“No idea.”
“I’ve been thinking about what you said about me becoming an intelligence officer.” Her breathy whisper made his cock twitch. Her already-sexy voice jumped to a whole nother level when she murmured in his ear. He imagined her long, blonde hair draped over his cock while she took good, good care of him.
Hell, yeah. Game over.
“What do you think?” Caroline asked, snapping him out of his fantasy.
Greystone shifted his attention out the window.
“You’ll do great,” he replied. “Good luck finding a handler as good as you.”
“I love when you blow up my already inflated ego.”
He chuckled as the jet gained speed down the runway. Once in the air, the tension running across his shoulders released. While he lived for the hunt, the intensity of each mission took a lot out of him.
“I give you a week at HQ before you get bored,” Caroline continued. “Maybe you’ll get assigned London or Paris. That would be amazing.”
He could hear her smile, and he liked that.
“Ever been?” he asked.
“No, but I’ve been to Italy with my sister. How ‘bout you?”
“To hell and back,” he replied.
They grew silent as the plane climbed higher. “Okay, King Cobra, I’m closing out this mission. Excellent job.”
“You’re gonna make a great IO,” he said.
“Be my mentor,” she replied.
“You could do a hella better than me. I don’t follow the rules.”
“Neither do I,” she replied. “You’re at thirty-thousand. Safe travels, Rambo.”
“Thanks for the extraction, Bella.”
The line went dead. He pulled the small device from his ear and stared at it. His only connection with her had been severed. She was nothing more than a coworker, yet she was one of the most important people in his life.
I’ma miss the hell outta her.
He had no idea where Langley would be sending him next, but there was no way it could be any worse—or any more dangerous—than the middle east. He’d been living in the shadows, running from job to job to job for so long, he needed a break.
Time to stop running.
The flight attendant moseyed over and peered down at him with doe eyes. “Is there anything I can get you?” she asked. “Anything at all?”
Six Months Later
CAROLINE
Caroline Austin had spentthe past six months training as an intelligence officer. The change had been exhilarating, challenging, and freakin’ awesome. Ever since joining the CIA, she’d been chained to a desk for too damn long. Soon, she’d be out in the field. Working informants for intel, vetting new ones, and providing her country with the secure information it needs to keep Americans safe.
Today, she was meeting her mentor.
Excitement pounded through her. She hadn’t talked to Grey Stone in months. And she hadn’t seen him either. Six months ago, when he’d returned to HQ, she’d expected he’d swing by and say hey. After all, she had gotten him out of several tight spots while he’d been stationed overseas. She wasn’t looking for anything special. Just a brief in-person acknowledgment that he was alive, in part, because of her.
That first week passed without a visit. Same the second week. When she’d asked around about him, she’d been told nothing. No one had seen him and no one knew where his next assignment had taken him. In true form, Grey Stone had vanished.
