Page 153 of Red Marked

“No one is here right now, sir.”

“I know, but slip-ups happen so easily. We need to be really careful.”

“Okay. I get it. Thank you for the cell phone.” I tip the phone out onto the counter. “Ooooh…nice. Pity about the pussy pics; it has a pretty good camera.”

“Fuck, Star…don’t!”

“So you do remember my actual name.” I’m not sure why I’m being pissy.

Because he’s irritating me, that’s why.

He doesn’t have to be so damned professional all of the time.

“Of course I do. You know that. Please don’t make me second-guess doing this.”

Shit!

“You won’t. I think we’re intelligent enough to be able to pull this off without you treating me…” I shrug. “I don’t know…like we’ve never met. I’m talking about when we’re alone together, not out there.” I point at the door. “You’re being seriously strange. We had sex,” I whisper. “It happened. It’s done. You don’t have to be weird now…okay?”

He nods. “Okay…fine.”

It’s still weird between us. Maybe he was right about crossing a line we can never uncross. He’s had his tongue inside me.

“Are you comfortable here?” He looks around.

Yup…it’s weird, all right.

“Yep, it’s awesome after the jungle. Bigger than the hotel room.”

“And good to be in your own space, I’m sure?”

I’m a little lonely, but I don’t tell him that. I nod a few times.

“Magma called. He sends his regards.”

I put the envelope down. “You spoke to him?”

He nods.

“And?”

“Reed’s hacker still hasn’t been able to find where the Red Gate funds originated. He’ll keep working on it, but the money may have been rerouted so many times that it could take him weeks.”

“Weeks?” I drop onto the arm of the sofa. “Noooooo.”

My females are sitting up in those mountains, waiting for me to come back with answers.

“I know,” Flint says. “Which is why I brought this.” He holds out the file. “This is everything I have on Holt.”

I’m on my feet before he’s finished saying the name. I open the file on the counter, and he comes to stand next to me. He leaves enough room between us for a third person.

It’s awkward as anything!

The top page is a capture record with a date, coordinates, an ID code, and RELEASE in block capitals. Three photographs are clipped to it. They show a big male out cold on a sandbar. His hide is copper, darker along the spine, with minimal red markings and a harsh, pale brand on his left shoulder. In the last shot, Brian is holding up one of his eyelids to check the pupil.

I go through them twice. I study the horns and the line of the jaw. “I don’t know what Holt looks like in his scales. If I ever saw him in his dragon form, I can’t remember it.”

“You told me as much.”