Blindsided (11 page)

A throat cleared behind them. The momentum of their joined hands halted, just inches short of her goal.

“You’re table is ready, sir.”

“Shall we?” Garret asked, tucking her hands into the crook of his elbow instead.
 

Damn. She’d been given a reprieve for her idiotic tendencies, but the thing was, she’d rather have jumped off that bridge.

***

By unspoken mutual consent, they pushed aside any serious discussion until after dinner. Instead they spent the time talking about other things, mostly her studio. Teigan listened, interjecting questions occasionally just to keep her talking. He could have listened to her all night. Her voice was full and beautiful, her speech simple and elegant. It was made to seduce, made for sex. Soft bedroom whispers, before, during, and after intervals of tantric lovemaking. He wondered what she’d be like in bed. Smoldering fire, he decided. She was all unintentional seduction: her full kissable lips, the delicate curves of her body, the carefully controlled passion of emotions she tried to hide. He got hard just thinking about coaxing those passions out of her.

“You’re military, Garret,” she broke in after the waitress had cleared their dishes.

The use of his brother’s name jerked him out of his happy little fantasies. Oh yeah, he was a lying jerk. That would be a great way to start a relationship.
 

“Not anymore,” he responded, playing the part. Was there a level beyond blows-the-big-one? If so, this assignment had just reached it. Why couldn’t he have met her some other time? Some other place, even…say, in Tahiti, while he used up some of those banked vacation days he had piled up. That would’ve been about perfect. There they could spend all day and night getting to know each other as they tangled in the sheets.
Oh that’s right, because the government doesn’t believe in vacation. My job is my life.

“You have friends there,” she went on.

“I do.” Truth. He did have friends in the military. “We aren’t so close anymore.”

“They check up on you. More than likely they’ve already seen me with you.”
 

He could tell she didn’t like this last bit. He took a sip of wine, considering if there was anything more to it than the typical unease at being watched.

She pursed her lips, tilting her head to the side. “Was that who was in the house? Someone from the military checking up on you?”

He didn’t see any reason not to agree, and it was merely a twist on the truth. “A military buddy of mine stopped by. You seemed so urgent. I didn’t tell you, because I didn’t think it was important.”

White teeth nibbled on her bottom lip as she considered. Full, plump—he could just imagine how the natural blush of rose would deepen after he’d had his fill of them.

“Why was he there? To check up on you, or something else?”
 

Teigan shrugged, even though he knew she couldn’t see it he didn’t expand.

“Garret…” she started. He flinched. He was really getting sick of hearing his brother’s name on those lips. “I’ve heard…I’ve heard that something has been happening to them, the other V-10. That someone’s been…eliminating them.”

And this conversation had just gone from personal to business.
 

His mind went alert, focused. He sat up straighter, his eyes drifting around the outdoor seating area. The tables closest to them were empty, with only three or four other couples at the far end of the patio and the waitress nowhere in sight.

He breathed a sigh of relief that his sloppiness hadn’t cost them anything.
Guess it only takes discussions of life and death to bring my attention back where it should be.
 

“How do you know that?”

She shook her head. “It doesn’t matter.”

He grabbed her hand on the table, using the pretext of intimacy to lean closer so as to not be overheard. “Like hell it does. How do you know that?”

Something flickered across her face. “I have contacts, too.”

“Who? Damn it Aria, this is important,” he hissed in low tones. “If someone is leaking secrets, the government needs to know, because the only people who know what’s been going on
are
government, or the killers themselves.”

She withdrew her hand from his, encircling her waist. “You already knew what was going on. Didn’t you?”

He took a deep breath. “I did. Now I want to know how
you
know. How you knew of me specifically, and why you searched me out.”

“I did what I thought was right. If you hadn’t been warned yet, then someone should do so.”

“Why do you give a shit about me or the others like me?” Wow, that was good. He really was getting into the role. Or he was just a natural at being a lying jerk.
Doesn’t matter
. He pushed the guilt aside.
Focus on the mission. She’s your best lead.
“Obviously whoever told
you
didn’t, or they would’ve come to tell me themselves.”

Tell me it was some friend in the government, Aria. That they slipped up around you and then made you promise not to tell anyone.

She sighed. “I care because I always thought it was unfair. No child should grow up like that. Like some lab rat rather than a human being.” She leaned forward earnestly, her hand fumbling on the table and finding his own. So delicate, so small against the roughness of his own large hand. “And you
are
human.”

He looked into her eyes, expecting to see something more than the blankness there. What he saw was his own reflection: The reflection of a liar. She thought he was Garret. The compassion, the interest she’d shown him thus far was for another man.

“Every one of you.” Her other hand drifted up, searching, found his tense jaw. “And because you’re human, I don’t think anyone should be able to control your fate but yourself.”

“You think that.” Beyond lying jerk, lying ass, no lying dickhead, because that’s all he seemed to think with when he was around her—his dick, which had drawn to attention again the moment she’d touched him.

“I do.”

“Some people would think that we’re freaks. An abomination. They might see that as a reason to kill us off.”
 

She dropped her hand, tilted her head down slightly. “Some might. Or maybe someone thinks they’re better than any of you. Maybe that someone thinks the way to prove it is to eliminate the competition.”

His blood chilled. Though it was worded as such, her comment didn’t sound like speculation. Little red warning lights went off in his head. Not his little one, he may have been thinking with that one too much around her, but that didn’t mean his big one had completely shut down. He may’ve been a lying jerk, but she was lying by omission. And what she knew could be highly dangerous to not just the government, or Garret, but her as well.

“That’s it.” He grasped the hand that had been laying over his on the table, pushed back his chair. He had to get her out of here. He didn’t know who had told her about the murders, but whoever it was had to be involved. And if they told her, it had either been a major slip up and they were sweating bullets now, or they were using her as bait. Either way, they both were in danger right now.

“What?” The startled question spilled from her lips in a gasp as he yanked her out of her chair.
 

“This place isn’t private enough for this discussion.” He dragged her through the trellised archway leading to the parking lot and the ex-V-10 hiding in it below. The fact that Garret had been out there watching over them this whole time was a little reassuring, but not completely.

“Let me go,” she hissed and jerked her arm.
 

He held firm, down the short flight of concrete stairs toward the pavement with her in tow. It wasn’t a graceful descent, given that she was pulling against him, but he succeeded in keeping her from falling down the half flight.
 

“No. We’re going someplace that’s private enough to really talk. And you’re going to tell me everything you know, because you sure as hell aren’t telling me everything right now.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she hissed.

“Like hell you’re not.”

“Garret. Let me go!” She pulled again, almost breaking his grip.
 

He turned toward her, intent on tossing her over his shoulder if need be. Panic was settling heavy between his ribs and he wanted to get her tucked away somewhere safe—with at least two or three V-10s around her—before they discussed anything more.
 

He didn’t have time to register the swing of her free arm before the fist connected to his solar plexus. The blow was stunning, knocking the air right out of his lungs and jerking him off his feet.
 

Holy shit! His grip broke and he landed unceremoniously on the pavement. The first thing he noticed—after the world righted in some semblance of order—was their little struggle had attracted attention. Couples peered over the vine-covered fence at them, among them their waitress who then disappeared. The second was that Aria was standing there above him, staring straight ahead, a stunned expression on her face.

“You’re not Garret.” She started backing away, her hands outstretched and searching. Her head shook back and forth, back and forth. “You’re not Garret.”

“Jesus.” He finally managed to draw air, expelling the expletive as he pulled himself to his feet. He wasn’t Garret. He was Teigan. A normal, albeit athletic, man who had no chance of standing up to the punch she’d just delivered. She
was
one of Viadal’s. But just as obviously, she was blind as well. Otherwise, she’d be turning and running by now. Not fumbling around and stumbling on the uneven ground.
 

A little mewing sound erupted from her throat. He realized that despite her strength, her blindness made her highly vulnerable. And now she was scared because she didn’t know who he was or what his purpose had been in deceiving her.

Tentatively, he moved toward her. “Aria. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“You’re a liar!” she spat out under her breath. Her hand found the hood of a car. She followed it around, away from the restaurant. Why? She must realize she was moving further from the possibility of aid. He let her go.
 

Jogging back to the table, he pressed his wrist unit to the tab meter in the center of the table to cover the bill, keying in a healthy tip. A last minute thought had him grabbing up Aria’s baton and purse—he’d completely forgotten them before. He ignored the uneasy stares. Most likely they would brush it off as a lovers spat. She hadn’t screamed for help. She was now following the backs of the cars behind the building to where their car was parked.

Maybe she was actually going to go with him willingly, let him explain…
Yeah and pigs can fly.

He caught up, holding the baton before her so she ran into it. She grabbed it out of his hand. He handed her the purse as well. She grabbed that, too.

“I’ll help,” he said, taking her elbow. She jerked her arm out of his and switched on her baton.
 

He drew in a deep breath, wincing at the burn in the middle of his chest. “You pack a real wallop.”

She ignored that.
 

“My car is a row over. We’ll go back to the house and talk.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you.” Her voice was calm and even now. It appeared she’d overcome her initial panic.

“Then why are you in the parking lot?” he asked.

She fumbled her way around the end of another car, cocked her head for a moment before striding across the open lane to the next row. “So I can get you out of sight before I beat the crap out of you for lying.”

“Ah.” He nodded, trying to hide the amusement in his voice. By God she had spine. He liked that—even if he didn’t like being on the receiving end of it. “Maybe I should tell you that my half-brother is close by then.”

“I’ll beat the crap out of him, too,” she vowed.

“The real Garret might give you more of a challenge.”

She stopped and sucked in a large breath, using both her nose and mouth. It sounded like a hiss between her clenched teeth.
 

Her head swiveled toward a nearby car. On the edge of the lot under a broken solar lamp, it was the perfect place to hide. It didn’t take much to deduce that his half-brother was there.
 

“You smell alike,” she sounded
almost
amused. Almost. “That explains why the house smelled like you. I dismissed my suspicions because you fit in with the scents there; like you actually belonged.”

“Let’s go to the house,” Teigan suggested. She shook her head. Teigan jerked his head at Garret. “We can all go to
your
house then, if you’ll feel safer.”

Garret came out, eyes scanning. He stopped and looked at Teigan questioningly before coming too close.
Yeah, what the hell am I doing?

“Aria.” He waved Garret forward. “I’d like you to meet my brother, Garret, half-brother actually.”

Garret frowned but closed the distance, offering his hand when she held her own out to shake. Teigan watched with interest as her grasp clenched over Garret’s, how his brother’s eyes narrowed before he turned to Teigan and nodded.