“It’s unlikely we’ll be able to connect the two dead guys to them,” she said unnecessarily.
“No, but attempted murder of four former agents will be looked into by Homeland Security. Sorry,” he murmured when he saw her flinch.
“Did Doc tell you that his father wants to meet with me?”
“I overheard him. Is that a conversation you want to have on your own?”
—:—
Did she? She hadn’t considered Dutch would make such an offer considering he was in full-on bodyguard mode. Given the choice, though, she’d rather have him by her side than not.
“No.”
Dutch let out the breath she hadn’t noticed he was holding.
“There will come a time you’re going to have to let me out of your sight, Dutch,” she teased, but by the look on his face, he didn’t think it was funny.
“Why?” he asked, moving closer. “Why do you have to be out of my sight, Malin?”
“Because…our lives…we have separate lives, Dutch.”
“What if I don’t want to have separate lives?”
Malin wasn’t sure what to say. The circumstances that forced them to be together wouldn’t exist forever, and she wouldn’t want them to. The sooner she could extricate herself from whatever dirty deeds the CIA had done, the better.
Once it was over, and she prayed it would be over, she didn’t know what would happen between them. Dutch would still be a K19 partner, and Malin had no idea what she would want to do. The only thing she’d ever considered doing once she retired was applying for a professorship at the University of Virginia—her alma mater.
She looked up at the pained expression on Dutch’s face.
“It’s taking you too long to respond,” he said.
“I don’t know, to be honest.”
“Fair enough.”
“Just like that?”
“For now.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her in the direction of the house. “Let’s go see what we can find to eat.”
* * *
When they got close to the cottages, Malin saw someone waving at them from the porch of the main house.
“Hi,” said the woman, walking out to meet them with a baby in her arms.
“Lots of babies in this family,” mumbled Dutch.
“I’m Bradley,” she said when they got closer. “And this is Charlie, who appears to have gotten in a fight with his lunch.” She tried to wipe the red sauce stains off his shirt, which made the baby giggle. “Sorry,” she said, wiping her hand on her own shirt.
After Malin introduced herself and Dutch, they followed Bradley back up the porch steps and through the door.
“It’s hard to imagine I was once a professional winemaker, organized, cleanly.” She laughed, picking up toys as she made her way into the house.
“We tasted some of your wine earlier,” Malin told her. “It was very good.”
“Oh. Thanks,” she said, putting the baby down on the floor with a pile of toys. “Whew,” she said, plopping down in one of the chairs. “He’s getting so heavy.”
She motioned for them to have a seat as well, and as soon as they had, she jumped back up.