Blindsided (Sentinel Securities) (9 page)

Nothing was going to hurt her tonight
.

****

"Mate, you look like crap." Gracie said as he poured himself a cup of coffee early the next morning.

"Taken a look in the mirror lately?" Nash grunted, taking a cup from the cupboard above the coffee machine and filling his own.

"Whoa, what's eating you this morning?"

"Nothing. After this I'm go
nna
’ head back to take up watch at the hospital. You need to head back to Brie's house and keep an eye out for those bastards who were hanging around there the other day."

"You need to get some sleep, mate. You've been up all night. We’ve got it covered."

"I'll rest once I know she's safe." Nash felt the younger man's gaze on him and sent him an irritated glare, "What?"

"You do know she's not the primary on this job
,
right?"

"What are you trying to say
,
Gracie?"

"I think you're taking this whole thing a bit serious. If she's got anything to do with this Declan guy—"

"She's got
nothing
to do with it. The scum bag's using her to hide this thing and he's putting her and his kid in danger. She's innocent and I'm not about to let her be caught in the middle of this shit-fight alone."

"I'm just sayin’ you know it's never wise to get attached to the client, and she's
not even
the client."

"Just do
your
job Gracie, and let me do mine okay?" Nash all but snarled at the other man.

"As long as you know that's what it is…
a job.
"

Nash followed Gracie’s departure with an angry glare. Who the hell was he to be reminding him about keeping it professional? He was
always
professional, damn it.
Oh yeah? Then what was that kiss last night about then?
A small voice sniggered in the back of his mind. Nash swore as he tossed the dregs of his coffee down the sink and stormed to the elevator to take him upstairs to his apartment.
He could be Goddamn professional!
Fine, he'd step back and let them take over watch this morning. He'd prove he was capable of treating this thing as any other job.

Standing under the spray of his shower, Nash shut his eyes and tried to block Briella's face from his thoughts. It was just a job. He was supposed
to be gaining her trust and working his way into her life...it was just natural that he was attracted to her. What was not to be attracted to? She was an intelligent, capable, down to earth woman. He was just doing his job...he was
not
falling for Briella Matheson…he was
not.

****

Brie sat at the old timber table in Gladys’s kitchen and stared out over her neighbour’s tiny back garden, stirring her coffee listlessly.

“I think it’s safe to say you’ve stirred that coffee enough,” Gladys said eyeing her curiously from across the table.

Brie gave an irritated sigh and set the spoon down on the plate beside her. She’d c
o
me over to pick up Lucy and brought along a container of choc-chip biscuits. She’d already stocked the freezer at home and taken in a whole bunch to work for morning tea. If things didn’t start to calm down around this place—she was going to have severe storage issues! She’d always baked when she was worried—maybe it was something that she’d gotten from her mother. Every memory of her mother had been of her standing in the kitchen baking something, and it was no wonder. The woman had belonged to so many church groups and charities and supplied a hundred and one different baking stalls with cakes, preserves and biscuits, not to mention the CWA meetings and the local show bake off. The rivalry amongst those CWA women had been legendary.
Maybe that was a way to get rid of some of the excess biscuits,
she thought hopefully…
did people even do baking stalls anymore?
she wondered.

“What’s wrong, love? You haven’t been yourself now for a while.”

Brie sent Gladys a small smile. She didn’t deserve a woman like Gladys in her life—but she was so grateful that she had one. It was hard to imagine life without this kind-hearted woman nearby.
“Things are just moving too fast…Declan popping back into my life after nothing for the last few years has really thrown me…and then…other stuff,” she waved her hand distractedly in the air and lost her train of thought.

“Other stuff like a certain good looking man on a motor bike who’s been visiting you a lot?” Gladys asked slyly.

“Don’t even go there,” Brie told her friend with a frown.

“If I could, I would my darling,” the older woman sighed and Brie couldn’t help her smile.

She was such a delightful mix of grandmotherly sensible advice and frisky cougar that no conversation was ever boring.

“You would have to be six foot under for that boy not to have an effect on your libido,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Gladys!” Brie admonished but it lost some its authority when she chuckled.

“I’m old, darling—I’m not dead.”

“Well, that’s exactly why I’m staying away from him. I learned my lesson
w
ith Declan.
Those
kind of men are not built for stable family life.”

“Oh, I see. Unlike
Steven,
” Gladys said with a small grimace.

Brie frowned at the pointed remark. “Exactly. Steven is a responsible, reliable…
nice
man. I don’t know why you don’t like him.”  

“Because he’s not right for
you
. Darling, you have to admit, he
is
a bit of a dick,” she said gently and Brie almost choked on her coffee as she went to take a sip.

“Gladys!”

The older woman gave a sympathetic wince, “I’m sorry sweetheart, but he really is. He’s boring. You’re over thinking this way too much. That horrible ex of yours was a complete idiot, but that doesn’t mean that any man who rides a motorcycle is automatically an arsehole. There are lots of professional, respectable men who are
arseholes;
it’s not something that limits itself to any one group.”

Brie was still struggling with her kindly neighbour’s vocabulary, and seriously, she should be used to after all this time, but it somehow managed to catch her off guard every single time.

“It’s not just the motorbike thing…I don’t know what it is exactly, but there’s something about him…he’s trouble.”

“All I’m saying is don’t write him off based on how that silly ex of yours treated you. I’d hate to see you take a chance on the wrong kind of man just because he was who you
thought
you should have in your life. The man you choose needs to be there because you
feel
he’s the right one.”

Brie pondered her neighbour’s words silently for a moment before pushing the container of biscuits across the table. “Here, have another one, we’ve got to get through the rest of these suckers today.” This conversation was not helping her need to bake…and right now that wasn’t an option—she had no more spare containers.

Nash had meticulously gone through Brie's apartment. So far he hadn't found anything, and it was beginning to look as though maybe they'd got it wrong after all. Maybe Cruz had been lying?

He was careful to not leave any sign of being there, and mindful of Gladys next door who would hear any movement and become suspicious, considering Brie was supposedly at work. So far, he'd managed to carry out his search without incident.

It was amazing what you could discover about a person by the way they lived. For instance, he'd discovered how pedantic Brie was with her records. Her filing cabinet was neat and well
labelled
and she kept all her tax receipts well over five years, so she was also cautious, but she squeezed her toothpaste from the middle of the tube and didn't make her bed every morning.  Her bookcase was sorted alphabetically, but she didn't seem to sort her washing. The woman was a walking contradiction.

  He also discovered on one of his
legitimate
visits, that she stored her vegemite in the pantry as opposed to the fridge. What did this tell him? Well, nothing really, but he was finding that he looked forward to discovering these little useless bits of information about her.

He did realise on some level this could be considered kinda creepy, but then he reminded himself that he was doing this to find the stupid missing recipe in the hopes that her arsehole of an ex wouldn't get her mixed up in his shonky dealings.

His headset came to life as Mac checked in. "Any luck?"

"Nothing. I'm beginning to think we got it wrong. I think Cruz could be bluffing."

"Look, you better get out of there soon. Casper just advised she's leaving the hospital."

"What? She isn't supposed to finish her shift until three." Nash headed for the kitchen to check the roster hanging on the corkboard. "What the hell's going on?"

"How should I know? You're the one who's supposed to be in the loop."

"Tell the boys to keep their eyes open, something could be going down here."

"Roger. But you better get back here in case she's heading home."

Something wasn't right, he just knew it. But what? And where was trouble going to strike next?

****

Brie climbed into the taxi, closing the door with slightly more force than was necessary. Sending an apologetic glance towards the driver, she settled back into her seat and stared out the window sullenly. The phone call had been the last straw on an already crappy day. Her car wouldn't start this morning and she'd been forced to take taxi's to and from work, and now this! She couldn't believe that after close to four years of silence, Declan could manage to turn up twice in almost as many weeks.

She wanted to tell him to drop dead, after his summons to meet him, but in his voice she heard an underlying thread of something that sounded like fear and it stopped her from slamming the phone down on him. It didn’t, however, stop him hanging up on her when she’d demanded to know if he was okay. Damn this stupid
M
other Teresa need inside her. Yes, she had been hurt by this man, and yes, she’d given up any hope of him growing up, but she still couldn’t turn her back on him if he were in trouble. There's had not been a smooth relationship, but that little-boy-lost side of the man was part of the reason it was so hard for her to wash her hands of him completely…that and the fact he was the father of her child…but still, she was sure she hadn't mistaken that moment, just a brief second, when she'd heard his voice wobble slightly. What had he gotten himself into now?

Going to meet him, didn't mean she had to bail him out of trouble yet again, not like before,
she told herself defensively. Too much time had passed for her to fall back into that trap again. She no longer loved him.  He'd lost the power to turn her into a spineless sheep, blindly accepting his excuses and following his orders. No, she didn't owe Declan Cruz anything now days, if anything she owed it to Lucy to remain strong, but it wouldn't hurt to find out what was going on…

"Are you sure this is where you want to go
,
love?" The taxi driver asked, his dubious query floating back to her in the rear of the cab as she looked at the address and then back at the buildings around her. This was not a nice part of town and she was seriously considering calling this whole thing off. A fleeting thought crossed her mind that Jason would be having pink kittens if he knew where she was right now, before shrugging off the thought. Why would it possibly matter if he'd be angry at her whereabouts? He was practically a stranger.
A stranger who kissed you, idiot
!

****

Nash couldn't believe what he was seeing. Why the hell would any sane person be coming down to this place? Middle of the day or not, there was nothing welcoming about this suburb at all. He'd caught up with the taxi after Gracie had radioed their coordinates and they were now tailing the taxi Brie was inside of.

"Any idea where she's headed?" Gracie asked over the radio.

"Not a clue." Nash replied, turning to glance over his shoulder before he darted around a slow moving car.

The taxi pulled up next to a small playground and the men pulled over a little way up the street, far enough away so they weren't seen, but close enough to keep an eye on the cab. Nash watched as Brie climbed out of the vehicle, and looked around. It seemed she was no more thrilled with the location than he was.
What are you up to woman
?
H
is gaze mov
ed
carefully around the area, searching for any sign of trouble. He saw her lean in through the front window and speak to the driver.

They watched as she moved away from the taxi and toward a bench.

"At least she's smart enough to get the driver to wait for her," Gracie murmured through the headset.