Page 11 of Hidden Shadows
“You dream about eggnog?” Who the hell dreamed about eggnog?
She turned in her seat a bit to look at him. “Don’t tell me you don’t like it?”
“I don’t like it.”
She gasped like he’d just said he kidnapped puppies as a hobby.
When her gaze continued to sit on him, he shot her a glance. “What?”
“I just don’t know how you and Nate are friends. Heloveseggnog. Not to mention he smiles a lot more than you.”
His lips twitched. “There’s more to friendship than eggnog and smiles.”
She cocked her head. “You served together, right?”
The smile slipped from his face as the memories of his time as a SEAL came back to him. Some good. Some so fucking hard they slammed into his gut like a physical blow. “We did. It created a brotherhood like none other.”
She swallowed. “I hated it when he became a SEAL. I should have been used to it because his brother Erik was a Marine. But I hated that they joined the military at all. It’s so dangerous. I was scared for them. I’mstillscared for Nate.”
“He’s good at what he does. He can look after himself.”
She nodded. “I know. It’s still dangerous, though. Why’d you leave the military?”
“I was thinking about it for a while. I was being sent out on back-to-back tours and started to feel like there was no end in sight. While it feels good to know you’re making a difference, it also wears you to the bone.” He tightened his fingers around the wheel. “There’s a lot of death in that line of work. The need to get out grew stronger, so when a friend offered me a position in his security business as a bodyguard, I took it.”
When Finley touched his arm, his muscles rippled beneath her fingertips. “Thank you for your service.”
He turned to look at her again, seeing true gratitude in her soft brown eyes. He dipped his chin.
When they pulled in at the venue, a vein throbbed in his temple at the sight of decorated Christmas trees. The Christmas garlands and big inflatable Santas. He ignored them all and climbed out of the car. He kept his head on a swivel as he walked to her door and tugged it open.
Just beyond the lot was a bridge over an iced lake. On the other side was a large warehouse-type building to the left, and a trailer on the right. Farther down, there were more paths with signs for things like ice-skating and snowman building.
What he hated the most was the woods that bordered the entire area. Too many places to hide.
Once they were over the bridge, the door to the trailer opened and a woman stepped out, her mouth curving into a smile when she saw them. She had long red hair that hit about midback and green eyes.
The woman stopped in front of them and held out her hand. “Finley. I recognize you from your platforms. I’m Beth, the organizer who’s been inundating you with emails.”
Finley shook her hand. “It’s nice to finally put a face to the name.”
“I am so glad you’re here. Just the TikTok you posted a week ago to announce you were coming got this event so much traction.”
“It went semi-viral, which is exactly what we want.”
The woman’s attention shifted to Nixon, and Finley glanced up at him. “Sorry, this is my…friend, Nixon. He’ll be taking a lot of the footage for me.”
The fuck? They’d already gotten their stories straight that he was her assistant, but he’d thought they’d at least be telling the organizer what was going on.
He narrowed his eyes at Finley to see her giving him a don’t-you-dare-tell-her-the-truth glare. His jaw clicked and he shook the woman’s hand. “Nice to meet you.”
“You too. Got to say, you look more like a bodyguard than an assistant.”
Finley laughed. The sound was light and airy and felt like a punch to the chest. “Let’s not stroke his ego.”
Beth lifted a shoulder. “You could always pop him into some of the footage? I think he’d get you some views.”
That was never happening. And why were they talking about him like he wasn’t standing right fucking here?
