She snuggled into him and he watched as her face evened out, the strain of the dream leaving her.
He might not have anything to offer her after this mission, but he would damn sure see that she was taken care of for as long as he was with her. However short a time that might be.
Chapter 7
“I need to call my boss before we hit the road,” Eleanor said when they’d finished breakfast.
Heath stood before any of the others could. “I’ll take you back to the room. We have a secure phone you can use.”
Eleanor nodded and followed him out. This time the little orange kitten pranced up to Heath and wove between his legs. One of his little black-haired brothers followed him out and meowed loudly at Heath.
Heath went to the dumpster and knelt, placing a pile of meat on the ground for them.
“Why don’t I remember this about you when we were in high school? Certainly this pied piper thing isn’t new?”
He laughed. “Wasn’t the pied piper snakes?”
She scrunched her nose up. “Actually now that you say that, I think it was rats.”
“Rats are cute,” he said.
“Ew. The point is, why don’t I remember all these animals following you around?”
His eyes heated and she was mortified at how quickly her body responded to that look.
“If I’m remembering right,” he said, leaning in, his mouth going tantalizingly close to the sensitive spot behind her ear, “we didn’t spend a lot of time outdoors together. Bedroom, cars, those were the places we hung out.”
She flushed. It was true. They’d spent a lot of their time at her house while her mom was at work at two jobs. When they did go out to other places when she finally agreed to meet his friends, it was to football games or to friends’ houses. It wasn’t often they went anywhere like a restaurant or anything.
“Still,” she said, waving her hand dismissively in an attempt to pretend she wasn’t affected by the memories of what they did in her bedroom when her mom wasn’t home, “you would think I’d have seen it sometime.”
“Suzanne Cassidy had those cats.”
Eleanor laughed. She did remember the three cats clawing their way up Heath’s clothes so they could fuss over who got to sit on his shoulder.
He shrugged. “There was Nate Benning’s dog. She was always in my lap when I was there.”
Eleanor froze, memory washing over her at the mention of Nate Benning.
Heath stopped walking and looked at her, his face a dull mask. “I’m sorry. I didn’t think.”
She shook her head. Why would he? It had all been so long ago. And when he thought of that night he probably thought of Jason Babson. But it had been Nate’s house and for Eleanor, that was enough to bring not only the memories back, but the reminder that she was the reason Heath was on this dangerous mission in the first place.
There was too much between them unsaid. Too much she was afraid to say.
He opened the door to the room he and Jangles were sharing and did that thing where they checked the whole room while she waited just inside the door. When he’d cleared it, he shut the door and retrieved a satellite phone, punching in a code and handing it to her.
Eleanor took it and crossed the room, shoving aside memories and guilt and all the emotions that were swarming her with the reappearance of Heath Davis in her life.
But she needed to focus now on putting all her energy on the job ahead of her. She dialed her boss’s number as Heath went to stand sentry by the door. She knew as special forces he would have TS-SCI clearance which gave him access to top secret sensitive compartmentalized information, so there was nothing she would be discussing that he couldn’t hear.
It was six a.m. where they were which made it three in the morning in London where her boss was currently meeting with the heads of several other countries, but her boss expected calls at all hours.
“Cheryl Kenney.” The crisp no-nonsense way of answering the phone was standard for her boss.
“It’s Eleanor.”
“I got news that you’re safe but no word on where you are,” her boss said. “Will they be able to get you to Demir’s encampment in time?”
Eleanor looked to Heath, watching his back as she spoke. It was a watch-worthy back with the way the fabric of his shirt stretched taut over bulging muscles. Her breath caught. Lord, what would it feel like to run her hands down that back as he ….
She stopped that thought before it could go further. She couldn’t go there. Wouldn’t.
“They assure me they can,” she answered her boss.
Cheryl didn’t ask where they were and Eleanor didn’t offer the information. After the two attempts on her life, she had no plans to break the protocol Heath’s team had set out for her, even with Cheryl. She didn’t in a million years think Cheryl was the leak but she wasn’t going to discuss where she was either way.
“There have been some developments on the hostage front,” Cheryl said. “We’ve got solid information on where they’re being held. The push from the deputy director is going to double now that we have solid intel.”
Deputy Director Clayton Hughes was leading the push to pull back on any talks with Onur Demir while he had American hostages. He wanted them to negotiate with the ruling party to try to cut off the pipeline of weapons to terrorist groups. Of course, that meant dealing with a government who was known for committing atrocities and human rights violations against its own people.
It wasn’t an easy decision.
Eleanor focused on the intel on the hostages. “Are they at the compound?”
The hostages were going to be the trickiest part of this negotiation. There was no way around it. It would be messy and complicated and she’d be walking a tightrope where they were concerned.
“No,” Cheryl answered. “They’re at a nearby bunker. We’re talking to the UK and France about our attempts to free them and Hughes is pushing for a joint raid on the bunker. I’ll keep you posted.”
“All right. We should be at the compound in a day and a half. If I don’t hear from you before then, I’ll let you know when we’ve arrived.”
Eleanor ended the call and handed the phone to Heath.
And then it was just the two of them in the room with no one between them and no excuse of a phone call with her boss to put off the inevitable.
Eleanor shook her head and forced a smile. They both had to know they had to address their past together eventually. Still, she didn’t know how to say she was sorry for what had happened. For the way she’d handled things. She hadn’t ever thought she’d have this conversation and she’d honestly buried things so deep, she didn’t know how to bring them up and into the open now.
But there was no time to say anything as Heath’s team filed quietly into the room and gathered their go bags to move out.
She pushed all thoughts of their past aside. She needed to be thinking of the mission. It was too important not to. She wasn’t going to be able to offer military troops to Demir and his people. The US’s support of him wouldn’t be anything so blatant and visible as that. But she had arms and monetary support to offer if the talks went the way they wanted them to go. First, though, she needed to get in there and feel things out with Demir. Her first job would be to assess the man and assess whether the US should put money and support behind him.