Fast Burn (Body Armor #4)(58)
Brand pulled out a chair for her and handed her coffee. “It’s photos from the security cam at your house.”
“It dawned on me,” Justice said, “that I might find some footage of those landscapers.”
“Did you?” She hurriedly gazed at the laptop. All she saw was the back of a head.
“That’s the thing.” Leese crowded in next to Brand and rolled several photos past the screen.
Sahara frowned. The back of a head, back of a head, arm up blocking the face, head down and turned away and another back of the head. “It’s almost as if they knew where the cameras were and avoided them.”
“Exactly.” Miles helped himself to coffee. “Every shot’s like that.”
“The big question, then, is do you know them?”
She shook her head at Justice. “It’s hard to judge body size, but I don’t think it’s the men who took me. None of them are big enough to be the main guy, and the others just seem wrong.”
Brand said, “You transferred those photos to her?”
“Yeah. They’ll be in her files, waiting for her.” Leese closed the laptop. “I sent them to you, too, Brand. The two of you can maybe enhance them, blow them up a little, whatever.”
Justice finished his coffee. “You coming to the office now?”
She glanced at Brand. “I’m ready.” But what would he be doing for the day? “What about you?”
“I have some errands to run. I’ll be back in time for lunch if you’re free.”
Just that easily, he brightened her morning. Amazing that the idea of lunch with a man—a man she’d slept with last night and again this morning—could make her so happy. “Come with me to the office and we’ll ask Enoch.”
At the office, the other men splintered off, Miles and Leese with assignments, Justice with time to hit the range and work out. After Enoch told her she had time for lunch at noon, Brand still followed her into her office, waiting until Enoch finished going over the day’s appointments for her.
Once they were alone, Brand said, “About that party this Saturday.”
“You’ve changed your mind? You don’t want to go now?”
“You leap to the oddest assumptions.”
It didn’t seem all that odd to her. Brand had been furious about her making arrangements with Becky—and he didn’t even know the whole of it. “Sorry. What about it?”
“How fancy will it be?”
A new thought occurred to her. “If you need me to buy you a suit—”
His finger pressed to her lips. “One, I own several suits. Two, even if I didn’t, I sure as hell wouldn’t let you buy one for me. Three, I just need to know if we’re talking dress casual, a suit or a tux.”
Sahara stared up at him, waiting for him to remove his finger so she could reply.
Instead, he traced her lips, then bent to kiss her. It was a brief, gentle touch, and it stole her breath away.
“What’s it to be?” he asked.
“Do you own a tux?”
He grinned. “No, but I know how to rent one.”
She smoothed her hands over his shirt. He looked very handsome in the black shirt, a brown cargo jacket over it. He still hadn’t shaved, but she liked the rugged look on him. “I’ll certainly dress up, as I suspect most of the women will.” She loved dressing in her finest clothes. “But you’ll be fine in either dress casual or a suit. Up to you. Douglas Grant wears suits every day as the DA, so for parties he’s usually pretty casual. When it comes to the men, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some of them in jeans.”
“I’ll find some middle ground, then.” He brushed his thumb over her cheek. “You’re going to be here all day?”
“Yes. But eventually I’ll need to get back to my house to pick out my clothes and shoes and jewelry.”
“I’ll go with you for that.”
“It should be fine now—”
He cupped her face. “I’ll go with you.”
“All right. I’d like that.”
After one more touch of his mouth to hers, Brand stepped away. “See you for lunch.”
Oh, how she loved the progress with her relationship.
She watched Brand leave, then moved to her desk and called for Enoch. He’d be able to locate a stylist willing to do a house call for Becky.
After she got that done, she’d fit in some online shopping. If she couldn’t take Becky to the stores, she’d have to bring the stores to Becky.
One way or another, she was determined to help Brand.
And to do that, she had to help his mother to get on with her life.
*
THE LAST FEW days of the week went by in a happy blur. Brand had lunch with her twice, and each night they enjoyed dinner together. Between them they came up with meal plans that were both delicious and semihealthy. Brand hadn’t yet committed to a fight, but neither had he committed to Body Armor.
She was a little afraid to press him, which was totally unlike her. Her true nature was full-steam ahead, but for the first time in her life, she felt...tentative.
Her time with Brand was so good she didn’t want to rock the boat.
Of course, when he saw his mother, the boat might not only rock, it could capsize.