Page 79 of Delta Force Defender

He didn’t like it. He more than didn’t like it.

“This is not a scenario in which you’re bait in a trap,” he said now. “I want to make sure you’re clear on that.”

“So your answer is yes, you’re riddled with anxiety.”

“You’re wired. Templeton and Jonas are already in the bar, blending in.”

“I find that very difficult to believe.” She smirked when he glared at her. “What? They don’t blend. Anywhere.”

“You might find yourself surprised.”

Because the truth was, all three of them had made a career out of blending in. They could disappear whilethey were standing right in front of someone, if necessary. But this was no time to get into the kind of work he, Templeton, and Jonas had done—and continued to do in missions like this.

Not when she was the one at risk.

“You’re going to go into the bar and do your thing,” Isaac said tersely. “No editorializing. Just stick to the script we agreed on and everything will be fine.”

She gazed at him for a moment, something almost rueful on her face. It was making his neck itch. He would have expected her to be extra cutting at a time like this. Sharp, furious. The Caradine he knew best.

This version of Caradine he didn’t recognize, and while he might have liked to imagine it was because of what had happened between them at that waterfall, or even her reunion with her sister, that didn’t quite land. He didn’t believe it.

Because he’d been watching her whisper with her sister over on the couch while the rest of them had been talking with Oz about how to track people who were supposedly already dead. He’d seen the grave looks on both their faces. And more tellingly, given the Sheeran sisters, the fact that there had been touching.

“What is it you’re not telling me?” he asked.

“I go out of my way to tell you as little as possible,” she replied, with that curve to her mouth that would normally turn into a full-blown smirk. But not today. “You know this.”

“You’re running out of secrets, baby,” he said.

And his heart lurched in his chest when instead of smirking at him, razor-sharp as usual, she smiled.

An honest-to-goodness smile. Much brighter than the one she’d aimed at him on the island last night, which he’d chalked up to a family reunion and a tropical sunset.

This smile was on a South Boston street where gentrification was slowly taking over, pushing out the seedyliquor stores, check-cashing places, and occasional strips of boarded-up buildings in favor of swanky condo developments. There were threatening clouds overhead and set-faced strangers trudging from the nearby T stop.

He’d always thought he wanted her to smile at him like this.

“You were right,” she said, alarming him even more.

“Have you ever actually uttered that sentence before?”

Her smile widened. “You told me a while ago that I walked into the Fairweather expecting a good time, but not being at all prepared for you. And you were right. It never occurred to me that I would find any of this. I didn’t know what to do with it then. I still don’t.”

Isaac tried to keep his cool, but he couldn’t. He scowled at her. “Is this your good-bye speech?”

Another smile. Damn her. “Isaac. I want you to know—”

His hand shot out before he could communicate that intention to the rest of his body. He gripped her behind the neck and pulled her close. “If you say one more terrifyingly nice thing to me, Caradine, I’m going to lose it.”

And it was better when that smile faded. When her typical scowl replaced it. He felt actual relief.

“I’m trying to say that I appreciate—”

“I will lose it.” His jaw was so tight he was surprised he could form words. “And when I do, I can’t promise I won’t take it out on you in ways I doubt very much you will enjoy.”

Her scowl deepened and that was better, too. Not that it solved his problem here, but it helped. It was better than Caradine beingnice.

“It might be time for you to pay some attention to your parade of psychological problems, Isaac.”

---