She nodded. “I can make it by 5:15 this evening. Willow Run Park. Do you know it?”
I nodded back. I still had no idea what we were discussing, but if I was going to figure it out, I needed to play along.
“Great,” she said. “There’s an oak grove northeast of the marble fountain. If you park on Dayton, you can slip into the trees pretty easily without being seen.”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. There were also piss-poor sightlines for back-up to keep eyes on someone entering those woods. She’d put a lot of thought into this. If she wasn’t an agent, maybe she should be.
“And I should bring...” I posed it as more of an open-ended statement than a question. But it was definitely a question because I had no idea what we were handing off.
“Just this sweetie.” She patted the dog’s head. “I’ll have everything else we need. Be sure to keep her out of sight.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. Of course you know that. You’re the pro here, not me.”
I fitted the weapon into my palm and shifted so I could react in a split second if she said or did another shady thing.
“Thanks again, whoever you are.” She gave me a dazzling, dimpled smile, then leaned toward me.
I pivoted my head and slid my finger over the weapon’s trigger. She landed a soft, closed-eyes kiss on my lips.
A kiss I felt in every nook, cranny, inch, and cell of my body. An electric jolt that lit me up from the inside like a fucking overloaded Christmas tree.
“Sorry.” She pulled back from me. Dark pink color flushed her cheeks. “I was aiming for your cheek.” With that, she slid to the opposite side of the cab and popped open the door. “Remember, five fifteen. Take good care of our friend.” She hopped out of the truck, trotted across the sidewalk, and disappeared into the front entrance of the Thirsty Horse.
I sat in stunned silence until the sedated dog let out a soft whine. “Shit,” I said out loud. Maybe the woman really had been an agent because, fuck me, she’d distracted me enough to drop a strange dog into my lap. Now that my brain was firing on all cylinders again, I grokked the hand-off comment.
I’d damn near tased the soft-hearted, dog-rescuing woman, when all she’d wanted to do was give me a thank-you kiss on the cheek for taking care of her stolen dog for the day. At least, I hoped it was just for the day. If for any reason she didn’t show up for our meeting in the park, I would have to escalate this to my boss. I had no fucking idea how I would explain getting tangled up in somethingpossibly dangerous, probably illegal, and definitely in violation of HEAT’s protocols.
And I didn’t want to admit that if the mysterious stranger kissed me again, I’d probably follow her to the gates of hell.
3
CAMI
Islipped into the coffee bar side of the Thirsty Horse and took a spot at the back of the five-person line. When an elderly lady walking past smiled at me, I realized I was already grinning—at her, at the man in front of me, at the world. The volunteer from the dog rescue had restored my faith in humanity.
Yes, he was attractive. Those shoulders. Those arms. Those kind eyes and that killer smile. But more than that, I was drawn to the way he handled himself, his ability to take charge, keep his cool, and get the job done. Competence was my aphrodisiac and my new hero was the pure embodiment of it. This guy might be the whole package.
And I didn’t even know his name.
How stupid had I been, insisting we follow the organization’s anonymity protocol when he’d been willing to bend the rules? If that meant he’d felt the same pull between us I had, what would have been the harm in exchanging names? I hadn’t been particularly lucky in love, and my last boyfriend had put me off dating for the past half year. But maybe my luck was changing. By the time I made it to thefront of the line to place my coffee order, I’d made up my mind to exchange names with Mr. Tall, Dark, and Loves Dogs at our 5:15 meeting.
“I’ll have a large iced mocha, extra whipped cream,” I told the barista. Lots of fat and sugar, unlike my normal non-fat, no-whip, no-sugar-added latte. I was indulging in my special-occasion drink because today there was much to celebrate.
My phone, still in silent mode, buzzed against my hip. I stepped away from the counter and pulled it out of my pocket, expecting to see the clinic number. My shift started in ten minutes, but Darla was used to me arriving fifteen minutes early. But it wasn’t her. It was an unknown number. I debated about whether to ignore it, but my texts with my new hero had come from an unknown number as well, so I couldn’t take the chance. I hit the green answer button.
“Hello?”
“Hi. It’s... We were supposed to meet half an hour ago. Sorry, but there was an accident on the highway and I’m stuck in the back-up.”
I smiled despite myself, happy to hear his voice again, even if it did sound different on the phone. “Everything’s okay, though? You and our new friend are both all right?”
“New friend? I’m confused. Is this the woman I was supposed to meet earlier in Bluewater Bay?”
“Yes, and we...” A hard ball settled in the center of my gut. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.
“I apologize for not making it. I’m sure you aborted. But we’re not giving up. You let us know the next time you see...anything, and we’ll be on the lookout from our end as well.”
“Okay,” I said, because my mind was spinning uselessly, hearing his words but struggling to process their meaning.
“We’ll be in touch,” he said.
