Page 44 of Unseen Danger
He chuckled. “I doubt your dog’s trained to detect tampering with equipment.”
“Not yet.” She laughed.
“Glad to have you on board. I’d like you to concentrate most of your attention on the stage and seating areas, of course, but go ahead and check the rest of the facility, too.”
“Right.” She adjusted her dog’s leash in her hand. “We’ll cover the whole place, starting with the performance areas. I’ll let you know when we’re done.”
“Great. Go ahead and take the gate past the metal detectors.”
She nodded, then gave Nevaeh and Jazz a salute as she and her K-9 moved toward the detectors.
“Where do you want us?” Jazz scanned the entry.
“I’ll have you make rounds. Nevaeh,” his gaze went where it had been wanting to go, to Nevaeh’s lovely face, “you’ll be posted here at the entrance with Greg Smith and Terence Robbins, the high school’s security guards.”
“Got it.” The amused sparkle was gone from her big brown orbs, but at least he didn’t see any fear this time.
A definite improvement. Now if he could avoid ruining that…
Staring at her probably wouldn’t help. He forced himself to look away, casually and naturally. He hoped. “How about we do a quick tour?” He went to the gate by the metal detectors and held it open.
As Jazz passed through with Flash, she cast Nevaeh a smile over her shoulder, as if there was a shared secret between them.
“What?” The question popped out before he thought, delivered on the wings of his curiosity about all things Nevaeh.
He expected Jazz to answer, since she seemed to be the bigger talker of the two. But she kept silent as Nevaeh paused before going through the gate.
“I went to high school here.” The words came out in the reserved, almost cautious tone Nevaeh usually used with him—a far cry from the easy, lively tones she’d used with Bristol moments before. The light in her eyes shifted, a hint of discomfort and maybe fear creeping in.
He took the hint this time, tabled the gentlemanly behavior he’d been brought up to exemplify since he was a kid, and went through the gate ahead of her himself. Sorry, Mom.
Disappointment settled in his belly from much more than not being able to hold the gate for her. If she couldn’t even stand to be close to him without getting nervous, a relationship would never work. Not to mention there was the fact she didn’t seem to be a Christian.
He should give up his silly notions now. So what if she was the first woman he’d ever been attracted to. That didn’t mean he was supposed to marry her. It wasn’t like him to get obsessed about a woman anyway or to have romantic feelings.
He’d think of her only professionally from now on. A security specialist he would work with temporarily. He could do that.
“Hey, Nev. Is this where you and—”
“Uh-uh.” Nevaeh rushed up to Jazz with a sharp warning sound that she smoothed into something lighter when Branson looked their way. She gripped Jazz’s arm with one hand and gave Branson a half-smile so cute it shot a jolt of warmth through his chest.
Maybe it wouldn’t be so easy to think of her only as security personnel.
“I suppose you have a lot of memories here.” Branson ventured a smile. “D-Chop was sharing stories yesterday. Did you attend here after he graduated?”
“Yeah.”
Branson had hoped for more of a response than that, but he’d take it. “If you have any personal belongings you want to stash somewhere, we can use the principal’s office, since that has some impressive locks.”
Nevaeh let out a little snort-like laugh.
He shot her a look. “Is there a story behind that?”
“They might've beefed up the security thanks to one of my cousins. He didn’t like it when the principal told him he couldn’t graduate with his GPA.” She cut Branson a sideways glance as they continued up the hallway. “It was totally his fault, but…” She shrugged.
Branson tried to keep from staring. What a different world she’d grown up in than he had. “Did they have the metal detectors when you went here?”
“Oh, yeah. Though most kids figured ways around them whenever they wanted to get something through.”