Chaos & the Geek (Grace Grayson Security #1) - Elizabeth Stevens Page 0,24

indifference or aloofness. But once they were reminded they could protect themselves, they left looking happy, making eye contact, making plans, moving on.

A shrink would tell you that the lot of us at Grace Grayson Security could do with a couple of spoons of our own medicine. But our demons weren’t exercised with a little self-defence. We had the ability to protect ourselves and others in almost any situation. We’d just been in enough situations to learn the hard way that you couldn’t save everyone, no matter how good you were.

But if I was right, I could save Amber.

So I gave myself a new mission and it was going to start now.

I just wasn’t sure exactly how to start.

But I did know where not to start. And it came with a stern reminder that Amber Grace was off-limits. Just because she’d actually looked at me for more than two milliseconds in a row, did not make it a lingering look and I had absolutely imagined the visceral tension between our locked gazes. Her lips parting did not mean she was thinking what I’d been thinking, B1. And her fingers on my skin had not been an invitation to reciprocate by throwing her against a wall and kissing the ever-living fuck out of her.

By the time Amber was walking back out of the other side of the house, I’d almost convinced myself of all of that. I was also fully dressed and Carmel was finishing off breakfast.

I’d told Carmel I could do it myself, but the damn woman had insisted for Amber’s sake – she knew how well (or rather, poorly) I cooked.

She chattered at me in Spanish, berating me for not looking after Amber properly, for not looking after myself properly, for any number of things. And I let her, interjecting only with an apology or a defence.

I’d met Carmel on a mission years ago. We’d been stuck in Bolivia for months, hunted and harried. Carmel and her family had taken the team in. In payment, the people after us had killed her family and burnt down her house. But we’d got Carmel and her niece Flo out. Our commander at the time had sponsored them and I’d given them jobs when Hawk and I started the security company. Flo worked reception for us most days, although she was out on maternity leave at the moment – her partner had just had twin boys – and we were feeling her absence more than we liked to admit.

“Sorry, I left all my crap out again last night,” Amber said slowly.

I looked over at the table and shook my head. “No, it’s fine–”

“He never uses it anyway,” Carmel interrupted. “I come in the morning and they’ve left cups and plates all over the coffee table. Pizza boxes everywhere. If Christopher had a dog, he would be very fat.”

“I am trying to make a good impression here,” I said to her in Spanish and she laughed.

“There is something about this girl, no?” she replied in kind.

“No,” I said firmly. “She’s just my friend’s sister. I’m doing her a favour.”

“Oh, yes a favour,” she chuckled knowingly.

“Yes, just a favour,” I replied just as I heard Amber cry, “A-ha!” from behind us.

I turned and saw she was shaking her phone. Finally, she shrugged and shoved it in her pocket.

“Ah, no admirers, mija,” Carmel said to her.

Amber snorted and I watched her wrinkle her nose. “No. Thank God. But it is dead. Again. Although, the only person I might want to talk to is Pat and he seems averse to the things.”

“Pat is Hawk, yes?” Carmel asked as she dished up breakfast.

“Yes,” I answered.

“There’s a definite resemblance between you two. With the hair–”

“She’s got her great-grandfather’s eyes,” I said, knowing what always came next.

Amber and Hawk both had the sandy blond hair of their mum. But where Hawk’s eyes were a shade between both parents’ brown, Amber’s were a blue that was almost violet. The family story was that their dad’s grandfather had had violet eyes that charmed all the ladies. Hawk’s suspicion was that his mum had an affair. But that was only after a few drinks and a few too many deaths. We’d never spoken about it again, but I’d never forgotten it.

Amber tucked her hair behind her ear subconsciously and, for the first time since I’d met Carmel, I wanted her gone. I wanted to know if my theory about Amber was right – the self-conscious thing, not the me imagining things thing.