Page 9 of Cold Silence
“I need to get out there and see this operation of yours.”
“Just don’t go getting injured because you want to work for the super team.” Gage laughed, but Travis could tell it was forced. All of Gage’s team members had to leave their former jobs due to injuries and weren’t employable in their chosen fields anymore. Gage’s team provided them challenging work when they might not find anything close to their prior jobs, but they all still had lost their chosen professions.
“I’ll check the flights out and text you my plans,” Gage continued.
“Thanks, man.”
“You’d do the same for me.”
“I would.”
“Later, man.” Gage ended the call.
Feeling a bit more optimistic about his assignment, Travis strode down the hall to find Claire and share the good news. Hopefully she wouldn’t see Gage as a substitute for Travis’s protection but instead as an enhancement.
If she tried to use this as an excuse to stay away from him, he didn’t know what he might say or do.
3
Claire wanted to keep her clothing for the Veritas staff to process for touch DNA tonight, but she couldn’t tell the police about the theft and that meant she had to hand the bag to the detective.
“Don’t expect instant results,” he said from where they stood inside the institute’s front door. “Our lab is notoriously backed up, and they’ll have to wait their turn in the queue.
She nodded but hoped the Army could find a way to speed them along.
“I’ve got men out canvassing the area,” Purcell said. “Maybe we’ll get lucky and have a witness to the attack. Or at least someone who saw the guy in the van. Or got the van’s plates. Or even security camera feed of the vehicle.”
“Other than the DNA that would be your only lead, right?”
He nodded. “Unless you’ve thought of someone who might want to try to abduct you.”
She shook her head and hated lying to this honest, hardworking man. She didn’t actually have a name of someone who might want to abduct her, but she did have a motive.
He fished a business card from his pocket and it was as rumpled as his jacket. “Call me if you think of anything, and I’ll keep you updated on our findings. In the event this was a random attack of a man wanting to abduct a woman, we’ll increase our patrols in the area. Until then, keep your eyes and ears open.”
She nodded, and he stepped out, swinging the bag holding her favorite running attire. She would have to break in a new pair of shoes on her next run, truly the least of her worries. Now she needed to deal with her staff and get them on board with a testing schedule for Travis.
She made her way down the hall to their large conference room where they and Travis waited. They were deep in discussion over the sequence they wanted to follow in the testing. She hated tricking her team this way. Making them think his sole purpose for visiting was the testing. She didn’t want to use them this way. She would really put him through the testing as much as she could. Starting this afternoon. Then she would use the results of his tests to make the software and prototype even better. That way she wasn’t misleading the team—at least not as much. Sure, they might be mad when they found out about the theft, but hopefully she could explain it well enough to not ruin any relationships she’d built over the years.
She glanced around the room at the team’s excitement over having a top-rated special operator testing the prototype. Travis seemed equally as interested. Or at least he was fully engaged, and for the first time since they’d laid eyes on each other again, his dark gaze wasn’t locked on her.
She closed her eyes, hoping when she opened them he would be gone. But he was there. Being charming. Handsome. Captivating. Everything she remembered him to be and more—and everything she couldn’t have.
Which is why she’d been terribly rude to him outside and why she needed to keep her distance until she could figure out how to spend time with him and not open her heart again. That meant ending this meeting and sending him to the testing room. While he ran through several CATS simulations, she would gain time to process his arrival, and as a bonus, she would cement his cover story with her staff.
She clapped her hands. “Okay, people, let’s get to it. Be sure to make Captain Chapman feel at home.”
He came to his feet, his body radiating power and demanding attention, but he immediately disarmed her staff with a smile, much the same way he’d once disarmed her.
“Please.” He directed a pointed look at Claire. “Captain Chapman is a mouthful. Call me Travis.”
An intern posed a question, and Claire adjusted her spare pair of glasses to watch Travis answer. He held his shoulders back, accenting his flawless posture and the perfect fit of his dress uniform. Even after hours of travel, making phone calls while she’d showered and changed, plus sitting through this staff meeting, the green and khaki fabrics were still crisp and neat with perfect seams.
His dark brown, nearly black, strands were long enough on top that once upon a time she hadn’t been able to keep her fingers out of them, and he had a close-cut beard in a matching color. He was allowed to go against standard regulations and have facial hair and longer hair to blend in on covert missions. Not that it mattered here, but maybe he’d just arrived stateside or was on the way somewhere else when this theft interrupted the deployment. If so, he was probably even less happy with the arrangement than she was.
Julie approached him, and his smile widened, one corner crookedly tipping higher. Claire remembered a similar smile when they’d first met. A smile that had made her feel as if she was the only person in the room.
Enough. An hour with the guy and you’re instantly where you were two years ago.
