tournament?” Sabina asked dramatically. Ryan and Mitch snorted.
“Shut up,” he mumbled. “I’m not that bad.”
Sabina snorted. “You are. We all know it. There are many things you are good at, Chad Warwick, but I think we all know poker isn’t one of them.”
“She’s right,” Ryan said with a shrug.
“Truth,” Mitch said.
“Fuckers,” Chad muttered. “You’ll get no doughnuts today, ma’am,” he said to Sabina.
Her eyes drifted to the box. “Who are those for, anyway?”
“The security team arrives in ten minutes,” he reminded her. “Thought they’d appreciate a little sugar pick-me-up. Now if you ladies don’t mind. Some of us have work to do.”
He turned and walked away, leaving Sabina to roll her eyes at nothing and his brother and cousin debating what it would be like to be a lady.
“Sabina!” Chad called from his office at the cabin.
She turned from the picture window she’d been looking out. The team of security specialists had descended on them, devoured two dozen doughnuts, then headed out to the woods to assess how best to protect their little 1,200-acre slice of heaven. She’d been idly watching the scenery, wondering if she’d see them moving around. She had little say in how they chose to protect the land, but she was curious what they’d come up with. After all, she’d be the one to integrate their design into the main security system.
“You bellowed?” she asked, stopping in the doorway of his office.
He narrowed his eyes then gestured for her to sit. “What do you think of this?” he asked.
She took a seat and reached for the paper he held out. A résumé. An impressive résumé. She’d seen enough ex-military CVs in her time at HICC that she recognized it was also heavily redacted.
“A potential hire?” She and Chad didn’t make a habit of discussing how they were building their teams, but they didn’t keep it a secret, either.
“I was about to send the details to Stella and Hunter. You think it looks good, though?”
She studied him. In the past two days, he’d been subtly different. A little more open. It was possible he was finally relaxing a little bit now that he was on his home turf. It was also possible there was some other reason driving the shift in behavior. The change hadn’t been dramatic, but an easy smile here, a joke there. And he’d invited her to the planning meeting for the haunted house. He hadn’t given her a chance to say “yes” or “no,” and she still wasn’t sure if she’d go. But his invitation had been the good kind of presumptuous. The kind that assumed she’d be there because she was now part of them.
“I think you know he’s good. Whoever he is.” And it was a “he.” The types of positions the candidate had held were still reserved for men.
“It’s Ethan,” Chad said on an exhale.
Again, she studied his face. Outside of playing poker, he was pretty good at masking his thoughts. She could usually read through his neutral expression, although this time, she struggled. “Is that good or bad?”
His gaze lingered on his desktop for a moment then he looked up. “Good. He’d be a solid hire for the team Colton and I are building. But I also think it would be good for me, personally, to have him on board.”
Sabina stilled. For the first time in years, Chad was talking about something that mattered to him. She didn’t yet know how or why it mattered, but it was in every taut line of his body and in the way his lips pressed together when he stopped speaking.
“In what way?” she asked. Unease washed through her at the question. In an uncomfortable flash of clarity, she realized that she’d come to rely on the distance he put between them. If he kept her at arm’s length, she didn’t have to worry about her pesky attraction to him or the way her body seemed to crave his. But if he was lowering his defenses? Well, she wasn’t so sure that was a good thing for her.
“You know I went straight from West Point into the army, then the FBI, then HICC?” When she nodded, he continued. “I’ve always been a soldier or agent or operative. I have a business degree and this…this opportunity feels right for so many reasons. But that doesn’t mean I’m 100 percent ready for it.”
Oh shit. She was not prepared for a vulnerable Chad.
She swallowed. “In what way?”
He shrugged. “I’ve never run a business before. I think I’ll be good at it. I want to be good at it. I want to be damn good at it.”
She chuckled at that. “Of course you do.” Like all the operatives of HICC, Chad was an overachiever.
He gifted her with a ghost of a smile. “Having Ethan here might help me. He won’t shy away from telling me if I’m fucking up or if I’m doing something right. I know you and Colton will do the same, but…”
“Our sphere of influence in this venture is a little different than yours, though. You and Colton will need to sync on the operatives and the ops we accept. You and I will need to sync on the intelligence and all things cyber. But it might be good to have Ethan as a sounding board for the business as a whole.”
He hesitated then nodded. “He does a lot of administrative work in his role with the police. That’s government and we’re private, so it’s different, but he has a forest-for-the-trees kind of perspective that I’m still developing.”
Sabina didn’t take this confidence lightly. She may not know the reason why he decided to share it, but she wasn’t capable of brushing it, or him, off. “Then you should tell Stella and Hunter that when you send them his details.”
He shot her a wry smile. “What if voicing my concerns gives them reason to question choosing me?”
She chuckled again. “Don’t underestimate them. This is new to you, and I’d be surprised if they expect you to be amazing out of the gate. Or do everything on your own. Knowing them the way I do, I think they’d value the candor. The kind of honesty you’re talking about is a show of trust. A show of trust in them and a demonstration of your commitment to making this HICC office a success.”
Chad stared at her for a long moment. So long, in fact, she had to fight the urge to squirm. Finally, he nodded, and the knot in her chest released.
“You’re right,” he said. “I’ll add my personal thoughts when I send his résumé and credentials. How about you? How’s your team shaping up?”
The facility wasn’t ready for new employees yet, but she had two people on board who were moving to Mystery Lake in the next few weeks. All she needed was one more. It would be a small team to start, just the four of them. But she, Colton, and Chad had agreed to no more than ten new employees total in the first year. If all went well, they’d grow to twenty in the second year. After that, they planned to stabilize for at least another year before considering whether to grow more.
“Leo Gallardo and Collin Zhang will be moving up in a few weeks,” she answered. “I have my eye on a potential candidate for my last hire, but I want to run it by Stella and Hunter before approaching her.”
Chad arched a brow in question, urging her to continue.
Sabina made a face—half wanting to talk to Chad about it and half thinking she might jinx things if she did. “She’s good,” she finally said. “I’ve had my eye on her for a few years. She’s the right kind of devious that will make a good counterpart to Collin’s more straitlaced approach.”
“But?”
“She’s from a well-known family. Her parents are Will and Cassandra Jones.”
“The director and actress?” Chad asked, both brows now raised.
She nodded. “You can understand the hesitation. She’d be a great addition.”
“But you’re worried about what kind of visibility she might bring,” Chad said, finishing her thought. She nodded. Will Jones was an extraordinary filmmaker and the first Black director to win an Academy Award. And with two Academy Awards to her name, one as best supporting actress and, more recently, a second as best actress, Cassandra Jones was no less impressive.
“Will she be interested in leaving LA and moving here? Assuming that’s where she lives?” he asked.
Sabina shrugged. “She was in the tabloids a lot until she was about sixteen. She got into some trouble, and it seemed to shake her up—scared her straight, if you will. Now she attends an occasional event with her parents, but she’s pretty much out of the limelight.” The records were sealed regarding Ava Jones’s criminal mischief, but Sabina knew exactly what kind of trouble she’d gotten herself into. No one other than Stella and Hunter needed to know unless Ava told them herself, though.
“You’re going to talk to Stella and Hunter then?”
“I am. I have a call scheduled with them tomorrow. If they give her a pass, I’ll need to go back to the drawing board.”
He studied her for a moment then nodded. “It sounds like you want her, so good luck with that.”
She smiled and rose. “You, too,” she said, nodding to Ethan’s résumé sitting on the desk.
“Sabina?”
She paused in the doorway and turned to face him. Chad’s dark eyes held hers for a long moment before he spoke.
“I know something happened in your past that you don’t talk about. And while I’m glad that you’re here, I don’t think you’re here because you want to be. I think something spooked you back in DC that made you change your mind about making this jump. If you’re in danger, or even if you’re not and you want someone to talk things over with, I hope you know you can trust me.”
With each word he spoke, her pulse kicked up. She was damn glad she’d worn a sweater with a big, high collar. The artery in her neck was currently trying to hammer its way through her skin. A reaction Chad would no doubt notice.
But as he couldn’t, she forced yet another smile. “Just wanted a change of scenery and the challenge of starting something new.”
Disappointment flared in his eyes, but he said nothing.
“Thank you, though,” she added. “I appreciate your concern.” Which she did and didn’t—knowing he cared was like being wrapped in a warm down comforter on a cold night. But knowing he cared also filled her with more dread than looking down a black diamond slope and not knowing how to ski.
She held his gaze, waiting for him to acknowledge her statement in some way. A nod, a shrug, something. Thirty seconds ticked by—and yes, she counted each tick of the clock on the wall behind him. When he neither said nor did anything, she accepted the stalemate for what it was. Giving him a small nod of her own, one that she imagined admitted some sort of defeat on her part, she turned and continued to her office.
She managed to keep a steady pace as she walked to the other side of the cabin. As soon as she shut her office door, though, she slumped against it. Closing her eyes, she willed her heart rate to slow down and sucked in a deep breath. Then another. And another.
It came as no surprise that Chad had recognized her decision to move west as being out of character. That she didn’t talk about her past, or that he used that fact to keep her at arm’s length, was also not news. She didn’t like the boundaries he’d set, but she had to respect them. Not to mention the fact that they benefited her, too.
But while they’d spent the last two years living with the repercussions of her evasiveness, he’d never explicitly called her out on it. Now, by naming it, she was very much aware that he’d changed the game. And she didn’t know what to think.
Her phone jangled in her pocket, and Sabina startled at the intrusion. Pulling it out, she read a number she didn’t recognize on the screen and her heart skipped a beat. In her experience, unknown numbers didn’t tend to bring good news. Bracing herself for the worst, she hit the button to connect the call just as she recognized the area code as local to Mystery Lake. It could still be one she didn’t want to receive, but perhaps not.
“Hello?” Sabina answered, hating the tentative question in her voice. She was a badass behind her computer, but in the real world, she didn’t feel quite so untouchable.
“Sabina O’Malley?” a woman asked.
“May I ask who’s calling?”
The woman huffed a laugh. “Sorry, I should have started with that. This is Olivia Rodriguez, from the high school. And a friend of Chad’s. You sent me an email yesterday about the Hedy Experience program.”
Sabina let out a relieved breath and moved toward her desk. “I did, and thank you for calling.”
“No, thank you for reaching out. Ryan Warwick told me a little bit about you. Never in my wildest imagination would I have thought I’d have access to such talent.”
“Um, thanks?” Sabina said, booting up her computer.
Olivia laughed again. “So, without turning this into any more of an awkward fangirl moment than it is, the answer to the question in your email is ‘yes.’ We are definitely looking for volunteers. I will take as much or as little time as you are willing to give.”
Sabina smiled. “Great. I have to tell you, I don’t have much, or really any, experience with kids, but I’m willing to learn.”
“That’s a great start. Do you want to stop by sometime in the next few days? I can show you the setup and we can go over my plans for the program?”
Sabina agreed and after setting an appointment for the next day, she hung up. Excitement coursed through her body at the possibility of using her skills to help the community. She still wasn’t sure about working with teenage girls, or any teenagers for that matter. But she loved her job, and she loved working with computers. If she could share that with even one interested student, then it would be worth it.
Her mind was conjuring images of a roomful of girls who were interested in technology but not sure whether they could make it a career when she thought of Ava. Sabina had no idea if Stella and Hunter would give her the green light to make the young woman an offer. Or if Ava would accept if she did. But she had no problem picturing the two of them at the front of the classroom together.
With a smile, she pulled up Ava’s information, drafted an email to Stella and Hunter, and shot it off.
She’d never know unless she tried.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Sabina stood in her living room, looking out the picture window onto Main Street. Roger, her aloe, was perched happily on the frame, observing the same scene. Ethan hadn’t been exaggerating when he’d told her the town went all out for Halloween. Not a single store was bare. The decorations ranged from scarecrows to witches to hay bales with jack-o’-lanterns. Her favorite, though, was a mini Headless Horseman display.
A month had passed since that night at the Dirty Boom. That night that seemed to change so much. She was volunteering twice a week with the Hedy Experience, and Olivia was slowly becoming someone Sabina would consider a friend. And Chad continued to sweep her into his life on a near-daily basis. She didn’t agree every time he invited her to join in some activity or another, but she found herself saying yes more often than not. It was hard to resist the loud, boisterous, and loving Warwick clan.
