“Okay, then what are you doing to stay safe?”
It was a fair question, especially since this job was potentially affecting her family’s lives. “I’m sticking close to Nash.”
“Are you staying at his place?”
“Yes.” There was a long silence. Not a beat, not even a pause, but a loooong stretch of time. She checked the phone to make sure that they hadn’t been disconnected. “You still there?”
“I’m still here. So what’s going on with you two? For real?”
She wanted to say nothing, but at the same time she wanted to say everything. Because she was pretty damn sure that he’d been about to kiss her in his kitchen before. And she wanted that. So badly. “I can’t really talk about that right now.”
“Is he with you?”
“Of course.” He might not be in the room, but he was still in the house and she didn’t want to talk about him. “And stop being nosy. Come on, conference the others in. I want to tell them what’s going on and get out of here. I’m freaking exhausted.”
“You’re still at the rental?”
“Yeah. Nash is scanning everything for bugs or trackers. The room I’m in is clear.”
“I’d like to say for the record that I hate how casually you talk about stuff like that.”
“Hey, I don’t give any of you grief about your jobs.”
“I’m not giving you grief, I was just making an observation. Or making a statement, I guess. Whatever. I worry about you, Ivy. You’re my baby sister. As the oldest, it’s my job to worry about all of you, so deal with it.”
The annoyance in her faded, softening until it dissipated. “I appreciate your worry.”
“So are you going to break Nash’s heart?” he asked suddenly.
She jolted at the question and was grateful that Nash had stepped out of the room.
“What are you talking about?” she whispered.
Her brother grunted and then said, “Never mind. Give me a sec, I’m calling them now.”
She wanted to push him more but no way was she going to do it with Nash in the next room and with her other two brothers about to be conferenced in.
Luckily the conversation with them went a lot smoother than she’d hoped. They were worried about her but it turned out Jordan did have a job out of town. And Ezra could take care of himself. He was going to go crash with a friend for the next few days in case, so at least Ivy knew her family would all be out of the way and safe. It made dealing with this job a whole lot easier.
And bonus, she didn’t have to call her mom. Sebastian had agreed to do it for her only if necessary. He was simply going to tell them about the surprise trip and then, if needed, he’d tell her more. But if things went the way Ivy hoped, her mom would never have to know anything at all.
Once they wrapped up, Ivy grabbed her toiletries bag and did one final scan before heading to find Nash.
In the kitchen, he was leaning against one of the countertops—of course as gorgeous as ever, his expression all intense and focused as he looked at his phone.
She started to say something, but he held up a finger as he met her gaze. His green eyes were sharp.
“Well, the cops think it was a local crew for sure. I just talked to one of the detectives. He texted me, said they have a lead on the guys who broke in here.”
It took Ivy a second to realize what he was doing as he pointed at the listening devices on the countertop. Oh, shit.
“That’s a relief,” she said, heading to the fridge and pulling out a bottle of water. Her heart was racing overtime as she chugged the water. She understood that they had to put on a show for whoever was listening, but had no idea what to say. Now she felt stilted and awkward. Like whoever was listening would know they were lying.
“Let’s head to Orlando tonight,” Nash said. “Just to get out of town. You’ve got that meeting tomorrow anyway and I don’t like the thought of you staying here. We can get a hotel,” he continued, clearly trying to make whoever was listening think they were leaving town.
“Sounds good. I’ll grab the rest of my things.”
After he scanned her bags again for good measure, they headed out.
In his SUV, she allowed herself a modicum of relief, though not much. “What are we going to do about those listening devices?”
“We can have someone pick them up later. Unless you want me to contact some of my coworkers at Red Stone about this?”
“No. I don’t want to bring anyone else into this.” It was all spiraling out of control.
He was silent for a long moment. “How long is your lease agreement here?”
“The rest of the month.” She hadn’t been sure how long this contract would take, and her company always rented a place for her somewhere that wasn’t easily accessible to others—she almost never stayed in hotels for that reason.
“Okay, good. The bugs can sit tight for now and we can let whoever planted them think that you’re going to Orlando.”
“Yeah, if they believe us.”
“There weren’t any video cameras that I could find, so for now we’ll go on the assumption that was all they placed. It wasn’t necessarily sloppy, but not professional caliber either.” His expression grew thoughtful. “And the tech on the listening devices is fairly basic.”
“That guy also got caught on my basic video cameras.” Easy to install and simply needed Wi-Fi to connect to an app on her phone. “And it was just one guy.”
“You did do a good job of hiding them,” Nash said.
“True enough. I hate all of this,” she grumbled. As they drove back to Nash’s place, they’d tuned back in to the app Nash had installed on Luka’s phone and hadn’t heard anything out of the ordinary. Everyone seemed to be sleeping or at least in bed at this point.
“What’s up with your family?” he asked as he made a left turn. “How did they handle everything?”
“Sebastian will be taking Maika and my mom to Hawaii tomorrow.” Then she quickly filled him in on the rest of the conversation.
“Well that’s something we don’t have to worry about. So what are you going to do at this point?”
“What do you mean? I’m still going to get that painting. I’m invested in this and I know my family will be safe.” She tapped her finger against her knee as she thought. “I really don’t want to make any decisions until the morning. Or at least until I get a few hours of sleep.” She was running on fumes at this point and they still hadn’t eaten. By now the waffles were long cold and her stomach was making growling noises. Though if she was being honest, food took a back seat to thoughts of Nash. She’d give up food and everything else for a taste of him.
Nash’s jaw tightened, but he didn’t respond, just continued driving back to his place. Though she noticed he took a very long route, and belatedly realized he was trying to evade any potential tails. Which of course he was.
As he drove, she pulled up the tablet she’d brought with them and turned the audio up slightly. As if on cue, Luka and Delilah started going at it again. She snickered and turned the volume back down—she did not need to hear all this again. “I swear they don’t do anything but have sex.” Even talking about sex made her think of Nash naked. Naked, naked, naked. Gah, it was like her brain had flipped a switch and she’d turned into a lunatic who couldn’t stop thinking about her friend. Naked.