His eyebrows climbed his forehead. “I started it? Me? You’re the spoiled brat who won’t eat fast food. That’s what started the whole damned thing.”
Her eyes flashed. “I don’t eat that stuff because it makes me sick to my stomach. It’s got nothing to do with being uppity, which is what you implied.”
“So take a pill like everybody else on this planet and deal.”
“You’re an asshole.”
“Then why are you here?” He was taunting her and he knew it. He wasn’t proud of it, but apparently he still had a lot of anger issues where she was concerned. Combine those with the way she’d twisted sympathy about her family life out of him earlier and he was careening out of control.
“Because you’re one of the good guys, Sky. Because you might hate me, but you won’t let anything bad happen to me if you can stop it.”
Part of him hated that she was right. That she knew him so well. He went back over to the computer and booted it up again. Then he called up Martin’s hard drive and went to work. First he’d take a dictionary approach, trying to crack the password by running it through a million-plus words. He set the program to work and waited, hoping Martin was indeed an idiot and the password cracked in a few minutes.
“How long will it take?” Bliss asked. She was standing behind him, the heat of her body closer than he’d like. Her cotton candy scent invaded his space. His dick started to harden. Great.
“Can you not stand so close?” he snapped.
She sidestepped a dramatic amount. “Fine. This better?”
“It’s a start,” he grumbled. He could still smell cotton candy. And that made his mind wander far more than he’d like. “And it’ll take anywhere from minutes to days. If I can break through. After that, it might help to know what he was trying to sell so we can narrow down the file names.” He woke the other laptop. “I’ll log into the dark net and see if I can find him.”
“Why don’t you give me back my computer so I can help? Now that you’ve got a secure network I can log on to, I’m not worried about being traced. And two heads are better than one.”
He hesitated. And then he shrugged because it wasn’t really a bad idea. Besides, it’d get her away from him. “Be my guest. But don’t leave a trail.”
“I know that. I’m not an idiot, Sky.” She took her computer and climbed onto the bed, stuffing the pillows behind her back.
“Did you check for bedbugs?” he asked as soon as she was settled.
As predicted, she shot off the bed. “Jesus. Ewww. Why didn’t you say something before I got comfortable?”
“Because I figured you were smart enough to check that on your own. Guess I was wrong.”
She cursed under her breath as she stripped back the covers and sheet from the side of the mattress. “I forgot, asshole,” she said as she inspected the mattress and seams. “No rusty spots, so no bedbugs. Yuck.”
She went around to check the other side, just in case, then she yanked the covers back up and climbed onto the bed again. She flipped open her laptop and perched it on her thighs.
They worked in silence for the next half hour until Wolf and Easy returned with food. Then the four of them settled in different areas of the room and ate from take-out containers.
Bliss eyed his teammates, but she didn’t ask questions. He knew she was curious, but he didn’t intend to enlighten her. Not to mention that HOT wasn’t the kind of thing any of them openly discussed with anyone who wasn’t briefed. And Bliss would never be briefed. She wasn’t trustworthy enough.
He thought of the men he knew in HOT with wives and girlfriends. Those women knew the deal, or as much of it as they were allowed to know, and they supported the mission. What must it be like to have someone in your corner like that?
Sky scrolled through forums, looking for anything that jumped out at him, eating eggs and pancakes and trying not to let his mind wander too much from the task at hand. Wolf and Easy bantered back and forth about nothing much, and Sky joined in from time to time when they prompted him.
Sky’s phone rang. It was Saint calling him on the encrypted network that HOT ran for their operators. He snapped it up. “Saint.”
“Hey, man. You got Wolf and Easy with you?”
“Yep. We’re eating pancakes and shooting the shit.”
“Good. Glad they’re there. Got some information for you.”
“Am I going to like it?”
“Probably not. Martin died about four hours ago. His laptop is missing.” Fuck.
“Where was he?”
“Well, that’s the strange part. He was taken into FBI custody after he left the Starbucks where your, uh, friend lifted his files.”
“So where did he die? And was he still in custody?”
Bliss’s head snapped up. Her eyes were wide as she stared at him. Listening.
“Nope, not in custody. They let him go after twenty-four hours, though I don’t know why. Anyway, he was found on a bench in front of Air and Space. He was unconscious but breathing. Someone realized he wasn’t just a homeless person sleeping it off and called 911. He was taken by ambulance to the ER, but he died en route.”
“What happened?”
“Someone loaded him with a nerve agent.”
Sky’s blood chilled. A nerve agent? In the middle of Washington, DC?
Saint echoed his thoughts. “Martin was killed by a chemical weapons attack while sitting within view of the Capitol building. To say folks are a little uptight about that would be an understatement.”
“Holy shit. Any idea what the hell he was selling? Or why the FBI arrested him and then let him go?”
“Nope, not yet. But I need you to break that encryption ASAP. HOT assets are yours, straight from Ghost’s mouth.”
“You want me to bring, uh, everything in with me?” What he really meant was Bliss, but he wasn’t about to say it.
“Don’t want you coming in. Not yet. You come in, and we’ve got to answer questions. You stay out there, doing what you have to do, with support, then nobody here is withholding information from other intel agencies. Understand?”
It was always a delicate dance that Mendez performed with the CIA and FBI.
“Roger that, Saint. I’m already on it.”
“I know you are. Good luck, man.”
Chapter Six
Sky ended his call and Bliss waited with her heart in her throat for him to say what she knew he was going to say.
“Martin’s dead. His laptop is missing.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “The FBI took him into custody after Starbucks, but they let him go again. Saint doesn’t know why.”
And Bliss didn’t know what that meant for her. If the CIA had had enough of a smoking gun to tip off the FBI so they could make an arrest, then why had they needed her to steal the files first? If they were taking him into custody, they’d get everything they needed.
But since they’d apparently let Martin go, did that mean what she had wasn’t important? If so, why had someone broken into her house and then waited for her?
Sky’s expression was grim. “We’ve got authorization to work on this. Full support. But we stay here.”
They nodded as if they understood what he meant. Bliss was lost. Her gaze darted between the three of them, but not a single face gave her a hint to the subtext. And there clearly was subtext. All three of them understood it too.
Which meant she wasn’t out of danger yet.
“We’ve got the room next door,” Wolf said. “We’ll have your back.” They talked about logistics, and then the two men stood and gathered up the empty food containers. “Call if you need us.”
They walked toward the door.
“Copy,” Sky said. “And thanks.”
“You bet, Hack.”
The door closed behind them, and then she heard the door open to the next room. Paper-thin walls, apparently.
Bliss crossed her arms and wandered over to where Sky sat, staring at the twin screens of his computers.
>
“So now what?” she asked. Trying to make conversation. Trying to find out more.
He glanced up. “Now we wait. Nothing more to do. You can sleep.”
“I’m not tired.” As soon as she said it, she treated him to a jaw-cracking yawn.
“Yeah, you’re right. You sound too awake for sleep.”
She slapped his shoulder. Not hard. But damn, his muscles were tight. “Funny.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“What else did you learn? I know there had to be more to it than what you said.”
He slanted his gaze up at her. Studied her until she felt like a bug on a pin. “It’s need to know only. And you don’t need to know.”
“Fuck you, Sky Kelley. You wouldn’t be doing this if I hadn’t brought you the files. Martin is dead, and there’s more to it than that or you wouldn’t have the full support of whomever you talked to. I have ears and eyes, and the three of you were mighty impressed with that bit.”
“Look, be glad you’re here at all. But there are things I can’t tell you. Just like you couldn’t tell me what you were really up to four years ago with Major Tucker.”
She closed her eyes as frustration hammered her. Of course he’d bring it back to that. He’d bring everything back to that if she let him. “You’re never going to stop beating me up with that, are you?”
“Pretty much. But it’s also the truth, Bliss. There are things I can’t share with you. And I won’t. But right now you’re safe and we’re working on breaking this. We have to hope we get it before whoever took Martin’s laptop does.”
“Unless he gave them the key. He might have if they tortured him.”
“Might’ve. But I don’t think he was tortured.”
“You know that for sure?”
“My team leader didn’t mention it.”
“You keep talking about a team. Teammates, a leader—what kind of team is this?”
“A special one. That’s all you need to know. We’re combat trained and we’ve got resources you can only dream about. When you picked me to break this, you didn’t pick wrong.”
“You didn’t want to help me when I showed up.”
“No, but I had my reasons.”
“And now?”
His hazel eyes gleamed. “Now I’m helping you.”
“I guess I should be relieved you believe me.”
“Your story holds up. Doesn’t mean I trust you though. Don’t make the mistake of thinking I do.”
Her heart ached with old hurts and regrets. “You’re never going to forgive me, are you? No matter how much time passes, no matter how much you know about covert ops and what’s required, you can’t forgive me for doing my job.”
He got to his feet. It was a casual move, and yet he towered over her. He had size and weight to his advantage, but she wasn’t afraid of him. He wouldn’t use it against her. It wasn’t his style. His eyes flashed as he studied her face. “It’s not the job I can’t forgive you for. It’s the lies. The continual lies, even after your job was over. You pretended to be someone you weren’t. You led me to believe you were in love with me. You married me—and yet you kept doing the CIA’s dirty work without ever telling me a thing. I thought you were an IT consultant for Hewlett-Packard—because that’s what you wanted me to believe.”
Her heart hurt so hard. Her throat was tight. Dammit, she’d thought she was over this by now. That the years had eased the pain. Guess not.
“I couldn’t tell you what I was really doing. And I was a consultant. Just not for HP. It also took far longer for the CIA to make their case than they told me. I was supposed to be out in two weeks—it didn’t work that way.”
And no matter what he thought, she had been in love with him. Head over heels. That’s why she’d stayed even after she’d gotten the evidence. Why she’d married him. But she couldn’t say it. Couldn’t make herself vulnerable when he hated her so much.
His gaze raked over her from head to toe. Her body sizzled beneath those eyes as they passed down and back up again. “Then you’ll understand why I can’t tell you everything about this job, right? It’s duty, Bliss. Need-to-know basis. You’re lucky you’re still here. Because I don’t need you for this part. I don’t need you at all.”
Her mouth was dust. Her temples throbbed. She wanted to punch him and throw herself into his arms at the same time. “Yeah, I understand. I understand perfectly.” Anger rocked her suddenly, and she stabbed him in the chest with a manicured finger as her emotions boiled. “But you listen to me, big boy. I got those files from Martin. Without me, you wouldn’t have a damn thing. You are not cutting me out of the loop on this. I want to know what you find, and I want to be treated with professional courtesy. I’m not the bad guy here—and you can rest assured I’ll still be working in the field when this is all over. If you cheat me, I’ll make it my business to ruin you.”
He glared down at her. And then he laughed. It wasn’t at all what she’d expected. She flushed and hoped he didn’t notice.
“You can try, pretty lady. You won’t succeed.” He reached down and dragged off his T-shirt one-handed, revealing acres of smooth muscle and tanned skin. Her lady parts started doing the Macarena. Jesus.
“What are you doing?” she demanded as he dropped the shirt and toed off his shoes.
“Showering.” He walked into the bathroom and flipped on the lights. She heard the shower start. It sputtered for a few seconds as air made its way through the pipes. Then he walked back out, fingers on his belt, and gave her a look. “You can try to run away if you want to, but Wolf and Easy won’t let it happen. And you aren’t getting your files back, so don’t waste time trying.”
“You put the USB in your pocket. I could take it.”
“You could. You won’t get anywhere with it though. Not unless you know somebody else with state-of-the-art equipment who can break into it for you.”
Heat flooded her. “I know people. But I trust you to be honest whereas I don’t know what others would do. Besides, I could also put the files back on my laptop while you’re in the shower. For security.”
“You could do that too. I don’t advise it. I stripped your laptop for a reason, Bliss. Up to you though. But I’ll ask to see it when I get out of here anyway, so if the files are there, I’ll strip them again or the deal is off.”
Dammit, she hated his smug superiority. She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and glared. “You’re fucking irritating, do you know that?”
He grinned, the bastard. “Been told that a time or two. I’ll remind you that you chose to come to me. My rules now.”
“Yeah, whatever, hotshot.” She flicked a hand in his direction and turned to go and climb onto the bed with her laptop. “I’ll keep searching for Martin’s postings. You wash the smugness from between your ears.”
He disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door. She swore she heard him laughing.
He had to stop arguing with her. Sky stood beneath the spray and told himself that his dick, which was currently as stiff as concrete that had set for a week, wouldn’t react so much if he’d stop arguing with her.
He palmed his hard length and tried not to groan. No way was he jerking off in here with her right outside the door. And yet the idea wasn’t a bad one. Get it over with. Get some relief so he could think.
He stroked himself from root to tip, arm above his head as he leaned into the shower wall. Anger and hate commingled in his head, making him harder and more determined. He’d thought maybe that would end things, but his dick wasn’t having it. The bastard was excited as hell.
He gave in and stroked himself into a shuddering orgasm, then soaped his body and rinsed, the glow of pleasure still radiating through him as he shut off the shower and toweled off. He wouldn’t have showered at all except he’d needed the hot water to wake himself up after the beer he’d consumed.
He dragged on his clothes, raked his fingers through his damp hair, and strolled back out into the room. Bliss was still on the bed
, tapping away on her laptop. She looked up, and his chest tightened. Shit.
He hated that she could still affect him. He hadn’t been celibate after their divorce, but he’d damned sure forgotten how much Bliss revved his engine. It had taken him about six months after she left to fuck somebody else, and it hadn’t been all that great. How long had it taken her?
“Find anything?” he asked.
“Not yet. Some guy offering to sell a nuke, but that’s not it.”
“A nuke?”
“It’s bullshit. It’s Sun God. You remember him, right?”
“Name sounds familiar.” He spent time on the dark net when he could, in order to keep up with shit, but not as much as he would have liked. HOT kept him too busy with ops. And they already had people whose job it was to monitor for intel.
“He hacked the Chinese security service website. Left fortune cookies all over the pages with offensive sayings. He’s trolling someone with that nuke talk.”
Sky remembered the fortune cookies. And the dude behind it, who was an anarchist but not someone with any real access to anything. Just a hacker who was bored and angry. Not a good combination on any day.
“Nothing else?”
“Not yet. I’ll keep searching.” She arched an eyebrow. “Want to see my laptop?”
“Nope.”
“Really? After all those threats?”
“Really. I have a firewall you can’t breach and the USB was in the bathroom with me.”
She rolled her eyes. “Drama queen.”
Sky snorted in spite of himself and then bent to study his screens. The program was still working, but it hadn’t cracked the password yet. Not that he’d expected it to. He was connected to HOT’s servers through a special secure Wi-Fi device, so the program was amplified by the power of a thousand compared to what he could do on his own. He’d get in eventually. If the dictionary didn’t work, he’d skip right over to a brute-force attack.
He sat and scrolled the forums for a while, looking for something that might leap out at him. Bill Martin had worked for Brighton Business Solutions. He’d been trying to sell something. The CIA had sent Bliss in to get it, so it was presumably something they didn’t want to end up in circulation. So why then had the FBI let him go? They couldn’t prove it? The CIA would have sent the Fibbies everything they had on Martin. Had they jumped the gun?
HOT SECRETS: A Hostile Operations Team - Book 13 Page 5