“You told Trent?”She cocked her head.
“No!”After a beat, he mumbled, “I told Ryan.”
“And Ryan told Trent, who told me.”Jake brushed his hands together as if that settled the matter.
“Mon dieu!Andwe’rethe pack of high schoolers?Ha,” she huffed.
Jake grinned sheepishly.“Point taken.But there’s unmistakable chemistry between you, even if you are just friends.So act like a couple in public then hole up in one of the staterooms and play video games or eat macarons or whatever you two do.You don’t have to get hot and heavy behind closed doors.”
Omar shook his head.“Youreallyshould tap Olivia and Trent for this.They’re married, for Pete’s sake—they won’t have to fake being in love.”
She knew Omar didn’t love her.Of course he didn’t.Still, hearing him say it was a wasp sting to her heart.Ridiculous, she told herself.Shake it off.
“Right,” she said.“And they both have covert operations experience.Surely the tech team can hook up a feed for me to translate any French documents they find.”
“On the open seas?That’s asking for the tech to fail.And aside from that it’s a hard no.They can’t take this mission.”
Omar crossed his arms.“You have to at least tell us why, Jake.Because, no disrespect, this looks like a poor management decision.”
She sucked in a breath while Jake considered the demand for a long moment.
Instead of dressing Omar down, he said, “I can’t do that to Trent.You know he lost his partner when he was on the black squadron, right?”
They both nodded.They’d heard the broad strokes over the years, but no details.Trent and his partner were one of Seal Team Six’s elite male-female operator pairs in Nigeria.His partner went out to meet a source and never came back.
“Trent would strangle me if he knew I told you this, but Carla wasn’t just his partner, she was his lover.Boko Haram sent him her severed hands in a box.Weeks later, he found her body in a cave.It nearly killed him.If something happened to Olivia, he wouldn’t recover.”
Marielle’s stomach churned.Beside her, Omar blanched.
After a moment, she found her voice and protested, “That’s horrifying.But, Jake, it’s not fair to make that decision for him—or her.”
“Maybe not.But I also know that if it came down to achieving the mission goal or keeping his wife safe, Trent will choose her every time.It’s not fair to put him, her, or me in that position.”
The small room fell silent.She shifted her gaze to Omar, and they locked eyes.Wordlessly, they agreed that they could—would—do this for the team.They turned back to Jake.
“When do we leave?”she asked.
He checked the rugged, matte black watch on his left wrist.“Now.”
3
Twelve hoursand eighteen minutes after leaving Jake’s office, Omar smoothed back Marielle’s hair and whispered, “We’re here.”
In response, she shifted from his shoulder, where her head had lolled for hours, and burrowed into his chest.She was warm and soft against him, and he allowed himself a moment to inhale the scent of her signature perfume.The familiar notes of spice and fruit, intensified by her body heat, rose like a wispy cloud from her neck and stirred a mixture of want and regret in him.
Friend zone, Khan,he reminded himself.Especially now.
Jake’s speech about Trent’s harrowing experience made clear that Omar and Elle were the right agents for this mission.It also lodged a cold fist of fear in Omar’s gut.The woman currently nestled against him may not be his lover or wife, but she was his world.His best friend, a ball of wonderful contradictions, a passionate, mercurial force of nature.Not to mention cute as hell.
If anything happened to her …
It won’t.
He’d stop at nothing to keep her safe.Yes, the mission came first.But Marielle Moreau was too vivacious, too lively to come second.Not now, not ever.
He gently jostled her shoulder.“Elle, wake up.”
Her eyelashes fluttered and she let out a soft sigh.She looked up at him with sleep-glazed eyes.“Frankfurt?”
