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‘No. Try not to annoy Sam too much, Mr West. She’s perfectly capable of sending you to Belarus via Antarctica.’
‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ he murmured.
She smiled encouragingly and shut the door on him with no little satisfaction. Back in her domain, back in control, and out of range of that killer smile and perfect body. He was hard on the senses, Jared West. Hard on the mind.
She wasn’t game to examine her confidence.
Rowan’s conversation with George Corbin didn’t begin well.
‘You can’t have him,’ he said curtly when she put her request to him. ‘He’s on medical leave.’
‘He’s back, he’s bored, and I need him for a job.’
‘Consulting?’
‘Fieldwork.’ She knew damn well that her decision to send Jared back into the field wasn’t going to go down a treat. No need to mention that the job was Antonov-related.
‘You’re crazier than I thought.’
‘Will you release him or not? He doesn’t want your sub-director’s chair, by the way.’
‘Maybe I never expected him to take it in the first place.’
She could hear the older director’s exasperation, loud and clear.
‘Maybe all I’m trying to do is get him looking towards a future in which Antonov’s reach isn’t his entire focus. Get him thinking about how to come out of this current situation with his career intact. Maybe I simply don’t like watching one of our best and brightest break.’
‘He won’t break. He’ll do what’s asked of him.’
‘Says who? Him? Or you? He’s not physically fit. He’s not mentally ready. What makes you think that if you send him out now he’ll even return? What makes you think he won’t end up in pieces?’
‘He’ll come back when he’s due back—and it won’t be in a body bag.’ She could picture Corbin’s cold grey eyes and his tightly drawn lips. ‘Do I need to call in favours?’
‘I don’t owe you any favours.’
‘In that case I’ll owe you.’
She could practically hear the older man calculating what he might demand of her. Nothing good.
Eventually he spoke again. ‘You can have him—but my objections are going on record.’
‘Thanks, George. That’s exactly what I wanted to hear.’
Corbin hung up.
Rowan put the phone down, closed her eyes, and banged her head against the padded leather headrest of her chair a couple of times.
That had been so not what she’d wanted to hear.
If Jared didn’t come through with the name of that final mole she was screwed.
Several hours later Rowan had managed to wade her way through most of her work for the day. Tomorrow’s schedule was in place, Sam was finishing up, and the only memo sheet left on her desk was the one regarding Jared’s impending travel arrangements.
He was booked to go via Warsaw with his first flight leaving at four-forty a.m. He was scheduled to return four days after he got there. Six days in total—not nearly long enough for him to pay his respects to two dead men’s families, check on a kid in the Netherlands, and go after the name of Antonov’s final mole. His arrangements were flawed from the beginning.
Not a good start.
‘Agent West wanted to know what time you usually leave the office,’ Sam said as she shut down her computer and secured her desk drawers with the thoroughness with which one might secure a safe.
‘What did you tell him?’
‘She said I should be able to catch you about now.’
The office door was open. How Jared had managed to appear framed in it without either her or Sam hearing him was a testament to how quietly he could move.
She nodded to him, eyeing the carry-bag draped over his shoulder and the white plastic shopping bag that dangled from one hand. The plastic bag smelled strongly of chilli, basil, lemongrass and curry.
‘You told her I’d be back with food, right?’ he asked Sam.
‘I was just about to mention it.’ Sam turned her blandest gaze on Rowan. ‘I didn’t say you’d eat it.’
‘Is this a variation on Will you have dinner with me?’ Rowan asked him.
‘Or I can eat and you can watch,’ he offered with a sinner’s smile. ‘I’m hungry.’
‘Apparently you’re also very fragile—I’ve been hearing that all day. This had better not be your version of the Last Supper.’
‘If it was I’d have chosen the lobster instead of the duck.’
Not for a second did he let her see whether her words had got to him. And then his gaze skidded to her mouth and hers went to his for more than a count of three.
