CHAPTER
ELEVEN

DOWNTOWN NASHVILLE

0847 HOURS LOCAL

Identifying a coffee shop he could access without going outside was a challenge, but eventually Jed found a solution—a Starbucks built into the lobby of the Margaritaville hotel downtown. Grumbling to himself, he stomped through the covered parking lot toward the garage entrance to the hotel. An existence where he couldn’t go outside for fear of being vaporized at any given moment was no way to live.

If this is the future of warfare, then we’re all doomed, he realized with creeping dread. Which is why we’ve got to find this weapon and destroy it.

Suddenly feeling the crush of time, he glanced at his watch. He wasn’t late, but that was irrelevant, because he didn’t have time for this. He’d offered to meet Maria, driven by a sense of guilt and obligation, but that had been last night . . . when he’d been exhausted and still reeling from his soul-baring, emotionally charged conversation with Rachel. Now, rested and clearheaded, he regretted that decision. Everyone else on his team was working like dogs at Trinity on the case, while he ducked out to have coffee with his girlfriend.

Hold on—is that what she is now . . . my girlfriend?

This was the first time he’d privately referred to Maria as his girlfriend, and it left him shocked and more than a little unsettled. They’d been on a handful of outings together, and only one qualified as a real date. The other times they’d gotten together had been like this—forcing a meetup into their mutually busy schedules to see each other face-to-face. But that’s the way new relationships started, and that was okay. He wasn’t a one-night stand kind of person and he suspected neither was she. Obviously she was interested in him—she’d blown his phone up with texts and voice mails the last couple of days. And he couldn’t deny the feelings he was starting to have for her.

But the timing was terrible.

I don’t know how the married guys do it, he thought. Add kids and a dog or two and how is a guy supposed to do his job and make time to meet everyone’s needs?

He passed through the hotel lobby and doglegged left toward the Starbucks. He spied Maria through the glass doors, standing inside and seemingly lost in thought. In the split second before she noticed him, he saw a facet of her he’d not seen before. She looked . . . vulnerable. Not physically but like an elementary schooler looks waiting alone on the sidewalk for the bus to arrive—brave with duty and expectation yet anxious because, well, what if the bus fails to come? The epiphany moved him, and he felt a strong pull of attraction for her.

“Jed!” she called and trotted over to give him a hug the instant he crossed the threshold into the coffee shop.

“Hi,” he said, grinning, and wrapped his arms around her as she threw herself against him.