Page 43 of Fierce Hope
They walked toward the SUV in silence, the weight of unsolved danger pressing down on them both. Yet beneath that weight, Jade felt something else—a current of warmth, of unspoken connection that grew stronger with each shared crisis. She wondered if Deke felt it too, this pull that defied professional boundaries and common sense.
The mountain sunset painted everything in soft gold, but Jade couldn’t appreciate its beauty. Not with the certainty growing in her mind that Chad’s arrest wouldn’t end this. It was just the beginning of something much darker.
25
By the timethey got back to Jade’s condo, she was too tired to finish the paperwork she’d been planning to catch up on. She forced herself to try, though. Work couldn’t keep taking a backseat to her chaotic life.
She sat at her small dining table, the steady hum of the space heater in the corner filling the room. Deke was puttering around the condo, trying to give her space, but it wasn’t helping. At the tiniest sound, her concentration slipped sideways like tires on black ice.
The reason for her distraction moved with quiet efficiency in her kitchen, the soft clink of a spoon against ceramic announcing his presence. Deke appeared at her elbow moments later, setting down a mug of tea—honey first, then a splash of milk, exactly the way she liked it.
“Thanks,” she murmured, wrapping her fingers around the warmth.
“You’ve been at it for hours,” he observed, his voice a low rumble that had become disturbingly familiar over the past few days. “Your eyes are going to fall out.”
“Pretty sure that’s not medically accurate,” Jade said, but she smiled despite herself. “Besides, these quarterly reports won’t file themselves.”
She watched him settle into the chair across from her, his massive frame making her IKEA furniture look dollhouse-sized. The domesticity of it all hit her with unexpected force—how easily they’d fallen into rhythms, how he knew precisely how she took her tea, how she’d started suggesting they grab breakfast at Mountain Brew instead of Coffee Bar because she’d noticed he liked the lattes better there. Small details that made the thought of returning to their previous barely-acquainted relationship increasingly painful.
Her phone chirped with incoming messages, breaking the comfortable silence. Lindsay’s name flashed on the screen, followed immediately by Becca’s.
“Oh no,” Jade groaned, reading the notifications. “The front desk vultures are circling.”
Deke raised an eyebrow. “Problem?”
“Nothing life-threatening.”
“You sure?” He leaned over her shoulder to read the screen.
Lindsay: Sooooo ... just checking in on your “security situation.” Emphasis on the SECURE part. Wink wink.
Becca: Is he still staying at your place? Details required immediately. For security purposes, obviously.
Heat bloomed in Jade’s cheeks as Deke’s lips twitched with poorly suppressed amusement. “Sorry,” she muttered, typing a deliberately vague response.
“I’ve been called worse,” he said, his blue eyes crinkling at the corners.
Before she could respond, his phone erupted in a cascade of alerts, buzzing across the table like an angry hornet. Jade watched his expression morph from confusion to exasperation to reluctant amusement as he scrolled through the messages.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“Define ‘okay,’” he replied dryly, passing her the phone. “Birthday party planning has reached DEFCON 1.”
Jade couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up as she read the team’s group chat:
Kenji: EMERGENCY. Chantal just announced she wants a mermaid-rainbow theme now. WHERE DOES ONE BUY MERMAID-RAINBOW NAPKINS IN HOPE LANDING AT 19:00 HOURS ON A SATURDAY??? Izzy’s deep into baking mode. I don’t wanna disrupt her flow. Plus, you know, she might sock me. Party tomorrow. Need solutions NOW.
Zara: Gonna have to hit the craft store in Reno.
Kenji: They close in an hour! Need Plan B!!!
Ronan: Sigh, I’ll fire up the Eurocopter. Meet me at Headquarters in twenty. Don’t tell Jack or the Admiral. This is a need-to-know mission.
Izzy: You are NOT using a multi-million dollar aircraft for party supplies, Quinn.
Kenji: What about overnight delivery from that military surplus site? They have everything. Deke still has that corporate account, right?
Axel: Hello? That’s for EMERGENCY security equipment.
