Secret Agent Boyfriend
Page 26
She looked at the ribbons wordlessly, then said, “You’re right.” She crouched down next to him to get a closer look, the heat of her body drifting over him, the light scent of her intoxicating. He turned his head and realized that she was too close for him to maintain any kind of balance between work and…play.
She must have realized that she was closer than was professionally acceptable. She wobbled and he reached out, snaking his arm around her waist to keep her from falling. Dragging her inadvertently against the length of his body. She was a pleasant weight against him. The skin of her bare stomach was soft against his hand, the warmth of her enticing. The top of her head fit right beneath his chin and the smell of her shampoo tickled his nostrils.
Startled, she made a soft sound, her head dropping back as her green eyes slammed into his. He rose with her to ground her completely before letting her go.
“Steady there, sailor,” he said, his voice coming out huskier than he meant it to.
She gave him a quick, tight smile. “My fault. I was too eager to point out my findings.”
“No worries,” he replied and crouched down again. She walked around the bodies so that she was a fair distance from him. “These ribbons don’t mean anything, just colored tape, and the CG emblem is missing.”
She peered at the ribbons and gestured toward the sleeve where the emblem was absent, then looked up at him. “Exactly. Good eye, Jerrott.”
“It’s Beau,” he said, and for a moment she stared at him before she dropped her gaze. “At first glance this might fool someone from a distance, but it’s not going to fool anyone who’s active-duty CG.”
Using a pen he plucked from the inside of his leather jacket, he dug around the neck and came up empty. “No dog tags. They must have been removed after he was dead. Look at the abrasion here along the neck.”
“Yes, I figured out he and his dead friends were posing as Coast Guard members.”
“Looks that way, but when they executed their witnesses, they must have checked them over. Do you know who these other guys are?”
“No. There were no hits on them. They definitely aren’t in the military database. We’re going to have to identify them through forensics.”
He nodded. “So, we have six dead men on an unidentified CG cutter. It’s a good-size ship. What exactly were they trying to get to shore? Contraband? Illegal immigrants? Weapons?” he asked. Or even worse. “Terrorists?”
“Terrorists?” Her jaw clenched. He could see that was a definite button pusher for her. She looked out over the ocean, deep sorrow in her eyes.
“It’s our job to make sure to find out,” she growled, the sorrow replaced by a snapping anger that went deep. Personal deep.
He had to wonder how this warrior waif had come into contact with terrorists.
His gut clenched at the thought of how many unknowns there were in this grisly case already, and how he was lucky he was going back to DC and getting away from the lovely and complex Kinley Cooper.
Copyright © 2015 by Karen Alarie
ISBN-13: 9781460379738
Secret Agent Boyfriend
Copyright © 2015 by Harlequin Books S.A.
Special thanks and acknowledgment to Addison Fox for her contribution to The Adair Affairs miniseries.
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