Page 23 of Six
He glanced back again before answering. “There’s an abandoned house on the other side of the road about five hundred meters farther up from the driveway to Wheaton’s property. I tucked my car back behind the house.”
“Did your file tell you anything about the property? I just pulled up a Google satellite image,” she said. Then a thought occurred to her that should have come to her earlier and she let out a quiet curse in Italian.
“You know I speak Italian, right?” he asked, throwing a grin in her direction.
She rolled her eyes. “Between your reactions and your flawless pronunciation of my name, I assumed.”
“So what was that swear for?”
“I just realized that once again, Franklin might know what he’s talking about.”
“Meaning?” As he asked, he stepped off the trail, holding a branch for her.
She put her hand on it to hold it in place as she passed, then let it swing back. “I have access to all sorts of intel, but up until now, I’ve been using only the means that a normal—or civilian—would use. Ihadplanned to hack into his phone and credit card info. But because this investigation is for personal reasons, and not professional ones, I’ve been putting it off.” Cyn hadn’t been so cautious when the dead body showed up on her front door, but Cyn was well acquainted with recklessness.
“And?”
“And now I realize a benefit to having you around.”
He stopped and turned toward her, his eyes dancing in amusement. For a moment, she wondered if he was evernotamused. Franklin had said he had a past, but it sure as shit didn’t look like one that bothered him.
“There are a lot of benefits to having me around, but I’m pretty sure the one I’m hoping you’re thinking of isn’t the one you’re thinking of.”
She arched a brow at him and tried to give him her best “are you kidding me?” look, but ended up letting out a huff of a laugh and shaking her head. His grin turned into a wide smile.
“Stop that,” she said.
Instantly, his smile turned down. “Stop what?” he asked, confused.
“Smiling at everything. It’s annoying. Aren’t you ever mad or sad or any other emotion other than happy?”
He cocked his head to the side and studied her. “Isthatwhy you don’t like having me around? Because I’m toohappy?”
She narrowed her eyes. “No. I don’t like having you around because it makes me feel like I’m being babysat—which I’ll admit, that’s more a me issue than reality. But also, you flirt and grin your way through life, and it makes you seem shallow and untrustworthy.”
Again, another tip of his head. “And you don’t want me to be shallow or untrustworthy? You want me to be something else?”
She looked up to the canopy in an attempt to find some patience. She shouldn’t have said anything in the first place, but now that they were here, and going to be working together, perhaps she needed to get it all out.
“Look, before I knew who you were, you being shallow and untrustworthy didn’t even show up on my radar. You were just a pretty man who liked to flirt with everyone in the office. But now that we have to work together, yes, I care. Youcan’tbe happy all the time. No one is. If that’s the only side of you I see, then I’ll start to wonder what else you’re hiding.”
He shoved his hands into his pockets and regarded her. “You think I’m pretty?”
Her stare turned flat, then she pushed around him and continued in the direction they’d been heading before they stopped. He followed behind.
“It’s a beautiful day, and I’m on an op with a talented and beautiful woman who intrigues me more than I should admit. Of course I’m happy.”
She sliced him a look over her shoulder. He had a weird way of finding joy.
“But you never answered my original question,” he continued. “What benefit did you suddenly realize about working with me?”
“As you said, you’re on an op,” she said.
“And?” he asked, grabbing her elbow and turning her sixty degrees to her right as he pointed in the new direction. So maybe he was handy for something else, too.
“Now you can access all those things I’d been hesitating to access because I’mnoton an op. I assume, other than state secrets, we have the same kinds of files and access to information. Since your op is to help me, you can help me by looking up all the info I haven’t yet.” She would have used her resources as she saw fit. This way, though, she could keep Gavin busyandnot have to explain to AISE—or the NSA—why she was accessing the phone records of a US citizen.
“See, another silver lining on this beautiful day,” he said, and she was pretty sure he’d said it specifically to annoy her.
