Page 56 of Her Honorable Hero

“Didn’t Dex mention something about you going thirty-two hours straight when you were in a sniper position?” Miranda asked sweetly.

He was going to kill his teammate.

“Store!”

They turned when Livvie came out holding her socks and one shoe.

Saved by the bell.

* * *

Miranda bitinto her second smore of the night as she sat in front of her computer. The dinner and dessert she’d had with Livvie and Griff in the fort five hours ago had long worn off, and now that they were both asleep she could get busy. She opened her work e-mail and downloaded the encrypted file titled Pegasus. The project was for a highly-advanced ghost bomber that was undetectable by any radar that had yet to be devised. The cherry on top was that it was green screen technology which allowed it to act like a chameleon with its surroundings and was barely discernable to the naked eye. The reason it was referred to as Pegasus was a nod to Wonder Woman’s invisible jet, which had been created when they transformed the winged horse into the super hero’s plane.

After a couple of hours poring over spreadsheets and schematics, she got up from her desk and rubbed her lower back. She took her empty plate into the kitchen and poured some marshmallows into a bowl and debated whether she wanted a cola or milk. Looking at the clock on the microwave, she went for the milk.

As she sat down in her chair, she almost dropped her bowl when her phone dinged.

“Dammit.”

She’d forgotten that she’d taken it off the night time mode in case the Lartronics CTO wanted to get in touch with her. Maybe she should have gone for the cola. Evan Banks probably wanted her take on the file he sent. She picked up her phone.

Rage shot through her. It was a text from that damned blocked number. She resisted the urge to throw her phone across the room. She was an adult, for God’s sake. She took a deep breath. She had a mega shit-ton of work to get done. She could not and would not deal with this now.

Carefully placing the phone upside down on her desk, she went back to focusing on the files on her computer screen. When it got to the point that she couldn’t concentrate anymore, she powered down and called it a night. She might, just might, have made a rude gesture at her phone before turning off her desk lamp.

When she got to the bedroom, her husband she stopped short when she found Griff up reading a book. This was not normal.

“Hey,” she smiled.

* * *

“Arethere any marshmallows left in the kitchen?” he asked.

Ease into it.

She gave him a quizzical glance. “Not buying it, Porter. What’s on your mind?”

“Maybe I want some fluffy goodness,” he teased.

She yawned, “Tell you what, I’m going to the bathroom and changing for bed. You get your thoughts together, or grab the last of the marshmallows if you’re so inclined, and we’ll meet back here? Is it a deal?”

God, she looked exhausted.

“Just two more days and the presentation is finished, right?” he said as she peeled out of her sweater and went to the dresser to take off her earrings.

“Right.”

His wife was a tough nut to crack, but last night had scared the shit out of him. It was time for a ‘Come to Jesus’ meeting. He’d been on the receiving end of a few in their time together, but she hadn’t.

For God’s sake, it had taken him three weeks after bringing her home from the hospital before she would admit that she couldn’t remember a lot of things. His woman held things close to her chest. After three years together, he’d realized a lot of it was due to how she’d been raised. She’d learned her to keep of cone of silence at her mother’s knee. Olivia had been a single woman who’d been left pregnant by some dead asshole, so she didn’t trust anyone.

Of course that wasn’t the way Miranda told the story.

Nope, Miranda’s version was way the hell different. She talked about a happy shiny childhood, where she and her mom did everything together and they were one another’s best friends. But Griff read that as isolated. Miranda also explained how her mother always made sure she was cared for and provided Miranda with everything she needed. Griff easily discerned that meant Miranda rarely, if ever, got the things a little girl wanted. Yeah, she had an warm apartment, clothes, food and braces, but there were no extracurricular activities for little Miranda. She didn’t get to go to camp with her friends.

Nope, it was her and Olivia Slade against the world. In some ways, Miranda still felt that way and Griff felt like he was still breaking down those barriers.

He got out of the bed and followed into the master bath. “Let me run you a bath.”