“For you.”
The temperature in the room grew hotter. She knew that tone. Those words. Once upon a time, she’d have dropped the towel in response.
Instead, she looked up, meeting his gaze, and she didn’t need light to see what he wanted.
Her.
He crossed the short span in two steps and wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight. “You scared the hell out of me.”
For a heartbeat, she considered pushing him away.
But God help her, it felt good to have his arms around her. It felt like that early part of their romance when they’d been all over each other all the time. When a mere glance had them both rushing into the bedroom.
She buried her head against his chest, his heart beating against her ear.
Damn, she’d missed this.
“Don’t ever do that again,” he said, kissing the top of her head.
She looked up at him. “I don’t plan on it.”
Then his mouth found hers, and unlike the past, these were gentle kisses. No rushing. No frantic need to be naked. Just a tender touch of his lips as he traced a path along her jaw, the ridge of her nose, and her closed eyelids—reaching all the way into her soul and grabbing on with a fierceness that surprised her.
Then he pulled her tight again, his hands in her hair.
She wasn’t sure how much time passed—seconds or minutes—when he finally let her go.
He didn’t apologize but handed her one of the hotels thick, white robes, and helped her put it on.
“I’m not a child,” she said as he belted it for her.
“I know.”
“Making up for not being with me on the plane?” she asked.
He gave her a sharp glance, and she knew the comment hit the mark when the worry in his eyes vanished, and he snapped on the overhead light.
In the harsh fluorescent glare, she wondered if she looked as foolish as she felt, and she scolded herself for giving in to the moment—no matter how much she’d needed it. “So, why are you here?” she asked.
“To escort you back to L.A.”
“I can do that on my own.”
He shrugged. “Considering the circumstances, Tempe decided it best.”
Ah, the circumstances. “You mean my multiple failures?”
“That’s harsh.”
“I agree, considering I wasn’t briefed on Felix’s past.”
“No one knew,” he replied. “He’s more than a brilliant scientist. He seems to be adept at hiding his identity.”
“Or has people who can do it for him.” Retrieving her empty glass from the bottom of the tub, she walked out of the still-steamy bathroom and poured herself a fresh glass before sitting on the couch, tucking her legs beneath her.
He didn’t join her but paced the length of the room, a habit Eva remembered from when they were together. He never could sit still when his mind was racing.
“So why am I being blamed?” she asked.
He didn’t break stride. “You’re not. But Tempe wants to keep this in-house. I think she’s more than a bit appalled at the multiple snafus on everybody’s part.”
She shouldn’t be. It was Tempe’s job to know everything, but even a V.P. couldn’t do it all and had to rely on staff. Besides, who would dig deeper on Felix? He was an elderly scientist who’d offered no hint that he was involved in more sinister experiments. “She can’t be everywhere,” Eva offered.
“I know that, and you know that, but Tempe doesn’t,” he said. “She’s pissed.”
That seemed like the appropriate response. Eva had fluctuated between anger with Felix and concern over what his captors were doing to him. “How long do you think it’ll take them to convince him to make some kind of biological weapon?” she said, asking the question she was sure everyone involved was wondering.
“Depends on him,” he said. “And his conviction about not being the proverbial bad guy.”
“He’s tough. Our shared experience with FARC taught me that.” She took a sip of wine, letting the chilled Riesling cool her throat. “But we both know how soon even the strongest of beliefs fade under torture.”
“Nothing breaks faith like the combination of a red hot poker and bare skin.” He stopped his pacing long enough to find a glass and pour himself some wine, filling the bulb almost to the rim.
“I can’t argue with that,” she said, eying his too-full glass. What bothered him? The kidnapping? Her place in the botched attempt to reunite Felix with his daughter?
Or that this might hurt is career trajectory? She frowned.
He took a large swig. “I probably shouldn’t say this, but as the person who trained you, you made me proud up there. It was a stressful situation, and you handled it better than most agents would have.”
And there was the answer. He was glad he didn’t appear the fool. She continued, “Who knows what kind of damage Felix can do when coerced?”
He stared at her, his gaze penetrating. Once upon a time, she’d reveled in the heat between the two of them. Craved it. Had counted down the hours until they were together, naked in bed and talking about a future they knew they might never have thanks to the company policy that forbade field operatives from physical relationships.
The intensity had made her love him more than she’d imagined possible.
Now, it brought nothing but shame and sadness. She bent her head to hide the rising blush.
Stop it. He isn’t that man anymore, and you aren’t that girl. You’re an operative for a private firm that saves people. That’s all either of you are. He cares about his career. Not you.
He returned to pacing the floor, glass in hand.
“So, I get debriefed, and we figure out the next move?” she asked, putting the conversation back on track.
“There is no more next move for you,” he said. “You’re done here.”
“Why shouldn’t I assist? I’m one of the best agents you have. You know that.” Colombia might be over, but her responsibility to the scientist hadn’t ended because they’d boarded a plane or because he wasn’t a saint. She’d made a promise to reunite him with his daughter, and she had no plans to renege on that promise.
“You’re trained in infiltration and recovery. Chasing someone down isn’t the same.”
“How hard can it be?” she asked, regretting the ignorant quip as soon as the words left her mouth. If she wanted to join the team, acting like a snotty child wasn’t the way to go about it—especially not with Quinn.
“Seriously?” he replied. “If—”
“Sorry,” she interrupted. “You bring out the worst in me.”
“I know.” He opened the curtains. She joined him at the window. Nighttime D.C. lay before them, crowds, poverty, and opulence all hidden by darkness and made beautiful by the multitude of lights below. If he opened the window, the sound of beltway traffic would drift the ten stories to their ears.
“It’s one of the reasons we couldn’t work,” he finished, slugging the rest of the wine in one gulp.
He wanted to discuss them now? She tightened her hand on her glass. “You have the worst timing. Ever.”
“You almost died, Eva,” he said, his voice so low it was almost a whisper.
“Oh. That.” The warmth in her stomach spread. “But I didn’t.”
“Not this time.”
“Is that why you’re sending me back to L.A.? So I won’t screw up again?”
“No.”
She wanted to accuse him of lying, but he stared into her as if she mattered, and the words died on her lips. She wanted to know what lurked behind that perplexing gaze. Needed to know. “Then why? You owe me an answer.”
“I don’t owe you anything.”
Her hand tightened again, and she set her glass down before it shattered. “Yes, you do. If I had screwed up, that would be one thing. But I didn’t. Felix was kidnapped midair. There was no intel this would happen. Nothing. I did what I could, and I survived. This is still my operation, and you d
o not get to take it away from me. Not without an explanation.”
He rolled the empty glass between his palms, thinking. “What if it had been me in that plane? Wouldn’t you be concerned? Relieved. All of those things?”
A vision of Quinn on the plane as it went down flashed across her eyes. They weren’t a couple anymore, but the thought of listening as he landed the plane, and possibly died, made her sick to her stomach.
But he couldn’t know that. The moment he knew she still cared about what happened to him was the moment she’d lose any edge she had over him. “We’re not a couple anymore. We’re agents. We’re not even partners unless Tempe forces us to pair up.”
He hesitated, and she knew she was winning.
“Don’t use the past because it suits your agenda. I’m the best. I should help. Besides, Felix will be expecting me,” she said.
“I’ll think about it.”
Not the answer she wanted, but it was in the right direction. And he might not realize it, but a crack in the door was all she needed to convince him to let her do her job.
…
“How could you let this happen?”
Eva sat in Pauline Bennett’s apartment. Felix’s daughter had been at work when they’d called but on learning who it was, had left to meet them. The city was loud outside the window as people rushed to eat lunch and return to their jobs.
“There wasn’t much choice, Ms. Bennett,” Eva explained. “It was a company plane, and we were in flight. A kidnapping in midair is so far out of the norm that it’s not a scenario for which we create contingency plans.” It was the truth, but still, the words sounded hollow and forced. She knew that no matter what she claimed, she’d failed Felix and his daughter, and there wasn’t enough explanation in the world to make that fact disappear.
“Though I can assure you we will from now on,” Quinn said. Sitting next to Eva, he’d let her take lead in the questioning.
“Fat lot of good that does my father now,” Pauline replied. Her blue eyes locked onto Quinn. “He’s frail. Do you even know if he survived the jump?”
Eva hesitated. She’d asked herself the same question, but they hadn’t uncovered either a body or a sign that Felix was alive. He was in the wind.
So there was no answer.
“I am sure he made it,” she said. “He is still recovering from Colombia, I won’t lie to you about that, but I can assure you that his spirit is strong. I’ve seen his strength. When I met him in the FARC encampment, he was starved and beaten, but he still climbed a mountain to get to that helicopter. To get to you. He isn’t going to let a little jump from a plane kill him. He’s alive,” she finished, almost believing the conviction in her voice.
“I should have been there.” Pauline buried her face in her hands, pale brown hair falling forward, and sobbed. “What do I do now?”
“Wait,” Eva replied.
“For what?” Pauline narrowed her eyes. “For your company to fail again?”
“She didn’t fail,” Quinn snapped back.
Eva’s cheeks heated with embarrassment. She’d lost Felix. She should have been more careful. Cautious. She should have known. “No, she’s right.”
“I didn’t say it was your fault,” Pauline grabbed Eva’s hand. “You saved him once and tried to save him again. Your information was bad. You did the best you could. HRS failed. Over and over and over. Not you.” She squeezed Eva’s hand. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you.”
Pauline smiled for the first time since Eva and Quinn had walked through the door. “I know things seem bleak, but having you on my side helps. It does.”
The unspoken connection both assuaged Eva’s conscience but also reminded her that Pauline was a client, not a friend, and she needed to keep her emotional distance.
“You’re right,” Quinn said. “The hijacking should never have happened.”
“Thank you for admitting it.” Pauline’s chin rose in the small victory, and she stared down her nose at Quinn. But despite the hard glare, her bottom lip quivered, and her eyes filled with tears.
She covered her face with her hands. “I should have been there,” she sobbed.
“Be glad you weren’t,” Eva said. “They might have killed you.”
The sobs grew louder. “Now what?” she mouthed to Quinn.
But his attention was on the crying woman, his expression almost one of horror.
Great. The typical male reaction to tears.
Pauline took a deep, shuddering breath and wiped her eyes with the back of her hands, smearing her makeup across her porcelain skin. “You’re right. I’ll get us something to drink.”
“Thanks,” Eva said, grateful for the brief reprieve in conversation. Pauline’s crying had made her as uncomfortable as it made Quinn, but they needed to talk to her, and a few moments to discuss how to proceed would help. Pauline had said she hadn’t spoken to her father since he’d left the hospital, but she might still know something that could give them a lead.
She might have spoken to someone else. A coworker. A friend. Anyone.
And as much as Eva didn’t want to even consider the idea, it was also possible that Pauline was involved. It wouldn’t be the first time a family member had been behind one of their client’s disappearances. But then why go to such lengths to demand his rescue from Colombia and then kidnap him midair?
“What do you think?” Eva whispered once the sound of running water and cupboards opening and closing signaled Felix’s daughter was out of earshot.
“What do you mean?” Quinn replied.
“Do you think she knows anything?”
“Her?” He shook his head. “I can’t see it. She’s a teller at a bank. Not exactly criminal material. Besides, she has an alibi.”
The answer she’d expected. Pauline might be tough, but she wasn’t made of steel. Beneath the surface was a girl who wanted her father back—a need that Eva understood.
When her parents had been executed by FARC and she’d fled to the streets, she’d missed them every day. A mixture of anger and regret ate at her every time she saw families walking the streets. Happy. Laughing. Together.
It wasn’t until she was nineteen that she found a family again—when she’d picked Tempe’s pocket and been caught. Then an agent, Tempe had been in Bogotá on a mission, but instead of turning Eva in to the police, she’d recruited her.
At first, Eva had refused. The offer seemed too good to be true, and she knew that people were not to be trusted. She’d trusted her parents, and they’d died. She’d trusted the orphanages, and they’d ignored her, leaving her to the streets.
In the end, there was only one person she could count on. Herself.
But Tempe had whittled away at her tough outer shell—telling Eva she could be more, how proud her parents would be if they knew and that she could have a family in HRS—and Eva had caved.
A month later, when Tempe completed the mission, she took Eva with her, and soon, it was like Tempe had promised. But she’d never forgotten her parents. Everything she did was for them. Everything she was—good and bad—was because of their deaths and her need to make sense of them.
“Then let’s hope she knows something,” Eva said. “Or we’re screwed.”
“Not exactly. If Felix surfaces somewhere close, our people will find him.” He rose.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
He let out a deep sigh. “It’s obvious that she holds me and HRS responsible. On the other hand, she likes you. I’ll be at the car. Why don’t you see what you can learn?” He tossed her the security camera pictures of the kidnappers and left her alone.
“This should help,” Pauline walked back into the small living room, a tray with three mugs in her hands.
Her cheeks were wiped clean, but the anguish in her eyes wasn’t something she could hide. She stopped midstep. “Where’s your partner?”
“He left.”
“Good.”
Quinn had called that rig
ht—Pauline did not like him. Eva took the offered cup of coffee, took a sip, and sputtered. “Rum?”
Pauline nodded. “I don’t know about you, but straight coffee isn’t going to cut it. Not today.”
She wasn’t wrong. This entire trip had been one snafu after another. Eva took another generous sip. Knowing that Quinn would disapprove made the rum taste better.
“What can you tell us about the last time you spoke to your father?” she asked. “Did he say anything unusual or unexpected?”
“Nothing. He was excited to come home.” Pauline’s voice choked, but she caught herself. “I was going to meet him at the airport. Your company set up a special pass so I could go out to the tarmac.”
She sniffed hard, her eyes watering. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Eva wished she could do more than apologize. “What else?”
Pauline shrugged. “Nothing. I got a call that there was a problem, and here we are.”
Yep. Here they were. Locked in one giant, uncomfortable moment.
“I want you to look at some pictures.” Eva took the two photos of the pilot and copilot from her pocket and set them on the coffee table, facing Pauline. “Do you recognize either of these men?”
Pauline scanned the blurry photos, taken by security cameras at the airport. After a minute, she shook her head and handed them back. “Nothing. Sorry.”
“That’s okay.” She pocketed the pictures, frustrated that there was so little to go on.
She was sure that the DC office was running them through the databases, and eventually, facial recognition might find a match. But that took time, and a break now would have been helpful.
“It’s not okay,” Pauline sniffed. “He’s all I have. You don’t understand.”
But I do. Eva stared at the floor. She knew what it was like to be alone in the world, and she wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Especially Felix and his daughter. “To spend all that time thinking that you might never see his face again, and then to have him so close, it’s unbearable. You hurt all the way to your heart. It makes breathing an act of sheer will.”
When Eva looked up, Pauline was wiping off her cheeks. “You do understand, don’t you?”
Risking It All for Her Boss: A Heroes for Hire novel (Entangled Ignite) Page 6