Читать книгу Navy Seal Spy - Carol Ericson - Страница 9
ОглавлениеAdrenaline pumped through Liam’s body as he reached out to grab the woman barreling into him. She tipped back her head, her perfect lips forming a perfect O, and his adrenaline kicked up another notch.
He whispered the name of the woman who’d been haunting his dreams for two years. “Katie-O.”
“You!” Her dark eyebrows collided over her nose. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Me?” He didn’t know whether to give her a shake or a kiss, so he settled for smoothing the pads of his thumbs along her collarbone as he still held her by the shoulders. “What are you doing here?”
“Always answering a question with a question.” She shrugged him off. “I work here.”
His eyes narrowed, and his senses kicked into high alert. “You work for Tempest?”
“Shh. Don’t tell anyone. It’s top secret.” She held her finger to her lips, and her eyes sparkled in the dimness of the stairwell.
He’d never known when to take Katie seriously—that had been one of their many problems during their brief acquaintance. Her dramatic words and gestures were over the top, but they held an ultimate truth. If she did, indeed, work for Tempest, then her work was top secret.
“In what capacity, the recreation adviser?” Last he’d heard, Katie was designing video games.
She removed her finger from her lips and shook it under his nose. “Not so fast. I asked you what you were doing here first.”
He studied her face in the low light. She was angry with him about the way they’d ended things. He couldn’t trust her. Hell, he couldn’t trust anyone.
He lowered his voice and put his lips close to her ear. “What do you think I’m doing here?”
She twitched back from him. “The last time I saw you in San Diego, you had one more tour of duty as a navy SEAL. So, you’re either here as a consultant or you’re training to be an...agent.”
“Brilliant deduction.”
“Which is it?” She wedged her hands on her hips, as feisty as ever.
“It’s top secret.” He winked at her.
The door above them scraped open, and Liam pulled Katie into his arms, lunging for the recessed area between the two sets of stairs. A shaft of light from the hallway crept across the landing above them as the door widened.
A footstep landed on the cement floor, and heavy breathing echoed through the stairwell.
Liam held Katie tighter.
The silky strands of her black hair got caught on the scruff of his beard as he held her head against his chest with one hand. If she wondered why someone’s presence in the stairwell had sent him scrambling for cover, her curiosity didn’t lead her to break away from him or call out to the stranger.
The intruder shuffled onto the landing as if he was peering down the stairs. Then he backtracked and let the fire door slam shut.
Liam remained still for several more seconds, holding Katie, inhaling the sweet fragrance emanating from her skin.
Still in his arms, she tilted her head back, and he could see the pulse in her throat beating wildly. Had his actions frightened her? Aroused her?
Her voice was a low whisper. “Wh-why did you do that?”
“I’m not sure I’m allowed in this building, and I’m bucking for a perfect training score.”
“If you’re not supposed to be here, what are you doing in this stairwell?”
“Are you allowed in this building?”
“I work on the first floor.”
“What are you doing on the fourth floor?”
She pushed away from him and crossed her arms. “Uh, ladies’ room—they’re on the even-numbered floors only, and the one on the second floor is out of order.”
His gaze dropped to her arms crossed over her chest, her fingers biting into her upper arms. She was lying.
“Then maybe we didn’t have to hide. I could’ve said I was visiting you.”
“No!”
The word was out of her mouth before he finished his sentence.
He could almost feel the waves of heat coming from her cheeks as she twirled a lock of hair around her finger. “I—I just think it’s better if Tempest doesn’t know that we were...acquaintances. Don’t you?”
The minute Katie-O had plowed into him, he’d had no intention of revealing his relationship with her to Tempest, and he never would’ve allowed her to do it, either. The fact that she’d come up with the deception first made his life a lot easier...and made him a lot more suspicious.
He raised his eyes to the ceiling and tapped his chin. “I suppose that’s probably for the best. Tempest is a covert agency that forbids you to tell anyone where you work. Is it that way for you, too?”
“Absolutely.” She puffed out a breath. “I had to sign all sorts of forms and agreements to keep my employment here under wraps—even from my closest family members.”
“Even from Sebastian? He’s like a brother to you. I can’t imagine you’d keep anything from him.”
Her pale skin blanched even more and her huge, dark eyes sparkled with tears. “Sebastian’s dead.”
Without thinking of anything but taking her hurt away, he gathered her in his arms again. “I’m so sorry, Katie. I hadn’t heard.”
He hadn’t heard much of anything in the past two years since he’d seen her. He’d been deployed for another year in Afghanistan and then immediately plucked from the navy for...another assignment.
She sniffled against his chest but didn’t offer up any details. If she didn’t want to talk about Sebastian, he didn’t want to ask her to elaborate on the death of the man who’d been the only person she’d called family.
“Is that why you took a job with Tempest in the middle of Idaho, to get away from everything?”
Stepping back, she grabbed both of his hands, her nails digging into his flesh. “Don’t tell anyone here that you know me.”
He’d be more than happy to keep her secret, since that meant she’d be keeping his. “You have my word, Katie.”
“And don’t—” she flung his hands away from her “—call me Katie.”
He opened his mouth to find out what she wanted him to call her, but she spun around and disappeared down the stairwell.
* * *
KATIE RAN HER TONGUE along the inside of her dry mouth as the announcement from the Giant Voice system blared from the speaker in the corner of the office where she shared cubicle space with other employees from various departments.
“All-hands meeting in the building S cafeteria. Report immediately to the building S cafeteria.”
Katie removed her access card from her computer and grabbed her purse from the desk drawer. Hooking it over her shoulder, she joined her coworker Samantha in the line of people heading for the office door.
Samantha cupped her hand over her mouth and dipped her head toward Katie. “What do you think this is all about?”
“I have no idea.” Katie’s gaze ping-ponged among the faces of her other coworkers filing out of the office into the hallway. Their expressions registered everything from boredom to curiosity to fear. The fearful ones, she’d come to realize, were either total newbies like her or long-termers, but she hadn’t yet figured out what they had to fear.
“Hey.” Samantha tugged on Katie’s purse strap. “Do you think all hands include all the hot guys who are over at the gym training every day?”
“I thought we weren’t allowed over at the gym.”
“Don’t be such a Goody Two-shoes, KC. I told you I’d heard there was hot man meat over there, and I was going to check it out.” Samantha smacked her lips. “And I’m here to tell you the reports didn’t lie.”
“You’re going to get yourself fired, Samantha.” If spying on the agents got Samantha fired, then she couldn’t even imagine her punishment for spying on a murder.
Samantha shrugged. “Whatever. This job sucks, anyway. Too many rules, regulations and restrictions, and not a damned thing to do out here in the middle of nowhere.”
“The pay’s good.”
“That’s about the only perk.” She dropped her voice and moved close to Katie again. “And you can’t tell me you think Mr. Romo is anyone who remotely resembles a normal boss.”
“Quiet.” Katie glanced around at the other Tempest employees streaming into the cafeteria. Maybe Samantha didn’t want to keep this job, but Katie had to keep it—even now that Liam had turned up. Maybe even more so.
How had Liam gotten involved with Tempest? She bit her lip and blinked the tears from her eyes. Probably the same way Sebastian had gotten involved, but she hadn’t come here to save Liam McCabe.
She came to get justice for Sebastian, and she wouldn’t allow anyone to stand in her way—not even Liam.
As she shuffled into the cafeteria, Katie noticed the security guards at each door. She studied their faces, impassive beneath their caps, and wondered which one had helped Ginger last night. If she could get a look at the backs of their hands, she’d know for sure.
“I feel like I should be mooing.” Samantha tossed her hair back and then nudged Katie’s shoulder. “The man parade is here. This must be important.”
Katie jerked her head to the left and watched a line of impressive men, with one woman in their midst, snake through the side door and line up against the wall. Facially, they weren’t all handsome, at least not like Liam, who possessed the classic good looks of a California surfer, but all of them had incredible builds with muscles that went on forever and an air of quiet competence. And these were just the new recruits.
Man meat, indeed.
Had Liam picked her out of the crowd as easily as she had him? As she studied his face across the room, he looked up and met her eyes as if he knew exactly where she’d been standing all along.
Closing her eyes, she allowed herself one delicious shiver as she relived their meeting in the stairwell last night and once again felt Liam’s arms around her. He’d smelled precisely as she remembered—fresh like an ocean breeze, manly and strong.
Her eyelids flew open. And now he was part of Tempest—the enemy.
Pradeep Singh tapped the microphone at the front of the room, and the other managers lined up behind him. Their boss, Mr. Romo, was absent as usual. Ginger took a position to Pradeep’s right, folding her hands loosely in front of her, the business suit, glasses and chignon sending a demure, professional vibe.
But Katie knew better.
“Hello, everyone.” Pradeep waved his hands. “There are some seats up front, but we won’t keep you too long.”
Not many in the crowd took him up on his offer, so he continued.
“I know some of you have been hearing rumors this morning, and some of you early risers heard sirens and may have even seen the ambulance.”
Katie swallowed and hung on to her purse strap. Here it comes.
Pradeep cleared his throat. “I’m sorry to report that one of our own, Garrett Patterson, died at the compound last night.”
A few gasps and oohs and aahs rippled through the room, and Ginger leaned toward Pradeep, covering the mic with her hand as she whispered something in his ear.
Pradeep nodded once. “Garrett had a heart attack in his office last night—in this very building on the fourth floor.”
A wave of sympathetic murmurs swirled through the cafeteria, but Katie felt the air brimming with tension. Was it just the fact that a coworker had died in the building, or did the Tempest employees sense something more? She glanced around the room at the concerned and sad faces—emotions totally in keeping with the announcement.
She continued to scan the crowd and like a magnet, her eyes locked on to Liam’s. Even from this distance she could feel the intensity of his gaze. He’d probably taken note that Garrett had keeled over on the fourth floor—the floor she’d been exiting when she bumped into him on the stairwell. Liam didn’t miss much—except when it came to emotion.
Ginger stepped up to the mic next. “We’ll be taking up a collection for flowers for Garrett’s wife. The memorial service will be back East, so please pay your respects with a little donation.”
Katie clenched her jaw at Ginger’s phony, saccharine tone. Pradeep droned on for a bit more, but she’d tuned out. They’d put the heart attack story out there, and apparently had no trouble selling it to the EMTs who’d responded this morning.
Would that be the end of it? Could she phone in an anonymous tip to the police to check for some sort of heart attack-inducing drug?
“Earth to KC.” Samantha snapped her fingers in front of Katie’s face.
Pradeep had stopped speaking, and the crowd had begun shuffling back to their work areas, talking in low voices.
“Psst.” Samantha pinched her arm. “Let’s exit the same way the agents are exiting.”
“A coworker just died and that’s all you can think about?”
“Between you and me—” Samantha looked both ways “—Garrett had a roving eye. The few times I talked to him, he couldn’t seem to keep his gaze at eye level, if you know what I mean.”
“So he deserves to drop dead at his desk for being a perv?”
“Was he at his desk?” Samantha cocked her head. “I didn’t hear them say where he was.”
Katie shrugged. “Pradeep said he was found in his office, so I just assumed he was at his desk.”
Samantha herded her across the room to the farthest exit door where Liam and the other agents were headed. Would Liam think she was trying to get close to him?
She and Samantha jostled for position, and someone bumped her purse from behind. Gripping the strap, she glanced over her shoulder.
“Sorry.” Liam dropped his eyes to her purse and then stared straight ahead as if she was just another Tempest office worker—not someone who’d shared his bed for eight delicious months two years ago.
As the workers fanned out into the hallway, Samantha poked her in the back. “You see? It worked. One of them actually said something to you.”
“Yeah, he said sorry for bumping into my purse after you pushed me in front of him.”
“Well, that’s a start.”
“Start of some trouble. We’re not supposed to be fraternizing with those guys.” Katie flashed her badge at the reader by the office door, and the red light turned to green.
“I’d like to fraternize one or two of them.” Samantha winked and then ducked into her cubicle.
Katie dropped into her chair and hunched forward to open her bottom desk drawer to put her purse away. As she wedged it into the drawer, she noticed the corner of a white card sticking out of the side pocket.
Pinching it between two fingers, she pulled it free. The words jumped out at her.
Behind the bleachers at noon.
She recognized the writing as Liam’s, and her heart skipped a beat. Should she risk it? She might be able to wheedle some information out of him. She had special ways of handling Liam McCabe—or at least she used to.
She had to find out what he knew. The notebook she’d snatched from Patterson’s office last night had been a bust—just a bunch of abbreviations, a series of numbers and meeting notes.
The rest of the morning crawled by. Samantha popped in to let her know she had to bail on lunch for a meeting with her boss in accounting, which saved Katie from bailing herself.
When the clock on her computer read ten minutes to twelve, Katie grabbed her purse and ducked into the lunchroom to get her sandwich from the fridge. She’d better have some cover for being out at the track on her lunch hour.
Glancing at the gray skies, she turned up the collar of her jacket and crossed the quad. If it started raining, she’d have to abandon the meeting with Liam, and he’d have to reschedule it—or not. What did he want with her, anyway?
She slipped behind the building on the north side of the quad, put her head down and marched toward the gym that had a track behind it. Tempest had taken over an old high school for its compound and had remodeled most of the buildings on campus, even adding dorm-type living quarters for the recruits, but the track and the indoor pool had been maintained.
Employees were allowed to use the gym, but only before and after regular work hours. Tempest wanted to keep the agent recruits and the rest of the employees apart, unless the job directly involved the agents—hers didn’t, not yet, anyway.
A few people were jogging around the track, and she realized one of them was Liam. She settled on the second to last row of the bleachers and pulled out her lunch and a book. Ignoring the runners, she ate her sandwich with her book propped open on her knees.
Liam broke away from the track and started jogging up and down the bleachers. On one of his trips down, his pace slowed as he passed her. He panted. “Underneath the bleachers.”
She wadded up her brown paper bag and stepped down from the second row. She wandered to the trash can at the back of the bleachers, tossed away her trash and then ducked beneath the bleachers, stepping over the bars crisscrossing the open space. She could still hear Liam’s feet as they rang against the metal steps above her.
Less than five minutes later, Liam joined her beneath the bleachers, steam rising from his flesh, damp with sweat. His musky scent pulsed off him in waves, drawing her in, making him seem closer than he was.
His blond hair, away from the sun and surf, had darkened to a burnt gold, but his blue eyes still sparkled like the ocean on a clear day. She curled her hands into fists to squelch the urge to run her fingers through his hair.
“What do you want?” Angry with herself for responding to him in the old familiar ways, her tone came out as harsh as the raw, cold day.
“That guy, Patterson, died in his office on the fourth floor.”
She brushed a speck of dirt from the sleeve of her jacket. “Yeah, I know. I was at the same meeting as you.”
“You—” he leveled a finger at her “—were on the fourth floor of building S last night, flying down the staircase like you’d seen a ghost.”
“Well, I didn’t see Garrett Patterson, if that’s what you’re implying, and if I had, I would’ve reported his...death instead of chatting about old times with you in the stairwell.” She widened her stance and dug her heels into the rubber track beneath her feet.
“Old times? I don’t remember any walk down memory lane. You were too busy telling me to keep my mouth shut about knowing you...KC Locke.”
“Have you been checking me out?”
His eyes flickered. “If we’re going to pull off this pretense, I figured it was best if I knew what you were calling yourself.”
“KC Locke.” She stuck out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
He took her hand and circled the inside of her wrist with his thumb. “KC, Kathryn Claire Locke—that’s the name you used when you were in the foster care system. How does Tempest not know that you started calling yourself Katie and changed your last name to your mother’s maiden name, O’Keefe, when you left the system?”
“Shh. I have friends in low places.”
“Yeah, more like you used your mad skills with a computer.” He tightened his grip on her wrist. “Are you going to tell me what you’re doing here under an assumed name?”
She leaned in close just to catch another whiff of him. “I’m going to tell you that Garrett Patterson had a heart attack, and I wasn’t there when it happened.”
Dropping her hand, he lifted one shoulder. “Don’t play with fire, Katie.”
“You should’ve warned me about that two years ago in San Diego.” She hunched into her jacket and stepped out from beneath the bleachers.
With her hands stuffed in her pockets and her head down to ward off the chilly wind, she strode toward the track to cross it. Would he come after her? He couldn’t. They couldn’t be seen together out in the open.
She wandered across the track, sniffing back the tingles in her nose. Then a sharp voice interrupted her daydreams.
“Stop right where you are, or I’ll drop you where you stand.”
