She smiled. “Okay. We’re trusting you with our lives and our data. Don’t let us down, Thomas.”
He grinned widely. “I’m on it, Maddie my girl. The day I let down a Delta is the day the world ends.” He shooed them out of the office and then shut the door behind them.
Maddie smiled up at Braden. He returned her smile, but a bit more cautiously. She worried he was going to try to pick back up the conversation from the car.
“Well, he’s …” Braden began.
“Very with it, Braden my boy, very with it,” Thomas said through speakers that broadcast throughout the main area.
Maddie laughed.
“The cameras pick up everything in the main area,” Thomas explained to them. “So watch your dissection of my craziness until you’re snuggled in bed.”
Braden joined her in laughing. “I was going to say impressive.”
“Don’t I know it.” Thomas laughed. “Now let me work.”
“Sir, yes, sir.”
“Youarein the military,” Thomas teased, then he fell silent.
Smiling, Braden put his hand on her lower back and escorted her down the stairs. Maddie felt warm immediately from the simple touch. She broke away from him as they entered the kitchen and found printed instructions on which part of the dinner was in the oven and which part was in the fridge.
Braden held up the instructions with a smirk but didn’t say anything. Maddie smiled back. Thomas was definitely eccentric, but she liked him. And more importantly, she trusted him. They were safe here and Thomas would watch their backs and let them know if trouble arose.
They loaded their plates with a baked pasta dish filled with veggies, sausage, hamburger, marinara sauce, and loaded with cheeses. There was also cheesy breadsticks and a fresh salad with red onion, sliced tomatoes, shaved parmesan, and Italian dressing. On the counter was a beautiful layered chocolate cake covered with a glass display case, a huge slice cut out of it.
“So he didn’t touch the dinner, but the cake …” Braden raised one shoulder.
“I’d skip dinner for that cake,” Maddie said.
“It was well worth it,” Thomas said through the speakers. “I’ll eat some of the pasta as a midnight snack. If your boy doesn’t devour it all.”
“We promise to leave you a little piece,” Braden teased.
Their only answer was a chuckle.
They smiled at each other, then took their plates to the table and got glasses of ice water. The food was delicious, especially the chocolate cake, but their dinner conversation was mostly centered on the food and the beauty of the sun setting over the lake. Maddie wasn’t sure if it felt stilted because they knew Thomas was listening in, even though he was probably immersed in his work by this point, or if it was because of everything between them that she didn’t know how to address. If she was a normal woman without the guilty burdens and responsibilities crushing her shoulders, she’d be begging him to date her, to kiss her, to hold her every night.
After dinner, they cleaned up together, storing the food in plastic containers in the fridge for Thomas to have as his midnight snack. The awkwardness between them grew.
“Would you like to take a walk by the lake?” Braden asked.
“That sounds great.” Stretching her legs did sound wonderful. Being alone with Braden in a romantic spot at night? Not so much.
Okay, it sounded wonderful. But the reality was she’d have to stay strong and knock him down if he tried anything. Or regret it for the rest of her life if she fell prey to his goodness and appeal. It wasn’t fair to him and it would be too painful for her.
If she let light into her heart and let Braden heal and love her, she could never complete her next job. She wouldn’t be able to stand returning to the darkness.
ChapterTen
Braden appreciated Thomas’s delicious food and what he was doing to decode the drive, but he was ready to be outside of the house and talk to Maddie without Thomas listening or piping in.
If only he could somehow break through Maddie’s walls. He could hardly believe this beautiful woman who was so intriguing and impressive to him said she “shot men in the heart.” He’d known she was a talented fighter, and he’d seen the darkness and coldness at times in her eyes. Her nightmares were another clue her life path wasn’t sitting well with her soul, but who was assigning her missions where she had to kill men? That didn’t seem like an Admiral Davidson Delta assignment. It had to be extra-military. He could tell that while her training was impressive, it wasn’t military.
They walked to the rear patio door and she looked up at the camera in the corner. “We’re going on a walk. I’m armed, and we’ll stay close and be careful.”
“Mosquito repellant in the laundry room. You’ll want to drench yourselves in it.”