Leah folded her arms over her chest, planting herself in the doorway.Out in the hall, Katie hand signaled at Jamie they were leaving before grabbing Sean and hauling him away.Jamie shoved aside his worry about Sean witnessing him and Kyle kissing—a little voice in the back of his head wondered if he could blame it on their cover of needing to be together—before he gestured at Leah to come farther into the office.
“Kyle?”Jamie asked tightly.
“Yeah, I’m gone,” Kyle said, slipping out of the room without looking at him.
Jamie bit back a growl of frustration as Leah moved out of the way so Kyle could close the door behind him.Leah looked at the holographic map of London Jamie still had up and the glowing command windows lining the desk with far too much curiosity.Jamie closed everything with a quick verbal order the computer instantly obeyed.
“What are you doing here?”he asked again, turning to face his sister.
“I was in Paris, remember?I said I was leaving New York for a bit.”
“If you were in Paris, what made you come here?”
“I got an invitation to a gala from a friend.”
Jamie went still, mind latching onto that revelation.“Close friend?”
Leah shrugged.“More a friend of a friend.It looked like fun.”
Jamie knew his sister wasn’t one to turn down a party, so long as it was worth her time, but the timing was suspect.Anger, sudden and biting, coursed through him at the thought of someone playing with his sister’s life.“Was it by chance the Winter Gala being held at the Victoria and Albert Museum?”
“Yes.Did you get an invite as well?”
“You could say that.It’s our mission.”
Leah blinked owlishly at him.“Come again?”
“I’m not discussing it with you because you don’t have the clearance to know what’s going on.Suffice it to say you aren’t going to that gala, Leah.I’d put you on a jet going home if I thought it’d do me any good.”
“You can’t tell me what to do,” Leah retorted.“If I want to go to the gala, then I’m going!”
“Like hell you are,” Jamie ground out.“This isn’t a game, Leah.That gala is a front for criminal activity, and I’m not risking your life.”
“Are you just saying that so I won’t go, or is that the truth?”
“Do you think I would be in London, risking our family’s good name, if there wasn’t a damn good reason for me to?”
Leah pursed her lips before reluctantly shaking her head.“You’re showing up on the gossip sites, and I know how much you hate that, which is part of the reason why I decided to come to London.This isn’t like you.”
“It’s what I have to be for the mission.”
“Is that the excuse you’re going to stick with for kissing a member of your team?He’s one of the two we haven’t met yet, right?Which one is he?Kyle or Alexei?”
“We’re not discussing this, Leah.”
“Oh, we’re discussing it, Jamie.You talk and talk all the time about following the rules for your job, that you can’t be seen with Father for his campaign because there are laws against politicizing your uniform.All that talk, Jamie?Just bullshit from where I’m standing if you’re screwing a member of your team.”
Jamie flinched at her words but couldn’t immediately deny them, not when denying them would mean denying Kyle.“It’s complicated.”
“Then uncomplicate it.”
Jamie raked a hand through his hair, biting the inside of his cheek.This was not the conversation he wanted to have, but apparently, they were having it.“We’re undercover as a couple for this mission because I needed a partner.”
“Really,” Leah drawled.
He held up a hand to forestall her next verbal strike.“That’s the truth.But we met last year before he even came onto the team.We just never stopped seeing each other.”
Leah shook her head, the loose curls of her long blonde hair brushing against the tight line of her shoulders.“You have some nerve, Jamie.”
