Page 63 of Her Unflinching Warrior (Omega Sky)
Gideon must be doing some serious playing with the dog. He must not have had to dress up like he did yesterday.
Jada opened the refrigerator and pulled out the fixings for the smoothie that Gideon liked to have when he got home.
“Hey, Jada. Did you have a good day?” Gideon asked as he walked into the great room.
“Yep,” she smiled.
He leaned over the kitchen island. “Whatcha doing?”
She cocked her head. “Really? You really need to ask?”
Gideon chuckled. “Okay, a better question would be, why are you doing this?”
“How about the fact that you’re letting me stay here to recuperate?” she responded mildly.
“Jada, we talked about that. It’s not just because you need to recuperate. We haven’t found hide nor hair of Miles Albright. He’s gone to ground. Until he’s found, you’re a target.”
“And I totally disagree. Right now, Risk Guard is being audited with a fine-tooth comb. Reynolds is doing their damndest to disassociate themselves with the man. I’m telling you, he’s on a plane to some tropical island with Naomi’s sister, never to be seen or heard from again.”
“Until we track him down, you’re not allowed anywhere he can find you.”
She gave him a dirty look as she grabbed the raspberries out of the refrigerator.
“Look on the bright side; there are still strings we can pull and angles we can look at. We need to trace back what Bonham was working on, and who he might have been leaking to,” Gideon reminded her. “The guys are working on that, and they’re going to update us in two days.”
Jada threw the raspberries into the blender and started to peel a banana, turning her face away from Gideon. She hated thinking about her time in the boathouse and Bonham’s screams.
“Hey, look at me,” Gideon prompted. She shook her head.
“Are you still upset about Bonham?” he asked gently.
She whirled around. “Of course, I am,” she practically shouted. “He’s dead, and I couldn’t save him.”
“Ah, Jada, there was nothing you could have done to save him. You told Ryker and me about him as soon as you could. Hell, you were barely conscious, but you got us the information. Unfortunately, it was already too late. They’d killed him before you told us about him.”
“I know, but it’s just that we were in it together, you know? He was in the room right beside me in the boat house.”
Gideon came around the island and pulled her close. “I am so sorry about that man. So sorry. I wish we could have saved him, I really do.”
Jada turned and pressed her face into Gideon’s chest. She took a deep breath of his woodsy smell. He’d taken a shower at the base—she could smell his soap and the other scent that was all Gideon.
His arms came up around her.
“Are you going to be all right? I thought you’d come to terms with Sid Bonham dying.”
“I did. I do. I am.” She looked up at him and fell into his gaze. “It’s just I feel so bad that he was all alone in the world, you know? He didn’t have anyone. He was all alone. He didn’t have a wife, kids, or even living parents.”
Gideon’s arms tightened. “I know, Angel.” His warm brown eyes were so sympathetic, so caring, and Jada suddenly realized that Gideon only really talked about his brother Mike. She knew that his father was dead, and his mother lived in San Jose, California. But why didn’t he talk about her?
“Do you ever feel alone?” she asked.
“No, I’ve got my team,” he answered at once. “Then there’s Mike and the boys,” he smiled. “With Felix and Kyle, it’s like I have four nephews, not just two.”
Jada bit her bottom lip and she saw Gideon’s eyes flare. “What about your mom?” she asked tentatively.
“Ma?”
“Yeah. You never talk about her. You’ve heard about all of my brothers, my mother, and my uncles ad nauseam. I bet you could recite all of their names by now.”
