Page 31 of Baby One Last Time
I let out a breath. “Does anybody else suspect?”
“Not as far as I can tell. But nobody else has a room across from yours and a tendency to be awake at four in the morning to hear you sneaking back into it.”
Time for damage control and, more than that, to find out if Mai had my back when we were not in the field. “I’d appreciate it if that stayed between us.”
“First, I have a question. Was this a one-time thing or an ongoing situation?”
I grimaced. “Both. It used to be ongoing. But the other night was...” Fucking amazing. The reunion I’d dreamed of since X had split up Derek and me. A bonding experience I would never have with another partner. I closed my eyes. Shit. Maybe one I’d never find with another man. I opened my eyes. “The other night was goodbye.” Even if I hadn’t known it at the time.
“I have no interest in sharing this intel, which I wish I didn’t know. But while we’re discussing it, I’d appreciate it if you would sleep with the bartender or a pool boy or anyone else, as long as they’re outside of HEAT. If this bites you in the ass, it bites me in the ass.” Her impassive look hardened. “I do not enjoy being bitten in the ass.”
I widened my eyes. “Now it sounds like we’re discussingyoursex life.”
“Funny,” she said without laughing.
“Hilarious,” I agreed, keeping a straight face.
“I like this job,” she said. “I want to keep it.”
A week ago, I was out in the cold with no place to call home. With no plan for the rest of my life. With no team. Being part of one felt good. Really good. “I get it. And I’ve got your back.”
Unfortunately for me, the team buzz wouldn’t last. I’d fuck it up somehow, and X would cut me loose, this time for real. The only way to save myself and protect the team was to complete this mission without getting anyone hurt or worse, then move on. Mai would get a new and better partner, Derek would be offered bigger and better promotions, and I would resume my previous plan of proving my worth to X. Then I could convince her that me working solo was for the best becauseI couldn’t be trusted in a group, and Derek had no interest in reconstituting our duo.
I’d be a team of one.
Chapter 9
Due to thetime zone change, it was early evening and already dark by the time we arrived at our Miami compound. The company didn’t have its own building in the area, so we were taking over a secluded section of a small resort that provided a modest two-room bungalow for each of us, plus a main house with a gym, large kitchen, meeting space, and a reinforced room for classified computers and weapons. TJ handed us our bungalow keys, then announced the team dinner at 1900 hours and team meeting at 2000. That didn’t leave me enough time for another nap, especially if I was going to look really good in order to taunt Derek.
In my room, I unpacked, laid out my makeup, and plugged in a hair straightener. The look du jour would be sleek and sophisticated. Think ice princess. Of all my disguises when we’d been in the field together, it had been one of Derek’s favorites. He liked knowing it was all a façade and he could—and would—set me afire as soon we’d taken down our target. Tonight, there would be no fire, no thawing. Only torment. He deserved it.
When I had the hair and makeup just right, I slipped into a blue velvet pant and sleeveless top set and completed the outfit with pearls. Genuine ones. My mother had given them to me at winter solstice the year after I’d graduated college, when I was a newbie in a government agency and taking graduate classes at night. Such ambition, my supervisors had said. My mom and aunt were so proud.
I checked my phone. Twenty minutes until the team dinner started. I hadn’t talked to my mom in over a week, since a few days before the Flamingo Job. Although she didn’t know exactly what it was I did for the FBI, whom she thought still employed me, she respected my crazy schedule and waited for me to call her, unless it stretched to two weeks of radio silence. I almost never let that happen, even on long jobs when I was under deep cover. My mom and aunt were all the family I had. I might be a shitty team player, but I was a slightly better daughter. I dialed Mom’s number.
She picked up after the first ring. “Hi, sweetie!” The sweetness in her voice still made me want to curl into bed and have her read me a bedtime story.
“Hi, mom.”
“How are you?”
“I’m fine. Missing you and Aunt Anita.”
“Oh, sweetie, we miss you too. Are you still in LA?”
“Uh...” I hesitated.
“Forget I asked,” she said. “But are you all right? You sound tired.”
She knew me too well for me to fool her. “I am tired.”
I didn’t elaborate. I could have told her there was a guy and a breakup and a pity party, but I would not allow thoughts of that man to interfere with this little bit of mom-time. Besides, there hadn’t really been a breakup. We hadn’t really been together. Not recently and never officially. Like my job, as far as the world was concerned, our liaison didn’t exist.
“When will I get to see you?” Mom asked.
“Soon, I hope. Probably not during the winter holiday season. Maybe toward the end of it, in early January.” Perhaps Seattle, her current hometown, would cooperate and I’d see white stuff at least once this year.
“Remember, Aunt Anita and I have that ski trip to Telluride with the girls between Boxing Day and New Year’s Eve.”
