Page 83 of Iron Willed Warrior

Damn. If things kept going in the same direction, I’d be falling for her before I knew it.Might not end well, I thought. So few things did. But I didn’t want to stop.

Smoke exhaled through my nose, disappearing into the sky. “You should come see me in Mexico when this is over. I have a place in the city, but my favorite is my little house near the beach.”

“Tell me about it?”

Brynn settled against me, sharing my cigarette as I told her about the small, picturesque town on the coast. The kind people I’d come to know there. The peace I felt whenever I got to hang around for a while and forget about my past sorrows, forget about work. Just be.

“We could take some time off,” I said. “Do nothing but…well, each other.” I squeezed her side affectionately. “What do you think?”

Brynn and I hadn’t discussed much about her plans forafter this mission. Where she might go next in her career. And I had no intention of pushing. She could do her own thing. But I wanted to make sure she knew where I stood.

She smiled and tilted her chin to kiss me. “I like the sound of that.” Then she blinked, uncertainty showing in the way her eyes narrowed, before it was gone. “I hope we can. We’re good together.”

“We are, B. We’re fucking great together.” The hint of emotion in my voice caught me by surprise. I’d been trying to keep things simple with her, but that just wasn’t possible. I was invested.

Even when my ex-wife had left me, the blow had been worse to my ego than my heart. Shelley had accused me of never opening up. Never putting her first, never mind that I was struggling to get my life back together after losing my leg and the career I’d built in one fell swoop. But Shelley had been right that I’d refused to let my stoic exterior break.

After just a few days with Brynn, she’d already gotten beneath my skin. Those slender fingers of hers were wrapped around my heart. If we went our separate ways after this and she forgot about me, it was going to hurt like hell.

But for now, we had a mission to accomplish. We sat together and watched the sun come up. Our last day at this resort. No offense to the place, but I had no interest in ever making a return visit.

Whatever happened today, we would be leaving this place together. We’d have to figure out the rest from there.

While Brynn showered, I had one more quick errand to run.

When I got back, I took my turn getting cleaned up and ready. Brynn lingered in the bathroom applying makeup and styling her hair.

I stood with my hip against the counter and watched, my eyes following her every move like it was all for me. Possessive? Yeah. But that’s how I was feeling.

We’d already checked the Protectors server. Nothing new from River. We had let the Protectors know about our adventure last night, and River had assured us he was keeping an eye on police activity in the area. Not that we expected Stillwater to go to the police about their missing guard.

Of course, Stillwater had recruited local officers to do their bidding before. It was just another reminder that Brynn and I were on our own out here.

Like she had said earlier this morning, we were good together. We could get this done.

Still, I couldn’t keep my fingers from tapping against my side, drumming an anxious rhythm.

“Ryker will be monitoring us closely,” I reminded her. The man hadn’t found anything by searching our room last night, but he would still be suspicious. I expected he would assign Manning and O’Hanlon to have eyes on us.

She fluffed her hair. “Which is why we have a diversion coming. River might be obnoxious sometimes, but he always comes through. It’s going to work.”

“I know, but it might take me longer to shake Manning and O’Hanlon if they stick to me. If I’m not up to the roof in time, and you beat me there with Westwick?—”

She arched an eyebrow at me in the mirror. “Then I’ll keep him distracted. Withtalking,” she added in response to my scowl. “Brianna can keep a conversation going. Westwick might have other ideas when he gets me alone, but I’ll keep him talking until you arrive. And then we’ll have him.”

I exhaled. “We will.”

She went to the main room. We had our gear laid out on the bed. Brynn lifted her dress and strapped a holster onto her thigh, sliding a small knife into the sheath. It wasn’t thelarger one she’d killed the guard with. That murder weapon was long gone, buried in the desert. This knife was slimmer, streamlined, but equally sharp.

If Westwick got handsy and found that knife under her dress, it would give a lot away. But if he was that close to her, then things would already have gone very wrong. I felt better knowing she’d have a weapon at the ready.

She also had the flash drive with River’s virus in the lining of her purse. That wasn’t our primary plan any longer, but it was a fallback. Just in case we had to scrub the kidnapping attempt.

That wouldn’t happen though. We were going to pull this off.

I touched her waist. Brynn held the lapels of my shirt and pulled me into a kiss. “Come on, Cameron. We have a business seminar to attend.”

Westwick had booked a special event room for a welcome breakfast. Brynn looked gorgeous in another summer dress, and heads turned as we entered the room. Most of the seminar attendees had arrived. But Westwick and his security goons weren’t here yet.

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