Hostile Ground (The Arsenal #7) - Cara Carnes Page 0,125
that sound?”
Heat rose in Bree’s cheeks. “I’m guessing you aren’t keeping this between us.”
“I will today since you’re chatting with her, but you know Mary and them will want to know.” Addy ran her hands down Bree’s hair. “You were there for them. They’d want to be here for you. I learned that the hard way. Don’t follow me down that road.”
“Mary wasn’t too happy, you know. None of them were. They were all so worried,” Bree whispered. “I was too. Why didn’t you ever tell us about…” Her gaze slid over to where Kristof sat near the entryway. “Oops. I didn’t know he was here. Sorry.”
“Don’t be,” Kristof said.
“Thank you for helping me, Olaf. I’m sorry if I scared you,” Bree said. She glanced back at Kristof. “Can you translate for me?”
Kristof smiled and signed the words for Bree. Then he added, “Let’s give them a moment alone so she can change. We’ll eat, then Addy’s taking her to Doctor Sinclair.”
Olaf nodded and headed into the bedroom.
“Thank you.” Addy mouthed the words as Kristof rose.
“We’ll see you in a minute, Bree.”
Silence loomed a couple minutes. Bree pulled away slightly. Her eyes sparkled when she smiled. “Isn’t that the shirt Kristof was wearing yesterday?”
Damn. Addy looked away. She wasn’t the type to get embarrassed, but this having a personal life thing was so new. A part of her didn’t want to share the experience with anyone, not even her closest friends.
“I like him,” Bree whispered. “He’s good for you. He’s good to you. More importantly, I love how you are with him.”
So did she. Addy smiled. “It’s weird…having someone in my life that’s not…”
“I’m happy for you.” Bree took her hand. “I’m sorry I scared you today. I promise I’m okay. I just…I’ve always processed things different than everyone else. I’m a fixer and a prepper. When I see a problem or a hole, I have to plug it up or create a work around.”
“We’ve all been worried,” Addy admitted. “I know Rhea and Ellie and Zoey have all spoken with you. You should’ve talked with someone about this.”
“I-it started off simple enough. I wanted to be better with hand-to-hand after Riley…” Bree’s voice broke.
Yeah, watching their new friend get her throat cut by her best friend hadn’t been easy. Kamren’s little sister had almost killed Riley. “It wasn’t easy seeing Kamren hurt her own sister to save Riley.”
“She’s so strong and wickedly good at shooting and stuff. That’s when I started wanting to learn about weapons, but I’d kind of already developed a reputation.”
She’d blown enough holes in the compound with her new weapons that none of the Masons had been on board with training Bree. “You should’ve explained why. I’m thinking they would’ve understood and trained you.”
“Yeah, but then Zoey’s stuff went down and we were overwhelmed with a whole crazy network and then Z got hurt and…” Bree looked down. “Everything started snowballing. I wanted to learn what Mary and Vi had taught her. I wanted to watch the tapes she had. I’m not brave like them.”
“You are.”
“I’m not.” Bree shook her head. “No way.”
“You helped Jud defend this compound when it was attacked, when we were all overseas saving his brother.” Addy squeezed Bree’s hand. “We can’t measure ourselves against others. We all have our own strengths and weaknesses. That’s why we all work well together. We help one another.”
“I don’t want to have weaknesses. You don’t.”
“I do.” Addy looked down. “We all have them. Come on, let’s get you dressed so we can eat breakfast. We’ll figure everything out, okay?”
“Okay.” Bree bit her lip. “Can we keep this between us for now?”
“You know that can’t happen for long.” Addy smiled. “Tell you what. We’ll eat, then I’ll take you over to Doctor Sinclair. Then we’ll go from there. Okay?”
“That’s fair.” Bree sighed heavily. “This isn’t going to go over well.”
“Everyone loves you. If they get up in arms, it’s because they care. I’ll be honest. I’m worried. You shouldn’t be doing this stuff. It’s dangerous.” And so, so not okay. Addy kept the thought to herself. Bree needed help more than she needed a lecture.
28
“Addy.”
Guilt crept into Addy when she glanced over at Mary. “Sorry, I must’ve spaced out for a moment.”
“Is everything okay?” Mary asked, her voice low with concern.
Zoey clacked away on the laptop from her seat beside Mary. Jesse’s eyebrows lifted as he crossed his arms. Amusement glimmered within his expression, but he offered no comment.