Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145091 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 725(@200wpm)___ 580(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
“What exactly are you asking me, Lydia?” It was time to cut to the chase.
She frowned again. “I’m not asking anything.”
“It feels like you’re looking for something,” he pointed out.
“I look into everything about you,” Lydia said quietly. “It’s my job. You and your safety are literally my job, and sometimes you lie to me about both.”
“Sometimes you don’t have clearance,” he replied.
Her shoulders came up. “That’s not my fault. You don’t give me the recs to get a better clearance.”
“That’s not true.” The entire argument was giving him a bad feeling, a restless feeling. It was time to start preparing her for the eventual move. “I promise I’m going to give you the best references I possibly can in the next few months.”
“Good, because I know you’re working on something,” she said. “I know more went on in California than you told me about. You cut me out of the end of that mission.”
“I didn’t cut you out. That night went wonky. The tech went out, and I didn’t have time to fix it. And this is starting to feel like some weird, uncalled-for resentment.” He was starting to resent the way she was talking to him. “I’m not the only operative you work for.”
“You could be. All you have to do is ask and you know they’ll take me off my other clients and let me do what I should do which is concentrate on the most important one. You.”
How had he not seen how much she had invested in this job—in him? Drake checked the impulse to point out to her that she was not in charge. He needed to be kinder. He’d never led her on, never been more than friendly with her, but it was obvious she’d seen things differently. “I think that would be a bad idea given my plans for the future.”
“Plans?”
“I’m thinking about moving to the analyst side of things.”
“What?” She nearly shrieked the question and then glanced around, and her voice came down. “What are you thinking? You’re a field agent. You are the best field operative we have working today.”
He doubted that. “I think it’s time to move to a desk job. I have some goals I would like to accomplish, and I can’t do it out in the field. There’s also the fact that I’m serious about a woman, and you know no relationship works if one of us is constantly pretending to be someone else.”
She’d gone slightly pale in the glow from the overhead lamps. “You have a girlfriend? Have I been wrong about everything? I thought you were lying when you said you were seeing friends. I thought you needed time to deal with what happened to Kyle, but then Brad said…”
He stopped, a chill going up his spine. This was one of those times when his instinct poked at him and told him something was wrong. “Brad said what, Lydia?”
Her mouth closed. Tears pooled in her eyes. “I know you were with him and not in California.”
He felt himself laser focus in. Something was going on. Something he’d been negligently unaware of. “Why would he tell you that?”
She straightened up, her shoulders going back. “He trusts me.”
That fact truly surprised him. “He never mentioned the two of you were close.”
“We work together, too, you know. He needs someone to talk to. It’s not going to be you. You kind of dumped him when you found your bestie, Kyle Hawthorne,” she complained. “Like you dumped a lot of your friends, including me.”
She was not putting this back on him. “Do you know how dangerous it is that he’s talking to you about not merely classified assignments, but critical operations?”
“Operations I should know about. Operations I should be working,” Lydia insisted. “I don’t understand why you cut me out. He said it was your choice.”
“My choice to do what?”
“To not work with me. To bring in your own tech.”
“This is nothing I can talk to you about,” he replied, his voice tight. “But you should understand I’m definitely talking to Brad. If he’s been leaking information to coworkers who don’t have clearance, then we’re going to have a problem.”
Her jaw tensed. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, and not because it could get me in trouble.”
“Why then?”
“Brad hates you. He’s always been jealous of you,” Lydia said in a whisper. “I think he’s involved in something bad. I think he’s trying to either get you involved, too, or take you out.”
Lydia knew far too much and way too little. “Why do you think that?”
“It’s more than the way he talks about you,” Lydia explained. “I’ve caught him using secure lines. I think he might be contacting foreign agents.”
He started to stand. It was time to go and have this out with Brad. He would figure out quickly what the hell was going on. “I think we should call this whole thing off. It’s obvious the asset isn’t going to show.”