Redemption (Bennett Sisters Book 5) (8 page)

Rick pushed the door open and stood in the doorway. His gaze ran over her. His vibrant piercing
green
eyes clouded into a
darker version she’d never seen before
the longer he stood there staring at her.
Lydia
held out her hand. “Can I please have my coffee? You can ogle later.”

Rick gave a small shake of his head and lifted his gaze back to her face. “Uh, sorry. I thought you’d be up and dressed by now.”

She sipped her coffee. “How did you get the key to get in here?”

Rick pointed to the door behind him. “Jonah programmed my card for your door too. He mentioned it when I was getting coffee.”

Huh, well, that wasn’t going to do. She was going to have to threaten to break more of his electronics later.
Lydia
noticed the small pile of clothes she’d been given was almost depleted.
Lydia
patted the bed next to her and took a sip of her coffee “I’m glad you woke me. I need to get up and get ready to go into town.
” She glanced to what he held in his hand. “
So what’s in the bag?”

Rick rounded her bed and climbed up on it next to her, setting his own coffee on the nightstand next to him. He pulled cartons of food from the bag. The smell of bacon wafted to her nose. He pulled out plastic silverware and napkins and handed them to her. “A little bit of everything. Eat up. If  you’re like any of the other girls I know, we’re going to need the energy for our little excursion.”

Lydia
paused, lifting the forkful of scrambled eggs to her lips. “Our?”

Rick winked. “I’m your escort and your bodyguard. Of course I’m going to take you.”

Lydia
felt her brows pull together. She couldn’t imagine that he wanted to go with her. She hadn’t been nice to him yesterday.
Lydia
assumed that he’d be gone already, away from her on the first plane out of this crazy place.

“Of course, escort, bodyguard. I haven’t forgotten.”

Rick took a sip of his coffee and continued eating. “Besides, I’ve got my credit cards. All women loving spending money, right?”

Lydia
shook her head. The man thought she was like all women. She did love her shopping therapy, but not with the man who threatened her sanity. 
Lydia
glanced over at the clutch she’d brought with her and said a silent thanks that she at least had some of the credit cards and cash with her. She wasn’t stranded without a means to get back to Southall. “I’ve got my own money. I wouldn’t expect you to buy me anything.”

Rick shrugged. “Penance for being such a shmuck yesterday. Take it as a part of my apology and let me do this for you.” He grinned. “It will make me feel better.”

Lydia
wasn’t going to argue with the man. She’d let him buy her a pair of jeans, but nothing else. If it would ease his conscience, she wouldn’t take that away from him. It was just a matter of time before she’d make her own mistake, and she’d give him back the same reasoning he’d given her. 

Lydia
slid from the bed and threw her empty containers in the trash. She grabbed the last pair of jeans, shirt, and matching bra and panties that still had the tags on them and made her way to the bathroom. Rick looked comfortable sitting on her bed, seeming to have no intention of leaving her in peace to change. “Give me five minutes, and I’ll be ready.” She closed the door behind her and clutched the last stitches of clean clothes to her chest. 

Sitting that close to Rick had her heart racing and naughty thoughts running through her head. It didn’t help that she’d just had a dream about having sex with him. She needed to get control when she was in his presence, but it seemed to be a lost cause. An unexplainable reaction she wasn’t used to having. She glanced in the mirror and grimaced. She looked like a clown. Her red hair was knotted in clumps. She had bedhead.
Crap.
She mumbled to herself and hurried to change and fix her hair and put on her make-up in the five minutes she’d told him. Rick hadn’t said a word about how scary she looked. He’d brought her coffee
and
food. He deserved a medal in her book.

Lydia
brushed her teeth and took one more glance in the mirror. She was decent. Her clothes were a bit snug, but she looked normal again, not like a clown from a bad horror flick.
Lydia
pulled the door open and glanced around her room. Rick was nowhere to be seen. Maybe she’d scared him away after all.

She grabbed her clutch and phone. She stuffed her little flip phone into her bra and walked out into the living room. Her muscles still ached from yesterday, and she knew it was going to get worse before it got better. A bit of normal shopping was what she needed. She imagined having lunch in a mall and calling her family to check in with them. She’d only been gone a day, but she missed them just the same.

Rick stood in front of her coffee pot with a phone pressed to his ear. He sipped his coffee. “Yes, sir. I understand.” Rick stiffened “I’ve got to go.” He hit the off button.

She took in the picture he made. His jeans were similar to the ones he’d worn the day before. A blue T-shirt stretched across his back. His brown hair had been combed and was still wet. She let her gaze lower to his butt. Her hands begged to squeeze it. The man was every bit as mouth-watering as he’d been in her dream.

Lydia
felt her cheeks redden. Rick had turned with two cups in his hands. “Like what you see, Red?”

****

Rick turned with two Styrofoam coffee cups in his hands. He’d caught her red-handed. She’d been ogling his butt while he was on the phone. The sweet scent of strawberries had drifted to his nose while he was on the phone. He’d let his guard down and wasn’t sure how much of the conversation she’d heard. He let out a sigh. It couldn’t have been much since she was still standing in front of him. He handed her one of the cups. “I thought you might like some more coffee. “Was I wrong?”

Lydia
cleared her throat. “More coffee sounds right up my alley.”

Lydia
’s cheeks turned an even deeper shade of pink he had yet to see. He silently wondered to himself if he could get them to match the color of her hair. “You ready?”

Lydia
smiled. Her green eyes sparkled. He wasn’t sure if it was the coffee or the thought of going shopping. He hoped it was because he was going with her. If he had any say so in it, she’d smile more often. A nagging doubt ate at his mind; he questioned his motives for originally coming along on the trip.

The thought of paranormal stuff had always fascinated him, and the fact she’d shown up a crucial moment in his investigation would give any good agent pause. What if she hadn’t had any other ulterior motive than to find her family? What did that say about him?

He shook his head as he followed her out the door, reminding himself that he had a job to do and believing the little redhead didn’t matter in the big scheme of things.

Chapter 9

The small town had been easy to find, just a quick ten minutes away down a tree-lined road.
Lydia
hadn’t been too happy about the fact there wasn’t a mall, but she’d been thrilled to see the little boutique they were currently
standing
in. Her face lit up as she shuffled through the garments looking for her size. She’d grabbed several items and tried them on in record time. She’d scoffed at his attempt to pay for the clothes, not letting him apologize the only way he knew how. Her reasoning hadn’t been any better. “Just buy me lunch, and we’ll call it even.”

They strolled down
Main Street
toward the café, browsing in the shop windows as they went. The air was cooler today than it had been since they arrived. The slight wind made it a bit less stifling. Couples walked hand and hand, and children on skateboards and bikes rode past them. The town looked normal to the naked eye. Did the residents of the small town even know what type of military base lay just outside of their town? If they
were even aware of
the people who resided on the base were so gifted and laid their lives on the line every day fighting against the bad guys who would threaten their sense of security, would they still choose to live there
?
He doubted it. 
Lydia
looked like she belonged here. He hadn’t seen her so relaxed since he’d met her. Rick pulled the door open to the café and walked in behind her. The bell above the door chimed. 

He didn’t expect trouble in such a small town, but that didn’t stop his instincts from reigning as his gaze roamed over the café dwellers. He glanced around the small building. Men and women of all ages sat around eating and drinking and carrying on everyday conversations. Everything looked on the up-and-up. Nothing stood out, but that didn’t stop his mental inventory check of the guns he had hidden on his body. Rick slid into the booth seat opposite her. “Remind me to teach you to shoot a gun.”

Lydia
’s brows pulled together. “Why?” She leaned over the Formica table and whispered, “When I can just use my gift.”

Rick studied the redhead. She was serious, but her being able to protect herself meant more to him than for him to be okay with the thought. “Humor me; you never know when you might need to use one.”

The waitress walked over and took their order, returning moments later with their drinks.
Lydia
turned in her seat, surveying those around her. In a hushed whisper, she asked, “Does anything seem weird in here to you?”

Rick looked around at the patrons, taking in each of them. Besides the patrons all being pretty people, he didn’t see anything wrong. “Not really, aside from the fact they all come from a good gene pool.”

Lydia
’s gaze met his. Her green eyes sparkled as she took a sip of her coffee. “You really don’t feel that?”

Rick glanced around once more. A warning voice whispered in his head. He’d always trusted his gut, and something had seemed a bit off, but not enough that he felt he needed to worry. It was more of an unexplainable feeling. “What…What are you feeling?”

She set her coffee down.  The murmur of talking people around them quieted, so she whispered, “I’m not sure. The air in here is just different. It feels almost like it does when I’m around my sisters and Mike.” She shook her head. “I’m sure it’s just my imagination, probably some power flux somewhere nearby.”

Their food showed up before he could delve into her comment. Their hamburgers were huge.

“I’m famished, but I’m thinking we could have split an order.”

Lydia
picked up the ketchup and smothered her fries in it until all he could see was red. “Uh, I don’t think so. I don’t like ketchup.”

She plopped a fry in her mouth. “I knew there was something wrong with you. What sane person doesn’t like ketchup, and why are you calling me Red? That’s what Brody calls me, and we all know how famously you two have hit it off.”

Rick swallowed around a bite of hamburger smothered in mustard. Yellow dots of the stuff oozed out in the corners of his mouth; he could feel them. He smiled as she leaned over to wipe his mouth. “It suits you. That’s the only thing he’s gotten right since we’ve gotten here.”

“It hasn’t even been forty-eight hours.”
Lydia
balled up her napkin and grabbed a new one to wipe her own face. “You know, you don’t have to
stay
. You can go back home to your boring life filled with mustard. Briggs can be my babysitter. I’m sure he eats ketchup.”

He took another sip of his iced tea and pondered her statement. Leaving could mean a deathly consequence for her. The likes of which, she wasn’t even aware of. No, he’d stick around to make sure no another agent showed up to finish his assignment.

His secret assignment had been to recruit her into the FBI for her talents. Bringing her onboard
was
no longer a viable option and neither was his only other alternative he’d been given. Killing her to silence the potential threats his bosses seemed to think she possessed, wasn’t going to happen either. He pushed his plate toward the middle of the table. His appetite had diminished.

No matter. Having regrets wasn’t an option in his book, and he had a feeling that he owed it to himself to explore the chemistry between them. “I owe it to your brother and sisters to make sure you come out of this unscathed.”

If
Lydia
didn’t buy his comment, she didn’t say anything. She continued to eat in silence. When her plate was half empty, she pulled two twenties out of her purse and set them on the table.

He placed his hand on top of hers. “I told you penance. I’ve got this.”

Lydia
pulled her hand out from his, leaving the bills where she’d set them. “If you’re done, I’m ready to go back. The only way to get back to my life is to learn how to control my telekinesis, and the sooner I can do that, the better.”
Lydia
gestured toward the door. “I’m going to step outside and make a call if you’ll excuse me. Take your time and finish eating. I have a feeling I’ll be on the phone awhile.”

Rick reached over and placed his hand on top of hers. “I’m sorry if I said something wrong. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

Lydia
shook her head back and forth and slid per palm from beneath his. “You didn’t. I just need to check in with Mike.”

Lydia
slid from the booth and walked toward the door. She pulled her phone out of what looked to be her bra as she
left
. Rick watched her through the window, deciding that he’d give her a few minutes of privacy before he joined her.  He needed it too.
Lydia
confused him. He’d lived
for his job. He saw everything
as black and white, but with her, it was different, and that scared the crap out of him.

****

Jimmy sat in silence sipping his iced tea when what he really wanted was a beer or something stronger. Two booths away, the bane of his existence sat eating fries like they were going out of style. Hanging in town had paid off this time.

“I’ll be damned. She was right.” he whispered. The redhead was right were she’d said he could find her. That would teach him to doubt his little sexy snitch again. She’d never lied to him before.

Lydia Stevens plopped another smothered French fry in her mouth and glanced around the joint. Leaning in, she whispered to the man with her, words so softly spoken he couldn’t hear their exchange.

Jimmy narrowed his eyes. He didn’t know why
Lydia
was revered by Floyd. All he saw was a woman who could stand to lose a few pounds with unruly red hair, nothing like his goddess he’d left in the bed.

She slid out of the booth, and for the briefest of seconds, she looked right at him. She was out of her element. She didn’t even know when trouble was lurking nearby. She reached into her bra and pulled out her phone as she pushed out of the door…without her big bodyguard.

A grin spread across his lips. “Piece of cake.”

Jimmy dropped some bills on the table, and minutes later he left behind her. He wouldn’t risk taking her in broad daylight, but he’d get the opportunity soon enough.

****

Rick watched as a man stepped out of the diner after
Lydia
. A few words were exchanged, and
Lydia
’s lips turned down in a frown. Rick left his uneaten food and stood. Concern for
Lydia
overwhelmed him. Rick hurried outside just in time to see the man get in his four-door car, and speed away, squealing his tires
as he went
.

“Who was that?” Rick asked. He slung his arm around her shoulder and unconsciously pulled her closer to his side. 

Lydia
tilted her head and clutched the phone to her chest. “I’m not sure.”

“What did he want? Why were you frowning?”

“He just bumped into me and laughed, mumbled something about easy pickings.”

Rick put his hand on
Lydia
’s back and steered her back up
Main Street
to where they had parked the borrowed SUV. “We need to leave. Now!”

Rick clenched his jaw and did his best not to show his concern. He took in everyone they passed, searching for additional threats.

Lydia
slid onto the black leather seat of the SUV. 

The ride back to the compound had been in uncomfortable silence. The tension was thick, and he didn’t know how to fix it. He’d almost screwed up by giving her space, and on top of that, she was mad.

****

Lydia
couldn’t shake Rick’s comment. His being with her was a favor to her family, regardless of the attraction they shared that was like a living, breathing thing. She’d made it a point not to get into relationships, mainly due to trying to keep her gifts a secret, but with him, she’d thought she might try and take a chance. Until now. Now she’d confirmed her first thought. It would never work between them. It was better to find out now then before she fell head over heels for the man, if she hadn’t already.

He’d intrigued her from the moment they’d met back in Southall. He was a paint-by-numbers kind of guy, and she never could color inside the lines. They were doomed from the start, and she had kidded herself that they could be anything more.

The man that had bumped into her hadn’t really been a threat that she couldn’t have handled herself. With a flick of a finger and a bunch of witnesses, she could have handled the beady-eyed man. Why Rick was giving off angry vibes confused her. She was the one with the right to be mad.

Lydia
didn’t wait for Rick to put the SUV into park, before she hopped out. She made her way to the silver box and slid in the card that Jonah had given her so she wouldn’t ruin any more of his toys. The door buzzed open, and she trooped down the hall, carrying her bags, trying not to think about the man behind her.

“Thanks for not blowing up another one.” Jonah smiled as she passed.

“No problem,”
Lydia
mumbled. She’d learn to bottle up her emotions like Brody had told her if it was the last thing she did.

General Lister stood outside of his doorway and watched as Rick followed in behind her a few seconds later. “Thompson, in my office,” He bellowed his demand that carried throughout the central office.

The General retreated behind the closed door. 
Lydia
tried her best to ignore the curious glances cast her way. It was obvious that she and Rick had some type of disagreement, but as far as she was concerned, it was none of their damn business. She’d gone from upset to pissed in the amount of time it had taken them to get back to the compound. She wasn’t mad at him per se. She was mad at herself for believing that she could have normal when she was anything but.

Lydia
dropped her bags inside her door and quickly changed into her workout clothes and stomped out of the “presidential suite” with one goal in mind. She needed Brody. She was ready to throw his ass around a room and watch him bounce off walls. Her energy was spiked, and she needed an outlet, one that Rick couldn’t give her. She went in search of the flirt.