Whispers in the Dark (KGI #4)(81)

“We’re heading out. Thought you and Shea would want to come with.”

“Give us ten, okay?”

“No problem.”

“Ten minutes?” she squeaked.

Nathan grinned at her. “Better get a move on. We run a tight ship around here.”

She sent him a disgruntled look but threw the covers off and hurried for the bathroom.

SHEA leaned into Nathan during the short drive back to the KGI compound. They parked outside the headquarters and Nathan ushered her inside with the others.

Sam and Garrett were already there. She wasn’t sure what Sam was doing, but Garrett was watching the surveillance footage again, a frown of concentration etched deep into his features.

The very last thing she wanted was to rehash that footage and see Grace all over again.

“Ethan will be over soon,” Sam said when he looked up and saw everyone enter.

“Any word from Resnick?” Donovan asked. “The bastard hasn’t answered any of my calls.”

Sam shook his head. “Nothing. He’s pissing me off.”

Shea paced restlessly, focusing away from the huge LCD screen that seemed to dominate the room. At one point, Nathan cornered her, trapping her by placing both arms on the wall on either side of her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked softly.

“Can we just get some fresh air? Just you and me?” Her gaze inadvertently caught on the screen again and she frowned.

He looked over his shoulder, following the direction of her gaze, and then his eyes flashed in understanding. He pushed away from the wall and tangled his fingers with hers.

“Come on. We’ll go out the back.”

After explaining to the others where they were going, Nathan directed Shea down a long hallway leading to another door with a data entry keyboard. He punched in the code and the door slid open.

She was nearly blinded by the sudden wash of sunlight, but it danced over her skin, leaving warmth in its wake. When her sight adjusted to the brightness, she stared over the landscape to the drop-off where the lake spread out over the horizon.

There was an odd beauty to the compound. Much of it was still wooded, natural, forested. Green. But then in the middle of such an outdoor paradise was a helipad, the imposing building that housed the war room, and there were cleared areas that looked like something out of a basic training scenario.

One half looked very much like a military base, but then the other side was a complete contrast. There were three beautiful homes nestled among trees that backed up to the drop-off to the lake. They all looked new and…cozy. Not a word she’d use to describe the rest of the facility.

“Who lives there?” she asked, nodding in the direction of the houses.

Nathan turned, his hands shoved into his pockets. “The one on the far right is Sam’s. He lives there with his wife, Sophie, and their daughter, Charlotte. Next to him is Garrett and Sarah’s house. They’ve only just moved in and they plan to marry soon. They met just before I went MIA. They wanted to wait to get married until they knew one way or another about me. I met her for the first time when she and Garrett came to see me in the hospital where I was recovering.”

Shea grimaced. “I’m surprised you don’t hate me for leaving you.”

“I wasn’t happy about it,” he confessed. “I did some serious battling with my sanity for a long while. But I understand why. You gave up so much for me.”

“What about the last house?” she asked, looking away from him and toward the house in question.

“Ethan and Rachel will live there. It’s not quite done yet. They have a house a few miles away. They’ll put it on the market when they move here.”

She thought for a moment, running the names and faces of all his brothers through her mind. “And what about Donovan and Joe? And…you?”

Nathan pointed to a spot away from the other houses. It was thick with trees and overlooked the lake, unlike the others.

“That’s Van’s spot. He’s in no hurry to build, though. Maybe he’ll wait until he gets married. I’m not sure what he’s planned.”

“And you?”

He held out his hand. “Come on. I want to show you something.”

Intrigued, she slipped her hand into his and let him lead her toward a grove of trees that rested down the cliff’s edge from Sam’s home. There was a worn path that wove through the mature trees and the mounds of honeysuckle that seemed to take over the entire area.

She inhaled, enjoying the sweetness, and then closed her eyes as the breeze blew in off the lake, filling the air with even more of the perfume.

When she reopened her eyes, they’d burst into a clearing where the frame of a house stood. It faced the lake and they’d come in to the back of the house. He walked her around to the front, where she could see a wooden porch already constructed.

It would be the perfect place to sit out and enjoy the view of the lake. She could imagine evenings in a porch swing, watching the sun go down, waiting for the stars to pop out and enjoying the scattering of fireflies over the landscape.

The image was so poignant that it brought a lump to her throat.

“Whose is it?”

“Mine,” he said quietly. “Or it will be. It’s small. I mean nothing huge. But very open. After…After I came back, the idea of living in a house with small rooms and closed-in spaces freaked me out. So I designed the house to be basically one big open space. The living room leads into the kitchen and there’s an eat-in area. And then the master bedroom, but it’s pretty open too. There aren’t many rooms, but they’re all large and open.”