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Gabriel
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She tried to hide it, but he could see he’d disappointed her by refusing her dinner invitation. He was disappointed, too, but he needed to keep a clear head and a sense of objectivity. Virginia Miller was attractive and kind and seemed to be the only one who welcomed his presence, but she was also part of an ongoing investigation. Technically, she was a suspect.
Yet even as he reminded himself of that, it seemed unlikely. Did she have the means and opportunity to have played a part in her boss’s disappearance? Sure, at least as much as anyone else. She was part of Kristikos’s inner circle and had inside access.
The better question was, why would she want him to disappear? By her own account, she was extremely grateful to him and more importantly, she seemed genuinely fond of the guy and worried for him. More so than any of the others, in fact. Oh, they were worried, too, but their concerns might be centered on saving their own asses, not their boss’s.
Virginia had nothing to gain and everything to lose if they didn’t find Christos soon. Her home. Her job. The closest thing to family she had left, and the only one who seemed to actually want her around.
She moved across the space, her shoulders squared, her stride graceful, pausing only to pet Fred. Her light, delicate fragrance tickled his nose. Gabe felt a tug deep in his chest, his innate protective male instincts rising to the surface. A sudden, fierce urge to whisk her away from all this washed over him. Red warning flags went up, full-mast, in his mind.
“Good night, Fred, Commander.”
She waited expectantly at the door. Reluctantly, he turned to go. As soon as he and Fred cleared the threshold, she locked the door behind them.
As the sound of her soft footsteps faded, he considered changing his mind and following her, but decided against it. He needed to keep his distance in order to remain objective, no matter how appealing the thought of spending more time with her was.
~ * ~
Gabe scraped the remains of his frozen dinner into the bowl. Fred looked up with a mournful glare. Apparently, he didn’t find the meal any more appealing than Gabe had.
“Stop looking at me like that,” Gabe told him. The hound had been moping around since he’d refused Virginia’s invitation. “I know you like her, but priorities, Fred.”
The truth was, he’d been second-guessing himself since he’d left her office. He’d even started playing the rationalization game.
Sure, he needed to remain objective, but he could do that and enjoy her company, too, couldn’t he? So what if he’d caught himself sneaking glimpses of her as they’d searched those rooms, or had silently appreciated her soft laugh and sparkling eyes? He was a mature, disciplined man. Keeping this wholly inconvenient personal attraction out of the mix was completely doable.
And sometimes it was easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar, right? Wasn’t it smart to foster a useful alliance with someone on the inside, someone who knew the players and had been part of the Kristikos game for the last decade?
Despite their rocky beginnings, she had warmed up to him. And it was just friendly stuff, too. It wasn’t as if she’d come on to him, or had tried to pump information from him. She didn’t pander to him, either, which he liked.
And just because he found her attractive didn’t mean she returned the sentiment. Sure, it had felt like there might be some mutual attraction there, a spark of sexual chemistry, but that could just be on him. It had been a while since he’d been with a woman, and even longer since one had appealed to him on so many levels.
After all, when a man didn’t have a good ribeye for a while, it was only natural his mouth would water a little when he walked past a steakhouse, right? But that didn’t mean he should walk in and order dinner—especially not when the restaurant and everyone in it was under investigation.
He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He was comparing Virginia Miller to a juicy steak. His first wife, a psychologist, would have a field day with that.
Appetite aside, the bottom line was Virginia Miller had so far proven to be the most helpful to the investigation and the most receptive, and he’d be stupid not to use that to his advantage. Finding Christos and averting possible acts of terrorism on home soil was priority one. Taking Darius down was a close second.
His laptop dinged with an incoming message. He tapped the button and Pixie Livingston’s face appeared on his screen. She blinked at him, then pushed the thick black frames farther up her nose.
“Hey, boss. I did a little checking, and according to Fed-Ex, UPS, and the US Postal Service, there were no tracked packages to the Kristikos estate that day.”
“Have you checked private carriers?”
“Of course,” she scoffed. “Nada.”
“Okay. Thanks. Anything else?”
“Yes. Those signal interceptors Dawson planted are online and working perfectly. I’m sending you a link now. Click on that and you’ll be able to access their surveillance footage twenty-four seven.”
“Excellent. What about past footage?”
“I’m still working on that. Dawson’s helping me. Their system archives stuff after forty-eight hours using some kind of weird encryption, and they’ve got more firewalls up than the Department of Defense. But no worries, it’s only a matter of time.”
“Thanks.”
Gabe disconnected the video chat link, switching over to his email to find something in his inbox from PixieChick404. His lips quirked as he clicked on the link. He tapped through the connections, scanning the live-feed images across the house and grounds. Things were relatively quiet, staff members going about their business.
What was Virginia doing now, he wondered? How did she spend her evenings? Was she the type to watch television, or did she prefer reading?
His question was answered when he spotted her in the gardens. She was walking alone, a light sweater draped over her shoulders. She paused at one of the fountains, taking a moment to dip her hand in the water before continuing on again. She looked . . . lonely.
Annoyed with himself for thinking that, Gabe was about to change the image when Virginia turned swiftly and looked over her shoulder. He followed the direction of her gaze and caught a dark shadow moving along the edge of the frame.
Shit. A bad feeling skittered through his gut.
He clicked through the surveillance cameras again, feeling a sense of relief when one captured Virginia re-entering the French doors of her office, alone and unharmed, then securing the door behind her.
Gabe kept his eyes on those doors after Virginia disappeared from view. Sure enough, within seconds, a dark shadow moved in front of the doors and paused. Gabe took the opportunity to screen-shot the image. On the live feed, the shadow lingered for a moment more, then continued on.
What the hell? Why was someone following Virginia? Was she in danger?
His mind went back to earlier, when he’d asked her if things there were really as bad as she’d made them seem and she’d answered, “No, but if we don’t find Chris soon, they could be.”
The frozen image didn’t reveal much. A dark, man-shaped blur, nothing more. Increasing the resolution didn’t help. Like Christos’s mystery guest, whoever it was knew how to stay just out of sight.