Page 2 of Even If the Sky is Falling
Eventually, world leaders agreed that they would each install an alert system, and NASA teamed with other space agencies around the globe to lead the charge in implementing the siren systems. Deaf and hard of hearing citizens were provided with all-hazard radios, which could emit visual and vibrating alerts. News agencies worked with local governments to come up with approved language to transmit should the sirens be employed. The space center teams strategized hundreds of scenarios so that countries could assemble local guidance. Halley had been all over Asia and the Middle East. She’d heard that Griff was assigned to details with teams in Central and South America. She never expected to see him at the home installation—especially not even more burly and chiseled than before. Yet there he was, staring her down with a boyish half smirk on his face like he hadn’t broken her heart just last year.
He removed his mirrored aviator sunglasses, those dark brown eyes crinkling at the corners. “Don’t you think it’s ironic that we came up with the idea for a universal alert system and we’re the last ones to install it?”
“No, I think that we created some goodwill in prioritizing other countries that needed help with implementation. We could have used other forms of PSAs to get the job done if something was on course over the US.” Her tone held a twinge of annoyance. He knew all of this, so why was he asking this question?He probably just wants me to talk to him.She had zero intention of falling for any of his antics on this trip.
He shrugged, observing her openly. His gaze made a slow descent over her body once more—the curves he used to ache for—before traveling back up to meet her lash-lined glare. His playful, boyish smile made her stomach do backflips, but she narrowed her gaze, aware of two sets of eyes watching through the blacked-out windows of their transport vehicle.
“Listen, Griffin Harper, I don’t know what’s running through your mind right now, but I am going to remind you just once that I have point on this mission. I don’t want to hear a peep out of you unless it has to do with your protection detail for this team. Do anything to piss me off, Griff, and I swear I’ll make good on the promise I made the last time you saw me.”
His smile simmered to an amused curl of his lips. “The one where you promised you’d shove your foot up my ass?”
She batted her lashes sweetly. “Good. You remembered.” She tossed the keys in his direction and moved toward the passenger door of the SUV. “Now load up. I want to be there and set up well before sundown. Jake Glenn, Willy Song—eyes front if you know what’s good for you,” she snapped, climbing into the truck.
“Yes, ma’am,” Griff whispered, his thick lips curving into a tight-lipped smile. He grabbed his bag from the ground and proceeded to load it into the trunk.
Two hours and thirty-six minutes.Halley squinted at her phone, hoping the estimated time of arrival on her GPS would change to a shorter length of time. When it didn’t, she sighed, leaning back against her seat, her eyes squeezed shut. The air conditioning pushed curly wisps of her hair out of her face and made her shiver—the only reprieve from the dry heat rising outside the barrier of her window. Halley hummed to herself, welcoming the cool air, trying to drown out the sounds around her.
“Not a bad idea to recharge while you have the time,” Griff observed, keeping his eyes on the road ahead of them.
Halley opened one eye and turned to focus it on the driver, his eyes shielded by his sunglasses. “You really think I can sleep with Song making all of that noise?”
Griffin cracked a smile. “I would think that with all the travel we do on these details, you’d get used to sleeping with a little noise in the background.”
“A little noise” was an understatement. They didn’t bother playing the radio because none of the team would be able to hear the music. In the back row, Song sat with his back against the arm rest and his feet propped up on the seat. His head leaned against the darkened window, his mouth agape as he snored loudly. Every inhale rumbled like a grating motor struggling to start. In the middle row, Jake sat with noise-canceling headphones and his head against the headrest, but his fidgeting and cutting scowls toward the back indicated he still heard Song’s throaty grumbling clearly.
Song sucked in a breath loudly, his soft palate rumbling as the air pulled inward, his exhales soft and unencumbered. Jake squeezed his blue-green eyes closed and then reached back and flicked Song in the middle of his forehead, jolting him awake. “Huh, what? Dude, what’s your problem?” Song repositioned his head so that his cheek pressed against the window.
“Man, you sound like a broken air vent,” Jake muttered. He moved his headphones off one ear to wait for a response, the bronzed skin of his forehead wrinkled from his raised brows.
Song was already sound asleep again, his snoring muffled only by his closed mouth.He probably won’t even remember that Glenn flicked him.
Halley cracked a smile in Jake’s direction as he shook his head with annoyance. “Permission to strap him to the back of the SUV, boss?”
Her grin widened. “We have a rack up top if it gets to be too much.”
Jake nodded, satisfied. He returned the ear cup of his headphones back to the side of his face and shut his eyes. Glenn was never the kind to exert any kind of violence, but Song tried his patience. The most capable systems engineer Halley had ever worked with, they’d traveled the world together to implement warning systems and to provide guidance to other countries considering alternative ways of reaching rural areas with warning communications. His gruff, steely glare caused many to assume that he carried a cold demeanor, but Glenn was a gentle giant and extremely quiet until he got a littleañejotequila into his system—then you couldn’t keep him from a dance floor or karaoke stage. Halley crushed on him early in her career, but after her failings with Griff, she vowed never to date another colleague. Jake’s honey-brown curls wound around the band of his headphones as his fingers tapped along with the beat of his favorite playlist.
Halley faced forward, her shoulders relaxing a little more. She tried to remember the last time this team had been assembled, thinking back to her first detail several years prior. Her ambition motivated her to be proactive and earn quick points with their superiors. Some thought she was a brownnoser, but Griffin had backed her up, praising her quick thinking and ability to anticipate obstacles. She’d barely looked in his direction before that day, but his words stuck with her, and soon after that, they’d started dating secretly.
They fell hard, even though they shouldn’t have—relationships were strongly discouraged among unit members. Halley couldn’t help how she felt, and Griff seemed so sure that she was made for him, so they’d agreed to keep their relationship quiet. A few colleagues had figured out that the two were an item, but Halley didn’t want their superiors to reassign one of them away from headquarters in DC. The chief never seemed to let on, and, with all of their travel for work, they agreed that it didn’t make sense to have two apartments, so they consolidated into Griffin’s place since it was bigger.
Halley picked at her nails, wishing she’d gotten that mani-pedi before the trip as she’d planned. “Do you remember that first detail?”
“That training workshop in Egypt?”
“Yeah. Song couldn’t handle all of the dust from the sand. His snoring was ten times worse on that trip.”
“Remember Jake panicked and thought he was waking up to a bear?”
Halley almost smiled, but she remembered who was sitting next to her. How his strong hands made her feel so safe and also seemed to hold her heart in a vise. Even now, she wasn’t sure she was completely released from his grip. The one she almost risked it all for—her reputation and career. “A bear, that’s right,” she mumbled, staring up into the mountains.
Griff smirked as he glanced in the rearview mirror. “That guy has notoriously bad allergies. I’m sure the elevation here doesn’t help him any. It’s dusty here too.”
Halley sucked her teeth, keeping her gaze straight ahead. “I’ll be sure to buy him some eucalyptus oil. He sounds like a clogged drain.”
The highway was packed with Friday traffic, but most cars were headed east toward downtown Boulder or south toward Denver. The team’s westerly direction remained relatively clear, the bright sun shining onto the dried grass and dark shrubs that peppered the sides of the lower foothills. The Rocky Mountains loomed behind the foothills—the highest peaks still capped with snow even after the heat of the summer months.
Griffin glanced at her quickly before returning his eyes to the road. “Do you want to put on some music or something?”
