“As safely as possible,” I uttered, and Malone seemed to meet my eyes over the computer screen.
“Of course, as safely and quickly as possible.”
“I hardly think it’s safe to put Dani and Brady together in the limelight,” Garner said.
“What?” My voice went down ten octaves, trying to catch up to their meaning.
Malone grunted. “We’ll have your team and an entire team of FBI agents. Nothing is going to go wrong.”
“Wrong? You’d better take ten steps back and state the plan for me,” I said.
“The American Music Award ceremony is a week from Sunday. As you’d already planned on attending, I’m suggesting we put Dani at Brady’s side as his date and ensure that Fiona’s attention is focused on one, and only one, place.”
“Absolutely not. You’re not using Dani as bait,” I said, my hands curling tightly.
Dani put a hand on my arm before she spoke for the first time. “Do we think she’ll even attempt something at this large of an event? It has to be darn near impossible. The show has security on top of anything else we’d bring to the table.”
“She was escalating before you all took a runner. By the time we get to the show, she’ll be even more frustrated that her plans were disrupted. Our profiler feels she’ll want whatever comes next to be visible, big, and painful,” Malone said.
Dani swallowed, her fingers digging into my arm. I grabbed her hand, holding it below the desk, running my thumb along her palm as I had in the elevator in Tallahassee.
“Which is exactly why Dani won’t be anywhere near the AMAs,” I reinforced.
“Exactly what I was saying. I can’t guarantee either of their safety if we do something so ludicrous,” Garner chimed in. I hated that I was on the side of Tanner and Garner. I had no desire to pick their side of any battle, but I also wasn’t going to put Dani in the crosshairs of someone out for blood. I’d lay down my dead carcass in the way before that happened.
“Don’t I get a say in any of this?” Dani asked. “I mean, I know I’m just some lowly woman you’re all trying to beat your chests to protect, but seeing as I’m the one who’s had the knife and the poison literally pointed at her, I believe I should at least have a modicum of input into any plan you create.”
I was shaking my head no, but so were Tanner and Garner, and again, I hated being on their side. Hated it enough to try to step outside of my own emotions and look at it from the perspective of a mission. A mission where we were trying to get our target back safely with a terrorist group breathing down our necks.
I hated to admit that using the target to draw the enemy out was often the right choice. Not the safe choice, but the right choice if we wanted to end the battle before it developed into a full-out war.
When none of the men on the call said anything, Dani continued. “I want this to be over with. I want us all to go back to our normal lives. I’m in. Whatever you need me to do so we can catch her, that’s what I want.”
She wanted to go back to our normal lives. Those lives had us barely brushing across each other’s peripheral vision. I’d spent my morning thinking of what-ifs, and she’d spent her morning trying to get back to the moment when I wasn’t in her life on a daily basis.
I brushed all those thoughts out of my head to concentrate on Malone and the scheme he was spouting. I wouldn’t be able to tell if it was sound, logistically, until I saw the venue's floorplans, personnel placements, and the day’s schedule. I tucked any of the emotions I’d had swimming through me all morning behind the wall I’d created over the years of military school and military training. Everything else would have to wait.
Dani
MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE
“I know you haven't made your mind up yet,
But I will never do you wrong.
I've known it from the moment that we met,
No doubt in my mind where you belong.”
Performed by Adele
Written by Bob Dylan
After we ended the call with the FBI agent, Lee asked me to hang on with him and Brady to discuss some additional business. Somewhere during the meeting, Nash’s open face full of affection had disappeared behind a wall that had become his norm since Darren had died.
I wasn’t sure if it was just his game face, or if something I’d said had tipped the edge. I wanted to reach out, touch his cheek, and ask him to explain it to me, but he didn’t give me a chance. He got up, put the chair back where it belonged, and left with a curt, “I’ll let you work.”
I tried to put him out of my head and concentrated instead on the rumors which were circulating about Brady since our disappearance. The three of us talked for a long time before Lee had to take another call, leaving Brady and me.
“So, now that we’ve taken care of all the issues across my entire platform, and we’re finally alone, spill the beans,” he said with a grin.
“What beans are there to spill?” I asked even though I knew exactly what he meant.
“Don’t be coy. I saw him holding your hand. Have you two finally stopped growling at each other and started kissing instead?” Brady’s grin was infectious. He wanted everyone around him to be happy. It was just Brady.
“If I were going to speak about my personal life with my boss—and that’s a big if—I would admit I kind of like the growling almost as much as the kissing.”
Brady burst into laughter. “I knew it.”
“Who were you planning on taking with you to the AMAs?” I asked, changing the subject.
“No one. I was going to go stag,” he
