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Anywhere.“I have to go.” Running? Was she seriously running? Her feet rooted to the ground.
“Don’t.” He didn’t need to stop her, since she wasn’t moving. “I have a confession.”
Her racing pulse quieted, and the desire clouding her brain cleared. Instinct, self-preservation, and the very violent need to punish the people who’d taken Brad away from her brought the clarity she needed. “What’s that?”
“I know you cloned my phone today,” he said, confirming her earlier concern. “I also know you’re not who you pretend to be.”
She wasn’t pretending anything at the moment. If he was guilty, she’d take him out.No, I have to take him to Chrome. Orders are orders.Taller than her, and with a distinctive amount of muscle mass, he’d go down if she wanted to take him. His weight was on his right leg. If she swept it…
“Who says I’m pretending to be anything?” His longer reach meant she needed to go closer quarters. A throat punch and a second to his groin, and he’d go down.
A shrug, then a sigh. “I also know you were in Miami…”
Warning bells went off in her head. If she got him down, she could get him in a choke hold and put him out.
“…and Nigeria...”
One of those things wasn’t like the other.
“…I’ve been looking for you for two years.”
Abort.Nigeria had nothing to do with Red Wolf. The consul there had been making promises to some of the local leaders in exchange for investment opportunities. The diplomat’s actions had compromised other ops, and they’d paid him a courtesy call to clean up his act. They’d let him know that if a second visit was required, he’d never see them coming. Calculating the risk, she kept her body language loose and her position ready. “Two years is a long time. You must not be good at looking.”
His laughter burst the tension, and he inclined his head. “I’m damned good at looking. I’ve never not tracked a lead down. You’re better at hiding than anyone I’ve ever known.”
Since she hadn’t beenhidingback then, simply doing her job, she ignored the backhanded compliment.
“So the question is, gorgeous, why did you show up in my classroom?”
“I was thinking about going back to school.” The lie flowed smoothly. He’d noticed a lot, but either he was damn good at his role, or he had no skin in their game.Which is it?
“No, you’re not.” He shook his head. “Whatever it is, you don’t plan on telling me. I hope fucking me wasn’t part of the play. If it was…well, at least I had a smile on my face.” Then all the fun drained from his expression, and his gaze locked on hers. “Are you here to kill me, Copper?”
Chapter 4
From the moment his former section chief called, Gabriel had wanted to hang the phone up and pretend his life at the CIA had never happened. In his ideal world, he was never a field agent or analyst. He’d never tracked arms shipments, pinpointed terrorist cell leadership for assassination, and his reports had never been used to send others to their deaths.
No, in his ideal world, he’d be the professor in his lecture hall, exactly as he was when Copper walked through the door. He’d be free to pursue her full tilt and peel back the prickly layers of defense from the goddess so he could claim her. Hell, even if he turned out to be her target—what?The alert on his phone about the download had flashed at him like a taunt after she’d disappeared. One moment she’d been in his arms, the next she’d dragged on her clothes. He’d asked her out, but she left and hadn’t returned.
Tracing the cell phone which copied his had been child’s play. When she answered his call, he’d planned on hanging up and tracking the phone itself. Instead, what had he done? Asked her out again.
Pathetic.
But she showed at the restaurant, even if her body language and position said observation, not engagement.
“So?” he asked when she said nothing immediately. Her expression was almost impossible to read. A mask settled over her face, hiding her emotions from him. Emotions he knew she felt, because no one could manufacture the flash-fire passion she erupted with when he kissed her. “Are you here to kill me?”
Was he the target? His section chief said they’d had a lot of chatter recently. Chatter, which suggested an old case file of his had gone active. The Jennings file. The leads there had been cold since the man died. Now here she was, the same woman he’d seen in Jennings’ office.
“No.” The mask slipped, a hint of confusion drawing her brows together before she licked her lips. The flash of pink tongue threatened his restraint. From the moment he’d put his hands on her again, all he could think about was stripping her naked and fucking her right there.
In a parking lot.
Some of his strengths in analysis were his shrewd mind and his ability to divorce fact from emotion. None of those strengths seemed to matter where she was concerned.
“You sound certain.” Not remotely shocked by his question, though. Another nail in the coffin of normal. A woman he met in the civilian world would have been rightfully upset or horrified by his question. They would have come up with a dozen stories—or better, retreated from him as though he were some kind of madman.
Copper? No, she didn’t seem upset or shocked. If anything, she appeared intrigued. “I am certain.”
