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"Rafe," the voice on the other end was terse. Alan Granger wasn’t known for making pleasantries. "We need you in for questioning."
Questioning? It had been years since I'd done any undercover work. Years since a mission had gone wrong and I'd been forced to fake my death. We were good though. Those cases were closed. What could possibly be so important to warrant a middle of the night call?
The past has a knack for showing up at your doorstep when it's least welcome. Just like an uninvited guest, or a nightmare that likes to visit.
"Isn’t it past your bedtime?" I muttered.
“Justice doesn’t sleep, DeMarco. Get your ass in here.”
I glowered at the clock. “What? Right now?”
“Yeah. I have questions that only you can answer and it won’t keep.”
As I hung up, I shoved back the sheets, wondering which corner of the world was on fire now.
* * *
“It seems our old friends at Interpol want you back.”
I lounged against the far wall of the intake room. After all this time I should have been used to rooms with no windows but being underground still made me a little itchy.
“What can I tell you, Alan? I’m a likable guy. But no thanks. I like being a civilian. You know, drinking pumpkin ass-tasting lattes or whatever at Starbucks.”
My handler didn’t seem impressed with my jokes. “Can you be serious for a moment?”
I forced my shoulders to relax. Normally everyone was telling me to loosen up. I used to be a company man, followed the rules to the letter.
But hello, disenchantment, my old friend.
I didn’t miss this. The secrecy, the hiding out. I still checked in every week like clockwork out of habit. Because there were active cases I had worked on for years and even though I was a Blake Security man now, I wanted to see those cases play out. Thankfully that was coming to an end.
I’d given my family up for the job. Well, no more. I was done doing favors. I had Lulu back now. I wasn’t getting dragged back into some undercover gig.
Right about now, I was in the zero-fucks-to-give category. Besides, it would be next to impossible to make undercover work for me. I was never leaving Lulu vulnerable again. It had been an overly interesting year already.
It wasn’t like Noah wasn’t strong enough or deadly enough to protect my sister. But they’d just gotten their lives started, and I didn’t want to bring trouble to their door. Not that trouble didn’t seem to find them anyway.
Or at least that was how I rationalized it. “You’ve got my full attention.”
“Glad to hear it. Right now we’ve got problems from an old friend of yours.”
The inner killer, the part of myself I kept chained up in the dungeon of my brain, started to stretch out.
Easy. We don’t do that anymore.
“What now?” I rolled onto the balls of my feet. Ready, poised for action. And that was the underlying problem.
I wasalwaysready.
Alwayspoised for action.
Truth be told, I wasn’t sure I coulddonormal. What kind of woman wanted a guy who was always ready for a fight… or worse? I knew from my sister’s experience that the kind of physical security required for a relationship with someone like me was stifling.
“Do you remember the Vandergraffs?”
Oh hell. Did I ever remember them. As much as I tried to forget, there was no shoving them out of my mind.
Those dark eyes looking up at me.
