Page 19 of Keeping Her Secrets

8

Ash’s mind raced through the information he had so far. Hanley, Hashemi, the German contact, and now Moody. His gut screamed Moody was innocent, but he was trying to keep an open mind and not assume anything because that was the right thing to do.

His thoughts flipped to the woman beside him. Mari had been different today somehow. Softer, more open with him. Her sharing some of her past with him earlier had meant a lot. Even if it had ended with her clamming up again. Even now as she searched for Lois Richards’ address, he felt as if they were in this together, rather than him helping her out.

“Got it,” she squealed a few minutes later.

“Where?”

After heading back to the safe house to clean up and change, they’d stopped at a food truck to grab some breakfast burritos. While she typed information into a very high-tech looking tablet, Jake had called to say that Moody was alive and in surgery at Mercy Hospital, but it was going to be touch and go. Thankfully, his wallet had been in his inside jacket pocket, and the bullet had hit it, deflecting off course just enough that the slug had entered his chest between his heart and his collar bone. There was some damage to the upper lobe of the left lung, and he was in surgery now.

Ash had wanted to be kept in the loop, and Nick had promised he would. Trident had been a godsend. The way they’d stepped up for him shouldn’t have been a shock. Men like the ones on the Trident team were as loyal as it came and would always help a friend out if they could. Ash also had a feeling they had their fingers in some very confidential, very influential pies.

“Ten minutes from the hotel on Interbay Boulevard.”

“Let’s go.” He threw the wrapper in the trash and jogged back to the Jeep.

“So how do you want to handle this?” Mustique asked. “You know her better than I do.”

“Lois is pretty level-headed, from what I’ve seen, but I don’t know her that well. She and Jessie are five years younger than me, so we never really hung out together. Maybe being straight with her is the best option. We’ll just ask if she was with Moody last night and go from there based on her response.”

Mari nodded and rolled her lips between her teeth. He had the urge to pull over and have a taste for himself.

“What?” he asked when she continued to study him.

“Nothing, I just can’t picture you as a kid.”

“Why not?”

“Not sure, you just seem so wise and masculine, it’s hard to compute the two.”

Ash chuckled. “I was definitely not those things as a kid. I was skinny and nerdy. I devoured books, especially science books. I was fascinated by anything like that.”

“How come you never went into a science field?”

She seemed genuinely interested, and it felt strange to talk about himself. He’d spent years not being able to tell even those close to him what he did, so he’d gotten used to being flippant. But she didn’t seem to want that; she was searching for the real answer. “I nearly did, but then a recruiter for the Navy came into school and I was hooked. From that moment on all, I wanted was to be a SEAL.”

“And now you are.”

“And now I am.” Ash was struggling to keep his eyes on the road and hated that he couldn’t give her his full attention.

“It must be wonderful to know what you want to be in life and have a passion. I never really knew what I wanted to do, and this life kind of happened to me. Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, at least most of it, but it wouldn’t have been a choice.” He heard the wistful tone in her voice and his chest tightened.

“Why don’t you make a change then?”

“I can’t do that. Roz needs me, and, anyway, I’m good at what I do.” Her smile as she looked at him was both sexy and innocent a lethal combination.

“What exactly do you do? What’s your specialty?” Ash saw her face tighten at his question as she dropped her head, her eyes suddenly intent on her hand in her lap. He wanted to lift her face to his so he could really see her.

“I’m afraid to tell you. You’ll look at me differently.”

“Have I so far?”

“No, but that’s because you haven’t seen my work. The fantasy is very different from reality.” Her voice was small and full of regret.

“I get that—being a SEAL isn’t how the TV portrays it either.”

“So, earlier Jake mentioned a club, and you hinted he was a Dom. Were they at a BDSM club when you called them last night?”