Biting her lip, Sachi felt a sudden shyness the like of which she’d never experienced. She asked, “Gabriel? Did you like restraining me last night?”
“Maybe.” The corner of his mouth kicked up.
Pressing her hand to his chest, she rose on her tiptoes and brushed a kiss to his jaw. “You can tie me up anytime you want to see if you really like it.” Because Gabriel would never hurt her, never take what she didn’t give him, never betray her. The certainty of him fixed in her soul.
His slow smile grew. “Duly noted.”
Anticipation raced over her as she hurried through the lodge to where she could hear the running water. Opening the door, she let herself inside, then leaned against it. Brad pulled the curtain back, soap on his hair and face.
His grin grew wide at the sight of her, and she murmured, “I hope you don’t mind splitting the hot water.”
When he crooked his finger, she danced into the shower. Good things only happened once in a while, but she was determined to embrace them all. His hot, soapy kiss left her laughing, and when he pinned her to the wall, she forgot how to think at all.
Chapter 7
Brad surprised him on numerous levels. After their shower, Sachi and Brad returned to the living room of the lodge with flushed, relaxed expressions, and Sachi curled right into Gabriel’s lap. They all took turns making food, talking, and Gabriel found a growing number of items he and the other man had in common. The continued lack of assumption on Brad’s part helped to settle Gabriel’s reservations. He made suggestions and expressed his interest, but he didn’t push.
More amusing to Gabriel, chess wasn’t Brad’s game. Sachi wanted to run. After her emotional night, the sudden need to run—even in subzero weather—hadn’t surprised him. Sachi exerted control over her body when she felt the world spinning without her. She could maintain her form. Giving her some time—and space—Gabriel asked Merc to shadow Sachi on her run while he and Brad finished their game. He hadn’t mentioned going over the intel—not because he didn’t trust Merc, but quite the opposite. John was one hundred percent on Sachi’s side, if he thought she needed to know, he wouldn’t hold it back.
“What my sources have been able to decipher so far is the person hunting you is a woman.” He’d gotten that update while they were in the shower, and he’d checked in with Chrome on a minor fishing expedition. As far as Sachi’s unit commander was concerned, the fishing expedition continued along with fresh shots of Sachi. These were from Vegas, and in nearly all of them, Cobalt had his back to the camera. Between the graininess and quality, Gabriel suspected the source wanted to make it look like the man with her was Brad.
Fingers on a rook, Brad’s relaxed expression erased and his eyes narrowed. The draining away of anything friendly in those eyes might have given a lesser man pause. “When the hell did you have time to reach out to your sources?”
Not smiling, Gabriel shrugged. “From the moment the promise of a threat against you included her.”
The moment elongated, then his suspicion abated, and Brad moved the rook forward two spaces. Blowing out a breath, he shook his head. “Of course you have, sorry. For a split second there…”
“You had to wonder if I was the one gaslighting you, so you’d go the fuck away?” The accusation wouldn’t have surprised Gabriel, after all, he certainly possessed the skills and the contacts to create a smokescreen.
“Except you won’t do that to her. You won’t risk her.” No question or doubt marred the statement. “And I don’t think you’re going to risk me.”
Smiling faintly, Gabriel used his bishop to take Brad’s rook and put his king in check. “Check.”
“I hate this fucking game,” Brad murmured, studying the board. “So, woman is behind the search. Did they say why they think it’s a woman?”
“Linguistics. Syntax. A visceral hatred for Sachi.” The last worried him some, except his girl was more than capable of kicking the shit out of men twice her size. A woman would be more in her weight class, and unless they got the drop on her…
Scratching his chin, Brad mused. “Men don’t usually hate her. Want to control her? Push her down? Overwhelm? Yeah, I’ve seen a lot of asshats try that shit with her. They don’t hate her.”
“Hard to hate the grail.” They shared a grin.
“She is that.” He’d never have put it in those terms, but the word fit. Hadn’t he been obsessed with her for years before finally finding her? Hell, he was still obsessed with her in many ways—obsessed with her happiness, obsessed with keeping the road clear so she could be herself—at least obsession had a name in love. Brad considered his options for getting out of check, of which there were only two. If he took the first, he’d be in checkmate in three moves, if he took the second, it would take six.
Gabriel was patient.
“So, female.” The other man tapped the desk. “Still doesn’t give us a lot to work with…”
“Have you pissed off that many women over the years?” He couldn’t resist the dig, not when the open shot was waiting to be taken.
“My fair share…” The flip response trailed off, and Brad’s hand froze on his queen. “Wait, they’re focusing on finding Sachi now, not me?”
“They’re still looking for you, but that shot on the beach keeps coming up, and other shots of her in Vegas. According to Chrome, Ant is hot on this asshole’s trail, but they are good enough to keep burying themselves, although it’s taking a lot of resources to keep burying them.” A serious problem if her image linked to the Las Vegas destruction kept cropping into the searches. Homeland hadn’t resolved the open case, and so far, he’d managed to misdirect any inquiries into her survival and extraction. Elite Metal was never there and couldn’t be linked. “If it were Red Wolf, he wouldn’t be narrowing his focus like this.”
The terrorist had been behind the trap that sabotaged Operation Phoenix and essentially destroyed their careers and lives. They still hunted him, and sooner or later, they would get him. It wasn’t a matter of if, only a matter of when.
“No,” Brad agreed, then took out Gabriel’s knight using the queen. So he’d taken option two. Five more moves to checkmate. “Red Wolf wants our guts on the deck, all shiny and splayed so we can watch ourselves die.” He sounded almost gleeful about it. “Since we fucking want the same, I get it. The beach…” The reference seemed to jar Brad. “What if that’s the clue?”
Gabriel’s gut didn’t disagree. “They want to lure you or her back to that beach. Either to visit the memories…”