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I nodded as they explained that if I was willing to wear a wire, that recording would be admissible in court. “All it takes in Nevada is for one participant in the conversation to consent to a recording, and that’s you,” Laurel explained.
I glanced at Champ. There was no reason to look at Hux when I knew he was practically jumping out of his skin in an effort not to derail this mission.
“I’m leery of that. I didn’t want to be on comms or to wear a button cam because Linus might… spot those things. But I also want to get the best possible evidence to put him away. Either way, I don’t want to put myself in more danger than necessary.” Hux would kill me if I did. “What do you suggest?”
Champ shared my businesslike tone. “We assume he has a handgun in his room, but we also know he’s not going to corner himself for no reason. Shooting you—no matter what goes down between you—would make him a sitting duck. He’s miles away from a clean exit.”
Hux made a wounded noise that Champ ignored when he continued. “The most dangerous scenario would be him discovering you’re working with the feds. In that case, he would know he’s most likely surrounded. I think you can safely carry a hidden recording device. If things between you turn bad, we can be in there in moments.”
The agent added, “The housekeeping lady gave me a key.”
Champ’s eyes flicked to Hux before landing back on me. “A wire in your clothes won’t work in case he… or you…”
“Right,” I said softly.
Champ cleared his throat. “So anyway, we have one that looks like a USB key. Since he wants you to bring your laptop, it won’t be a problem. Worst-case scenario, let him think the Horn data is on it.”
As soon as Champ had implied I might be undressing in that room, Hux shoved his chair back and strode out of the main room and into the bedroom.
I glanced at Champ, who’d closed his eyes and clamped his lips shut in annoyance. “Motherfucker,” he muttered under his breath. “Is my team cursed to always fall in love during a goddamned op? Why? And why me?”
When I stood up to follow Hux, Riggs shook his head at me. “Give him a minute. Let him get his head back in the game. Otherwise, he’s going to say a few things you’ll both regret.”
“And fuck up our op,” Champ added.
The agents walked me through the recording device and gave me a few minutes to clean up my laptop and run a script to put my important files in the cloud so Linus wouldn’t have access to them.
When I was finally ready and Anomaly451 was lighting up my device with messages asking where I was, I ignored Riggs’s headshake, entered the bedroom, and closed the door. Hux stopped pacing the carpet in front of the bed as soon as he spotted me.
“Hey. I’m about to head out, and I wanted to say—”
“I love you,” Hux blurted, looking red-eyed and wild, like he’d been on the run from an escaped horde of angry bees. “And… you’re going to do great! I just know it!”
I’d never seen him this way. He looked like he was barely holding on, like he was one silken thread away from snapping clean in half.
“Jasper? What the—”
He grabbed me and pulled me in, not even for a kiss but a full-body bear hug. He squeezed the breath out of me and murmured something against my collarbone too softly for me to hear. It sounded like he was making deals with himself or God.
I was stunned by his admission but freaked-out by his delivery. I’d expected him to be protective, to be worried, but this seemed over-the-top. I wished I could ask about it, to find out what was making him lose control so badly… but we were out of time.
“I’m going to be fine,” I said into his hair, trying to reassure him. “You’ll be listening in. The agents have a key.”
He pulled back with a manic grin. “Yeah! Absolutely. Gonna be fine. You got this.”
Now his anxiety was infecting me, which was the last thing I needed. “Stop acting weird,” I snapped. “This is an op. You’ve been on a million of them, and you’ve worked comms on a million more. Let me do this without worrying about you worrying. Okay?”
He nodded and straightened his face. “Yes. Absolutely.”
My teeth tightened as I pushed him away from me. “Stop saying absolutely.”
I moved back out into the big room before Hux could initiate anything that smacked of goodbye. I didn’t want another hug or a kiss, and I was steaming mad that he’d picked that moment to drop the L-word.
Instead of waiting for any final information, I grabbed my phone and laptop and bolted out of the suite. The USB voice recorder was already in my pocket, so I reached inside to flick it on.
