Love Inspired Suspense May 2015 #2 (32 page)

When he finally returned, Laura insisted dinner would wait until he showered. She herself had had a relaxing bath and changed into slacks and a blue sweater. Now she stood in Griffin's kitchen and looked at the huge dinner she'd prepared. To thank him and his colleagues for all they'd done, she had made lasagna.

It would be hard to say goodbye tomorrow.

Even if Griffin was able to link Hughes, the nurse or the attorney to Vin, Laura didn't see how it could help at this late date. However, she would take any help he offered.

Footsteps coming up from the security room alerted her that the others were on their way up to eat. She slid the French bread into the oven to toast and turned as Griffin, Boone and Joy walked into the kitchen. Sydney was close behind, her wild curls down tonight. Laura had invited Alex aka Ghost also, but he'd declined.

The aroma of savory tomatoes, meat and spices filled the air.

Boone sniffed the air appreciatively. “Sure smells good.”

Joy walked around Laura to check the top crust of her blackberry cobbler. “It's hard to beat Laura's family recipe for lasagna. She learned to make it from her mom.”

Laura smiled at her aunt.

Sydney chose a seat at the table that positioned her to hear most of the conversation with her good left ear. “I can't wait. It looks wonderful.”

Laura placed the pan of steaming pasta at the center of the table, then returned with the salad.

The female agent rubbed her hands together, her eyes glittering bright green. “It's a good thing Devaney agreed to let you go to the store. I have a feeling he didn't have anything in this kitchen except bread.”

“And eggs,” Laura added playfully.

“Hey!” Griffin said in mock indignation.

It was nice that they were able to joke after everything that had happened today. She needed light.

She urged everyone to sit. Griffin pulled out her chair, then her aunt's.

As he took the end chair next to Laura, he explained that Alex was staking out the nurse's house.

“Earlier he caught her on the security feed entering the prison. He monitored it hoping to get a shot of her visiting with Arrico, but it didn't happen.”

Laura tried to temper her frustration.

“The first frame showed Inhofe stepping into the visitation room. Then a guard motioned her over and she disappeared from view. She was gone for the entire time allotted to visitors. There was no more footage of her until she exited the building.”

“So there's no footage of her with Vin,” Laura said, struggling to keep her composure. Now what?

Boone nodded. “Ah, they met in a place in the prison without security cameras.”

Laura looked from him to Griffin. “The cameras aren't everywhere?”

“No.” Disgust was plain in Sydney's voice. “Which means a guard or some other prison employee helped them.” So they still had nothing that proved Cheryl Inhofe even knew Vin. Disappointed, she shook her head.

Sydney patted Laura's hand. “The nurse has to come home at some point and Ghost will be waiting. If there's the slightest thing to get on her, he'll get it.”

“I hope he can.” Laura found the female agent's words encouraging. “I'll pray about it.”

“So will I,” Joy said.

“What about the jerk who tried to inject me at the clinic?”

“Still not talking,” Griffin said. “But Officer Rydell left a voice mail that their lab found pentobarbital in the syringe he intended to use.”

There was a long moment of silence. Laura couldn't believe just how close she'd come to death again.

But she was alive. That was what mattered.

She looked around the table, telling herself to savor her last hours here. There was a normalcy in sitting there listening to the sound of voices and laughter, the clatter of silverware. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had normalcy. Or dinner with friends. Who knew if she ever would again? After she assumed her new identity, this night would be a memory she would relive again and again.

Her
second
identity. She pushed away the resentment, determined to enjoy the get-together.

The meal passed quickly and Laura had the chance to see how much the Enigma operatives liked working together. They teased and complimented each other, talking about a couple of past cases. Sydney helped Laura clear the table while Joy dished up piping-hot cobbler, then topped it with vanilla ice cream.

Everyone took their dessert and coffee into the living room. She, Joy and Griffin took the sofa. Sydney sat in one of the overstuffed leather chairs flanking the couch and Boone took the other.

Laura wistfully thought back to the evenings she'd spent with her family before the blowup with Dad. Looking around the room, she smiled as Boone told one terrible joke after another. Sydney and Griffin disagreed about movies and her aunt commented every so often.

Feeling a hand on hers, she looked down. It was Joy offering silent support. Tomorrow Laura would finish what she'd come to do, then leave. She would probably never see Boone or Sydney or Griffin again. She hoped she would someday be able to see her aunt and father.

After everyone finished their dessert, Joy and Sydney gathered the dishes and took them into the kitchen. Boone, Laura and Griffin remained at the table and talked about the Thunder, Oklahoma City's NBA team.

Several minutes later, it seemed everyone was ready to call it a night. Sydney slipped on her burgundy coat, Boone rose and patted his flat stomach, putting on the suit jacket he'd removed before dinner. “Thanks for the meal, Laura. It was great.”

“I'm glad you liked it.” She started to get up and see him out, but he waved her back.

“No need for that. Syd and I will let ourselves out. See y'all in the morning.”

“All right.” Laura didn't really want to think about tomorrow.

Griffin walked to the fireplace and knelt to pile in some of the wood stacked to the side. He waved as his colleagues left.

Joy went to her guest room to call Nolan on the new burner phone Griffin had provided. That left just Laura and Griffin.

A comfortable silence settled around them. She wanted to stay here and to spend more time with Griffin, but was that smart? Not according to the rule she'd made for herself after the debacle with Vin. Think with your head, not with your heart. She decided she didn't care. This time tomorrow night, she'd be far away and this would all be a memory.

“You're a great cook.” He looked at her over his shoulder.

“Thanks,” she said softly.

Before long the scent of wood smoke drifted through the room, mixed with the sugary smell of berries and cobbler. He reclaimed his spot on the sofa and toed off his work boots. Stretching out his legs, he rested his stocking feet on the sturdy dark wood coffee table.

He smiled over at her. “Take off your shoes. Get comfortable.”

She removed her shoes and, putting her sock feet on the table, she noticed that his were nearly twice the size of hers.

“Did you get a lot of recipes from your mom?”

“Just some special ones, like the lasagna and her chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.”

“I'd like to try those.”

Lulled by the crackle of the fire and the solid strength of the man beside her, Laura decided she could stay like this for the rest of her life.

She glanced over. Griffin's eyes were shut, his hands folded across his flat stomach. “What's the problem between Sydney and Alex?”

Without opening his eyes, he shook his head. “They're the only ones who know. Neither one has told me.”

“They sure don't like each other.”

“True. Have you spoken to your dad again today?”

“Before dinner.”

“How did it go?”

“It went well. I didn't tell him what happened today either. I'm too afraid it will jeopardize his health.”

Griffin nodded.

“At least I'm able to say goodbye before I go into the program this time.” The thought of leaving tomorrow put a knot in her throat. “The good thing is we're no longer estranged. Our relationship is so much better. Though I wish I could stay and build on it. I wish I could stay, period.”

“I think everyone else does, too.”

Laura wondered if that included him. “It bothers me that I'll have to keep up with my dad's condition through Marshal Yates. Although now I at least know he has a condition.”

It also upset her that she wouldn't be able to keep track of Griffin at all. She could really fall in love with this guy, so maybe it was a good thing that she was leaving tomorrow. That was a complication she didn't need. Surely her interest in the former SEAL would fade over time.

“I guess that's one of the hardest things about WitSec,” Griffin said. “That you can't see family and friends.”

“We're ‘strongly discouraged.'” She made quote marks in the air. “Floyd told me that only two people in the history of the program have been killed. In both instances, it was because they came out of hiding. Thanks to you, I haven't had to worry about that.”

“Much,” he said wryly.

“At all,” she said. “If it weren't for you, that guy at the clinic would've hurt me. And even though I was grabbed by those goons, you made sure Boone and Sydney reached me before the jerks had a chance to do me any real harm. I was more concerned that you were going to be the one who got hurt. Or worse.”

“Hey.” He nudged her thigh with his. “I'm still here and I plan to be. Arrico isn't getting to you or me.”

Her protector would be safer once she left, but Laura knew not to say it. “I can't believe my time here is already over.”

“I guess this is different from your first go-round with WitSec.”

“Yes, and leaving is proving to be more difficult than I expected.”

“Because of your family?”

“Not just them. I never expected to like you as quickly as I did.” Her cheeks heated. “Not just you. I mean, all of you.”

The thought of disappearing again was daunting. Depressing. Of course, when she had accepted protection before, she'd been saving her life and hadn't cared about her future as long as she was away from Vin. Now she did care. “I'll pray about it. I need to let go and trust God.”

“To keep you safe?” Griffin asked.

“That everything will work out.”

He was quiet for a moment, then said, “Maybe I should try that for my—”

Laura waited for him to finish. When he didn't, she prompted, “Try praying for what?”

He shook his head. “I've already gotten some help.”

“With what?”

“PTSD.”

She put a hand on his arm. He smelled of man and the outdoors. “You have post-traumatic stress disorder?”

“Yes.”

“From the ambush?”

He shrugged. “The episodes started after that.”

Laura wanted him to continue talking but didn't think she should push. She started to remove her hand, but he placed his bigger one over it, holding hers in place for a second.

When he released her, her heart tilted. “You said you'd gotten some help?”

“Ghost recommended a shrink friend of his. I still talk to him every once in a while.”

She searched his face. “It takes a lot of guts to seek help for a problem like that.”

“I had to. After I returned from my tour, there were some days I couldn't function.”

“Is that one of the reasons your fiancée left?” Laura had heard a lot of family members couldn't handle the unpredictability, and sometimes the violence, of the disorder.

A muscle in his jaw flexed. “Emily left after one of my episodes.”

The shame in his voice tugged at Laura's heart. “Did you hurt her during one of them?”

“No. I never touched her, but I scared her.”

“How?”

“I went away sometimes.” He tapped a finger against his temple. “Up here. I don't remember much of that. I do remember the nightmares and yelling.”

“I hate that she left because of something you had no control over.”

“Looking back on it, I don't know how much of a part the PTSD played.”

“What do you mean?”

“She told me she couldn't deal with that or the fact that I might get deployed again. I think that was just her way of softening the blow that she'd found someone else.”

“Good riddance,” Laura muttered.

He grinned. “I've forgiven her.”

“You have?”

“Thanks to you. Seeing how you and your dad patched things up.”

“Good for you! That's a big deal.” Her next words were out before she could stop them. “I wish you could forgive yourself for your friends' deaths.”

He stiffened, his leg like iron against hers. “I don't see how anybody can forgive that.”

His words, painfully raw, fell into the emptiness around them.

“God can,” she said quietly.

He shook his head. She wished she could convince him, but it would take time. Time she didn't have.

He rose, stretching to his full height. “I'm going to call Ghost.”

“All right.”

“We can watch a movie when I get back. There's a collection of DVDs in the entertainment center.” He gestured toward the massive fifty-five-inch television on the adjacent wall and its built-in cabinets.

He'd made it clear he didn't want to talk anymore. That was all right with Laura. By this time tomorrow, she'd be in a safe house or on her way to a new home, with a new name. Griffin would be moving on to the next client.

She squelched her loathing at having to leave again and stood. “I'm really going to miss yo—this place.”

“Now that I know what a great cook you are, I'm going to miss you, too.”

With a laugh, she swatted at him and he snagged her hand, tugging her toward him. His gaze dropped to her lips.

Her breath jammed in her throat. He wanted to kiss her. She wanted him to. “I thought we agreed not to do this.”