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Hayley gave him an incredulous look. “You’re pretty good at this stuff. Where’d a guy like you learn moves like that?”
They’d given lessons after school when he was in eighth grade. He hadn’t been all that into it, honestly, but any excuse to delay going back to his foster home had been more than welcome. He winked, and she smiled, and he felt it all the way to his toes. “What can I say? I’m a Renaissance man.”
She shook her head and stepped away from him as the music faded. “So, do you have any leads on what happened to Natalie?”
“A few.” He shrugged, frowning as he concentrated on the specifics of the mission. “Last week, there was an explosion at a publishing house owned by a man named Coran Williams. Turns out Natalie had written a few romance novels for him that seem to contain coded messages. As far as we can tell, they’re connected to intelligence work. Maybe CIA.”
“I heard about the explosion on the news.” Hayley tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear, and he wondered whether her curls felt as soft as they looked. “It had to do with romance novels?”
“Looks that way. So, the guy I mentioned when we were at the cemetery, Becks?”
“The one with the burns?”
“That’s right. Former SEAL. He was behind the explosion. He also kidnapped Coran Williams—and another employee from the publishing house.” When the breeze whipped another long strand of hair across Hayley’s face, he couldn’t resist anymore. He traced a finger over her creamy cheek and pushed the curl behind her ear, loving the way she shivered beneath his touch. “Remember Gage, from my team? Big guy, very tan and tough?”
She nodded.
“His new girlfriend, Anna, was also taken. Turns out Coran liked to send her manuscripts to read—and he sent her one of Natalie’s. We’re still not sure if it was an accident or if he dragged her into all this on purpose. Maybe it doesn’t matter. The end result was the same either way. Both Anna and Coran were held captive by Becks and his associates. We rescued her, but they still have Coran.”
Hayley swallowed hard. “Sounds scary.” She sat back, and for a moment Scotty was afraid he’d scared her off.
“It’s not all bad, though.” He placed his arm along the back of the bench, turning on the charm. “Looking into this means you get to spend more time with handsome old me.”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “There’s a new round of cutbacks coming.”
“What?” He wrinkled his nose.
“At work. That’s why getting this promotion is so important to me. Job security.” She shrugged. “There’s an opening for a team leader. Still in intelligence, but on the fieldwork side. I’d hate to have to transfer to a new boss, but it would be worth it to feel safe from the cutbacks. There’s a rumor that my whole department could be axed. I figured if I could solve this case, it would give me more street cred.”
“Street cred?”
“Yeah. Successful ops look good on the old resumé, you know?”
“Smart thinking, Red. I think there’s hope for your street cred yet.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Her gaze held his for a second longer than was strictly polite. “So, it seems we’ve got our work cut out for us, huh?” She flashed him an excited smile, and his pulse notched higher. “I’m ready to start whenever you are.”
7
That night, Hayley curled up in the corner of the sofa in her tiny Georgetown apartment to watch an episode ofCriminal Minds. Normally, she loved getting into all the intricacies of these fictional cases, always figuring out whodunit way before the actors in the show. But tonight…
Tonight, she couldn’t stop thinking about the real-life bombshell that had dropped into her life and blown all her orderly plans straight to hell. It wasn’t just her attraction to Scotty Devonshire that threw her for a loop, though the guy was freaking beautiful. No, this had more to do with the story he’d shared while they sat on that bench.
She hadn’t known what to think when she’d come across the report implicating Scotty and the rest of his team in their teammate’s death. She’d just known that she needed to be there in person when she asked him about it. Only then would she be able to decide whether she’d put her trust in the wrong person.
She hadn’t expected the pain in his voice when he’d talked about Nick’s murder. And then the steel when he’d sworn that he’d find whoever was responsible and bring them to justice. She was an analyst—she was used to leaning on facts, evidence, data. And the facts in the file pointed toward his guilt. But in that moment, she’d believed him.
The more she pondered, the more time flew by, and soon the end credits for the show were rolling. Hayley clicked off the TV and opened her laptop instead.
No matter how intriguing she found Scotty, Hayley decided that she would stick to her investigation, stay neutral, play the straight arrow. Her plans were to solve the case and get the promotion, end of story. And if achieving her first objective meant spending more time with Scotty, she wouldn’t object to that.
She’d just logged into her Bureau account when her cell phone buzzed. She looked at the screen, and her stomach sank.
It seemed it was time to explain why she’d bailed on her security detail. Ditching her boss-mandated tail hadn’t exactly been a stellar move in terms of proving her reliability as an agent, but it had seemed like the best choice at the time.
