Her Fierce SEAL: Midnight Delta Book 6 (7 page)

When he got dressed, he looked in the mirror and was satisfied with how he looked. 

What the hell?  This is a business dinner, Crandall, who cares how you look?

He grabbed his keys and headed for Angie’s house.  She lived in an older part of town that had been through a restoration.  Her house was far back from the street and looked like it had been built in the thirties.  As he walked up the steps, Finn could see that there were motion detectors on the property, of which he approved.  Angie took her security seriously.

He knocked on the door, and she opened it.  He was glad that he had chosen to dress up.  She was wearing strappy heels and a fashionable sundress. She was a knockout. 

“Would you like to come in?”

“Do you still have to get ready?” he asked.

“No.  I like to be on time.  But I figured you might like to take a load off, have a beer or something before we take off.”

“Depends on what you have.”

“I have friends from California. I have Shiner Bock, of course.  I have Blue Moon, and I picked up some Pacifico today.”  He nodded in appreciation.

“I would love to come in and take a load off.”

She grinned and ushered him in.  He looked around and was surprised.

“It’s neat.”

“I really am kind of a neat freak.  The office was an anomaly.  Automating those files has been a bitch.”

Finn liked the idea that she was organized.  It made sitting down in her home more relaxing.  She must have known because she grinned.

“Oh God, you’re OCD too, aren’t you?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”  He watched as she headed over to the kitchen.  He liked the open floor plan of the house, it allowed him to study Angie as she moved around.  She was beautiful to watch.

She came back holding two beers.

“I didn’t tell you which one I wanted,” he said as she handed him the Pacifico.

“I’m an investigator.  It’s my job to know these things.”  She sat down beside him and started drinking her Shiner Bock, he liked that she drank from the bottle, it was sexy.

“Tell me about yourself, Finn.”

“I’m from Minnesota originally.”

“Do you like winters?  Did you play ice hockey?”

“To a point, and yes.”

“What do you mean to a point?”  She set down her beer on a coaster and pushed one over for him as well.

“When winter would last for five months, it was no longer enjoyable.”  He took another sip of beer and watched her digest that information.

“Sounds like a Texas summer.  After a month of living in air conditioning, it’s no fun.”

“Have you always lived in Texas?”

“I lived in Paris for a year.  And no, not Paris, Texas, I mean Paris, France.”  It was easy to imagine her drinking a glass of wine in a Parisian café with some man. 

“What took you over there?”

Angie picked her beer back up and settled back against the couch.  “A professor arranged for me to get a job over there.  I worked as an assistant to a Texas lawyer.  I was pre-law at U.T., and I had taken a couple of years of French as well.” 

“You were pretty young.  Didn’t you miss your family?”

“Pops came and visited me, but it was the same time as the Monte Carlos Grand Prix so I think that might have had something to do with it.”  He could hear the wistful tone in her voice.  He put his hand on hers on the back of the couch.  She looked up at him, startled.

“What about your parents?”

“They were busy.”  She hid it well, but he heard the sadness in her voice. “It was a great adventure.” She took another sip of her beer and gave him a perky smile.  It was fake, but he knew better than to call her on it, time to change the subject.

“When did you get into the family business?”

“When I came back from Paris.”  She smiled.

“You didn’t go to law school?”

“Nah. After working for Barney, I realized I didn’t want to be a lawyer.  Too much structure.  I’d been hearing stories from Pops for years about his cases.  Dad was a lot more closemouthed.  But Pops always talked.  He didn’t make it sound glamorous or anything, but he made it sound like you had to use common sense, and every day was a different challenge.  I liked that.”

“What did your dad say when you said you wanted to join the firm?”

“He said I needed to gain experience, and not with him.  I went to work for Pinkerton.”

“Isn’t that the agency that was started in the eighteen hundreds?”

“Yep.  They’re international.  I learned a lot.  They sent me back to France on a couple of assignments.  I stayed with them for five years.  I was really looking forward to working with Dad, but in the end, he just retired and handed the reins to me.  We never did end up working together,” she said wistfully. 

“He didn’t train you personally?”

“Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it that way.  He stayed with me for five weeks before retiring.  He’s now playing golf almost full-time.  He said he wanted to do this while he still had a scratch handicap.  Mom loves it, he plays all over the United States, and she calls herself his camp follower.”  Finn couldn’t believe it.  The man didn’t give his daughter any more time than that?  What the hell?

“Isn’t he awfully young to have retired?”

“He’s sixty-six.  Finn, I’m thirty-four.  I’m a lot older than you are.”

“Not that much older.  I’m twenty-nine,” he protested. 

She lifted her eyebrow.  “Finn, think of all that I’ve done.  I’ve lived in another country for a year.  I’m five years older than you are.  I own a company.”

“Good point.  After all, I’ve lived this sheltered life.”  He watched as Angie blushed. 

“I don’t know why I’m even saying any of this, we’re here tonight to talk about Dasha and the case.”  Yeah, and he dressed up for no reason whatsoever.  At least, he consoled himself with the fact that she had dressed up and had researched what beer to buy for him.  He wasn’t in this by himself.

“You’re right, Dasha and the case.  Where are we going to go for dinner?” he asked.

“You never did tell me what you liked to eat, so since I was hungry for steak, that’s what we’re having.”

“I have never gone on a date where the woman wanted a steak.”

“Well, here’s the thing.  We’re not on a date.  And you’re in Texas.  So you need to adjust your expectations.”

“I guess I do.”  She held out her hand for his empty beer bottle.  He handed it to her.  She got up and put it in the kitchen along with her own.  He stood up and waited for her by the door.

They stepped out onto the porch, and she reached into her purse and took out her keys.  He held out his hand. 

“What?”

“I’ll do that.”

“You’ll do what?” she asked, clearly confused.

“Lock your door.”

She laughed.  “It’s okay, I can do it.”

“Humor me.”  She rolled her eyes and handed him her keys.  He easily found her key to the door and locked it.  Then he pocketed them.

“Aren’t you going to give them back to me?”

“I will at the end of the evening.  I’m going to unlock your door, and see you safely inside.”

“Are you sure you’re not from the south?”

“The boys down here have been doing this for you?”

“Hell no, they’ve tried, but I kind of scare them.”

“I’m not surprised.”  He put his hand on her lower back and ushered her down the walk to his car.  “I’m impressed with your security.”

“Wait a minute,” she stiffened under his hand.  “You saw that?  Goddamit.  You weren’t supposed to be able to see that.”

“Lady, it’s my business to be able to see it.  I would be dead a hundred times over if I couldn’t spot different security measures.”

Finn felt her relax.  “I guess that makes sense.”  He unlocked his car door, and opened it for her, and handed her into the passenger seat.  She let out a small laugh.

“What?”

“It’s been about a hundred years since I’ve been out with a man and I haven’t had to climb into a truck.”

“I can imagine.”

“I like this car.  Let me guess, you did all the restoration yourself.”

“Why do you say that?”

“It goes with the OCD.  You would want all the control of having taken care of every aspect of the restoration.”

“Hold that thought.”  He closed her door, and went to his side and slipped into the car.  “You have a good understanding of the human psyche, don’t you?”

“I damn well better.  Otherwise, I would be in deep trouble.”  She pointed down the street.  “Take a left at the stop sign.  Then we’re heading north on the highway.  Take the first exit.  I’ll tell you where to go after that.”  Finn nodded.

Angie pointed out different spots along the way, explaining some of the tourist attractions as well as the local landmarks.

“That’s the neighborhood where my grandmother’s parents lived when I was growing up,” she said pointing to an affluent neighborhood.

“So your mother’s side was Texan, and your father’s side was from New York?”

“Yep, New York Italian.  Both Pops and Sergei actually enlisted in the marines in the early sixties.  Later, after they got out, they were friends in New York.  Later my Pops moved to Texas.”

“That seems like quite a jump for a New York Italian marine to move to Texas.”

Angie laughed.  “It was.  But my grandmother had spent the summer in New York with a friend of hers.  He met her and fell in love.  It was one sided.  But that didn’t stop him.  He followed her to Austin.  He joined the Austin Police Department.  He courted her, and she fell in love with him.  Her family disapproved until they had my dad.  Once there was a grandchild, all bets were off.”

“That’s a great story.”

“What about your family?”

“They’re great,” Finn said as he pulled into the parking lot of the steakhouse.

***

G
od, the man looked good in slacks, Angie thought as she stood back just a little to watch him give his name to the hostess.  Don’t ogle, she admonished herself.  But seriously, who could blame her?  Dammit!  Had the hostess just caught her?

“Right this way,” the hostess said, as she carried menus and ushered them toward their table.  When Finn wasn’t looking, she winked at Angie.  Yep, she’d been caught.

Finn held out her chair, and Angie sat down. 

The waitress came and took their orders. 

“I’m sorry if coming to dinner was a bad idea, Finn.  I know I said that I was going to take a couple of days to mull over everything I read, and tonight might be a bit premature.  The first thing I want to do is apologize for coming off so needy on the phone last night.”

“You didn’t come off needy,” he said gently.

“For God’s sake, I cried.”

“So?”

“I don’t do tears.”

“Angie, look at me.” 

She looked down at the roll on her plate and took a long time buttering the bread.

“Angie?”

It obviously needed more butter.

“Angie?”

More butter.

“Angie.”  She looked up.  She didn’t know that he had been in command.  She thought he had been one of the guys who
took
orders.  “That’s better.”

“What did you want?”

“I wanted you to look at me.  I wanted you to believe me when I said you didn’t come off across as needy.  But you know something, if you had, I would have liked it.  You needing me is appealing.”

She looked at him like he had just grown a second head.  “What did you say?”

“It’s okay if you want to lean on me.  For God’s sake Lady, after everything you read, I would think that there was something wrong with you if you didn’t need some comfort.”

Hug.  Last night.  She’d needed a hug.

His blue eyes captured hers, and she felt herself falling into a lake of blue. A plate blocked her view as her food was placed on the table in front of her.  She looked up at the waitress and gave a wan smile.

Finn reached over and put his hand over hers, and she found herself breathing easier.

“Let me know if I can get you anything else,” the waitress said.

“Everything looks great,” Finn said, but he wasn’t looking at his plate, he was looking at her.  Angie felt her cheeks heating.  She could get used to his attention. 

He let go of her hand, and they started to eat.

“I’ve done most of the talking so far, tell me about yourself.  What made you join the Navy?”

“I always knew I wanted to be a SEAL.  There was only one fly in the ointment.  My best friend wanted to be an Army Ranger.  We fought all through school.  To this day he swears that Army Rangers are far superior to Navy SEALs.”

“That’s too bad that you couldn’t serve together.”

“At least I got to be stationed in San Diego.  That is a huge plus,” Finn said as he continued to plow into his steak.  Angie had obviously chosen a good place for dinner.

“So how does he like being a Ranger?”

“That’s the funny thing, he ended up being in Military Intelligence, which wasn’t that big of a surprise.  He’s no longer in the Army.”

“What happened?”

“Medical discharge,” was Finn’s clipped response.  Angie took the hint and didn’t question further.

“How about you, do you intend to retire from the Navy?  Don’t you just have to put in twenty years?  How old were you when you enlisted?” 

“Yes.  Yes.  Eighteen.”

“Did you ever think of getting a degree?”

“Thanks to Uncle Sam, I’ve got one.”

“Really?  In what?”

“Supply chain management and logistics.”

“That seems kind of odd.”

His left lip quirked upwards.  “Not really. Coordinating projects and missions is critical.”

“So what is your rank?”

“Chief Petty Officer.”

“Do you lead a team?” He finished off the final bit of steak and chewed.  It was obvious he was thinking how to answer her question.

“Right now I’m in a perfect spot, with the best team imaginable.  My lieutenant is the best one I could ask for.  I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“Then why are you here now, instead of in San Diego?”

He took a sip of water.  “You sure do ask a lot of questions.”

“It’s part of being an investigator.  Do you want me to stop?”

“I guess I do.”

“All right.  How about some dessert?”