Talon frowned. “The client could have eyes on the place now.”
“The client doesn’t know who we are or what we look like,” Julius said. “We can play it cool, just walking by. We won’t stick our necks out too far, but we’ll see what she gives us. If she puts one toe out of line, she’s gone.”
Garrison sighed but nodded. Talon rubbed his hands together as if he was ready to get going immediately. Relief coursed through me. I didn’t know what’d happen to Dess after today, but I’d convinced Julius for now. Which meant I had a little more time to figure out that intriguing part of her.
“Do we have any leftover pasta from dinner last night?” I asked, springing to my feet. My stomach had been growling for the last half hour, and I couldn’t wait any longer. Carbs were the fuel for the energy I couldn’t help expending even when I was sitting still—well, relatively still.
Julius’s mouth curved into an amused grin. He gestured me toward the door. “It’s in the fridge. We all know better than to get between you and your noodles.”
I snorted and trotted down the steps to the safe-house apartment. When I reached the fridge, I paused, the door to the bedroom we’d stuck Dess in drawing my gaze.
Our guest deserved some breakfast too, didn’t she? Although somehow I suspected pasta first thing in the morning wouldn’t be to her tastes.
I strolled to her door and knocked, turning the lock in sync.
“What?” she said, sounding alert enough to reassure me that I hadn’t woken her up.
I peeked inside. She hadn’t turned on the overhead light, so the only illumination came from the small window at the top of the wall. Dess sat on the bed at the edge of the stream of sunlight, one leg crossed and the other pulled up next to it, providing her chin a place to rest. She considered me with obvious wariness. Her long black waves cascaded down her arms and brushed her raised leg, where her toned muscles showed through the fitted sweats.
With legs that looked like that, I’d fight for her to stay here forever.
“Good morning,” I said. “I thought you might like some breakfast. Come out whenever you’re ready.”
Leaving the door open, I ambled back to the kitchen, dumped the garlic chicken linguine onto a plate, and shoved it into the microwave. By the time I’d finished tapping on the controls, Dess had emerged into the main room of the apartment.
She glanced at the other guys, who’d just come back in, and then at me. “I wouldn’t mind breakfast. What are you offering?”
I’d already looked through the cupboards. Steffie updated our safe-house stashes on a quarterly rotation, so while we didn’t have much of anything fresh on hand, there were plenty of non-perishable options. “Since I’m assuming you’re not a weirdo like me who would eat pasta ten times a day if I could, there’s pancake mix, frozen waffles, and a couple different kinds of cereal.” We’d thawed the freezer milk for the latter yesterday.
Dess cocked her head. “Cereal sounds fine. Point me to it, and I’ll get it out.”
She’d learned to be cautious. Did she realize that we’d drugged her before, or was it force of habit? She’d still been shaken up by the accident when she’d accepted that mug of cocoa from Garrison yesterday.
I appreciated her sense of self-preservation even if it worked counter to our goals. As the microwave beeped, I made a quick motion. “On top of the fridge. Bowls are in the cupboard beside it. Help yourself.”
I grabbed my linguine, sat on a stool at the far end of the island, and started shoveling down my fuel, pausing to savor the first bite. I might eat it mainly for the energy boost, but I enjoyed a well-prepared plate all the same.
As Dess contemplated the two boxes of cereal and tentatively poured herself some of the nut-laced, not-so-sugary kind Julius favored, Julius and Talon drifted over. Julius took the cereal box after Dess finished with it, and Talon grabbed a smoothie he’d mixed earlier out of the fridge. Watching him chug it, I held back a grimace. I’d seen what he put in those things, and I’d sooner have licked the lawn out back.
Garrison sat on the sofa, watching us as he nursed the rest of his cocoa. Sometimes that was all he put in his stomach until lunch.
Dess perched on the stool a few feet over from me, braced toward the edge as if she thought she might have to spring off it at any second. I didn’t need Garrison’s skills with body language to pick up on the signs that she’d needed to be on guard a lot in her life before now.
She ate a couple of spoonfuls, chewing slowly and thoroughly. Her gaze dropped to my leg, which was doing its typical bounce against the rung of the stool.
“Do you ever sit still?” she asked, not with the snarky tone Garrison would have used but like she was genuinely trying to understand.
I’d spent my entire childhood being chastised for my restlessness, but I wasn’t that kid anymore. I had better things to worry about.
I flashed her a smile. “Rarely. It helps me focus. All the energy I need to power this brain ends up filtering down into my body too, and I’ve got to let it out somehow.”
She cocked her head again as she chewed. I liked the hint of playfulness that came into her face at that angle. “I guess that makes some kind of sense.”
“About as much as Blaze ever does,” Garrison had to remark. We both ignored him.
“I find many good ways to put it to use,” I said, letting a teasing note come into my voice. I wasn’t going to turn all my charm on a woman who’d just fled an abusive relationship, but a little light flirting couldn’t hurt. Maybe it’d make her feel better knowing at least one man could appreciate her without beating up on her at the same time.
“Feeling better today?” I added. I took another bite of pasta and motioned to her wrist.