Page 46 of Cast in Shadow
“I do wish,” he said on a sigh. “I wouldn’t have to call in markers to get your butt out of trouble quite as often.”
She shielded her eyes and glared at him. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me. You’re brilliant, but you’re not good in the field.”
“I’m good in the field,” she protested.
“You were abducted. You got hurt. And it’s not the first time.”
Well, there was that. “That wasn’t my fault.”
“You got sloppy.”
She clamped her lips together and said nothing because he was right. She hadn’t seen the threat until it was too late.
Aggie knew her greatest value was in her digital skills. However, she couldn’t stand the thought of sitting behind a screen day in and day out. It was too confining. Too restrictive. She needed to move. To live in the real world and be with real people. T understood that, even if he’d prefer that she’d stay safe and work from within a luxurious ivory tower.
“Has there been any word on Sam?”
“Still MIA.”
“Someone should do something.”
“Such as?”
“Find Sam and figure out what’s on those files. I get why he’d run from the mob guys, but from the FBI? Something stinks about that whole situation, and it’s not just the pollution in Parryville.”
“Hmm,” T hummed noncommittally. “Tracking. Obtaining information. Meting out justice. Sounds like exactly the kind of thing a certain mercenary specializes in. For a price, of course.”
Zeke.
Just the name was enough to make her body respond. Not a day had gone by when she hadn’t thought about him or that last full day they’d spent together at the chalet.
Or the way he dropped her off at the safe house, taken his cash, and skedaddled.
A soft breeze blew over them from the water, only slightly cooler than the air. Aggie turned over, letting the sun warm her back—partly to even out her tan and partly to avoid T’s assessing gaze. The man saw everything. His code name wasn’t Taser for nothing.
“Maybe someone should hire him to do it,” T continued.
“I thought you wanted to hire him,” Aggie said, remembering the way T’s eyes had lit up in interest.
“No.”
“How come? Didn’t he live up to your expectations?”
“Oh, he’s done that and more. The guy’s good. He tracked you all the way to Mount Elbert.”
“How the hell did he do that?” she asked, astonished.
“I told you, he’s the best. By the time he got there though, Charley was gone, and the facility went back to being a sad casualty of the post–Cold War era.”
“So ... if he’s that good, what’s the problem?”
“You are.”
“Excuse me?”
“I can’t have another besotted agent. People are going to start thinking I have a heart, and that’s bad for business.”
