Page 18 of Broken Trust
“Yeah. They asked for you.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Because I’m female, I should get in the kitchen?”
“That’s not— No. It’s not like that.”
Heaving a sigh, she crossed her arms, fighting the heat and attraction rising under her skin. “What do they need me for? I’m trying to keep half the Midwest from going down and they need me to do the dishes?”
He winced at the venom in her voice. “It’s not about that. You’ll see.”
She exhaled through her nose, biting off a thousand sharp replies waiting on her tongue. Whatever this was, it better be worth interrupting her work. The faster she finished, the sooner she could get out of here.
Get away from Liam.
She backed out of the system, saving files as she went. When she pushed away from the desk, he stepped out of her way, but her arm brushed his.
With a huff of anger, she swept by him, refusing to acknowledge the jolt that came from that simple, soft stroke of his arm against hers.
She wasn’t totally sure where the kitchen was located in this huge mansion, but she followed the scent of coffee floating on the air currents. To her relief, Liam’s too-familiar footsteps moved in the opposite direction.
When she entered the enormous space, Sophie was talking with a woman so polished and beautiful that she made Elin feel like a grubby tech nerd.
Sophie rushed forward. “Elin, this is Kennedy. She works with the team, organizing intel, operations and about a thousand other things we couldn’t live without.”
She drifted closer, unsure if she should shake Kennedy’s hand. Then the woman extended hers, a warm smile on her face.
“I’m honored to meet somebody with your skills.”
“Thanks. Just doing my job.”
“From what I hear from Dante, you don’t just do the job, you redefine it.”
Feeling a little taken aback by the praise, she looked around at the expansive—expensive—kitchen. The space made her look past the cold military-grade furniture in the computer lab whereshe’d spent all her time. Now she could really see what Dante was talking about when he told her the place was seized from a wealthy owner.
“I hate to be so abrupt, but what did you need me for?”
Sophie’s laugh bounced off the high ceilings, and her eyes gleamed with what Elin could only call mischief. “We’d like to show you something downstairs.”
She looked out the big windows at the lawn. A gazebo and surrounding landscaping looked like it was straight out of a fairytale book. “Aren’t we already downstairs?”
“In the basement.”
Elin issued a little laugh. “Should I be worried about you taking me to the basement? I thought I was doing a good job. I didn’t expect to be chained to the wall and tortured.”
“No, it’s nothing like that!” Kennedy’s words seemed to echo Liam’s so closely that Elin’s stomach sank a degree. Just how close was he to this blonde goddess?
The woman leaned closer to whisper, “Dante and Con won’t be happy with us if they find out what we’re up to. So it’s just between us.”
Realization struck. Kennedy and Dante weretogether.
And Elin wascrazyfor caring for even a millisecond that Liam might have ties to another woman.
They led her through a door and down a flight of stairs. The basement was massive, the space wide open. Standing in the middle, she turned in a circle.
“What’s over there?” She pointed to a door.
“The shooting range.”
Her brows lifted. “Okay,” she said in a slow drawl. “Why are we here again?”
