Читать книгу The Complete Red-Hot Collection - Ким Лоренс, Kelly Hunter - Страница 55

JARED STARTED WITH money for the families first. Local currency and plenty of it. Their dead loved one had had an insurance policy, courtesy of their employer, he told the head of each family. Blood money—nothing more than a Band-Aid applied to his conscience and a couple of years’ financial security for the families—but he had to believe that it would help. Money always helped—stained red or not.

He went after Yegor Veselov next, who was in Singapore. It took him another day to get to him and extract the information he required, and by then he’d missed his scheduled flight back to Australia.

His new director was not going to be impressed.

He rang Sam instead. ‘Tell her I missed my flight.’

‘Oh, no. You can tell her yourself.’

He guessed he didn’t have to identify himself.

There was a click, two rings, and he almost hung up—like a kid on a prank call. Instead he waited.

‘Jared?’ his director offered curtly. ‘This better be good.’

He gave her the name of another director and smiled mirthlessly when the first words out of her mouth were ‘I knew it.’

‘You’re sexy when you’re smug.’

‘Does that line ever work for you?’

‘I’ve never used it before. It’s a first.’

‘In that case I’ll attempt to feel flattered. Is our informative friend in travelling shape? Can you bring him in to testify against our man?’

‘Doesn’t seem wise. He’s currently dining with an Eastern Bloc president. Or aren’t we caring about that?’

‘I guess we’re caring,’ she said. ‘So, have you tied up all your other loose ends?’

‘I still need to check on the kid. I need another couple of days.’

‘No, you need to prove yourself reliable and be back here when you said you would be. That’s non-negotiable.’

‘Even though I’ve given you a name?’

‘That name is going to need your weight behind it. Is there any reason you need to see this kid in the flesh?’ she countered flatly.

Besides wanting to see Celik for himself and gauge the child’s wellbeing …?

‘He’s being monitored by the Dutch authorities,’ she offered next. ‘Check up on him that way, and if you’re still not satisfied I’ll send you to the Netherlands to see him—no question.’

‘I’m already halfway there.’

‘I’m sending you the contact details for the Dutch who are monitoring him. Call them. And then, in the interest of your future career and my current one, get back here.’

‘Is that an order?’

‘You don’t take orders, so let me put it another way. You asked for my co-operation and trust and I gave them to you. How about you goddamn earn it?’

Jared walked with new purpose and confidence. He wasn’t fixed, by any means—he still slept far less than any man should, and indecision still plagued him—but there was no denying that a weight had lifted from his shoulders now that he’d finally finished what he set out to do. Expose the rot in the counter-intelligence organisation he worked for—all the way back to the roots. Maybe now he could rest and get his life back. Figure out what it was he wanted now.

Apart from that kiss.

Director Rowan Farringdon sat at her desk and watched him approach, her eyes sharp and assessing. Probably looking for signs of weakness or fatigue, injury or distress. It didn’t sit well with him that she was most likely sitting there trying to assess his needs. On the one hand he drew comfort from her concern. On the other hand it made him feel somehow … less.

Less worthy, maybe.

Less capable than he was.

‘I’m back,’ he said by way of greeting. ‘What did you do with the information I gave you?’

‘I sent it to the top.’

‘Will they be able to get rid of him? With your information and mine, is it enough?’

‘I put together a solid case. I believe it’ll be enough. Have you had any sleep?’

‘I slept on the plane.’ More or less. Mostly less.

‘In that case you’re wanted upstairs. Management wants a word.’

‘That’s a level of management I’ve never been introduced to. Any tips?’

‘Yes. Try to impress them.’

She stood and came around her big glossy table, crossed the room to where he was standing with his feet slightly apart and his hands behind his back. She stood a good head shorter than him, even in shoes with medium heels. Today she wore a steel-grey dress with a geometrical pattern on the front in pewter and bronze. Professional and classy. Beautiful lean muscles and some very nice curves.

He wanted very badly to have earned the trust she’d placed in him.

He thought he might have.

He wanted very badly to trust that she’d made the right call when it came to him not going to check on the kid.

‘Jared,’ she murmured. ‘My face is up here.’

‘I know.’ He got there eventually and smiled—because he wanted to.

‘Thank you for coming back on time and in one piece,’ she said. ‘I’m impressed.’

‘Did you doubt me?’

‘Yes.’

And then she stepped up into his space, slid her hand around his neck and fitted her lips to his.

It was a quiet kiss—neither tentative nor bold. A very welcome kiss. He tried not to frighten her, tried not to let his hunger show … Except that one second he had his desire under control and his hands behind his back and the next moment he had his hands either side of her face and his longing could no longer be denied.

He coaxed her mouth open and she responded with an intrusion both accomplished and welcome. She tasted of passion and perfection and he groaned his pleasure, for it was a taste he hadn’t known he craved until this moment. He tilted his head and deepened the kiss, unleashed his hunger for her just a little bit and felt her match it.

And, oh, the intensity she brought to everything she did—to the feeding of her need and his. He loved it.

Testing her, he unleashed a little more, and her eyes swept closed even as her mouth opened greedily. Careful, considered exploration turned into surrender after that as he offered up his kind of hunger—the kind with a hard and dangerous edge. His brand of possession—desperate and all-encompassing. And Ro … Rowan Farringdon … his director … was right there with him.

Revelling.

As if she’d been made for him.

He had her backed against the table moments later, because all he could think was that there was so much more of her to explore and he wanted his mouth on every last bit of it—no self-restraint left. Only then did she wrench her mouth from his with a gasp and put her hand to his chest to stop him.

Not that it stopped the tremor that ripped through him.

‘Are you eating with anyone this evening?’ he muttered roughly.

‘I’m working late.’

‘After that?’

‘What? No offer to bring dinner here?’

‘I want you gone from this place.’

He wanted equal footing and he wouldn’t get it here.

‘I want to take you back at my place, or the beach house—anywhere that’s private. I want to be in you, over you, under you, touching you for a good long while, and I want to make good on any promises I made to you that first night at my sister’s wedding.’

A slow smile lit her eyes at that. ‘You never made any.’

‘Make ’em up.’

Her mouth joined the smiling caper then—a generous curve that he desperately needed to explore some more.

‘You’re wanted upstairs,’ she murmured. ‘I’ll be finished here by ten p.m. and I’ll be back at six tomorrow morning. I’ll need food at some point, and I’ll need a bed to sleep in. You can pick me up at five past ten from the steps outside the entrance to the building.’

‘You don’t mind people here knowing who you’re going home with?’

‘It’ll be a problem, yes. How about we let the others choke on it?’

‘Dangerous …’ He liked it.

‘Nothing I can’t handle.’

‘Have they give you permission to seduce me?’

‘They’ve given me permission to use whatever means necessary to gain your trust and co-operation. Not that I need to sleep with you to do that. Let’s not mistake work for willingness.’

‘Are you willing, Ro?’

‘What do you think?’

He waited until he’d reached the door before looking back. She was still leaning against the desk, still wholly focused on him. He wondered if his lips looked as kiss-blown as hers.

‘How many hours of sleep do you need?’

She held his gaze and the smile she sent him was full of promise.

‘In any one night? Six.’

Jared was used to men in suits looking him over and not liking what they saw. He was used to them seeing him as either a threat or a weapon to be used against others. He usually enjoyed a certain measure of respect—and when he’d been in Antonov’s service fear. Lust—he got that too.

Utter indifference was new to him.

The man standing behind the desk was reptilian—cold and imposing to look at. Pale grey eyes and greying black hair … that rare mix of colour that came out of nowhere and stayed in the mind like a thorn. He was in his fifties, at a guess. Big-bodied, well-honed and powerful. Imposing.

‘You hand me the head of one of my directors on a plate and yet you’ve no ambition to succeed him?’

The man’s voice matched his looks. Cold. Precise.

‘You don’t like the rules so you either bend them or outright break them. You’ve no wish to remake them, apparently, and you’re about to start screwing one of my best directors. Tell me, West, what would you do with you?’

‘Probably move me on.’

‘To where, exactly?’

‘A place where section rules don’t apply.’

‘Why would you even think such a place exists?’

‘They always exist.’

The head of the service smiled mirthlessly. ‘If you could put together a team for this place where normal rules don’t apply, who would you choose?’

‘Adrian Sinclair and my sister Lena.’

‘Sinclair I approve of. But your sister’s performance record is unremarkable and her injuries are extensive. What would you do with her?’

The man had no idea of Lena’s determination or her fierce loyalty to family.

Jared didn’t bother explaining it to him—just ran through the rest of his list. ‘My brother, Damon. My sister Poppy.’

‘You’ve no problem with leading them into danger? Your psych report suggests otherwise.’

‘They’d follow me there regardless. May as well make it easier on them.’

‘Who else?’

‘That’s it.’

‘Not Rowan Farringdon?’

‘She’d limit me. Rein me in.’

‘If you let her, yes.’

‘Not really my thing.’

‘You were doing well until then.’

‘You need to find someone who cares.’ May as well come clean. ‘I want Antonov’s last mole gone and then I really don’t know what I want. I don’t like being used, lied to, and finding myself on my own when I come in from fieldwork that you authorised.’

Not for a second did the older man look contrite.

‘Should you agree to head up this team you’ll report directly either to me or to the woman whose desk you passed on the way into this office.’

‘Your secretary?’

‘She’s not a secretary.’

‘Then what is she, exactly?’

‘My confidante. My partner in all things. My conscience, at times, as I am hers. Vera stays in the outer office because she says it keeps her more connected to section politics than she would be if she held equal title to me. Her choice, and I respect her for it. Vulnerability and accessibility are powerful weapons.’

Not what he’d been expecting—and the older man knew it.

‘Every system can be exploited, Mr West. Patriarchy, especially.’

Now there was an argument. He wondered what the woman he’d just kissed would think of it. Whether the lesser status would satisfy her. He didn’t think so, frankly.

‘How would you expect me to trust you or your associate? How would I know that the information you’d be feeding me was good?’

‘You’d get your team to double-check it. I would have a checking mechanism in place as well. Everyone wins.’ The older man’s cold grey eyes narrowed. ‘I expect you to put together a black ops crew and run them in a manner that will get the job done—any job done. You’re being groomed, Mr West, for this chair, no less—in about ten years’ time, all going well, it will be yours. If you’re not inclined towards this outcome you may tender your resignation from the department on your way out.’

‘Do I get time to think about it?’

‘If you need time to think about it you’re not the right man for the job.’

Jared smiled grimly. ‘I don’t believe that.’

‘Tell me, Mr West, do you question everything?’

‘Do you?’

This time he won from the man a smile that might have been genuine.

‘If you have a job for me in the here and now I’ll look at the brief,’ Jared told him. ‘I’ll make the acquaintance of your partner. I’ll approach the people I trust and see if they’re willing to go where I lead. And I will let you know, after that, whether I can be what you need.’

Jared didn’t consider his stance out of line, considering what the older man was asking of him. And if it was—well, maybe it was time to leave.