Ultimate Courage (True Heroes Book 2) (13 page)

Elisa opened her mouth and closed it, a couple of times. She started to rub one hand up and down her opposite forearm. Her wrist brace was going to leave scratches in the skin of her opposite arm.

“Why don’t you tell me while we get you settled upstairs for the night?” Alex offered. “Cruz is probably going to be here with Gary’s computer for a few more minutes.”

Cruz nodded. “Any information is good, but I’m going to do some searches, too, to dig into any background you might not know about. Tell Rojas what you can think of in the meantime.”

“Okay.” Elisa paused. “His name is Joseph Corbin Junior. Chief Information Officer of Corbin Systems. The company is global, but the headquarters are in California.”

As she gave them both home and company addresses, Cruz made notes on a pad of paper and nodded. “Good enough to start. Let me get Gary’s computer back up to decent speed and double-check the network security.”

Basic information wasn’t what was eating at her. She hadn’t relaxed after leaving Cruz with that much.

“C’mon, you must be tired.” Rojas gestured toward the back stairs up to the studio above the school.

“It’s been a lot for one day.” She looked around, somewhat twitchy.

He watched her, considering. “Gary and Greg are going to be here soon and stay the night. If anything triggers the security, the police will be here in minutes. You won’t be alone. I’d stay, but Boom—”

“Oh, no. Boom needs you. You’ve already spent too much time today on me, and she’s still recovering.” Guilt tinged her words, and she started to open the door leading to the stairs.

“Hold up. Let us go first.” He wanted to address the guilt she was feeling over taking him away from Boom, but he applied his focus to clearing the stairs and the upstairs area first.

Stairs were always the toughest to clear, especially narrow ones like these.

Cruz called from the office. “Camera feed shows the upstairs as clear.”

Rojas relaxed a fraction but didn’t speed his ascent, letting Souze take the lead. Knowing the cameras didn’t pick up anything helped, but nothing replaced the accuracy of eyes on the area. A skilled intruder could see security cameras and hide.

Reaching the top of the stairs, it took him a few extra moments to pie the corner in such a tight space. Then they were going down the short hallway to the room Elisa was staying in and clearing it, too.

Task completed, Rojas returned to the top of the stairs and called down to Elisa. “Clear. You can come on up.”

The security system was good. He’d told her so himself. The likelihood of an intruder hiding upstairs had been minimal. But considering the latest issues she’d been experiencing, he thought indulging his tendency for overkill wouldn’t hurt and might even help her feel safer coming up to the guest room.

Once she joined them upstairs, she headed into the guest room. Rojas lingered in the doorway.

The conversation they’d been having downstairs seemed weird to pick up now, and he opened his mouth and closed it a couple of times with false starts. Talking. Not exactly his forte.

Any of his interactions with women over the last couple of years had been infrequent and brief, limited to meeting in a club or bar, maybe heading back to her place. But he’d never stay the night and never tried to see the woman again. Standing here, wanting a different kind of connection, he didn’t know how to approach it.

Elisa turned to face him from the middle of the small room. She looked lost, tiny, standing there alone.

Clearing his throat, he pushed back the clumsy self-consciousness swamping his brain. “Do you mind if I come in?”

H
e stood there for a long moment waiting for her answer.

She blinked. Startled. “You were just in here.”

Of course. He sounded incredibly stupid. “Yeah, but that was to be sure it was empty. Now you’re in it.”

Brilliant. As explanations went, it wasn’t the best he’d ever made.

But Elisa smiled. “Thank you for the consideration.” She hesitated, dropping her eyes. “And, yes, you can both come in.”

“I’m betting Souze appreciates you including him in the invitation.” Actually, Rojas really liked her tendency to keep the dog in mind.

“So.” She glanced around, opened her mouth, and then closed it again.

Glad to know he wasn’t the only one grasping for what to say. “So.”

“There’s more.” Her voice came out low, almost a whisper.

“It’s okay. You can tell me.” Alex stood waiting, tried not to press in on her or add pressure.

“Joseph designed programs to integrate with weapons systems and he was planning to sell the code instead of securing it for the US government. It wasn’t right.” Once she got started, she kept talking in a hushed stream of strained words. “He…he had it all on a laptop, locked up in his research facility. But he always took me with him. I was his key, he said. The security system required my fingerprints and my retina imprint to pass through.”

Son of a bitch. Well, this explained the added effort to get a hold of her. This ex of hers was a special kind of obsessed.

Elisa stood there, shoulders hunched and head down. A tear fell and hit the carpet.

“Hey.” He bent to one side and craned his neck, trying to get into her line of sight without crowding her. “Elisa, it’s good you told me. It’s going to be okay.”

Her eyes met his and she hiccupped, straightening suddenly and wiping away her tears with her palms. He wanted to be the one to help her brush away her tears.

“Anyway, I hated being any part of that. But it is probably important to know.”

Alex nodded. “It is. And you should know, you didn’t do anything wrong based on what you told me. You know that, right?”

She swallowed hard. “At first, I was excited to see where he worked and have access to the restricted areas. He’d told me his work would have a far-reaching impact. And it could, but not in a positive way. I didn’t learn about that until later. Going into that research center was all I did. I just opened the access points. I wasn’t a participant. I was just a key.”

Alex couldn’t think of what to say, so he just held out his hand, palm up.

She hesitated, then placed her hand in his and let him curl his fingers around her palm. He gave her a brief squeeze. Her hand was so small in his and yet her return grip was strong.

A minute later, she’d reassembled her calm.

“What time do you need me at work tomorrow?” She pulled out her phone and started to set an alarm.

“There’s a morning training session here tomorrow at oh-seven-hundred.” Easy answer. “I’ll come by to train and then take you back with me. Sophie’s bringing a bunch of baked goods to try on us for breakfast. I hope you like sweet things.”

Elisa visibly brightened. “I’ll look forward to it and to meeting Sophie. She seems to be around a lot. Finances for the kennels. Getting you all new shirts.”

Danger
. Red flags popped up inside his head. This was the sort of moment where his late wife would have been poised to jump all over him for mentioning another woman.

“Yeah. She and Forte go back a long way. They grew up together. There’s a thing between them, but they’re pretending there isn’t.” It was nice when the truth got him so neatly out from under a metaphorical bus.

“Ah.” A spark of mischief entered her gaze, and her voice held a touch of anticipation. “Then I’ll really look forward to meeting her. I like her taste.”

“I think she’ll like you, too. She’s been on us to get someone to organize our front desk forever and she’ll love the rest of the stuff you’re doing.” Actually, Rojas wondered if he’d sidestepped one minefield for another. Once Sophie met Elisa, Sophie was sure to subject him to a serious interrogation.

He really didn’t want to think too hard about the sorts of questions Sophie would ask about Elisa yet. Mostly because he was still feeling things out. Thinking too hard made things complicated.

It was simpler to act. Like he had earlier. And he’d very much enjoyed the kiss that had come out of it.

“So, tomorrow at seven, then.” Elisa hesitated, then turned to put her phone on the bedside table.

“Elisa.” He waited until she looked up at him. He dropped Souze’s leash and took a few steps to cover the distance between them and stopped.

After a moment’s hesitation, Elisa took the final step to close the space, putting her within easy arm’s reach.

Warmth rushed through him at the sign of trust, acceptance. It was getting hotter in the room. Or maybe that was just him.

He looked deeply into her expectant gaze.

No. Not only him.

He leaned forward and kissed her. Her lips were soft, brushing against his first before pressing in for real contact. Then she opened for him and he tasted her. She was honey sweet and hungry. She only let him tease her with a few flicks of his tongue before she nipped at the corner of his mouth and claimed a deeper kiss all on her own.

Enjoying himself, and her, he raised his hands to cup her face, and she gasped.

Freezing, he opened his eyes. “Is this okay?”

Her eyes fluttered open—dizzy, and with a slight hint of panic. “Yes.”

It wasn’t quite the truth. Maybe not a lie, either, but he eased back anyway.

“Don’t.” Elisa lifted her own hands and gripped the front of his tee. “You’re not scaring me. I might be scaring myself, but it’s not you.”

“And that’s all right.” He dropped his hands to her shoulders without pushing her away. “There’s a lot going on, fast. And this, this isn’t anything we need to rush.”

“I…” She didn’t ease her hold on the front of his tee.

“I can stop if you want. You can absolutely tell me to stop.” It was important for her to know that. He didn’t want to apply pressure. “And I can also be a friend, if you need ‘friend’ more.”

It’d require a shit-ton of self-control, but he could do that for her. He wanted to at least be someone she could lean on if she needed to.

“No.”

His heart stopped in his chest. He started to release her shoulders. He should go if he wasn’t wanted. And good thing if they settled it right away like this. Tomorrow morning he’d come back as an easygoing friend and do his best to let her settle into a comfortable rhythm with him again.

But Elisa released his tee to press his hands against her shoulders. “No, I don’t want you to stop. I just…need to find my way through every step as we go. And this between us is new, and complicated, and I don’t want it to get twisted up in the process.”

He grinned. Better. Much better than he’d thought. “We can take it slow.”

She looked up at him through long, dark eyelashes. “You don’t mind?”

“Not at all.” Because aside from the kisses, he hadn’t really thought it through, either. This was going to be complicated from a couple of different angles, on both sides.

She smiled then, rising up on tiptoes to kiss him again. He was really starting to like her kisses. Especially when she placed her hands on the waistband of his jeans and tugged him closer, tipping her head back and angling it for an even deeper kiss.

He slid his hands over her shoulders and down her back. Time was starting to slip away, and he was more than happy to ignore its existence.

Then a dog whined.

Elisa jerked back like she’d been splashed with cold water. “Oh. I. Uh…”

He raked his hand through his hair. “Yeah. Uh.”

He turned to regard Souze, still dutifully sitting in the doorway, staring right at them. The dog might be drunk on the pheromones in the room because his jaw hung open in a doggy grin.

“Not really into canine voyeurism.” Elisa sounded breathless and hell, his ability to speak clearly wasn’t in the best shape, either.

Mostly, his brain was scrambled. His pants also felt about three sizes too tight around the groin area.

“Rojas. You ready to go? Gary and Greg checked in; they’ll be here any minute.” Cruz’s voice came floating up the stairs.

A beat of silence. “So did Souze whine because things were getting intense or because he heard Cruz coming to the stairs?” Elisa asked.

“Actually, I don’t know.” Rojas considered himself a good trainer, and he could read canine body language most of the time. But there just wasn’t any way to know this time what exactly had nudged Souze to whine when he did.

“Well.” Elisa let out a soft laugh. “Good timing either way, I guess.”

Maybe. He was still arguing with the raging hard-on he had at the moment.

“I guess you guys are going to head back now. Boom’s going to need to take her medicine before bedtime.” Her voice had gone softer, but he heard the tremor anyway.

He turned back to her and brushed a stray lock of dark hair from her face. She’d be here by herself, and he really didn’t want to leave her alone if at all possible. And he also appreciated that Boom was at the forefront of both their otherwise chemistry-distracted minds.

Inspiration struck. “Why don’t I leave Souze here with you?”

Her eyes widened. “Really?”

“Sure.” He jerked his head back to indicate the dog. “He’s already demonstrated good behavior in your company, and it doesn’t hurt to give him some exposure to a night outside his kennel. It’s not like the two of you even have to leave this room. Cruz and I will lock up.”

The relief was palpable in her expression, the tiny wrinkles between her brows clearing. “I mean, just the company would make a difference, I think.”

He nodded. “If there’s any issues at all, call us. If you hear anything outside or if he starts to fuss in here, it’s no problem. Just hit my number on speed dial.”

“Okay.” She smiled.

“Rojas!” Cruz amped up his call a couple of decibels.

“Yeah!” Rojas called back over his shoulder. “On my way.”

Elisa rose up on her tiptoes and kissed him, then gave him a decent shove. “Go on. And thank you.”

Rojas murmured a quiet command and shut the door behind him.

“Doesn’t hurt to lock it,” he called back, muffled by the wood between them. “Gary and Greg have a room down in the basement so they won’t disturb you.”

Both Elisa and Souze stood staring at the closed door, listening to the sounds of Rojas and Cruz greeting Gary and Greg. Then her new friends were turning off the lights and locking up the school downstairs. When she couldn’t hear any more, she watched Souze as the big dog continued to stare at the door, apparently still listening. After a few more minutes, Souze sat and looked at her.

“Don’t ask me what we’re supposed to do now. I’ve no idea.” Elisa looked into those liquid, dark eyes and wondered what the big dog was thinking.

Souze seemed to be considering her, too. Or maybe she fancied he was.

After another minute, she crossed over to him. “Let me at least take off the leash so you don’t drag it around behind you.”

Souze watched her as she approached, and she decided it’d be prudent to move slowly as she reached for his collar and unclipped the leash. There was a tension. Not something she saw in his body language, but she felt it, and it eased once she backed away again. Casual petting was probably not going to be a thing.

“I should have listened more closely to the commands Alex used.” Even if she wasn’t using them, she decided to speak directly to Souze. It was what came naturally, and, at the very least, the dog would go along with natural. Right?

It was still better than being alone.

“Having you here is a hundred times better than the first night I was out on my own,” she told Souze.

Or the nights after.

She grabbed up her big purse and set it at the foot of the bed. Then she unzipped her overnight bag and pulled out a few toiletries.

“I didn’t unpack last night.” Talking to Souze as she went about her business was actually a lot more relaxing than the silence she’d moved through the night before. At least then, though, she’d been tired enough to have fallen asleep listening to the late night class below. She hadn’t heard Gary and Greg lock up for the night. Hadn’t realized when she’d been left alone.

A cold, wet touch at her wrist made her jump. Souze backed away and sat again. She stood there, mouth open. “You can’t pretend you didn’t move. You’re about five feet from where you were sitting before.”

He sat there, ears up, looking about as innocent as a really big dog could.
So?

“Did you want to sniff?” She held out her hand in a loose fist the way Alex had instructed her the first time.

Souze didn’t move.

She stared at him.

Nope. Still not moving.

Then she realized she was trying to get into a staring match with a dog as if some sort of telepathic communication was going to occur. And Alex had told her not to make eye contact.

Following her line of thought, she continued to hold out her hand but awkwardly turned the rest of her body back toward her bag and resumed fishing around in there for her sleep shirt and sweat pants. She froze as a cool, wet touch brushed over her knuckles.

Souze sniffed her hand, her wrist, and a warm tongue briefly licked her fingertips before the air around her hands turned cold with his retreat.

“Did I pass inspection?” She used both her hands to gather her stuff and faced him again.

He was back to sitting, ears up, but now his head was cocked at an angle, giving him an inquisitive expression.

“I’m going to take a quick shower.” She walked past him to the bathroom and stopped in the doorway. Just as she spun to face him, there he was again. Sitting. Facing her. Definitely closer to the bathroom than he had been before. Apparently, the wonderfully cushy carpet allowed the dog super stealth. “You do not need to accompany me into the shower.”

She stepped backward into the bathroom and closed the door in his face.