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Chapter Fourteen
Aziza
What I wanted was for Coop to stop calling me a princess. But what I needed right now was my rig. I hollered over the engine noise to get Leo’s attention then pointed to my pack, which had slid into him during takeoff.
He tossed the rig. Coop caught it and started to hand it to me.
“Actually,” I said, “I think the kit you packed has my lucky chute. Would you mind trading?”
Coop narrowed his eyes. “You don’t think it’s unlucky to swap rigs once in the air?”
“I’ll take my chances.”
“You’re the boss.” He groaned, shrugging the rig off. As we traded gear, he asked, “You pack this?”
“Yes. Why?”
“You were rushed, running late. You seem very distracted. On edge, even.”
On edge? That was rich, considering the razor he’d been playing on in the Amazon.
Distracted?Hell yes, I’d been distracted. Coop taking out Alvarez’s inner circle had been a different beast when it was only me and my suspicions. Now I no longer had total control of the dissemination of any information—or the outcome.
It hadn’t just been Gray, either. As I was packing my chute I’d been alerted to a correspondence between Scott Hayes and OZ.
SH: We can’t trust Coop.
OZ: Aziza’s handling it.
SH: Is she? Aziza hasn’t exactly been on top of things lately. She’s not thinking rationally. Coop might even be playing on her emotions.
OZ: Aziza brought me this information several weeks before you and your team did. So when I tell you she’s handling it, it’s because you didn’t. Aziza will do what she has to do.
At least I still had Zaki on my side. But for how long?
So hell yes, when I’d been packing my chute, I’d been preoccupied.
“I’m worried about you, Zee.”
“Don’t be,” I snapped, knowing I was being overly sensitive.
It wasn’t uncommon for Hayes to communicate directly with Zaki. In fact, I’d long suspected he preferred to. His need for ‘man to man’ discussions had triggered some of my best eye-rolls, but he’d never thrown me under the bus until now.
Bitch of it was, I couldn’t even refute it. It wasn’t rational for me to leave the island, to pack a bag full of sexy clothes for a mission my very existence depended on, to still be stupidly in love with a man I had hard proof had gone rogue, or to—Dear Lord!—let him bring me to orgasm on the war room conference table!
Hayes was right to worry about my mental state. I just had to focus and not let my attraction to Coop distract me from the facts or keep me from the job.
“Here, give it back. I’ll gladly take the chute packed by a distracted, on edge, woman.”
Coop scrutinized me until I gave him my full attention. “Zee. You know that wasn’t what I was saying. Of course I trust your abilities, you.”
You shouldn’t. I grimaced, not wanting to think about the reality of that.
“Zee.” Coop’s voice was as gentle as the hand he wrapped around my arm.
I had trouble meeting his eyes, considering one of my objectives was to potentially put him down.
“I respect the hell out of you. You’re the most capable person I know, and I know some pretty fucking impressive people. Many, if not most, are women.”
