Intercepted Risk

by Sidney Bristol

  “It’s cold outside.”

  “Really? I hadn’t noticed?”

  He glanced at her, but instead of an eye roll, she chuckled and smiled.

  Logan swallowed.

  The way her face changed with the simple act of smiling was devastating, to say the least. His mouth dried as she yanked at the zipper on her fluffy coat and shrugged out of it. The pant suit wasn’t the least bit suggestive, and yet he still wanted her.

  He gestured at the kitchen. “Make yourself at home. I’m going to throw on some clothes and then look at this.”

  “Yeah, it’s looking a bit nipply in here.” She glanced at his chest and chuckled.

  Logan chose to ignore that statement and instead turned. He didn’t flee into the bedroom. He was not the kind of man who ran from a woman. But he did walk quickly.

  Of all the women in the world and on the team, why her?

  The reasons were simple, but together they formed a complex issue.

  Kelsey was like him. She was daring. She leapt into danger without a care for her own safety. She put others first. There was so much courage in a tiny package. He wanted to protect her, even though he knew she wouldn’t appreciate that protection. He even liked her sarcasm. Nothing got her down. Ever.

  She took too many chances, though. Eventually, those were going to get her burned.

  He pulled on clothes without much thought. His focus was on the woman in his home.

  His attraction to her wasn’t based on merit alone. She was an attractive woman, whether she was bruised and bleeding or dressed up as she was now. It was her big, brown eyes. They held life and light inside of them despite what she’d seen of the world.

  Dressed, but no better prepared, he returned to the living room to find that Kelsey had brewed two cups of coffee.

  “It’s decaf, don’t worry,” she said as she passed a mug to him.

  He took it and leaned an arm on the kitchen bar.

  Kelsey stared at his chest, one brow arched. “Hashtag Not A Fashion?”

  Logan glanced down.

  He’d grabbed the worn, black T-shirt from the top of his pile of clean laundry.

  “Friend made it,” he said.

  She chuckled. “No, duh. You aren’t exactly into fashion.”

  “It’s—never mind.”

  “No, tell me.” She blew across the top of the mug.

  He studied her for a moment. Was this sarcasm? Or was she curious?

  Part of him wanted her to care, because maybe they’d stop sniping at each other and become friends. Or something else.

  He was a fool, but he couldn’t stop himself.

  “Two of my childhood friends started a fashion company. Label? Whatever. They do what they call high fashion clothing inspired by traditional Cherokee life. There was something in New York a few months back.”

  “I saw that. The designer doing something stupid and people showed up to call him out on it?” Kelsey’s eyes lit up and she gasped. “Were you there? At a fashion show?”

  “Yes.” He shifted his weight from foot to foot.

  “Hm.” She smiled and took a tentative sip of the coffee.

  “Hm, what? What does that mean?”

  “I’m seeing a whole new side of you, Muller.”

  Logan wasn’t sure how to take that statement. It seemed like every step he took with her was the wrong one.

  He tilted his head at the table. “Oliver Reid?”

  Kelsey nodded and crossed to sit at the other side of the table from him while he opened the bottom kitchen cabinet and unlocked the safe where he kept his documents and tablet.

  “How is it that you were the only one who made the cut?” Kelsey asked.

  “Those four have never interviewed for anything in their lives. Well, Jamie should have done better, but he’s so damn distracted lately.”

  That was something Logan would have to bring up with Jamie. They were all used to his ways and knew the girlfriend cycle with their serial monogamist. Only this relationship seemed to be sticking. Chances were they’d pushed into new territory. If that was the case, Logan was happy for the couple, but Jamie had to dial back in to work.

  Logan set the stack of files on the table and lowered into the chair across from Kelsey.

  They’d gotten the list of names from a source in custody who’d once been an international forger, Obran. He didn’t so much as create new identities as he did new lives. Obran was an inconsistent informant. He’d give some intel easily and other times wouldn’t say a word. This list of identities he’d created went back to some of the earliest things he’d given them. But they hadn’t figured out how to use it until now.

  “Did facial recognition work?” She reached over and flipped open the top file.

  “It did.” He set the tablet between them. “Oliver Reid...”

  He tapped in his password and brought up the file for her to see.

  “There you are,” Kelsey muttered and peered at the screen.

  Obran couldn’t tell them who the new Oliver Reid had been, only who he was now.

  “That guy.” Logan grimaced. “If the Oliver Reid showing up tomorrow is this guy, I’d be willing to bet money he’s going to make an attempt to kill Dixon.”

  “Great,” she muttered.

  “We should take him out before. Maybe we can question him.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.” She sighed. “We need to get you access to the security cameras so you can see him coming. As far as I know, the office is business as usual tomorrow.”

  Kelsey pushed her fingers through her hair, causing some of the shorter bits to stick out. When he’d met her, she’d sported a short, pixie style cut. It had suited her. He missed it.

  “Talking this out. Let’s say you’re making friends with whatever security is watching the cameras. You see him coming, and what? How do we stop this guy from getting in to see Dixon? Depending on if Dixon is ready to see them, they could be left cooling their heels or shown into the office. I wish I had a role for him. Then I could pretend to have an urgent question.”

  “Do you think they all know each other?”

  “What?” She blinked at him.

  “These people Obran set up with names and passports for this job. You think they know each other?”

  “I...don’t know.”

  “What if we approached Oliver, said we were there on orders to back him up?”

  “That could either allow us to get him alone, or make him jumpy.”

  He nodded. “We’ll have to improvise. I’ll make sure the other guys are standing by to pick him up.”

  “Great. Improvising.” Kelsey took a long drink from the mug.

  He stared at her, watching the way her throat flexed.

  She set the mug down. The smile was gone, and she stared at the table. Her shoulders slumped a bit, and she just looked...tired.

  “Everything okay?” he asked.

  “Hm? Oh, yeah. Long day. Dixon... He’s very charismatic, but I swear being around him is like having your energy sucked out of you. I’m more exhausted after today than... Well, I don’t know. I’m too tired to come up with something.”

  Logan nodded. “I’ve met a few people like that.”

  Kelsey was back to staring at his shirt.

  “I was there as security. To make sure nothing got out of hand,” he said.

  “Hm?” Kelsey straightened and her gaze leapt to his face.

  “The New York thing?”

  “Oh. Right. Whatever happened with that?”

  “Nothing, really. Guy said he was sorry, didn’t mean to offend anyone.” He shrugged.

  She rolled her eyes. “Isn’t that how it always goes?”

  He sipped his coffee and said nothing.

  Kelsey leaned back, openly studying him now. “You seem really...connected with your family and your heritage.”

  “It’s how I was raised. Community mattered.”

  “I envy that.” She braced her hands on the table. “We
ll, I need to get some sleep.”

  Logan opened his mouth. He wanted to ask a question, and yet he didn’t want to spoil the one conflict free exchange they’d had.

  So instead he said, “Have a good night. See you in the morning.”

  “Yay, morning,” she said with that note of sarcasm he liked so much. She shrugged into her coat and glanced over her shoulder to throw a smile back at him. “See you.”

  Logan didn’t realize until the door had shut that he hadn’t said anything else to her.

  Of all the women in the world, he was fairly certain there wasn’t another like her.

  4.

  Thursday. Senate Office Buildings. Washington, DC.

  It wasn’t even nine in the morning and Kelsey wanted to hit the do-over button on her day. It had started by spilling coffee on her pants, then she’d missed the train, dropped her bag on the stairs.

  She was distracted, and it was Logan’s fault.

  Who answered their door in a towel?

  She hunched over her desk and wiggled her still frozen toes.

  Logan could sure warm her up.

  Nope. No. Stop that right now.

  Kelsey shook her head.

  She could admire him, but she couldn’t touch. There was no crossing the line with him. Logan had already proven that he was one of those guys that couldn’t stomach a woman in danger. Maybe he didn’t realize it, but those were the facts. If he could remove a woman from the equation, he would.

  Her entire career was built on putting herself at risk. Undercover was dangerous work. Until her last gig before joining the Task Force, she’d had a near perfect record. She was good at blending into situations, adapting to the job. But Logan didn’t see that. He would always remember that first moment they’d met. She’d been a prisoner of a madman, hadn’t showered in ages and looked like hell. To him, she was someone who needed protecting.

  Kelsey didn’t need that in a man, no matter how good he looked. If she ever took a man seriously, it would be one that supported her. Like Miles or Evan.

  The good ones were always taken.

  Kelsey let her gaze skim the next file she was scanning into their digital filing system, but there was nothing of note to her on the pages.

  It really was too bad that Logan had this one hang-up. Deep down, she admired him a lot. Okay, and she was also a tiny bit jealous.

  Logan had roots. He never drew attention to it, but he was deeply connected to his heritage. That much was obvious last night in his casual T-shirt pick.

  Kelsey didn’t have that.

  Her mother’s side of the family were Maori. Her father’s family were Polynesian from Hawaii. But they were gone now. All of them, as far as she knew. And it was just her with a few memories. She didn’t have a place to belong or people to call her own. It was just her.

  Deep down, she wanted to be connected to something. It was basic human nature to belong and build community. She supposed that she had that with her work family, but it wasn’t the same.

  She shook her head.

  This mood had to go.

  She had a job to do,, and they still didn’t quite know how they were going to separate their target today.

  Kelsey drew in a deep breath. The holidays made many people melancholy. That had to be the reason for it. The mood would pass. She just had to push through.

  She scanned the last page and fed it into the shredder. It was remarkable what she could learn doing something as simple as filing. So far there wasn’t much of anything that had to do with their current focus, but she was learning more about Dixon, what he stood for, who he was.

  One thing was for certain, if the man was seriously a presidential candidate, he had to stop hanging back. The man needed to get his name out there.

  But what did she know about politics?

  Kelsey sank into her chair and glanced at the conference room.

  Logan wasn’t there anymore.

  He must be out walking the building. With any luck, he’d find a blind spot where they could have a private word with this visitor.

  Speaking of visitors...

  A woman in a navy skirt suit entered. Before Kelsey could open her mouth to greet the woman, Robert appeared from out of nowhere. Kelsey watched him shake the woman’s hand enthusiastically and show her into Dixon’s office.

  That wasn’t right.

  Kelsey clicked onto the day’s agenda.

  There was nothing on the calendar. And she didn’t remember a meeting for this time on that odd, alternate reality calendar either.

  She twisted to glance over her shoulder at the closed door.

  There seemed to be a lot of meetings, yet no record of them. This didn’t feel right. Plus, wasn’t she supposed to keep track of things like meetings and guests?

  Kelsey’s phone vibrated.

  Could it be Logan?

  Her heart did a little flutter at the thought. Though he obviously wouldn’t be texting to see how her day was or anything as nice as that. It would be about the job.

  Which meant she really had to see what the message was.

  Kelsey twisted to look back at the other new girl. “Hey, I’m going to run to the ladies' room, okay?”

  “Sure thing,” the cheerful woman said.

  “Thanks.”

  Kelsey got up and headed out into the hall. She snatched her phone out of her pocket as she made her way to the women’s restroom.

  The message wasn’t from Logan.

  It was from Diha, which was probably better anyway. Kelsey smiled and tapped the icon, only for her smile to wither and die.

  Heads up, cat is out of the bag.

  “Shit,” Kelsey muttered.

  She’d expected the secret to get out, but this quick? Wait, which secret were they talking about here?

  Which one?

  She hit send and sighed. A few moments later, a reply dinged.

  Your new job. Say as little as possible and only use the secure app from now on.

  Her mind immediately went to the mole. Was this them again? Someone in their ranks working against them?

  The very idea made her stop, close her eyes and clench her fists. It wouldn’t be the first time in history that someone betrayed their compatriots, but this felt personal. Everything about it did. Their team was tight. Yes, Kelsey and Logan butted heads all the time, but when it came down to it they knew which side they were on. She would trust him to have her back if things got hairy. And someone was betraying that trust.

  Was she being paranoid?

  Regardless, it was now something to deal with going forward. She’d manage. Both she and Logan knew to be careful.

  Kelsey pocketed her phone and turned around, heading back to the office.

  No one ever said undercover work was easy. She’d field issues from the team after working hours. For now, she and Logan had an imposter to corner.

  THURSDAY. SENATE OFFICE Building. Washington, DC.

  Logan sipped his coffee and kept his focus on the security guard. When he’d popped into the building’s security office to introduce himself, it was clear the staff didn’t know what to make of him. Which meant whatever Dixon was trying to protect himself from wasn’t a well-known threat.

  Did he know this Skilton guy was after him? What was Dixon into? Or was he somehow an innocent in all of this?

  Logan’s gut said they didn’t yet understand the full scope of the situation well enough to answer any of those questions. He hadn’t met Dixon himself except for a brief brush earlier. Logan’s general impression of the guy after watching a few hours of video online was that Dixon probably didn’t hear the word no very often. Which made Logan think that Dixon wasn’t all that innocent.

  Plenty of people said the guy was charming.

  Like a snake charmer.

  Logan tamped down on his rising frustration.

  How was it that out of everyone they’d thrown at this op, it was just him and Kelsey undercover? Why was she the person he was forced to rely
on?

  Intellectually, he knew she had to be good at her job. Her track record was solid. And yet, part of him couldn’t help but worry about her. He knew she wouldn’t appreciate the concern, and he could recognize that it was misplaced. None of that helped change his feelings.

  This luck sucked.

  “I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of you,” the security guard said and glanced back at the monitors.

  Logan dragged his awareness back to the monitors and the building employees.

  “I suppose so. Any holiday plans?” He was beyond feeling the guy out for information. Now it was about making use of the cameras and biding his time.

  Their target should arrive any moment.

  The uniformed guard was all too eager to answer Logan’s question in depth, with a full accounting of his extended family. Logan listened with one ear, making the appropriate noises. To the guard’s credit, he never took his eyes off the cameras and his mouth never stopped moving. He had to be bored back here, mostly alone all day, with just images on the screen to keep him company. Logan would have to make a point of popping in here. Striking up a friendship with the chatty guy could prove useful. And it was a nice thing to do.

  Logan studied the cameras. The map of the building and the detail of all the blind spots had been amazingly accurate. Diha really was a whiz at this stuff. She just might be on par with his boss. It was terrifying to think that there were two people in the world with that skill set. Still, they had one glaring problem to figure out.

  How the hell were they going to extract the target?

  Getting the target out of the building was going to test the team’s coordination. If they were caught on camera and drew too much attention, Zora would step in, but they didn’t want it to come to that. Not when they were finally getting somewhere and when they didn’t know what Dixon was into.

  The working plan was for Logan to get this Oliver Reid guy alone, at which point the others would swoop in as back-up and quietly escort the target into custody. It was simple, and yet Logan knew how easily this could all go south.