Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(21)

She winced. “I thought balls were sacred to men.”

“Not in a fight they aren’t.” He was comfortable around her. Way more than he would normally be. There was a reason he didn’t date. He seemed to have lost most of his charm when he’d lost his memory. “In a fight all that matters is winning. I’m not talking about some posh MMA fight. I’m talking down and dirty, someone’s dying fight.”

She chuckled. “I don’t know how many people would call a cage fight posh. You sound like you were in the military.”

He rather thought he still was. Oh, they didn’t call themselves that and they served no country, but they ran like a unit most of the time. “I was SAS for years. That’s British military. I might not know how to fix a lift, but I can fly a helicopter. I can use almost any weapon known to man and I’m skilled at martial arts. Best thing I do now is step in front of bullets. I’m a bodyguard. I’m working for a firm here, providing security for celebrities and politicians, and rich people who need to feel like they’re celebrities.”

This was the part where he explained that his husband, Robert, had taken a job with a bank here in Toronto and they’d moved from DC. Robert had worked for the bank for years and when he’d had the opportunity to transfer, they’d taken it. He should explain that they’d been together for a couple of years and recently married in an intimate but lovely ceremony.

The words stuck in his throat and wouldn’t come out. He took another drag off the flask.

Friendly wasn’t the way to play this woman. She wanted to flirt. She was attracted to him and from what he understood, she didn’t have a lover.

Then there was the fact that he was attracted to her, too. He didn’t want to cut off that possibility. Not if he didn’t have to, not if he thought this was the better way to go. He was alone in here. He needed to follow his instincts.

Or you could follow the bloody plan, take a step back, and if it all fails, it’s not your fault because you followed the bloody plan.

“I’m a doctor.”

“No shite.” He chuckled. “You’re either a doctor or some kind of evil genius who’s going to set a virus on the world.”

“Well, if I was an evil genius, that’s exactly what I would do,” she admitted. “But I’m not. I work research. Neuro.”

He sighed and decided to play it the way a bodyguard who didn’t work intelligence would. “You’re going to have to use layman’s terms. Remember? I take bullets, not classes.”

“I research the brain, more specifically degenerative brain diseases. I’m hoping to find new therapies, even a cure for dementia and Alzheimer’s.”

For the first time she spoke softly, almost shyly.

He’d found something to poke and prod. “The way you talk I would think you would have studied viruses.”

“I thought I would when I was a kid,” she admitted. “Things changed as I got older.”

Because of her mother? He didn’t like how that thought made him soften toward her. That was the funny thing about getting to know the target. It often made them human. “What sent you into…neuro?”

She was quiet for a moment. “My mom died of Alzheimer’s, well, complications from it. I started studying the brain so I could understand what was happening to her. And then I kind of wanted to beat it, you know. It took her from me. I wanted to destroy it. I still do.”

“I lost my mum.” He wasn’t sure why he’d said that but she had a hollow look on her face that made him want to connect to her. It felt right to talk to her. Hell, he’d never talked about this with anyone but Ariel, and only because she wouldn’t clear him for play in The Garden or Sanctum until she felt like he’d faced it. He’d never faced it. How did a man face the loss of someone he couldn’t remember?

“Did she get sick?”

They hadn’t covered this in his briefing. Probably because he wasn’t supposed to go this deep with the target. He wasn’t supposed to be stuck in a lift with her. “She was killed in a break-in.” He swallowed hard, the emotion welling up hard and fast. “She and my sister. The men who…well, they were caught.”

Her eyes had widened. “That’s terrible. I’m so sorry to hear that.” She was silent for a moment and they both took long drinks. “Now you protect people.”

“And you try to save them,” he acknowledged. “Maybe it’s tragedy that sets us on a path. Maybe it’s the way we get fucked up that leads us to where we’re supposed to be.”

She held up her bottle again. “To fucked-up lives.”

He could drink to that.

She set her bottle down. “I’ve got a sandwich. You want half? I’ve got some chips, too. Now I wished I’d given in and gotten those cookies I wanted.”

Damn but she was pretty. “I’ve got a chocolate bar in my bag and a couple of protein bars, but they taste like shite. We should ration them. I’ll share it all with you if you’ll tell me why you wear spandex and just how tight it is.”

A glorious grin transformed her face. There was the glowy girl he’d seen, the one who utterly fascinated him. “Deal. Let me tell you all about the magnificent Captain Neuro.”

She passed him half the sandwich as she began to talk, and Owen got the idea that he was in trouble.