Page 16 of Handling Haven

She pretended to give it a long, deep thought, before she thrust out her hand. “Deal.”

“Thanks, man.”Frisco shook hands with the young analyst from Fort Hood’s Intelligence Department who’d dropped off some updated maps and satellite photos of several areas everyone thought Mr. Smith might use for the exchange. He then escorted the soldier out the front door of Haven’s house. She’d cleared off an area onthe rarely-used wooden desk in her office, for her new partner. Apparently, she spent most of her time in front of the large computer and monitoring system that occupied one whole wall on the opposite side of the room. A contractor had combined two standard-sized bedrooms to create one large area for her to work in. Frisco had actually been surprised she’d let him into her inner sanctum instead of banishing him to the dining room or kitchen table.

With help from the intel guy, he’d spent the past hour pinning the maps and photos to the remaining three walls of the office. More monitors and other equipment would be arriving tomorrow. When they got the location for the exchange, they’d need to hack into any camera systems in the area. There’d also be live-action feeds coming from the Deltas’ body cams.

As he strolled back to the office, her assistant’s dog, Roxie, followed him. She was extremely friendly and had taken to him immediately. Frisco missed having a dog around. He’d grown up with several, but never knowing when he’d be sent out on a mission or how long he’d be gone wasn’t conducive to owning one.

He eyed the kitchen as he passed. It was designed for a handicapped person, as well as anable-bodied one. Some of the cabinets and countertops were low enough for Haven to use, and she would be able to roll close to the sink and cook-top, which had an open space underneath for her legs. The refrigerator/freezer was a side-by-side one, so she could access both. The bathroom was also retrofitted to accommodate her chair. The hallways and doorways were wider than normal, and furniture was placed so she could easily maneuver around each piece. Out back, there was a lap pool where she could strengthen her leg muscles, a patio with plenty of shade to relax on, and the guest house for her assistant.

Avery Knapp was an interesting woman. To most people, she probably looked like exactly what she portrayed—a woman in her midfifties, with a nursing degree, who was an assistant/companion/housekeeper. While she was all that, Frisco saw more. When you were in black-ops, it was much easier to spot those who were also part of the community. It was in the way they greeted you, sized you up, and analyzed whether or not you were a threat, all within a second or two. She’d eyed him shrewdly when Haven had introduced them the other day, and he’d received her approval after interrogating him, in a roundaboutway, for several minutes. If he hadn’t taken a course on the subtleties of questioning a target without revealing he was on your radar, Frisco may have thought she was just being friendly. He had no doubt, if he hadn’t passed her test, he would have been out on his ass. He also hadn’t missed the fact the petite woman was in better physical condition than most people half her age—and she was packing. The tell-tale signs of a concealed weapon at the small of her back had almost been undetectable under her loose fitting T-shirt and jeans.

After they’d left the base the day he’d been assigned to her, Frisco had followed Haven to her home and was impressed by the security measures in place. The property was surrounded by a tall, stone and iron fence. While that was common in the surrounding neighborhood of expensive homes, what made this one special was the barbed wire that ran along the top of it, not high enough to be seen, but enough to rip someone’s hands to shreds if they tried to scale the wall. There were also sensors that were parallel to the wire on either side of it, that would signal the occupants of the house that someone was trying to gain entry. According to Haven, a certain amount of weight had to be applied so the alarm wouldn’t go off thanks to birds or squirrels.It wasn’t entirely fool-proof, but combined with other safeguards around the property and two houses, they’d give Haven and Avery time to defend themselves. While an attack was unlikely, given who they were employed by, all precautions had to be taken. Frisco had also learned that Haven’s van was actually made of bulletproof panels and glass. Avery’s SUV was too.

Entering the large office, Frisco strode over to the desk and sat down in front of his computer. Roxie seemed undecided about who to go to, one of her constant companions or the newcomer who scratched her ears until she moaned, so she flopped down on the floor between them with a heavy sigh. Such decisions had to be exhausting for the active canine.

Like she’d been for the past two hours, Haven was deep into something on her computer, searching the Dark Web. Frisco studied her while she scanned whatever was on her screen. He was pretty good with modern technology, and had even been on the seedier side of the internet a few times, but he usually left that to those who really knew what they were doing. Besides, he was more interested in the woman than what she was reading. He was sure if it was important, she’d let him know. The fact that she still couldn’t remember the mystery man she’d seen at the wedding was driving her nuts. When she wasn’t on the computer, she was pouring through the photos and videos from that night.

They’d fallen into a comfortable routine the past week. The first few days, he’d arrived at 0800 hours, and they spent hours guessing at possible sites the suspect might choose. The three Delta teams had been dispatched to the Texas cities of Del Rio, Laredo, and McAllen, all on the Mexican border. It would be faster for at least one of the teams to get to the target destination from any of those locations. Carter and Jordyn had Reardon holed up in a safe house in San Antonio. The geek had his own setup there to access the Dark Web, but there hadn’t been any contact from the elusive Mr. Smith since he’d told “Preston Ward” the meeting would be somewhere south of the border.

After Frisco had fallen asleep in the executive desk chair he was currently sitting in one evening, Haven had taken pity on him and told him to crash on the couch, due to the lack of a guest bed. Since then, he’d slept there every night, having brought some clothes and things in a duffel bag from his apartment. While he’d have preferred to sleep inHaven’s bed, the couch was actually pretty comfortable.

Frisco glanced at the clock on his computer screen. “Hey, it’s six o’clock. Since Avery has the night off to visit with her niece, what do you say we order a pizza?”

“Sounds good. Just no anchovies.” Haven hadn’t taken her eyes off the screen as she spoke.

Sighing, he stood, strode over to her console, and rested his ass against the desk top. “Haven?”

When she didn’t look at him, he cupped her chin and turned her head toward him. Her eyes narrowed. “What?”

“You’ve been at it for hours—for days. You need to take a break. I’ll order a pizza, we can find a movie on TV and act like normal people for a change. You can’t work yourself into the ground.” The only breaks he knew she’d been taking were to sleep, shower, eat, and go to therapy. They’d coordinated their appointments so they could ride over together in her van.

Frisco couldn’t stop himself from brushing his thumb back and forth over her soft cheek as he stared into her cognac-colored eyes. “C’mon, whatta ya say? I’ll even let you choose the movie.”

He thought for sure she wasgoing to turn him down, as she’d done several times this week when he’d tried to get her to relax and unwind, but this time she surprised him. She opened a drawer on the other side of her chair, withdrew a takeout menu, and handed it to him. “Okay. But I want Chinese instead of pizza. I’m in the mood for General Tso’s shrimp and pork fried rice.”

Grinning, he opened the menu and scanned the fifty or so choices. “What else is good besides that? We can share.”

“Who said anything about sharing?” she asked with a smirk. “I don’t share my General Tso’s shrimp with anybody.”

“Hmm ... not even with someone ordering Szechuan beef?”

“Mmm. You drive a hard bargain. I might be persuaded to swap a few bites,if... you let me have your fortune cookie.”

His brow raised at her playfulness. He’d been flirting with her all week, and while she hadn’t said he was overstepping the boundaries between them, she also hadn’t flirted back ... until tonight. “Tell you what, I’ll order extra.”

Haven pushed on the wheels of her chair and rolled backward. “Great. While you call it in, I’m going to hop in the shower.”

“I can scrub your back if you want.”

The blush he loved so much was back, staining her cheeks. “I got it covered, stud. Thanks anyway.”

His laughter followed her out the door. Maybe he was finally growing on her.Awesome.

CHAPTER 13

After stripping off her clothes,Haven transferred herself to the sturdy, plastic seat in the extra-large, handicapped shower with the spray already on full blast. Usually, she would let the water warm up, but didn’t wait this time. A little cold water would temper her burning cheeks and raging hormones. All week, she’d kept herself in check and made sure she didn’t lead Frisco on by responding to his flirting. But tonight, her control had flown out the window when he’d cupped her chin, and those wicked eyes had bored into her. Her jaw and cheek still tingled from where he’d rubbed his thumb back and forth, and that feeling had shot straight to her core. It had taken all her strength to propel her chair out of the room. If she wasn’t careful, the man wouldwork his way under her skin more than he’d already done.

Once her hair was soaked, she grabbed a bottle of her favorite shampoo, which smelled like roses, from the shower’s low shelf. Actually, it’d been her sister’s favorite, and Haven liked to use it to bring back happy memories that weren’t marred by terrorists determined to kill anyone who didn’t pray to the same deity they did. But this time as she worked the scented lather into her strands of hair, her mind conjured up the man who was currently ordering their dinner.

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