“No, but give me time. I’ll come up with something.”
“Fine. We’ll do it your way.” He tapped the back of her chair. “What do you want to do about the threat?”
“Constant vigilance?”
Now it was Zane’s turn to laugh. “I was thinking something more like letting your team know. Tonight. And then taking reasonable precautions.”
Tessa had her phone, and he could see her typing out a message to the other agents on the team. “And what would you consider to be reasonable?”
“Nothing too crazy.”
Tessa cut her eyes to him and continued texting. “Not buying it.”
“Fine. I don’t think you should be alone.”
She ignored him, hit Send on the text, and stood. “There’s not much more I can do tonight. You ready to head out?” Tessa rolled her neck to the left, then to the right, then dropped her chin to her chest while she waited for him to gather his things. “I need a massage. Remind me to schedule one for next week.”
Zane set his things back on the desk.
“Come here.”
“What?”
He didn’t wait for her to come to him. He took the two steps needed to reach her, spun her around so her back was to him, and settled his hands on her shoulders. “Relax.”
She pulled in a deep breath, blew it out, and her shoulders dropped a good two inches. He kneaded the base of her neck. “Good grief. You weren’t joking. How are you even able to move your arms? You’re all knotted up.”
“Hazards of the job.” She angled her neck to give him better access to a tight spot. “And I carry all my stress in my neck and shoulders. Always have.”
“I can tell.” He moved his hands from her shoulders. “Come on. Sit. Let me work on you for a few minutes before we leave. You’ll rest better.”
She sat at her desk and flipped her hair so it fell in a wavy cascade over the back of the chair.
Zane swallowed. This was dangerous territory. They were alone, and he was touching her. Had that ever happened? He cleared his throat. “Besides the threat on you—which, by the way, we have not finished discussing—what have you been working on tonight?”
He tackled a pesky tight spot in her left shoulder.
“I reviewed what everyone did today. And lined up a new schedule for tomorrow that includes the visits we didn’t get to and the new threats the PID forwarded this afternoon. The president isreasonably popular here, but there are a few bizarre ones in this bunch.”
“I’ve only been in DC for seven months, and trust me—if you can imagine it, someone has threatened the president with it. One guy in the Midwest said he was going to drown the president in a grain silo.”
Tessa dropped her head to the right. “How did he propose to get him into the silo?”
“Unclear.”
“What else?”
“A group in Florida seemed to think the Everglades would be a great place for a long walk.”
He found another knot and she winced. “I’m not a fan of swamps.”
“Spent a lot of time in swamps, have you?”
“Fair point. To clarify, there’s nothing about swamps that I find appealing.”
“What? You don’t want to wander around in one hundred percent humidity while mutant mosquitos suck your blood and alligators stalk your every move?”
“It’s not the alligators. Or the mosquitos. Although neither of those sound great.”
