CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Friday, September 1st
Claire pushed her chair back from her desk, walked over to the new table in the middle of her office, and studied the information scrolling across the screen. Quinn had sprung for the Microsoft Surface hub and she had her very own Command Central table in her office. She felt like she was in the middle of a Hawaii Five-O episode. As soon as she could integrate the new FlickIt technology to the tablets, she would be able to send information to the guys with a flick of her finger.
All of this new equipment was making her tech nerd heart sing. The experience she had last month in the mall had inspired her to upgrade the technology the company was using. Being trapped in the dressing room and trying to get intel to Brady had been frustrating as hell. She knew there were faster, better ways of disseminating information and she had talked Quinn into investing in them.
Speak of the devil, she saw her cousin striding down the hall toward her office. When he walked in, she swept her arm around. “Welcome to Command Central. The upgraded wall monitors got mounted last week when you were out of town.”
Quinn whistled as he looked around the room. “Damn, girl, this place reminds me of the fiefdom you had back at Langley. Did I buy you every toy you ever wanted or is there still something out there?”
She walked over, lifted her good arm, and squeezed her cousin’s waist. “I think we got most of it. The tablets will be ready by the end of the day with the FlickIt tech, so when guys are on operations, they can relay information almost instantly. Kane told me they were using something similar when he was still on the Teams and it was invaluable.”
“We never had all the latest cool toys when I was still a Ranger.”
“Prepare to be amazed.” She handed him her tablet, then stepped closer to her table and typed a string of commands into the clear keyboard. Once she had the information on one of the screens, she let her finger swipe across it and push it to the wall-mounted monitors and the tablet in Quinn’s hand. She watched his smile and knew she’d been right to push for the upgrade. “Well?”
“This is fucking cool,” he said as he studied the tablet in his hand. “These are small enough to fit into one of the pockets of our kits, which is perfect.” Slinging his arm around Claire’s shoulders, he nodded. “This investment is going to pay off and allow us to market ourselves to a whole new segment of business.”
“That was the idea. With my brain and the team’s brawn and experience, TRG is going to be the only place to call.”
Quinn handed her back the tablet and then kissed her head. “Thank you, cousin.”
When she looked up at Quinn’s face, she noticed that he was studying her. “What?”
“Just checking to see that you’re okay after the shooting. We haven’t talked about it a whole lot and I want to make sure that you’re doing the work emotionally as well as physically to recover. I see that you’re excited about the new stuff, but don’t let it distract you from the real work.”
Holding up her arm, she wiggled her fingers and smiled. “I’m seventy percent recovered and the PT I’m working with believes I will get to a hundred percent. Worry not, cousin. I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.”
“That’s only half the equation. How are the nightmares?”
Walking around to the other side of the table, she crossed her arms. “Is Brady tattling on me again?”
“I asked him and he gave me an honest answer. Don’t be pissed because he’s worried about you.”
“That’s pretty much all he does. Worry from morning till night. He’s fussing like an old biddy and it’s making me crazy. I’ve got to tell you, it’s a bit suffocating.”
“The guy saw you shot. What do you expect him to do?”
Claire studied her nails and shrugged. “I don’t want a fussy nurse who is constantly hovering.”
“Tell him, Claire.” He walked around the table and lifted her chin. “Don’t make the guy guess what’s going on in your mind because he never will. We are not sophisticated creatures, so we need things spelled out plainly.”
“You’re right,” she replied as he released her chin and nodded. “It’s time we have a heart-to-heart before I lose my mind and my temper.”
“Yeah, that might be a good idea.” He turned and started to walk out of the room. Before he stepped out, he spoke. “The guy is ass-over-teakettle in love with you, so don’t expect him to back off very much. Guys like us don’t really know how to operate in the middle. We’re either two hundred percent in or two hundred percent out.” He rapped his knuckles against the doorway and then walked away.
Claire blindly looked down at the information scrolling on the screen and thought about what her cousin had said. Two hundred percent of Brady’s attention was overwhelming and she didn’t know if it was something she could handle for too much longer. Maybe if she could get him to back down a little and run at a hundred and fifty, she could. Which was certainly worth trying because they had to find a way back to some kind of normal. Otherwise, she would go nuts.
***
Brady was in the indoor shoot house waiting for the group he’d been running drills with to return from lunch. It was his and Kane’s job to make sure the people could clear the structure confidently by the end of the day. It was part of the READY program that Quinn had started the company with. People could learn everything from hand-to-hand combat to shooting a gun with proficiency and clearing a structure with confidence within their facility. The idea behind the program was that they could train civilians to be ready for anything.
Each operator took a turn running the classes, and he and Kane were the instructors for the day. Turned out, he liked this part of his job as much as being in the field. Something he never would’ve guessed four months ago when he started with the company. He’d figured it was just something he’d have to do to get to the good stuff. The good stuff being fieldwork.
But teaching civilians how to protect themselves, their families, and their homes was almost as satisfying. It also kept him near Claire, which he had really appreciated over the last month because being within spitting distance of her had been important for his mental sanity. He liked to check in with her several times a day and see if she needed anything. Which he was fairly certain was driving her crazy.
No matter how many times he instructed himself to back off, he never seemed to manage it. Even her annoyed response to his many visits wasn’t making a difference. He drained his soda, threw it into the can, looked down the hall, and thought he probably had enough time to run across the street and see how she was doing.
“No,” he quietly instructed himself. “Don’t do it because she’ll be pissed.”
Kane came up behind him and slapped him on the shoulder. “Who the hell are you talking to?”
Brady spun around and punched his friend in the arm. “Make some damn noise when you come up behind me.”
Kane rocked back on his heels and snorted. “Not possible, my friend. Too many years of training won’t allow it.”
“Whatever.”
“Were you telling yourself not to go over and check on Claire for the five hundredth time today?”
“Fuck you,” Brady replied. “I only go by a couple of times a day.”
“Is that the lie you’re telling yourself?”
“Yeah.”
“Good luck, then. Don’t think she’s going to put up with it for too much longer.”
Brady leaned against the wall and adjusted his ball cap. He knew Kane was right, but he hadn’t managed to back off yet. Something had fundamentally changed for him during the ambulance ride to the hospital after she was shot. Something that might never change back. He was scared out of his mind of losing her. All the memories of what it felt like during the two years that his mama battled cancer had come roaring back into his head. He was so young that all he could recall was the helpless, devastating feeling of knowing that the most important person in the world was about to leave him.
Seeing Claire shot had triggered feelings of panic and helplessness. They had settled in his bones, his heart, and his mind and he couldn’t shake them loose. Somehow, seeing Claire hurt threw him back twenty years and he felt like that little kid again. Which made him hover, cling, fuss, and generally make a nuisance of himself with the woman he loved.
Long-term, that was not going to work. All he had to do was get his brain and emotions to cooperate before he annoyed her so much that she pulled away. The fear that was ruling his behavior had to stop. And the sooner he could figure out how to do it the better.
It had never been a big part of his life and he didn’t want to give it a permanent home by any means. So, he had to find a way to deal with it and become reasonable again. If he didn’t, he had no idea what Claire would do. And he wasn’t real interested in finding out.
“Here come our students,” Kane said as their group approached. “Head in the game, Brady. These people need our best, so when it comes time to face the unimaginable they’re ready.”
“Roger that,” Brady replied as he stood up and shook out his arms. “Ready,” he said to Kane as much as to himself. It was time to get his shit together.