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ChapterEighteen
Teddy De Ver
A lump had formedin my throat and no matter how hard I swallowed, it refused to go away. No matter how hard I tried to take my mind off the past hour, my mind kept replaying it over and over again. And it wasn’t even the fact that Dominic had caught me touching myself or that he’d heard me calling out his name. No, my mind was stuck replaying the moments after, when he’d been in front of me, touching me, asking me if I was trying to kill him.
No, you fool. I’m trying to kiss you!
Maybe that’s what I should have said. Maybe I should have kissed him, instead. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so stupid as to think I’d hear the door opening when I was high on pleasure and lost in my own imagination.
“Tonight,” Tailsburry repeated, wiping the nonexistent sweat from his forehead. He was nervous, it was obvious to see. I wish I was nervous for the same reasons he was. But my reasons had nothing to do with tonight and everything to do with the man standing on the other side of the room, leaning against the table, silent as a ghost.
“Dinner,” I repeated, just to let him know that I’d heard him. Yeah, I was distracted, but I still had some braincells to spare for the reason I was here in the first place: work.
Apparently, that morning, Noah’s business manager had received a call from some people who were here, in San Francisco, and they wanted to meet tonight to talk about business. They said they were interested in buying assets from Bennett Technology. Since Noah Bennett wasn’t here personally, the ODP had instructed the manager to set up the meeting, hoping that they would be the same guys we were here for.
“We’re not going to the car show today,” one of the other agents said. His name was Jamison, I think. I never forgot a face, but names were a different story.
“Are you sure that’s smart? We could get information out of that woman,” I said, and my voice came out stronger than I expected. That cake I’d eaten for breakfast was probably helping.
“Or we could spook them away,” Tailsburry said. “The risk is too big. If they get even a little bit suspicious, they’ll call the whole thing off. They’ve already said that they’re interested in buying assets.”
“And you’re sure they’re talking about the drive?” Bennett Technologies came up with new inventions almost monthly. They could have been talking anything.
“We’re not sure, but there’s a good chance that that’s it,” Tailsburry said.
Since the night before, he looked at me differently. He spoke to me differently, too. When we first met, he’d barely glanced my way, but now, he spoke to me as much as he did to Dominic.
Which pissed me off, even though I understood. My appearance gave people the wrong impression all the time. It was like Sandra said—I looked like a real life-sized doll. But until last night they’d all assumed that I was clueless and couldn’t even do my job at all. It wasn’t fair. I bet nobody judged Dominic that way on his first mission. It made me even more bitter than I already was.
“It’s the best chance we’ve gotten so far,” Jamison said, as if he was trying to convince me. “We’ll see their faces, know their names, hear their voices. Even if they don’t run things, we’ll be able to tie them to others fairly quickly.”
I raised my brows at him. “And what about Lindsay? Anything from the voice recognition software?”
He flinched. “Nothing yet but we’re still searching. The database is gigantic. It’s going to take some time.”
“I still think the car show is a good idea. We can find out more before dinner. We can be more prepared.”
“It’s too risky,” Dominic said, and his voice sent shivers down my back. I lowered my eyes to the floor, just in case I accidentally looked at him. “They could try to grab you if they see the smallest chance.”
“They won’t,” I said. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t have set up the meeting. You’ve all said it yourselves—they are not stupid. They’re professionals. And right now, they’re trying to see if they can get the drive without making noise. They’re not going to try to kidnap me without making sure they can’t buy that thing from Noah Bennett first.”
“We don’t know that,” Jamison mumbled, but he didn’t sound so sure.
I was.
“Yes, we do. Think about it. If kidnapping me was their first plan, they’d have already done it. We were at the car show all day yesterday, and we were at the club with only two bodyguards last night. There were six of them that we could see, probably more waiting outside the building. They had the perfect chance to make a move, and they didn’t.”
Silence stretched in the room, interrupted only by the low buzzing of one of the laptops. They all thought about it, and I thought for sure they were going to see reason. But then…
“No,” Dominic said. “I’m not risking it. We’ve already set up the meeting. We don’t need more information right now.”
Steam came out of my ears. At least that’s what it felt like to me. I looked at him then, and I was happy to report that I was not turned on in the slightest at the moment, no matter how hot he looked with his brows narrowed like that and his arms folded across his huge chest. As far as I was concerned, he was just another one of those agents in suits.
“If tonight doesn’t work out, we’ve got one more day,” Tailsburry said, then sighed. “I’m going to call the Chief, see what he decides.” He stood up with his phone in his hand and walked out of the room.
Three minutes later, he came back in and informed us that his Chief agreed with Dominic. Of course. I tried not to take it personally, but my instincts were right. That woman could give us more information. If I could only figure out what she was, it would be much easier to find out who she was, and then we’d know for sure who we were up against. It was way better than going in blind.
But the Chief called the shots, so I clamped my mouth shut and let it go. For now.
