Page 67 of Night Moves
He scrambled the eggs, and they talked about the Gentry kids, the weather, his interest in sports, and anything other than Gentry. He liked it. Liked it a lot. Usually, he grabbed a large cup of coffee and a protein bar and ate it on the way to the office. Or to an op. But preparing a real breakfast settled his hyper ways. He actually felt calm even with the threat of danger lingering outside his door.
They finished breakfast and took off for the morning interview with Faye. The drive was made with companionable silence and bursts of small talk like a long-dating couple might experience. He was stoked over their compatibility even if it could lead nowhere.
They turned onto Faye’s street, and Natalie faced him. “I’ve been thinking about what might stand in our way of finding Kirk.”
“And did you come to a conclusion?” he asked though he’d much rather go back to small talk.
“I think the hardest thing is that he’ll blend in with others, and it takes time before you know something’s off about him. Even then, you can’t name anything specific. It’s just a gut feeling.”
“Which is why he could get close enough to these women to kill and then interact in society where no one suspected him.”
She crossed her legs. “Of course, once you know he’s a serial killer, it all makes more sense.”
“I really wish you’d never met him. That you didn’t have to meet the people you do on a regular basis.” He took her hand. “I’ve never felt this way before, but I want to protect you from everything bad in this world and make up for the rough things you faced in your childhood.”
She blinked a few times, opened her mouth then closed it.
“That’s okay. You don’t have to say anything,” he said. “I know you don’t want a relationship. And honestly, I don’t either. But if I did…” He shrugged.
“Yeah, me too,” she said. “And don’t worry about making up for the way I grew up. I know God has a plan, and I am who I am today as a result of it.”
“Then His plan was flawless because you’re an amazing woman.” Drake kept his focus pinned to her and was likely transmitting all the crazy unexplained feelings he was having for her in one look.
She blushed, the red starting at her neck rushing over her face, and she gently eased her hand free. “We should stick to finding Kirk.”
“Yeah,” he said. “I know his kids are better off without him, but I hate the thought of them being split up.” That was as close to work as he wanted to go with all these emotions swimming in his gut.
“Unfortunately, that’s probably what’s going to happen.”
Her matter-of-fact response made him mad. “No. I won’t let them be split up. I’ll find a way to stop it.”
“How on earth are you going to do that?”
“I don’t know, but I promise I will.” He clamped his mouth closed before he promised something else he couldn’t deliver. But something about this woman made him want to promise her the moon and sun and stars and everything in between.
Outside Faye’s place, Natalie unbuckled her seat belt and looked at Drake who was drawing his weapon to pop out the thing that held the bullets and looked at it for a long moment.
“You like guns?” she asked, trying not to let him know how uneasy she was around weapons.
“My passion, you might say.”
“Do you always carry a gun?”
“I do.” He locked gazes. “Does that bother you?”
“I don’t know anything about them, but I wonder how I might feel if I were married and had children.” There she went talking children again. Maybe he wouldn’t notice. Of course he’d notice. It wasn’t like he was particularly skilled at observation or anything.
“You’ve been mentioning children a lot lately,” he said.
Yep. He didn’t miss a thing.
“I guess having responsibility for the kids is making me more conscious of what it would be like to have them in my life.”And maybe my growing feelings for you is making me wonder what havingyourchild might be like.
“I can see that. I’ve kind of been thinking the same thing.”
She had to work hard not to gape at his response, and she didn’t know how to reply so she quickly returned to the safe topic of guns. “So, what would you do with your guns if you had children?”
“Hmm.” He stowed the gun in his holster. “I’d have to really think about that. I not only carry, but I keep one in the pipe at all times, and living alone, I don’t use a gun safe for my every day carry.”
