“It’s late and I don’t need any games. Can you please just tell me?” she asked, her irritation clear.
“Trust me, you’ll want to sit,” he replied.
Exasperated, Mallory gave a huff of breath and plopped down on the couch. Looking over at him with raised eyebrows showing her impatience, she lifted her palms up in front of her and said, “Okay, here I am, let’s have it.”
“Mallory Black, former military intelligence, age thirty-one, never married, daughter of Dennis and Laurie Black, birthday October thirteenth, two older brothers, and one younger sister, and an avid Denver sports fan,” Green said, hoping the last part of this reveal would ease some of the shock.
Her impatience turned into surprise and confusion.
He continued after taking a drink of wine, “The only thing you know about me is my name. Your spidey senses were on point. I’m part of an investigative team looking into the world of drugs in Seattle. The senator’s name came across my desk and while she specifically isn’t a person of interest in the drug world, people closely connected to her are. Being invited into her circle happened in a different manner than we expected, but we aren’t going to pass up this opportunity.”
“How . . . am I . . . What . . .” Mallory stuttered. Her mind was obviously jumping in a multitude of directions, and she couldn’t get it to settle on one line of questioning.
“You’re not a part of that investigation. And I’m not at liberty to share who is at this time. The phone call I just received wasn’t my brother, it was my command base telling me to trust in sharing this information with you. Why would that be? You might as well tell me. My team would never tell me to share with you unless they have unequivocal evidence that you haven’t been fully transparent with me,” Green said.
A sly smile took over her face as she bent forward, grabbed the glass of wine and took in a large mouthful of the liquid. She eyed him, trying to figure out if she could share with him or not. It was a strange feeling. His phone buzzed.
He lifted the receiver. “Is my house bugged?” he gasped, just realizing his team might be listening to their entire conversation. Dammit. Brackish would wire his house, the guy couldn’t help himself.
“Of course, it is,” Brackish said as if he was stupid to think anything else. “You can tell her everything about operations . . . except for our benefactor. The team, the mission, it’s all a go.”
“Can you also read minds?” Green asked as he glared toward the walls. If they were wired, there had to be a camera somewhere.
“Don’t worry, we’ll shut the cameras off if it looks like things are going to get frisky,” Brackish said.
Green held up his hand and flipped the middle finger up, then waved it all around not knowing where the cameras were.
“That’s not very nice, Green,” Brackish said with a laugh. Green hung up.
“Let me make a call,” Mallory said as she stood up and walked from the room. When she came back, she seemed to be better. “Okay, if you show me yours, I’ll show you mine,” she told him, making him laugh hard.
And then they began talking . . .
Chapter Five
Mallory was a confident woman. She knew who she was and where she was going in life. She’d warned her team before her latest mission that she wouldn’t pull off the act of a simmering assistant. So, she’d told them if they wanted her to hold the position of aide to the senator, she’d have to be herself . . . to a point. They’d agreed. And that attitude had gotten her foot in the door. This was the longest mission she’d ever held in her distinguished career.
“Who are you? Your name checks out with no flags on it, but other than that it’s very difficult to find anything at all about you,” Mallory told Hendrick.
“Why would you be checking me out?” he asked.
They were dancing around each other, and neither one wanted to allow the other to lead. Mallory had a feeling that’s what it would be like to be in a relationship with this man. Not that she wanted that. But she did have a weakness for strong, confident men who weren’t intimidated by her. She’d thought that wouldn’t be so hard to find, but the minimal relationships she’d attempted over the past ten years had fizzled faster than Rice Krispies in milk.
“The senator’s interested in you. Of course, we’ve checked you out,” Mallory told him. She wanted him to tell her the truth of who he was before she shared anything with him.
Even though she’d told the senator she didn’t trust the man, she felt the opposite. She knew he wasn’t who he said he was, but she also had a feeling about people, and there was something deep inside that said he could be a confidant. But how far could she take that?
Hendrick lifted his glass and took a long swallow before she saw the switch in his eyes. He was ready to talk. She didn’t say a word as she waited.
“I work for a team that’s trying to break the huge drug cartel that’s slowly taking over the entire western states. They seem to be growing stronger in Seattle, and we need to put an end to it. The senator’s name came up on our radar.” He stopped and waited for her reaction. She let his words process. He’d already said as much, but now they were actually listening to each other.
She knew a lot about him, or what he wanted people to know about him, but not enough. It had been insane when they’d done the checks on him and his profile had popped up. It was too good, but there were no holes. Everything he’d told them had rung true . . . but she still hadn’t bought it. She wasn’t sure if that was from her years in the FBI or if someone a whole lot smarter than she and her team had painted him an identity.
“I knew you weren’t a blubbering idiot,” she finally told him, then her lips turned up in a mocking smile. “But you play one so well I had my doubts.”
Hendrick didn’t take offense at her words. Instead, he laughed hard for several seconds. “My teammates might agree with you on that. It’s the baby face I’ve been both blessed and cursed with from the time I was in high school. It gets people to trust me a hell of a lot faster and makes acting like a stupid kid a bit too easy.”
“Or maybe it’s your lack of wit and charm,” she said, testing what the man was made of. His chest puffed out.
“Baby, I guarantee you there’s nothing kid-friendly about me,” he said. “Want me to prove it to you?”
She felt desire clench in her gut and had to squeeze her thighs together to try to alleviate the ache a few well-spoken words had produced in her body. The man might have a youthful appearance, but his body was delicious and the gleam in his eyes was all male. She could picture the animal he’d be in the bedroom — just the way she needed it. Some people liked soft lovemaking, and some people wanted to break the furniture — she was the latter.
“What’s the team you’re on?” she asked a bit breathlessly.
He gave her a knowing look and she knew he was very aware of every little action he took and how his words affected her. He could think he knew, but she’d stab her own foot before admitting it to him. It was rare when Mallory felt inferior with a person, but she feared she’d judged Hendrick wrong — he might be smarter than she was. That was saying a lot, considering she’d always been at the top of her classes and her career.