“I know exactly what that feels like.”
“I know you do. We all do, even Sasha, who tries so hard to act indifferent. We’re all cut from the same cloth, as my mom would say. And if going with my gut hasn’t led me down an irreversible path, then maybe that will work for you, too.”
“Go with my gut?”
“You did that when you hopped the fence at Richter. How did that turn out?”
Claire looked around the bedroom she called hers. In a home that felt like she belonged. “Not bad.”
“Damn good, if you ask me.”
She was smiling again. “Pretty damn good.”
“There’s the spark in your voice I’m used to.”
She liked how easy their conversation flowed. “I’ve been wondering about something . . . ,” she started.
“About what?”
“All that time in Europe . . . Did you ever come back?”
“Yeah. I visited my parents a couple times. Mainly during the holidays.”
“I don’t remember where they live.”
“Rural Michigan. Which was a huge reason why I joined the service to start with. Winters suck, summers are too short.”
Claire tried to scrape together her memories of Cooper’s conversations about his parents. “You have a brother, right?”
“You remember.”
“Barely. Back when I first moved here I didn’t pay a lot of attention to anyone else’s family unless I met them.”
“I don’t think any of us went out of our way to talk about our families. Didn’t seem right since you didn’t exactly have one.”
She couldn’t argue there. “It doesn’t feel that way now.”
“Hmmm, you’d like my parents. My dad works heavy construction. Mom works in a dental office as a receptionist. Pretty boring and normal. Mom was nervous when I joined the military but got over it. She thinks I’m a bodyguard, now.”
“A job you’ve done a few times.”
“If I told her about our time at Richter, she’d do that worry thing all over again. It’s best I just keep that to myself.”
In all the ways Neil and his wife, and Sasha and her husband, had filled the holes in Claire’s life, having them worry about her wasn’t part of that. They all knew what their jobs were and understood how to execute them and stay safe. She supposed that didn’t stop them from being concerned from time to time, but they’d never once tried to change Claire’s mind about working for Neil. “Did you ever think of flying back here to visit?”
“All the time. I didn’t trust myself.”
“I guess that’s my fault.” She didn’t like the thought of being to blame for him staying abroad all those years.
“My choice. I went with my gut to leave, and had to own my feelings so I could come back.”
“You can’t tell me that you’ve been pining over me for six years.”
He paused. “I wasn’t a monk, if that’s what you’re suggesting. But I did try and put you out of my head.”
“Did that work?”
“Yes,” he said a little too quickly.
“Really?”
Another pause. “No. I flew back to the States and kept lying to myself. But this lady I know pinned me down, kicked me in the groin, and woke me up.”
Claire took a deep breath and curled her knees into her chest. “She sounds badass.”
“She is.”
They both stopped talking.
“Claire?”
She still wasn’t used to him calling her by her first name.
“Yeah?”
“Are you feeling less weird?”
She laughed away the last of her tension. “I am.”
“Good. Now do your homework and go to bed.”
“Good night . . . Cooper.”
“’Night, Claire.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
A nagging ping in Claire’s head pulled her out of a dream. She rolled over, curled up on herself, but the ping didn’t stop. Her eyes opened. It was still completely dark outside. A glance at the clock said she’d only been asleep for thirty minutes.
The ping came from her cell phone. Neil’s number lit up her screen.
She sat up in bed, ran a hand over her face. “What’s going on?” she answered.
“We have a situation.”
Twenty minutes later she was standing in the surveillance room at headquarters.
Neil was sucking on a cup of coffee, Sasha looked like she’d just walked off a fashion runway, and Cooper mirrored Claire’s appearance as having been pulled out of bed in the middle of the night. All they’d been told was that there was activity at her decoy house and to prepare accordingly.
Claire walked directly to the monitors. “What’s going on?”
“You have a visitor.” Neil ran the footage.
She expected to see Elsie or maybe someone from the house party.
A shadow swept by the first camera, too dark to really see anything other than darkness on the screen.
Cooper pushed a cup of black coffee in her hands.
She smiled her thanks.
The infrared cameras turned on and the blur came into focus. The image jolted her awake, more than the taste of stale coffee. “Mr. Eastman?”
“What’s he doing?” Cooper asked, peering closer.
“Checking to see if anyone is home,” Sasha told them.
Claire’s eyes kept glued to the monitors. “How long did he stay?”
Neil leaned forward, advanced the time of the film. Eastman walked around the small half of the duplex, stuck to the shadows, and glanced in the windows. He didn’t linger. The camera stayed on him as he walked out of the yard and continued across the street to get in a car. Neil stopped the image.
“How long was that?”
Neil shook his head, pointed to the live feed. “He’s still there.”
Claire looked up at Cooper, who was standing over her. “He’s making sure I live there.”
“Why?”
“To know that, we need to know exactly who he is.” Sasha did this part really well. “We can rule out that he’s a concerned staff member worried about his student.”
“He’s either the link to the organization who feeds them children—” Neil started.
“Sorry, Boss. I’m not seeing that,” Cooper countered.
“. . . or one of Warren’s men.”
Claire pressed a button, watched him casing the yard again. “So he’s a cop. And he’s onto me.”
“At what angle?” Cooper asked. “Let’s say he’s clean. Claire shows up, he profiles her as a possible risk. That’s reason to keep watch on her house.”
Claire listened, rewound the tape again. “If he’s a good cop, wouldn’t he phone in for someone else to do this? A little risky poking his head into my bedroom window when I know what he looks like.”
“If he’s a bad cop, he isn’t going to phone in anything.” Cooper placed a hand on Claire’s shoulder.
She knew Cooper’s feelings on Eastman. Neither one of them wanted to see him coming out of this with dirt on his hands.
“Good cop who is watching out for new players and he’s made me as one,” Claire suggested.