Blindsided (Sentinel Securities) (8 page)

She was ordered to push the swing higher by a squealing Lucy and basked in the simply joy of listening to her baby giggle. A twinge of guilt ran through her as she thought of Declan and all he was missing out on, but she strengthened her resolve and reminded herself of all the reasons
he could not
be allowed into her daughter’s life. If he'd wanted to be a part of it, he'd had plenty of opportunity to do so, but until he made better choices in his life and gave up his wild and dangerous ways, there was no way she would allow him to bring any harm to their daughter. 

Still, it made her sad to think he was missing out on something as wonderfully precious as this sweet little face staring back at her.

Brie held Lucy's hand as they walked back towards home an hour later. It'd been such a nice afternoon that time had flown and they'd stayed out later than she'd intended. Now it would be a bit of a rush to get dinner started, Lucy in the bath and the washing done. Despite her earlier rebellious decision to leave it, she really couldn't afford to, when she knew her uniform she'd need for tomorrow was in there and wasn't going to wash and dry itself!

A shiver ran up Brie’s spine and she lifted her head, looking around cautiously. She had a strange feeling someone was watching her. Maybe the run in with those bikers in the car park earlier had shaken her a lot more
,
but couldn’t see anything that looked remotely sinister.  

Taking a deep breath, she summoned up a smile for her daughter who came to tug on her shirt, eyeing her mother cautiously. "Come on Chicken Lips; let’s get you in the bath. Mummy needs to get dinner started."

She busied herself with the evening ritual of bath, dinner and bed, all the while trying to shake that foreboding sense of doom that continued to lurk. After putting a load of washing on, Brie decided not to venture outside to hang it on the clothesline, trying to reassure herself it wasn’t because she was suddenly paranoid over a silly encounter with the men on bikes, and trying to convince herself she was just being cautious…she could hang the rest of it out in the morning. She hung her uniform over the back of the chair in front of a fan for the night, and switched the jug on to make herself a hot drink before she contemplated going to bed early.

The knock on her door, had her heart leaping into her throat and a moment of complete terror made her reach for the phone, her finger poised over the zero button as she edged toward the front door to peek out the spy hole. A rush of relief gushed from her as she saw the familiar, but no less harmless figure, that stood there. Opening the door, Brie tried to keep her pulse rate even, hoping he wouldn't notice her hands shaking as she greeted
Jason
warily.

"Hope you don't mind me dropping by, but I tried calling earlier and you weren't answering."

"I was out this afternoon…was it something important?"

  "No, not really, I just wanted to see if you'd like to come out to dinner with me sometime."

"Ah…" It was hard to concentrate as she did a quick glimpse of the street behind him, making sure there were no strangers lurking in the shadows.

"You okay?” he asked and Brie had to fight not to throw herself into those strong arms and let him wipe away all her fears. But of course, she couldn’t do that—he was virtually a stranger and she’d look like an idiot, scared of her own shadow.

"I'm fine." A car drove past a little faster than it should in a built up area, and Brie struggled not to flinch at the noise. She was a basket case and she couldn't even pin it on anything substantial. This was so
not like her.
"Look, why don't you come inside." She told herself it was only polite to invite the man in; there was nothing more to it.
Chicken
, the little voice inside her head taunted, but she ignored it, turning to lock the door securely behind Jason as he headed inside.

****

Nash waited for her in the lounge room, taking in her nervous glance out the front window and edgy manner. "Are you sure you're okay?” he took a sniff of the air, “Do I smell something baking?"

He watched as she sent him a smile. It lacked the usual brightness, not that he'd been on the receiving end of too many since he'd wedged his way into her life but this smile was pathetic at best and he felt for her anxiety. It was obvious she’d been spooked today. Had she known those men on the bikes? Did she know what they were after? How far was she involved in all this? Part of him still refused to believe she knew anything. He’d trust his gut anywhere, anytime, but he also knew where Briella was concerned he wasn’t thinking as clearly as he normally would and maybe his gut wasn’t as reliable as he’d like it to be at the moment. But something had definitely rattled her tonight.

"It's just been a long day. And yes—I threw in a batch of Anzac biscuits. Coffee? Something stronger?" she offered, not waiting for his answer before heading out to the kitchen.

"Wow, must have been a bad day if you're baking
and
hitting the strong stuff.”

"Actually, I don't have anything stronger…but I can make a double strength coffee," she told him and his heart clenched as she mustered up a weak smile for him. 

"I'll have what you're having. Unless you'd like me to make it for you? Why don't you take a load off and I'll bring your coffee in?"

"I can't let you do that, you're the guest" she protested, but he calmly took the cups from her hand and began making it despite her protests.

"Go on, sit down for a bit." He hitched an eyebrow at her, holding her frown until she gave a sigh of defeat and walked over to the same bar stool he'd sat on that first night. Happy that she was going to allow him to do this one small thing for her he hid the satisfied grin that tugged at his lips. He knew it was probably going against that control-freak grain of hers to sit and watch someone else waiting on her
,
but it would do her good and he had to admit, the thought of taking care of this woman felt oddly satisfying. "So tell me about your bad day."

He heard the small grunt as she rolled her gaze and gave a weary shake of her head. "I'm just tired I think. I've been imagining all kinds of dumb things lately."

"Like what?"

"Nothing."

The warning behind the tone was firm. It didn't matter though, he knew damn well why she was jittery and it was not her imagination. He had hoped though that she'd tell him about it. There was nothing he could really tell her or explain how he already knew about it all, but it would have still been nice to have let her vent a little and be there for her. He had a feeling there wasn't a lot of people that Briella Matheson could talk to.

He remembered she had sugar and milk after watching her make the coffee last time and pushed the sugar bowl across to her after bringing across the two cups of coffee.

"And he's domesticated too," she murmured, accepting the coffee with grateful thanks.

"House trained and everything," he added flatly as he came around the counter and sat on the stool beside her. He caught her glancing toward the window once more and followed her gaze. The street lights were on but there was no movement on the street below. He hated seeing her so worked up and wished he could reassure her there was no way anyone was going to get to her or her baby, not with five of the sharpest sets of eyes on her around the clock. But he couldn't say that, because then she'd just be wondering why they were watching over her...and he wasn't at liberty to reveal that just yet…

Brie sipped at her coffee and sighed. For the moment at least, she didn't have to think about that icy chill of foreboding she'd had since this afternoon.  She knew it was dangerous to be thinking about Jason Nash as her knight in shining
armour
…he was far from it. But right at this very moment, having him here with her was a relief she hadn't been expecting. She knew nothing about this man and yet somehow, she knew when he was around her, she’d be safe. Was it just her over tired mind playing tricks on her? Or were these instincts trustworthy?

Maybe she should tell him about the bikers she'd seen earlier, but then he'd probably think she was some neurotic female who jumped at shadows and feel the need to play the hero…or worse, maybe he'd think it was a ploy on her part to get him to stay the night.

Her heart beat picked up at the thought, and this time it wasn't in fear, but something very different.

"I might need your expertise." Jason glanced up and Brie gave an exasperated shake of her head at his hopeful expression. "So
not
what you're probably thinking."

"And how do you know what I'm thinking?"

"Call it a hunch," she said dryly. "Strictly professional. I think I need a little more security around this place. Do you think you could tell me what I need? Is that what your company does?"

"Partly," he agreed offhandedly, and for a moment Brie was certain there was a lot more to his job than he was telling her, but he got up from the stool and began looking around the room. "Yeah, I reckon you're right, you do need more security around this place."

"Well, nothing too extreme...maybe just a stronger lock on the front door…" her voice trailed off as she watched him making notes in a small pad he'd pulled from his front pocket.

The bleep of a phone made him stop writing as he retrieved his mobile from a lower leg pocket in his cargo pants, answering in an abrupt tone. She saw him turn slightly away from her as he listened to the caller, answering in only yes and no replies, and then disconnecting the call and replacing the phone a few minutes later. "Sorry, I gotta go, something's come up. Will you be okay?"

"Why wouldn’t I be?" She felt as though she were in a daze, one minute he was there and the next minute he was gone again.

"I'll be back tomorrow to take care of the new lock and a few other things…but until then, just make sure you keep this locked and if you're worried about something, I want you to call me
.”
He took out his wallet and removed a business card, scribbling a number on the back of it before handing it across to her. "Any time, okay?" he said again, holding her gaze steadily and with an intensity that made her tremble slightly. Could he know how terrified she'd been earlier?
But how?
Was it just some kind of over protective streak the guy had, or was it something more than that?

She took the card from him and for a moment his fingers closed around hers and she saw his gaze drop to her mouth, moments before he leant closer and touched his lips to hers gently. For what seemed the longest moment, neither of them pulled back and Brie felt his warm breath against her cheek as he tugged her hand bringing her closer so that she were trapped against the wall of his chest.

Automatically her hands went around him and for the briefest of moments she allowed herself the luxury of resting her head against his chest. It had been so long since she'd felt the contact of another person like this. Strong arms encircled her waist and she grabbed hold of his shirt, bunching the soft fabric in her fingers in order to anchor herself to him. The steady thump of his heart felt reassuring beneath her cheek, but the sudden bleep of his phone broke the spell and she hastily pulled away,
self-consciously
tucking her hair back behind her ear, and trying to smooth out the small card he'd given her.

She heard him bite out an irritated "I'm on my way" before snapping shut the phone. "Sorry, I gotta go."

She knew he was waiting for her to look up at him, but there was no way she could look the man in the eye after melting against him like some love sick groupie. "No worries, thanks for dropping by." She moved around him, leading the way to the front door.

"Brie," he stopped in the open doorway, and reluctantly she lifted her gaze to his. He seemed lost for words, but then frowned and gave a small shake of his head. "Make sure you lock this door behind me. Get some sleep. Nothing's going to hurt you tonight." And then he was gone.

A chill ran up her spine at his parting words and she quickly shut the door, making sure she slid the lock shut and dragging the hat stand in front of it just for good measure.

Nothing’s
going to hurt you tonight
.

Brie rubbed her arms against the unseen cold and went up the hallway to check on Lucy. The small bump in the middle of the bed was fast asleep and oblivious to her mother
’
s unease, but despite herself, Brie couldn't help smile. How could something so tiny bring out such a fierce love inside her? How had she ever thought she knew what it was to love before Lucy came into her life? With one last look at the sleeping child, Brie left the room and headed for her bedroom.

Realising she still held the business card in her
hand;
she flicked on the bedside lamp and took a good look at it.
Sentinel Securities
was typed in bold silver print on a black background. It had a PO box and a phone number and that was it. Brief
. T
o the point
. A
nd no fuss.
Just like its owner,
she thought with a small huff. Turning it over she read the number he'd scrawled on the back and tapped the card thoughtfully against her chin. Slipping it into her purse, she went to have a shower. Hot water would work out some of the kinks in her back, and sleep would hopefully take care of the rest…for some reason she knew she could take Jason at his word.