Hidden Impact (Safeguard #1)(52)
He chuffed out a laugh. “And you are definitely starting to fall asleep. You just don’t know it yet. Wait right here.”
She almost protested when he rolled off her, but he was back in record time with a damp washcloth. Cleaning up a little was a good idea, and then he climbed back into bed and tucked her against his side. “Nap.”
“Is that an order?” She said it lightly but she had to admit, it was a good idea. Exhaustion had snuck up on her and sleep was dragging her under faster than she’d anticipated.
He nuzzled her hair. “I’m here. You’re safe. Rest. Then we’ll take on whatever comes next.”
Snuggling in the circle of his arms, she let go and fell into sleep.
Chapter Fifteen
“So. Your car is still on the side of the road.” Lizzy was sitting at the breakfast counter when they returned to the main house.
The dark-haired woman lifted her chin at Gabe in welcome and gave Maylin a smile.
Warmed, Maylin returned it with one of her own. “Hungry? I was about to make up dinner for us.”
Lizzy peered down into her plastic cup. A metal ball inside clunked against the side. “Normally protein shakes are fine for me around dinner time, but I’m game for real food.”
“It’ll only take twenty minutes,” Maylin promised as she reached the refrigerator.
Someone had stocked it with a few more fresh ingredients. Plus the freezer had a few surprises too. She wondered if the Centurions might be hopeful she’d do more cooking to calm her mind.
Glad to.
“Need help?” Gabe stood at her shoulder.
She handed him a box of frozen shrimp, easy peel kind. “Could you dump some of these into a bowl of cold water? It has to be cold to defrost properly. Warm will spoil the shrimp. Figure about four or five for each of us. Oh, and could you start the rice cooker with about one measuring cup of uncooked rice? There should be a cup for the rice cooker, not a standard measuring cup.”
There was a beat of hesitation and then he took them from her, dropping a kiss on her cheek before turning toward the sinks. “Really glad you’ll let me help.”
Maylin paused. Blinked. When was the last time she’d let anyone help her cook in a kitchen? She couldn’t remember. Usually if they were catering, she’d assign simple dishes to the staff but did special dishes on her own. Declining help.
Trying not to ruin it by thinking too hard, she nabbed the carton of eggs from the refrigerator and bustled over to the counter, peeking into the cupboards to see if someone had stocked them with a few basics.
“Car is still burning itself out?” Gabe asked Lizzy as the sound of running water started.
“For the time being. Authorities will probably wait until danger of fire is gone before letting their investigative teams near it.” Lizzy snorted. “I pulled the remnants of both your bags out of the trunk to avoid identification, but none of it was worth saving. Too much damage.”
“Interior?”
Lizzy shook her head. “Too hot and too much fire and smoke damage. No way is a forensics team going to lift prints out of the interior.”
Maylin looked up from her mixing bowl. “You make it sound all sorts of easy. Like the car couldn’t explode more.”
Was that even a thing that could happen? It seemed like it could. Lizzy had taken an extreme risk going anywhere near the thing and she made it sound like no big deal.
Fear squeezed her chest at even the thought, so she walked over to the sink to splash water from the tap into her bowl of flour, corn starch and baking soda, then started beating the contents hard. Taking her worry out on the mixture until it became a thin batter seemed like a practical thing to do.
“They’re not going to blow up the car after we’ve left it behind,” Gabe stated, his gaze focused on the bowl tucked into the crook of her arm.
She set it down with an audible thump and cracked an egg, carefully separating the egg white into her batter and tossing the yolk and shell into the garbage disposal. “How do you know?”
Picking up the bowl, she resumed her beating. Earlier in the day, being yanked out of the car and running for the woods counted as the strongest fright she’d experienced in her life. Mostly because Gabe had been scared. And she couldn’t imagine much he’d be afraid of, but whatever it was would end her without much effort.
Lizzy looked from Gabe to her and back. “It’s one thing to blow up the car with you two in it. It’s Jewel’s special kind of twisted to take out the tire, then set an explosion to incinerate the inside of the vehicle. She obviously wanted to give you a chance to get out. So there’s no reason to have set a third charge to wipe the car off the map. Waste of valuable explosives.”
Maylin pressed her lips together. Neither of them had said Jewel wouldn’t have blown up a car with a person in it. She added a bit of vegetable oil and finished combining her mixture. Hesitated, then added a tiny pinch of salt. Another few seconds of beating gave her a smooth, light batter and a little less anxiety.
Setting it aside, she rummaged for a large pan. Somebody had bought the kind of wok with a flat bottom you could set directly on a burner. Handy. She pulled it out, wiped it down, and poured a large amount of oil into it. As she set it on the stove to heat up for frying, she glanced back at Gabe. “You don’t think you’re worth it to her to blow up?”