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I paced my office, running a hand through my hair. I wasn't going to need a haircut anytime in the near future; I'd be ripping it out soon with this stress. "It's too dangerous for her."
She lifted a brow, “Come on. We've all been in dangerous positions before. You put Lock and I together to fake it for Massimo Igno and his psychopathic father. Besides, this is Tabatha. You and I both know she can handle herself. She’s done brief undercover stints before."
“She’s not bloody doing it. Do you hear me?”
Saff held her tablet in front of her, and her brows lifted as she braced herself in a wide stance. "Why don't you tell me the truth? Why don't you want Tabatha to do it?"
Yes. Why don’t you explain. This should be entertaining.
"You know Tabatha can be impulsive and a pain in the arse."
"Sure, but you're the only one concerned here. In the field, she always follows orders, and the two of you work really well together. So if you're trying to tell me she's too impulsive to be a good undercover agent, I call bullshit."
"She will have to make hard decisions alone. That could be dangerous for her." I knew I was grasping.
"We have never sent an agent undercover all alone. We'll place someone else on the household staff. We could get the new girl… What's her name? Erika? She's young, pretty, keeps her mouth shut, but she's deadly with a knife. Decent in hand-to-hand. She'll make a good backup."
"You really want to send your best mate in there on a mission that Oversight practically demanded we take?"
She pressed her lips together. "Admittedly, I don't trust how they walked in with their own agenda. I suggest an ops review meeting with Frank. He's always been a straight shooter. But he is a politician, so he may have a view on this we don't see yet. Maybe Gennifer fed him a load of shit. I have no clue. But you're not going to find out sitting here on your arse not making a move. We need to talk to him. While we round up Frank, let Rook and Devlin finish doing a little pokey-poke into the Oversight background."
I blinked at her. "What?"
She tossed her hands up. "Oh, come on. You don't think that they would barge into our office acting like they owned the joint, which they don't, because technically, I do… we do… without some reason, do you? I want to know everything about their agendas on this shitshow they pulled. Don't you?"
"Yes, and that's a good plan. Use Rook, though. Devlin is good at finding issues, but he's a little less careful."
"Come on. Did you train me, or did you train me? Please, I have both looking into separate things. Rook's on Oversight. Devlin is on Gennifer."
My sister wasn't playing the fool, and I really needed to recognize that.
"Remember when she pulled Lachlan and I into, what was in a sense, an interrogation? I reminded her that we were there voluntarily. I don't like her. It's like she feels as if she has ownership over us, and you know that's going to get my hackles up."
"Yes, of course. Little sister doesn't like being controlled."
"Nope, and you know why."
I sighed. "Fuck, are you ever going to forgive me?"
"For trying to control my life? Probably not. But you're trying now to let me do my own thing. And that's why I'm concerned you are fighting me so hard on this. It's a real mission. It's not like they're making it up. Tate is a good target. So why not Tabatha?"
"Why are you still here?"
I could tell Saff was biting the inside of her lip trying not to laugh. "Spit it out, Gabriel. Does this have anything to do with the mission last week?"
At the reminder, rubbed the back of my neck.
What did she know? Saff and Tabs were thick as thieves and told each other everything. But she would have just called me out on the kiss if she knew, right?
"Are you worried she's going to go off-script with the target?"
"What? Like she's going to shag him?" I sounded like an insecure boyfriend instead of like her Ops Commander.
"Sometimes the mission calls for that. And if it does, we’ll coach her on how to handle it."
It felt like she'd punched me in the heart, and I had to force three deep breaths to scrub my mind of the image of Jennings Tate fucking Tabatha against a wall.
Like you almost did?
