Joseph sighed. “You don’t need to worry about anything.”
“Which means yes. Where is he?”
“Hungary.”
“Does he have backup?” Ember stopped massaging his shoulders.
“Don’t stop, that feels good, and yeah, of course.”
“You say that like he always has backup.” Ember dug her fingers into the muscles at his neck. He groaned and dropped his head forward, giving her more access.
“Most of the time, unless he gets cocky, and I always call him on that shit.”
“Anything unusual about this case?” she asked and dipped her hands down a bit, hitting the muscles of his upper back.
“No, well, yes.” He moved to the right, and she got the message, zeroing in on a knot the size of a baseball. God, her hands were golden.
“Explain that, King.”
Joseph chuffed out a breath and spilled the beans. “He’s doing double duty. He’s been protecting a reporter from getting herself killed. She was the protégé of one of our assets. He was killed because he got too close, and she picked up his work andstarted down the same road. So, he was tasked with keeping her alive and with his mission.”
“Oh, I bet he was thrilled. Did he threaten duct tape?”
“Probably. But you’ve got to admit, duct tape is a cure-all.”
Ember laughed. “I won’t admit it. When does the briefing start?”
“Any minute now.” She stopped her massage, and he groaned, straightening. “Did you have to stop?”
“Yes. He doesn’t need to know that I know. He’s emphatic that I shouldn’t worry, not that I can stop. You can tell me everything tonight.” Joseph turned, and she dropped a kiss on his lips and whispered, “Won’t you?”
“Depends.” He smiled wickedly at her.
She lifted an eyebrow and licked her lips. “It depends on what, exactly?”
His eyes tracked that sexy as fuck tongue on its path. Fuck, he was already hard for her. “Whether or not you pass out from exhaustion after I make love to you.”
“Well, challenge accepted.” She trailed her finger along his shoulder and turned, walking out of the office. Her hips swayed seductively as she left. Damn, that woman still turned his crank. He adjusted himself and turned back to the computer. Jewell was looking at him. “Everything okay, there?”
“You didn’t see or hear a thing.”
Jewell laughed, “Right.” She opened her hand and circled it in front of her face. “These are not the droids you’re looking for, either.”
“Damn it, Button …”
“Okay, okay. This is me, pretending I didn’t see or hear anything. Ready to go live with the rest of the group, or do you need a minute to fix your clothing again?”
“Damn it, Jewell—” The screen went live, and he was looking at his brother Jason, fucking Con, Jewell, Anubis, Charley, and Smoke. Quite the fucking convention.
“Okay, on to Havoc’s file,” Jason said and glanced up. “Joseph, things going okay at the Rose?”
“Fine. We’ve taken care of that issue I briefed you on earlier this week. Everything is green.”
“Perfect. Anubis, give us the brief.”
“Havoc was assigned to Marek Zajak when he was coded by the Council. Since then, he has been assigned an adjunct task, a reporter named Elise Serra, who picked up our asset’s last investigative report and started following the clues. Jewell, you can pick it up from here.”
“Right, long story short, she’s stubborn and won’t take roadblocks as a stopping point. She was getting dangerously close to discovering that Zajac is behind the synthetic drug epidemic and a whole lot of other not-so-nice stuff. I zapped her computer, and Blake has kept her offline since then. Tomorrow, her computer, equipped with all the research I could find, will be delivered to her. She deserves to get this byline, especially after the video.”
