Page 20 of Brooks

“So you admit there’s something.”

“I admit—” A sharp whistle had me looking out the front windshield. Thank God for the interruption. “We should go inside.”

“We’re not done with this conversation.”

“We are. We both have an op to complete. Neither of us need the complication.”

“Nothing complicated about it.”

Of course he would think that. To him it would be an exchange of bodily fluids. A way to blow off steam and get off. I hadn’t been with a man since my ex-husband. Not that I’d tell him that. But undoubtedly things would get complicated.

“Not interested, Brooks.”

That was a big fat lie and I knew he knew. I didn’t need his words to confirm it.

He leaned in and brushed my hair off my shoulder. “Liar,” he whispered against my ear. My body shivered despite the oppressive heat. “I know you feel it, too, Doll.”

Asshole.

Chapter 8

I was crossing lines I’d promised myself I wouldn’t. It was easy to take a vow of chastity when Tatiana wasn’t in front of me. It was a whole other thing when I was face-to-face with her. She was correct about one thing, despite me telling her otherwise, giving in would complicate things. She was also correct when she said we both had a mission to complete. Ours was supposed to have been completed by now, taking us far from Bahrain and her. But after the tangle Rocco and the guys had found themselves in, Tex had found a connection between the tablets and Omni. Lucky for me that meant Zane had given us the go-ahead to track down Tatiana. Now I was thinking it wasn’t so lucky after all. I hadn’t been in her company an hour and already I was reneging on my resolution not to touch her.

“Mind if I change real quick?” she asked the second she’d walked into the house.

I was trying. Really fucking trying not to picture her nude but failing miserably.

“Use my room. First door on the right. You can leave your stuff in there. There’s only five bedrooms. You can take mine.” Her brow quirked up and I added, “I’ll take the couch.”

Thad already had a map of Bahrain spread out on the table with several other maps of the exact location of the waterfront property where the Bitoo brothers were holed up. Declan had already marked up the points of entry and exit strategy. It was a good plan.

Tatiana came back into the room and I couldn’t stop myself from appreciating her long, toned legs. Christ. It was like they were tailor-made to wrap around my waist. This woman turned me into someone I wasn’t proud of, an uncivilized caveman. Next, I would be beating my chest and dragging her off to my cave begging her to let me worship her. I needed my head examined—quick, fast, and in a hurry.

She placed her laptop and file folder on the table and studied the maps in front of her.

“Who owns this property?” she asked.

“It’s registered to Falcon Holdings,” Declan told her.

“So you found the connection between Militrix and Falcon?” Tatiana opened the file she’d set on top of her closed laptop.

“How did you find the connection? And no more lying, Doll.”

She sighed and scrubbed her hands over her face before they went to her hair. She used the band on her wrist to fasten a ponytail. With her hair pulled up off her face she looked younger than her thirty-two.

“Purely by accident. I’m tracking an antiquities broker, Lucre. They’re behind some of the rarest, stolen middle eastern artifacts. Lucre warehouses are owned by Falcon. I looked further and Falcon owns and manages properties all over Africa and the Middle East. I dug a little deeper into Falcon and found they’re also a holding company. They own a buttload of stock in Militrix as well as several other ginormous companies.” She stopped and pinned me with her dark eyes. “Your turn. How’d you find me?”

“Tex.”

“Fuckin’ Keegan. I should’ve known. So, he tracked the Bitoo brothers, too.”

“No. That was all me, Doll. After they figured out the guys had escaped and took the tablets they’d hidden in the cellar, the four younger brothers went on a bender. Timothee, the eldest, had one helluva time getting his drunk brothers to shut their mouths. Bitching and complaining about the Americans. I followed them back to their hideout.”

“Just like that?” She looked like she didn’t believe me.

Good old fashion leg work, keep it simple and stupid. The brothers were mostly drunks. Their father had tried unsuccessfully to help them find jobs. However, they’d rather take the fast, easy illegal money than put in a hard day’s work. Unfortunately, they were going to learn the hard way there were repercussions for their actions.

“Yep. Just like that.”