“Yeah. They’re going to send in a backup for their backup. It’ll be overkill to make sure nothing goes wrong this time.” Sa dropped the stone and dusted his hands off on his jeans. “You’ve taken steps, but I think my team had better be prepared for things to get messy.”
“There’s not a lot of time to dig up and figure out the connections from her employer to the person he hired to the group they work for.” Forte was finally admitting the issue that’d been digging at him since he’d brought Sophie there to hide. “If the police don’t come through, she’ll be on the run for the rest of her life.”
“And it won’t be a long time if an entire organization needs to track her down just to prove they don’t leave a contract unfinished.” Sa sounded grim.
“We need to face them head on and make this a professional meeting of minds.” It wasn’t about her former employer anymore. Bastard was going to be convicted for his money laundering and anything else the investigation turned up. Now it was about the mercenary group who’d put their reputation into being able to complete the job.
Put them out of business and Sophie could choose how she wanted to live her life.
“This ought to be interesting.” Sa turned to him and offered his hand. “You and your friends are good people. It’s a pleasure to be working with you on this.”
Forte shook the other man’s hand.
*
“Hi!” Sophie smiled at Brandon. “You asked me to wait here and try some hard cider. It has alcohol in it. You were gone a long time.”
Brandon stood in the doorway of the cidery, his expression carefully neutral.
She frowned and squinted. “There’s a smile there for me. Somewhere. There’s always a smile there somewhere.”
“If you say so, dear.” The proprietress came and took away her latest glass and replaced it with a tall, sealed bottle. “Here’s your favorite to take away with you this evening. Your gentleman friend doesn’t look to be in the mood to sit and stay. Though he’s welcome to, if you’d like, him and his dog.”
Haydn was with Brandon, a shadow in the door frame. Even his prosthetic had a matte finish so Sophie hadn’t realized he was there at first. But then Haydn dropped his jaw and let his tongue loll out in a friendly pant.
Sophie beamed at the wonderful woman. “Thank you, for everything.”
Kind eyes, gentle smile. “Of course.”
Brandon was suddenly standing there, next to the table.
The proprietress looked at him. “You are a quiet one, aren’t you? No worries. Your young lady mostly sat here and wrote ideas in her day planner. She was very nice to listen to me natter on, but she’s been doing quite a lot of thinking this afternoon. I was hoping she’d share a sweet story with me, maybe about how the two of you met or what brought you here, but mostly she’s just been thinking real hard.”
Brandon nodded.
Sophie sat still, staring at her day planner and the colored pens scattered across the table. She’d been happy to see him, really she had, but she had questions and thoughts to share with him. For the past hour, as the woman chatted with her, she’d used the different colors to write out her questions rather than talking about how she felt about them out loud.
Looking up into Brandon’s hazel-green gaze she thought she might dive in and drown. “I used erasable ink. My questions will go away if you don’t want them.”
“It’s okay.” He gave her those words and waited.
He could mean a lot of things. Mostly, he usually gave those to her at face value, which meant everything was okay for the time being. He wasn’t worried and they didn’t have to run anywhere and he didn’t need her to erase her questions.
Later, though, he might not like her questions. He hadn’t said it would be okay, after all.
Sober, maybe, she gathered up her pens and tidied up the table. “My favorite cider was the original Honey Hard Cider. It’s sweet but not too sweet, and it has a hint of ginger at the end of it. It’d go really well with my recipe for red currant scones. I thought maybe you’d like to have some, too.”
“Could be interesting.” He took the bottle in hand.
Which was good because she might not be the best person to carry a glass bottle right about now. Instead, she clutched her day planner and her pack of pens to her chest as she stood. His hand pressed gently against the small of her back, steadying her. He didn’t rush her out to the car. Instead, his presence was a solid reassurance. If she stumbled, he’d be there to catch her before she fell.
She got into the car without a word and waited for him to close the door, get Haydn safely in the back, then climb into the driver’s side. “I guess it felt like you were gone longer than you were.”
Brandon started the SUV. “I was gone about two hours, total.”
She nodded. “It felt like all afternoon.”
“I’m sorry.” His voice was soft.
She shook her head. “I’m not mad. Not at all. It’s just, I missed you. Which is the wrong thing to say.”