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Pressing the back of her hand to her mouth, she glanced up at Bart, then back over her shoulder to the parking lot.
A dark sedan had parked in front of the window. Facing Bart again, his hard features were chiseled in a neutral, dispassionate mask, but his cold eyes told the real story.
While she’d been losing herself in him, in a moment of passion he wasn’t even feeling, he’d been kissing her for the sole benefit of the agents. Now it was her turn to make their cover story convincing.
“Nice work,” she whispered.
Stepping around him, she was unsteady enough to accept and appreciate his strong palm at the small of her back. “Suter. Kellerman. What brings you by?”
Chapter 5
Bart’s pulse drummed inhis ears. That wasn’t supposed to happen. He pushed a hand across his hair, wondering if the day was just destined to be a bizarre, unending nightmare.
It seemed like a bad time to pinch himself. Or her. So he stood there like an idiot with his hand resting possessively at her back, unable to break the contact with her entirely.
Yeah, he’d kissed her for the benefit of the agents, and they both knew it. But what should have been simple had exploded like a mistimed IED. The volatile destruction leveled his entire system and he realized she was left carrying the conversation without his support.
“…about your situation here,” Suter was saying. “We’d like to look around.” He wagged a finger between the two of them. “Unless you were celebrating a completed investigation.”
Kellerman winked. “Not how I put a case to bed, but I might be persuaded.”
“That’s enough,” Bart growled, grateful for Eva’s warning about eavesdroppers. He rolled his shoulders back and pulledhimself to his full height to emphasize his point. “We’re about to have a serious problem if you’re insulting my wife.”
Suter raised his hands, palms out in surrender. “No insult meant. The happy news caught us all by surprise.”
“We eloped for a reason,” Hannah said.
As loving declarations went, even Bart knew that wouldn’t cut it. “Look, we’ve had a tough day losing Tim. What do you guys need?”
“Just a few minutes to do our job,” Suter said. “The evidence in Tim’s car led us here.”
That cleared the last of the sexual fog clouding his brain. “Evidence? Wallace didn’t mention anything like that.”
Beside him, Hannah stiffened. He ran his fingers up and down her spine. Seemed to him this pair showed up far too close to the shift change. Or the conversation with Maria. But if someone had planted bugs in his diner or even the store, they had to have a serious range. The truck stop was the only business at this exit and he sure as hell would have noticed a surveillance team parked near enough to listen in with the tech he’d been familiar with during his time with Special Ops.
He added a note to have Eva overnight him a bug finder and signal jammer to the growing to-do list in his head.
“We aren’t obligated to share those details right away,” Kellerman said.
Hannah stepped forward, holding her jacket open in a move Bart recognized. She was showing them her badge.
“Did you forget we’re on the same team? Where did they find Tim’s car?”
“Near an old farmer’s market on one of the back roads.” Suter shook his head. “But that’s all you get. You’re on injured reserve and—”
“I’m fine.”
“—a delayedhoneymoon,” he finished. “They asked us to remind you to stay out of it,” Suter gave her a look that spoke volumes Bart couldn’t decipher. Yet.
He took her hand, smiled to hide his concern. “Injured reserve?”
“I’ll explain later,” she muttered. “And I’m as out of it as I can be,” she said to the other agents, her tone sweet enough to create cavities. “I’m only here to be with my husband.”
The agents glanced at each other and then back to her. “Convenient,” Suter replied.
“A dead man is not convenient,” she snapped. “When did you two get so callous?”
Kellerman stepped forward. “Look, we have a job to do here, that’s all, Thalberg. You know how it goes. We heard what happened in Baltimore. It might be better if the two of you take a few days off.”
