“If staying on top of things to maintain progress is controlling, then I’m guilty as charged.” He lifted the bottle to his mouth and drank.
“Staying on top,” she mused. “Does that translate to checking on status? Or making pointed suggestions?”
The empty water bottle crackled in his fist. He screwed the cap back on and tossed it in her backseat.
“Got your suitcases?”
“Yes.” She had been tempted to leave her son in the care of Callie and her Aunt Belinda, who was an investigator for the Asheville police department, to make him think twice about commanding her again.
But she couldn’t bring herself to separate from her son. Not after her assailant’s implied threat. If he knew where Brodie went to school, it wasn’t a great leap to assume he knew where they lived.
After she told Callie where she’d be for the next few days, her sister had danced around the kitchen and made suggestive motions with her eyebrows before she finally agreed to camp out at her friend Jessica’s house.
“Good girl.”
Her teeth clenched. “I don’t need to sleep here to do my job.”
“Staying here will reduce the distractions.”
She braked. “Would you have the same concern if I were a male agent?”
“If he were a single dad, yes.”
The matter-of-fact way he answered her took the wind out of her indignation. She released a harsh breath and checked to make sure Brodie was still asleep. A small line of drool eased from his mouth.
She turned back to Zeke. “I’m sorry. Since my husband died, I’ve had to take time off work for parenting and it’s not going over well with some of my colleagues.”
He rested a tanned forearm on her open window and leaned forward. “You’ve witnessed firsthand our security. This is the safest place for him to be, and he’ll be close to you.”
After their blowup yesterday and a cooling-down period, she had been able to see the benefit of staying on-site during the planning phase. She just didn’t like being told what to do with her son.
She also regretted her “den of thieves” comment. Other than some initial surliness from Phin and Lynette, everyone had gone out of their way to be kind to her, despite their feelings on how the Bureau had treated Ash.
“I’m sorry for what I said about your family being thieves. You didn’t deserve that.”
A charged moment passed before he nodded. “I’ll ask Clara to meet us at the Friary.”
“Who’s Clara?”
“She homeschools her ten-year-old daughter, Sadie. I’ve already spoken to her, and she agreed to watch over Brodie during the day.”
“Thank you.” Gripping the steering wheel, she stared down the road. “Brodie’s pretty self-sufficient, but if we don’t watch him, he—” She broke off, realizing she’d ventured into the too much information arena.
“He, what?” A note of concern entered his voice.
She swallowed, uncomfortable talking about her personal issues with a relative stranger. A stranger that could do such wicked things with his tongue. “He, uh, tends to spend too much time playing video games.”
“Doesn’t sound too unusual.”
“It is for my son. I used to have to drag him into the house. He and his friends would spend hours just throwing a ball around.”
“What changed?”
Her throat tightened. “A Charlotte’s Knights game and a slicing foul ball into the stands.”
“The ball hit his dad?”
Nodding, she bit her lip and looked away.