“Whether you agree to do it or not I’m here for two more weeks,” he said.
“I see.”
With those two quiet, accusatory words the conversation teetered over to personal. Somewhere, in another part of the restaurant, a door opened and closed. Other than that small sign of life they were temporarily alone.
“I don’t think you do.” He wasn’t having her think she was nothing but casual sex to him. That ship had sailed the first time she’d used the term labia minora to talk dirty. “I don’t give a damn if you do what CSIS wants. I’m here for you and I’m staying as long as I can. But at the end of the day I’ve got a job to do too. One I feel pretty strongly about. I have another assignment that begins in two weeks and it’s out of the country. I’m not sure when I’ll be able to see you again after that.”
Her gaze remained cool. “I’m not asking you to make some sort of commitment to me. We’d agreed this was a temporary arrangement. The only thing difficult about it is living under the same roof. It makes things…complicated.” She lifted her slender shoulders. The bangles on her wrist tinkled together as she picked at her salad. “It doesn’t matter if CSIS doesn’t believe my problem is real. I know it is, and since you’re the only person I trust, in two weeks I’m back on my own.”
The memory of the look in her eyes when he’d first come to her door and sat in her kitchen flooded back to him. She was scared and there was very little he could do about it. His fingers tightened. He felt the same as he had that day on the beach when the investment broker with the sketchy friends had approached her—protective and territorial. And while the fact that her bedroom remained off-limits made it quite clear how she thought things between them should be, no matter how Dr. Babe wished to play things he didn’t believe for a second that he was any more casual to her than she was to him.
He had a responsibility here. If he wanted to walk away in two weeks and still be able to look at himself in a mirror he had to either show her she had nothing to worry about or help make her problems disappear. He could see only one way to do either, even though he hated to keep pushing it on her. Flexing the joints, he forced his fingers to relax. She hadn’t dismissed the ghost VPN, simply stated she had no wish to use it. If he continued to push her he knew she’d say yes. In the end it would be for her own good.
“I was assured the RCMP will place your house on its regular patrols,” he said.
“CSIS will no doubt be tapping my phone too, and watching for my passport at border crossings. None of that will help me sleep better at night.” She stabbed a piece of lettuce with her fork. “On the bright side, imagine how much work I’ll get done with all those extra waking hours.”
Her words cut deep. She already knew the only conclusion she could reach was that she had no real alternative but to do what CSIS asked. The video suggested her situation had already begun to escalate. And while escalation would make CSIS become more actively involved, by the time they stepped up their game it might well be too late.
He wasn’t about to stand back and allow anything to happen to her. He had two weeks to make sure nothing did.
* * *
Being asked to hack into the RBN wasn’t what bothered Irina the most. Neither was the video—although that was bad enough on its own—or the discovery that CSIS was doing nothing to help her other than to provide a temporary babysitting service.
It was that, for the first time in her life, a gorgeous man had seemed genuinely interested in her for more than her mind. And what had she done?
Allowed it to cloud her normally sound judgment.
They couldn’t be more different if they’d mailed in the specifications. She wasn’t cut out for a life on the edge the way he clearly was. She didn’t thrive on excitement. She’d almost passed out when she’d seen that video while he’d shrugged it off. The thought of hacking into the RBN made her heart race and her palms sweat whereas his face lit up like a child with a promising new toy. He wasn’t always honest with her either. She might understand why he couldn’t be, but realistically, it wouldn’t be easy to live with. They were so, so wrong for each other.
And yet when he’d said two weeks a firestorm of conflicting emotions had erupted inside her. At some point, no doubt around 3 am when she’d been on top of him with her hands on his chest and her knees spanning his hips, she’d granted him a little too much access. She’d gotten emotionally involved and her emotional IQ wasn’t on par with her intellect. The disparity left her floundering as to what to do next, although her instincts all screamed retreat. She wanted to hide in a cave and lick metaphorical wounds—self-inflicted no less.
“We both need to step back a bit,” he was saying, echoing the direction her thoughts were taking. His next words suggested he might not necessarily be arriving at the same destination however. “Let’s forget about all of this for a while. There’s no rush for you to make a decision about the RBN. I invited you to go sightseeing and we’re going sightseeing.” He gestured at her plate with his fork. “Eat your lunch, babe. Let’s go have some fun.”
Fun was what had gotten them into this mess. In its pursuit they’d both lost track of what was important.
“Maybe it’s time to face facts. Mixing business with…” She wanted to say pleasure but couldn’t get the word out of her mouth. She was so hopeless at this, whatever it was. “Last night was my fault. I’m sorry about that,” she finished, unable to meet his eyes. “With only two weeks left we need to focus on business.”
He didn’t answer right away. “We’re dealing with two separate issues, here,” he finally replied. “Whoever’s doing this to you is trying to distract you and turn your attention from their real objective. That video’s a diversion. And it’s been a windfall for them, because let’s face it, they weren’t having a whole lot of luck without it. They don’t know you reacted to the first pop-ups they sent you. You’ve been careful. We’re all agreed they’re after something though. We have to figure out what it might be. Finding out who’s on the other side of the RBN is the simplest way. As for the second issue…” The heat in his eyes warmed her cheeks and she had no problem reading his mind. He shifted his legs. Under the table his shin brushed her bare calf. “We’ve got two weeks and we can’t work around the clock.” He waggled his brows, letting her know the physical contact wasn’t accidental. “Let’s stick with the original program. I’m in if you are.”
Part of her wanted to say yes. She’d agreed to a short-term, casual sexual arrangement. It was what she’d wanted too. She’d thought she could do this. But the reality was much more complex than she’d anticipated and she wasn’t used to this level of emotional upheaval. It was why she liked dealing with facts, not feelings, when making decisions.
If she’d gone with her feelings when she saw that video she’d be in jail for murder instead of sitting across from him having lunch.
“I’ll think about it,” she said.
His lips curved into a wicked, self-assured grin. “Oh, I have no doubt you will. You’ll think it to death. You’re wasting serious brain power by analyzing the inevitable, babe.”
She ate her salad but turned down dessert. Once their bill was settled they took a tour of the winery, but her heart wasn’t in it. She’d been looking forward to tonight. She wasn’t any longer.
Their next stop was a point called the Look Off at the end of a steep winding road near the top of the North Mountain. The blue sky was cloudless and the view across the valley nothing short of spectacular. Irina had lived in Nova Scotia for several years now and not once had she thought to come here. She was a little surprised that Kale had.
“What made you decide you had to see this?” she asked. She kept her gaze on the scenery spread out at her feet. “Don’t tell me you’ve got a hang glider in the trunk of the car.”
“I wish I’d thought to bring one.”
The little-boy wistfulness had her rolling her eyes. “Oh, my God. You’d really do it, wouldn’t you?”
“Of
course. Look at that road and tell me it wouldn’t be fun.” He studied the path the asphalt cut through the trees as it curled up the mountain toward them. “This place would be perfect for longboarding, too.”
“Do I dare ask what that is?”
“Skateboarding on steroids.”
He couldn’t be serious. “Even you wouldn’t skateboard down a mountain.”
“Of course not. I don’t have a death wish. I haven’t been on a skateboard in fifteen years. I’d have to get in some serious practice first. We’ll come back next weekend.”
“Are you out of—”
She stopped. He was teasing her. And as usual she’d taken the bait.
Before she could come up with a clever response another car pulled up beside theirs and a young family got out—tired-looking parents and four active small boys ranging in age from about one year to six or seven. Irina wasn’t ruled by a ticking biological clock even though she was past thirty, but she still thought the boys were adorable.
The two oldest headed straight for the guard rail a few feet from where Irina and Kale were standing.
The oldest looked up at Kale, wary curiosity in his big brown eyes. “You’re Iron Man’s friend, aren’t you?”
“Afraid not,” Kale replied. “He’s out of my league.”
The boys groaned at what sounded like a joke—one Irina wasn’t in on.
“Who’s Iron Man?” she asked.
Both boys examined her. Their faces mirrored incredulity and quite possibly disgust.
“Don’t mind her,” Kale said to them. “She doesn’t watch movies unless they have zombies in them.” He shifted his attention to her. Blue eyes crinkled into a smile. “Iron Man is an Avenger. Everyone knows that.”
She had only the vaguest idea what he was talking about. “Of course they do.”
Kale shook his head in mock despair. “It’s a good thing you’re beautiful, babe. Your education might be fancy but it’s far from well-rounded. We’ve got to pick up some DVDs on the way home.”
The fact that Kale—so much larger than life in so many ways—saw her as beautiful and said it so casually, as if it were fact, both embarrassed and pleased her. She’d never based her opinion of herself on her appearance and was confident not many others did either. Until Kale came along she’d never cared.
He crouched down, making his size less intimidating to two awestruck little boys, and was soon deep in conversation with them. It struck her that he’d done a similar thing with her the first time they’d met. He’d taken a seat at the table so she wouldn’t feel threatened.
When the father approached to reclaim his sons, Kale drew him into the discussion, too. The mother, about Irina’s age, seemed shyer than the rest of her young family, trailing behind her husband with the baby on her hip and dragging a recalcitrant toddler by the hand. She cast Irina a friendly but hesitant smile as if to say, “Men. What can you do?” and Irina smiled back. She couldn’t imagine having four children to care for, two of them still in diapers.
Watching Kale interact with the boys was another eye opener, making it even more difficult to believe he was a spy. Inconspicuous wasn’t a word in his vocabulary. He attracted attention wherever he went, never bothering to try and blend in.
He glanced over and caught her staring at him. His eyebrows rose in a silent question. What?
She asked herself the same thing. The answer, so staggeringly unexpected, particularly in light of the day’s prior events, caught her unprepared. Her heart began doing backflips. Then terror set in. This couldn’t be happening. She was falling in love and with the least likely match. They only had one thing in common and who knew how long the great sex would last before he grew bored?
Her horror must have communicated itself and alarmed him, because the question she’d read in his eyes shifted to one of concern. He straightened. Past the loud background roar in her ears she heard him saying good-bye to the children and their parents. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and steered her toward the car.
“Is something the matter?” he asked once they were back on the road, winding their way down the mountain. His lips quirked upward in humor. “I mean more than already?”
Her discovery changed nothing. Love was a purely psychological emotion. Even though they might wish for it, no one died of a broken heart.
Therefore the next words out of her mouth shocked her as much as they surprised him. They were rash and driven by nothing more than a desire to do something to impress him. To make her appear braver in his eyes than she really was. To walk a few yards in his shoes if hardly a mile.
“I’ll do it,” she said, her heart beating fast. “I’ll hack into the RBN.”
Chapter Twelve
“None of this makes any sense.”
Irina stretched, her back and shoulder muscles aching. She’d been absorbed in her work for hours. While the ghost VPN had gotten her inside the RBN the trail it led her through was a long and convoluted one with dozens of intricate and questionable side paths that made her doubly careful about covering her tracks.
Kale set a cup of coffee on the table in front of her and pulled up a chair. He leaned over to peer at the screen, a solid wall of comfort and strength. She didn’t like what she was doing and his physical presence stoked her bravery.
“What’s the problem?” he asked.
“I’ve found a few possible places where my information might have landed, but there’s so much other data coming through too. It all appears to be unrelated. Take this for instance.” She showed him what she meant, shifting the laptop so he could get a better look. “This is credit card data coming in from an online shopping site. It has no connection to me or my work whatsoever.”
Kale contemplated the screen, deep in thought, his lips a tight, unsmiling line, his forehead furrowed. Every inch of him vibrated with life, telling her how much he was loving all this. He enjoyed figuring out puzzles and connections and what made people tick, whereas she preferred dealing with cold, hard facts.
“You can’t say for certain that it’s unrelated,” he disagreed. “We have no way of knowing who’s using the information they’re collecting, or what they’re doing with it, or even if the information is really what it seems to be on the surface. Let’s disregard the rest of it for now and focus on figuring out where yours is going.”
She rubbed her tired eyes. “It’s gone to at least three different places in two different countries.”
“Those places have to have something in common other than you. Stick with your information. Have you thought about tracking any of the emails in your contact list to see if they’re caught up in any of these threads you’ve found?”
While his suggestion had merit the task he proposed was a daunting one. “Where would I even start?”
“Your workplace. You have a few home emails from people in your office,” he pointed out. “They’re on your contact list too. Why not start with one of those?”
It was as good a place as any.
She returned to her keyboard. The first two email addresses she traced led her nowhere. They weren’t used very often for anything other than communications with family. The third address, however, was a far different story. A hot bolt of incredulous fury shot through Irina. She double-checked it from both ends just to be sure. She didn’t want to believe it, but the facts didn’t lie. It led through the RBN to a second private address, and from there back to Irina’s workplace.
And to Christine, the department’s fresh-faced administrative assistant.
“Son of a bitch,” Kale said when Irina showed him. “Talk about someone not being what she seems. How much are you willing to bet that she’s your stalker too? Those pop-ups kept you distracted while she did her real work. That sex tape was genius.”
Irina took a few deep breaths—in through her nose, out through her mouth—but it didn’t help. She should have seen how it all fit together. “There’s got to be some mistake. I don’t understand why she’d do any
of this.”
Kale shrugged it off. “We’ve had this discussion already. Money. What else? I doubt very much if she’s ideology driven, although again I’m making an assumption that will have to be investigated. My next assumption is that the online harassment was all a red herring to throw anyone off her real objective. For whatever reason, she—or someone else—wanted your personal email information. She already has access to your email at work. If she’s as good as she appears to be she’s most likely finagled access to your drone project too. Nothing’s ever 100% secure.” He raised his voice to a falsetto and batted his eyelashes, clasping his hands to his chest. “Please, Mr. Security Guy With Access To All The Right Keys. If I don’t correct the filing mistake I made before mean, All-Mighty Dr. Glasov finds out about it, she’ll have me fired. Her work is so important.”
In spite of how angry she was and how violated she felt, the image Kale presented as he mimicked Christine made her laugh. Once she sobered and the first shock had passed she was able to think with her usual clarity again.
“Of what possible value could my private email be to her?”
“Not to her. Whoever she sold it to,” Kale corrected her. He tapped the edge of her laptop’s keyboard. “Now we need to find out who that is and where your mutual trails converge.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Get back to work, babe. The clock is ticking.”
A few hours later, in the wee hours of the morning, she finally found the connection. Kale was asleep on the sofa in the next room, so she went to wake him to give him the news.
She flipped a table lamp on and reached out to place her hand on his shoulder, then drew it back. Once they verified her information, and confirmed the identity of the person harassing her, there’d be no need for Kale to stay any longer—not even for the two weeks he’d assured her he’d been given.
Her Spy to Hold (Spy Games Book 2) Page 15