Page 79 of Out of the Shadows

Her eyes widened in surprise, and his stomach sank. After everything they’d talked about the other night, did she think this was just a quick, casual fuck? Holy shit, if she did, then he was an absolute asshole.

“Look, B, I know we jumped into this pretty fast and?—”

“We’ve been friends for eight years.”

“Yeah, but this?” He cradled her face in his hands and kissed her. He took his time tasting her lips, her tongue, then her lips again before pulling back. “This? This is new. And we went pretty fast. Like I said, I haven’t even taken you out, which is all on me. That’s my fault. And just so there’s no miscommunication, that’s what I want. To take you out. To date you. To be with you.”

She looked at him with tentative eyes, like she wasn’t sure she quite believed him.

“Is that something you want too?” His voice caught on the last three words.Please say yes.He wasn’t sure what he’d do if she wanted to keep things casual.

With wide eyes, she gave a slight nod, and the tight band around his heart eased. He ran his thumb over her lower lip. Knowing her past, her history, he vowed right then and there that he’d do everything in his power to make her see how amazing she was.

“I don’t know if you want to put a label on what’s going on between us, and we don’t need to.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Ifyouhad to choose a label for us, what would it be?”

“You’d be my girlfriend. My partner. My woman. I’d also add my lover”—he shook his head and cringed—“but that word has always creeped me out.”

She laughed, as he’d intended. “It creeps me out too.”

“But we don't need to label this if you’re not comfortable with that. I want to be with you. You want to be with me?” When she nodded again, this time with a small smile lifting her lips, he continued, “I hope you know that I respect the hell out of you. You’ve always mattered to me. And now?” He took in the arch of her eyebrows, the sharp cut of her cheekbones, the way her irises shifted from clear blue to nearly navy at the edges. His chest squeezed tightly. This woman was everything to him. “Now, you matter so damn much.”

She leaned into him and sealed her lips to his. Not caring about the cameras, he explored her mouth slowly, as if they had all the time in the world. Hell, if he had his way, they did. They’d have their entire lives.

A sharp trill had him groaning. His phone vibrated in his pocket.

She chuckled. “Is there a phone in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

He laughed. With one hand, he hooked her behind the neck and pulled her in for a hard kiss. With his other hand, he pulled the phone from his pocket. “Aren’t you the comedian,” he muttered against her lips.

“Humor and sarcasm when I’m nervous. It’s a thing.” She shrugged. “What can I say?”

“Only good nervous around me, right?”

The smile that spread over her lips warmed his heart. “Right. Now answer your phone.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, bringing his phone to his ear. “Frazier.”

“It’s Alvarez. We need you guys back at the office. And as a heads-up, I don’t know what you and B are up to, but cyber’s hooting and hollering like twelve-year-olds. Be prepared.”

Rolling his eyes, Gavin replied, “Thanks, man. We’re on our way back now.” Rising, he glanced around the trail andheld a hand out to Bean. “We’re about twenty to a half hour out.” His eyes narrowed at the noise on the other end of the phone. “What the hell was that?”

Alvarez chuckled. “That was a collective ‘Aww’ from cyber. You must have done something that met their approval.”

Shaking his head, he let go of Bean’s hand and glanced up at the trees. With a giant smile, he raised his middle finger. He chuckled at the raucous laughter he heard coming through his phone.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

After some ribbing from cyber—because apparently, they were all still middle schoolers at heart—and still dressed in her hiking attire, Bean entered the large conference room and greeted Xander and Alvarez. She took a seat at the head of the rectangular table and opened the lid of her laptop. In under a minute, Tiny was on the room’s wall-sized Smartboard.

“Sorry to cut your hike short,” Alvarez said with a smirk. “But I figured you’d want in on this. It’s nothing substantial, but it’s interesting. Tiny?”

“Like Alvarez said, this is all preliminary, but it does raise more questions. On Saturday night after the car chase, Bean asked me to look into Constance Whitcomb’s finances. I did. At first glance, everything was fine. She and her husband, Roger, have a substantial joint checking account, and he has a number of individual investment accounts. Truly, everything looked normal. But when I dug deeper, I was able to see the structure of their joint account. Both their names are technically on it, but Roger completely controls it. A stipulationin their private banking contract is that he’s the only one authorized to spend on the account. Any transactions initiated by her have to be preapproved by him. She does have an individual account, and it appears that Roger has a recurring transfer going to it from their joint account for her monthly allowance. The transaction memo is literally ‘Constance’s Allowance.’”

Bean frowned. “That’s a bit archaic.” Not that she was a fan of Constance’s or anything, but that whole control-your-wife’s-money thing was gross and antiquated.

“Agreed,” Tiny said. “However, her allowance is forty grand, so I’m pretty sure she isn’t complaining. The forty grand is deposited into her individual account on the first, and she blows through a good chunk of it on shopping, spa trips, and vacations. However, as of last month, that monthly transfer stopped. Then yesterday—two days after the charity gala—a hundred and fifty grand went from her individual account back to the joint account. As of this afternoon, she has two hundred bucks sitting in her accountandher credit cards are frozen.”

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