by Amelia Shaw
Ouch. I stood and crossed my arms under my breasts.
He gestured at me while he got to his feet. “See I’ve offended you with facts.”
“Well, just because they are facts doesn’t mean you have to say them out loud. Inside thoughts stay inside, remember.”
“Sage advice we should both remember.”
A water fountain sat in the corner and I headed toward it to put some distance between us. The imprint of his hard body stuck in my mind. His words, while unkind, were true.
I took a sip of water and turned back to face him. He stared at me until I had to duck my gaze to avoid his.
“Go again?”
He shrugged and waved at the mat. “Want to start on our knees.”
I smiled. “I never say no to that proposition. Although I always hated when training they made us start on our knees. As if we’d meet a bad guy in a dark alley and say, excuse me please get on your knees so I can wallop you properly. It’s how I trained.”
That got me a short laugh, and I felt like I’d earned it. I hated the knowledge I wanted to coax another laugh from him. Not the short soft chuckle he gave me when I said something amusing, but a full laugh that started in the belly.
I got down on my knees in front him. He fell forward from a crouch onto his knees.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Ready to whoop your ass again, sure.”
In one quick lunge, he took me down to the mat, flat on my back.
His beautiful face hovered over mine and I wriggled to get my legs out and wrap them up around his waist, but he didn’t move while I took the position.
“Already tired, grandpa?”
“Of course not. I was just thinking.”
That’s an opening if I ever heard one. “About what?”
I expected him to say something important, mind-blowing about our target, or our plan.
Instead, he asked me, “Do you have a mate?”
I snorted and dropped my feet to sit flat on the mat, my knees up framing his hips. “A mate? Really? I don’t believe humans have mates, and if we do, we rarely refer to them as mates.”
He rolled his eyes. “A boyfriend, husband, lover?”
His voice had taken a smoky register that did not bode well for my hormones. I cleared my throat so my voice didn’t waffle when I answered.
“It wasn’t in my files?”
When he just stared at me, hands braced over my shoulders I shook my head.
“No, I don’t have any of those things. How about you? Do you have a mate?”
It felt silly to ask him that, especially with him laying between my open thighs. After time stretched awkwardly long, I thought he wouldn’t answer but then he shook his head softly.
“No. I don’t have anyone else.”
Anyone else? A strange way to answer an equally strange question. He blinked and pushed off me to sit on his calves.
“Are we done?” I sat up and folded my arms over my knees.
He turned his face away from me.
Instead of letting the awkwardness set in further, I shoved at his shoulder until he tilted and glared at me.
“We aren’t finished, old man. I want to see some of this fae strength you were harping about.”
“I refuse to injure you when we have a lot of work to do.”
“Then don’t hurt me.”
He cocked his head. “It almost sounds like you trust me.”
I shot up and over to topple him back to the mats. He twisted impossibly fast to put himself on top again.
“That’s more like it,” I said, and wrapped my thighs around him again.
He started to stand, but I gripped his ankle, rolled over to put him off balance, and twisted to capture his flying arm into a bar lock. He dragged his arm from my grasp and then pinned me again, all his weight pressing down onto my chest and thighs. His knees locked my legs together so I couldn’t capture him again.
“You have some moves, Grandpa.”
“Stop calling me grandpa,” he said, his mouth only an inch from mine. His breath smelled of coffee and I swallowed, suddenly aware of every single place our bodies touched.
Our chests, our thighs, our hips, our knees. His arms holding mine tight to my body. I let myself breathe him in for a moment. Hold on to it. Let myself feel it.
He leaned down, so slow I wasn’t sure he moved at first. I locked my gaze with his. The man wasn’t about to kiss me, not while I lay immobile under his body.
But... I wouldn’t push him away if he closed the shrinking gap and took my lips.
Damn. It was easier to hate him.
A door banged against the wall and the giant bodyguard barged in and stomped all over the moment. I should have been grateful but instead I felt hollow, an empty ache in my chest, in my body.
“Captain?” Fin said, still staring into my eyes.
“We have a problem, sir.”
Chapter Eleven
Play time ended as quickly as it had begun. The hard-won ease we built with our verbal and physical sparring waned, and I regretted its loss.
The Captain led us back to Fin’s office and handed him a bottle of water.
I plopped in the chair, still in my black cami and jeans. “I’m good. Thanks for offering.”
The Captain didn’t even glance my way, his full attention fixated on Fin who sat behind his desk again.
“So?” I said.
The captain glanced at Fin and anger whipped through me.
“Are we not working together on this? Just spit it out, so we can figure out what to do.”
Fin gave him a nod, and I wanted to throw my boot at his face. The guards thought me another flunky.
The captain stood at-ease and spoke to Fin directly. “One of the men found a dead body. We don’t have confirmation on the identity yet, but it’s highly likely it was one of your informants.”
“How do we know that?” I asked, trying to catch the captain’s gaze. Apparently, I’d been relegated to ornamental furniture in Fin’s presence.
“The guards said he saw the assassination through the gate where the usual meetings take place. No one could get in to check who it was though.”
Fin remained silent, studying the captain who’d stopped speaking when Fin offered neither encouragement nor direction.
“How big a setback is this?” I asked Fin.
He shifted to face me, his eyes locked on his desk blotter. “I don’t know. I can’t know until we learn the identity of who we lost. It could be a driver or...”
“Your inside man?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. For some reason, this display of emotion unnerved me. More so because I could see myself walking around the desk and putting my arms around him. I wanted to comfort him, and that didn’t sit well in my gut.
So, I shoved down the emotion, stood, and squared off with the captain. “How long until we can learn who we lost?”
He bounced his gaze from me to Fin, and I snapped my fingers in front of his face.
“Right here, G.I. Joe. How long?”
“I don’t know. We can’t exactly go in and speak to him. The territory is likely surveyed by the enemy and I won’t risk the identities of my men to find out until dark.”
“You think the sun going down and a baseball cap are going to keep your men safe. I guarantee ‘the enemy’ already knows the identity of every single person you have in the field.”
He stared at me, his eyes going hard, fists clenching. Oh, he really didn’t like me.
I crossed my arms and met his gaze unflinching. “To know your enemy, you must become your enemy.”
“Sun Tzu,” Fin murmured, still looking dazed.
Did he not expect to lose people in this little battle?
The toy soldier’s jaw clenched. “What do you want me to do?”
Finally, a direct response from him not filtered through Fin.
“Take all your guys so no-one gets hurt, but get in there and retrieve the body. Do it
before we have to deal with law enforcement bureaucracy along with this setback.”
Without another word, he marched out of the room. Hopefully to do as I suggested.
I stared at Fin. “And you. What is your deal? Didn’t you think people were going to get hurt? The Black Mage is merciless. He has no remorse, no qualms about murder, or torture for that matter. I thought you and I were on the same page here.”
His lips thinned, and he shook his head. I’d upset him.
I let him see he’d disappointed me too. We were fighters, or I thought we were.
I threw myself into the leather chair I’d claimed and stared at the bookshelf. Could I get out of this partnership? The money induced me to stay, but I couldn’t work on this case with someone who fell apart at the brief mention of loss. Even worse, he was the one who wanted to test my combat skills like I would be the person to let the team down.
I let out a groan and left the room. A coffee station had been set up in the dining room, so I helped myself and waited.
The Captain returned as I reached the bottom of the cup. I followed on his heels into Fin’s office. Fin had turned to face out the window behind his desk, but he swiveled around when we entered. He set his lips in a grim line and refused to meet my eyes.
The Captain cleared his throat, looking between us. “I’m sorry, sir. It was Olivia.”
I watched Fin at this news. He blinked a couple times and waved his hand at the captain. The man fairly fled the room.
“Where’s the body?” I called after him.
“The men are bringing it in now,” he answered from the doorway.
He left, and I turned back to Fin. The whites of his eyes were visible, and he rubbed his long elegant hands up and down his knees.
“Who’s Olivia?” I asked gently.
“My inside man,” he whispered. “She’d been working under the Black Mage for a year, delivering me information when it was safe for her to leave his compound. She was under a spell that wouldn’t allow her to reveal the location by any means so we’d meet, and she’d give me what she could. It was slow, but she’d been working her way into the inner circle.”
Damn it!
“Okay, so that changes things a bit.” I sat back in my chair and stared at him. Obviously, the news shocked him; he wore it in the creases around his eyes.
He cared for Olivia. Were they more than friends? Would the captain answer me if I asked him? Probably not. The captain seemed the loyal type. A man to keep his master’s secrets.
I stood and exited to the hallway, needing to pace... or hit something.
A guard flanked the door. I didn’t sit and wait well.
I grabbed his walkie talkie before he could even make a move. “Captain. I’d like to speak to you, please.”
No reply came back, but soon the heavy fall of boots echoed down the hall and the captain approached. “Can I help you, ma’am?”
Ouch. Ma’am. Maybe I deserved that. “Were Fin and Olivia more than just business acquaintances?”
The question sounded dumb even to me, and part of me couldn’t believe I’d asked it.
He stiffened. “Why do you ask?”
“I’m confused by his reaction to her loss. If she was just a contact... why is he taking it so hard?”
He licked his lips and dragged me by the elbow toward a small alcove in the hall. I would allow the manhandling if it meant he would actually share something. “Olivia was his friend. He asked her to be his contact after she had a brief run in with the Black Mage last year. He thinks her death is his fault.”
“So, no hanky panky then?”
The Captain shook his head, disgusted with me, and walked away.
Exactly how I liked my men.
Before he made it to the staircase, he turned back. “Give my guard his walkie back.”
I shoved it at the soldier’s chest and returned to Fin’s office.
With nothing to do, I sat and stared at the back of Fin’s head as he stared out the window. It was time to dissect why I cared so much about Fin’s reaction. He was nothing to me save a client. Why did his reaction to a woman’s loss make me so angry? I knew the answer, and I wouldn’t say it out loud. I’d been attracted to him since the moment we met, even if I threatened his life frequently. Threats of bodily harm were merely foreplay. It didn’t work for everyone, but it did for me.
Shit. Not good.
We’d known each other for two days. Since I was practical, I called it lust. The lure of the unknown and forbidden. This rationale soothed something biting in my belly.
Lust. Simple and easy to squash.
Yeah, right.
I popped back into the hallway, grabbed the walkie again with a wink to the guard, and walked into the dining room. “Captain, bring me the body, please. Note the use of please and lack of curse words. I’ve got some crime scene training and took some classes with the hunters on evaluating death.”
I probably over shared. I just didn’t want anyone thinking I dug around in their friend’s life with inexperienced hands.
Another cup of coffee called to me, and I snagged a little stack of shortbread cookies from the tray by the carafe. I could learn to love endless coffee and cookies during the day. My ass would regret it when my jeans didn’t fit, but hey, we sacrificed for the things we loved.
I walked back across the hall to Fin’s office and clipped the walkie back on the soldier and then offered him the cookie in my hand.
“You know you love me.”
I plopped back into the chair and watched Fin. He sat still, facing the window. Kind of unnerving how he could remain so perfectly straight like that.
“The chef made shortbread. Was that on purpose, or does she do that every day?” I took a sip of my coffee and continued. “Do the guards have access to the coffee because if so, I think we need a bigger pot to keep it all in. Just a thought.”
No response. I sighed and walked around to crouch in front of him. He didn’t glance down, but I put my hand on his knee, anyway.
“You can talk to me. I know I’m ridiculous sometimes, but I can listen when required.” Then I said the thing I didn’t really want to say but would accept the answer if he needed to do it. “If you want to call this off, say the word. I’ll go back home and work on my own.”
Finally, he met my eyes. The creases around his were a little deeper, his lips turned down. “No, that’s not what I want. I’m fine, honestly. I simply needed to process what happened.”
“Was she doing something in particular you guys planned when she got killed?”
He shook his head. The light glinted off the high points of his cheekbones. “Only trying to get us in.”
So, he did blame himself.
“This wasn’t your fault. She was a grown woman who made her own decision to help you. Grieve her loss, honor her memory, and then get on with the mission.”
He gave me a curt nod, and I stood as the captain returned, his mouth a grim slash across his face.
“What now?” I asked.
He couldn’t possibly have any more bad news. It wasn’t even lunch yet.
Fin swiveled back around. The captain cleared his throat, stood at ease, and met Fin’s eyes. Damn, I thought we were making progress.
“The body seems to have disappeared.”
I kept them both in my sight as I considered this new predicament. “A leak in your guards? Someone stole the body so we couldn’t investigate what happened to her?”
Fin shook his head. “No, that wasn’t the case. I trust the captain’s team.”
He waved at the captain, who executed a neat about face and marched out.
I took a minute to try and do that move, but only ended up tangling my ankles and narrowly catching myself on the edge of the desk. “He’s going to have to teach me that one.”
“We need to have a chat.”
Uh oh, I’m in trouble.
I slumped into the chair and braced for whatever he needed to say.
&nbs
p; Something pinged around that beautiful brain because his forehead hadn’t lost its deep furrow and he still wouldn’t meet my eyes. “Did you do this?”
Wow.
Something molten burned in my gut, spreading to my fingers, leaving them tingling.
“I’m going to give you a moment to retract that question.” I kept my voice low and minus the string of profanity I wanted to insert.
He threw up his arms. “What am I supposed to think? Not twenty-four hours after you join the team, my inside contact is dead.”
I stood and let out a long exhale. That yoga looked good right now. It might save me from throwing something at his face.
“And how would I have contacted this person? Carrier pigeon? I don’t have any information, nor any actual names. I must be pretty damn good to have murdered someone from inside my fancy cage here. Especially since you kidnapped me! I didn’t come looking for you. I have an ego but orchestrating what you are suggesting would be a damn miracle.”
I stormed out of the room and right out the front door. Fuck them and fuck this job. I didn’t need his money or his super hot body or his suspicion.
I walked down the long driveway to a wrought-iron gate twice my height. It remained shut. A call box sat just inside the bars.
I lifted the phone and yelled into the receiver. “Let me out or I swear I will climb over this gate, break my arm, and then sue your ass when I make it home.”
A buzz was my only response, and the gate slowly opened. I dropped the receiver and squeezed out before the gates were all the way parted.
The driveway continued, flanked on either side by rolling lawns. A forest dotted off in the distance. I didn’t know how I would get home, but it was all I wanted right now.
A black sedan crawled up behind me, and I stepped off the gravel driveway to glare at the occupant, no doubt Fin, who couldn’t bother to walk the four hundred yards to speak to me.
A guard rolled down the driver’s side window and waved to the back. “I’ve been ordered to take you home.”
Good.
“Thank you,” I told him and climbed into the car.
Nothing had changed for me. I was still going after the Black Mage. Unfortunately though, I no longer had a powerful Fae on my side.