“Fuck,” I breathed out. “Will you tell her I love her?”
“I can’t, brother. Not yet.”
“Jesus.”
“You need anything?”
“Other than my life back, you mean?”
“Yeah,” he said.
“No, man, I’m good.”
“Okay, I’ll know more tomorrow. Hang in there.”
I gave him a chin lift and he closed the peep door. Heading back to my cot, I dropped the cheesy snack on the end and then sat down and settled my face in my hands. Goddammit. I hadn’t spent a night away from Maisie since we’d made our thing permanent. That was more than ten years ago now, and I had no idea how I was gonna deal without her, even if I was only stuck here one night. Fuck me, tomorrow couldn’t come fast enough.
* * *
Maisie
“Remember,” Ryan warned. “You’re an American munitions expert.”
This cockamamie plan was actually happening. I’d been up all night studying and even though I was exhausted, adrenaline was coursing through my veins. “Bloody hell, Ryan, you didn’t tell me I had to put on an American accent as well,” I hissed. “How are we going to get one over on the FBI?”
“You won’t,” Ryan assured me. “But Jaxon’s doing you a favor by setting this up. He’s got the FBI guys distracted for a while, so the only ones you need to convince are a couple of local detectives.”
“Ryan,” I whispered. “They’re cops, not idiots.”
“Maisie, I’ve got it sorted. Just follow my lead.”
“If this doesn’t work, I will kill you,” I said. “But if it does, you have my life-long love and devotion.”
He chuckled. “I’ve always had your life-long love and devotion.”
“That might change if I don’t get my arms around my man today.”
“You can’t touch him, Maisie, or the jig’ll be up.”
I scowled up at him. “You better find a way for me to touch him, Ryan, or heads are gonna roll.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Ryan, you got your expert?”
I glanced down the hall to see a uniformed officer barreling toward us.
“Yeah, man,” Ryan said, and nodded toward me. “Linda Warren, this is Joe March.”
I stuck my hand out and said in my best American accent, “Nice to meet ya.”
I saw Ryan bite back a laugh and forced myself not to react.
“I’m gonna show Linda the file, then we’re gonna meet with Mr. Wallace,” Ryan said.
“You think you can figure out what he’s planning?” Joe asked.
“If he’s plannin’ anything, yeah,” I said. God, I wanted to smash this man’s face in, but I had to play the game.
