Maybe the sex hadn’t been as good for him as it was for her.
Maybe she’d misread him entirely and sleeping with her was nothing more than a conquest. A way to get back at her.
But damn it, that wasn’t how it was supposed to go. He was supposed to be a good guy.
So she was deeply grateful for Damon’s hissy fit.
“First off, from what I can tell they’re not wanted. Their organization has been careful to keep them off the authorities’ radar, and I didn’t exactly call in the cops. So no Red Notices on the girls.” Her dad gave him a grin. “And last time it was way more, buddy. Last time I dropped off five of them. You can’t count Owen. He was yours already. Those two young women are way better at hiding their crimes than the Lost Boys. Hey, Pen. How’s it going?”
“Good afternoon, Ian, Charlotte. Lovely to see you. Well, I can tell you that Sosa is definitely native Russian, but I would say she’s not from a city.” Penny Knight had been MI6, too. She’d was an expert in languages and codes. “And Gabby is French. Probably from one of the southern regions. It’s hard to tell because they were taken so early, but some of their native accents remain. I’ll know a bit more when we have extensive interviews tomorrow.”
Damon looked down at his wife as though he’d expected way more support. “There are no interviews. Tag is not dumping them on me. Not this time. Nothing good came from the last time.”
“Whoa. Rude, boss.” Ariel Adisa Seeger walked in dressed for work in a pencil skirt and silk blouse that showed off her graceful curves. “I got a rather nice husband and two kids from that adventure. I won’t mention this to your longest-term employee. You know Robert runs a good portion of your business now.”
“Who is she?” Ben sat beside her. It was the first time he’d sat by her the whole way here. He hadn’t even gotten in the same car when they’d made the transfer from the airfield to The Garden.
It had been a shitty flight where her sister told her to be patient. Well, Tash had. Tash had taken time out of her own honeymoon to give her advice. Kala told her to go get her man and tell him if he didn’t do what she wanted, he could jump out of the plane again. He’d survived it the first time. Somehow, she didn’t think reminding him that her twin had nearly gotten him killed would help the situation.
She’d taken neither way, trying to hold on to that kiss in the conference room. He’d been open then, but he’d shut down again.
Professional. Lou had offered up that explanation. Ben was being professional and it would be all right the minute they closed the doors and they were in private again.
He was not going to fit in if that was his excuse. There was no professional here. She was pretty sure her parents had a quickie in the bedroom on the plane and that TJ hauled Lou somewhere.
It was going to be a while until they had any privacy at all. If he even wanted privacy with her. She’d slept restlessly in her seat on the overnight to London, and now they were sitting in The Garden’s conference room and her parents were right. She couldn’t think straight because she was thinking about him.
She leaned his way, trying to be as professional as he was. “Hername is Dr. Adisa, though technically her last name is Seeger. She’s married to one of Damon’s investigators. Robert Seeger. Funny story. He was taken by a crazy doctor lady and had his memory wiped along with some other dudes and my dad hid them all here. They’re mostly spread out across the globe now, but Robert stayed in London as Damon expanded this part of the company. He’s in charge of all personal security. I don’t think Damon wants a second round, though. I’m not sure how Sosa and Gabby would fit in here.”
The Garden had changed over the years. She’d been coming here since she was a kid. Damon and Penny mostly lived in the country, though they kept a flat on the top floor of this space. Two of their kids had flats here. Oliver and Samantha Knight were active MI6 operatives based out of London, and Lucy Brooke Flanders had a place here when she was in Europe.
She’d had a perfectly nice flat in Liverpool, but Huisman had wrecked that. Naturally.
“She’s a doctor?” Ben asked.
“She’s a psychiatrist. Think of her as The Garden’s Eve McKay. She’s their profiler. I’m sure she’ll spend a lot of time with Sosa and Gabby over the next few days. How was your flight?” The assassin girls were already moved into their own room. They’d been alternately wide eyed and in awe of everything, and then shut down like they were certain it would all go wrong and there was nothing they could do about it.
Like Bud Two had been when she’d picked him up from the shelter. He’d been adorable behind the cage but tentative when she and Kala first got him home. He’d bedded down in a corner, and it had been days of coaxing him before he gradually became the big, beloved goofball he was today.
Stupid empathy.
Ben sat back as the dads started arguing and Penny and Ariel talked about the new girls and how they would figure out if they could be trusted. “It was fine. Did you sleep? I did. The Agency takes care of your team. Tim and I usually get shoved in a military transport or we fly commercial.”
It was nice to know he’d gotten good rest. “Oh, that’s not the Agency. That’s my dad. Technically we have access to two private jets. That was the big one. We share them with my Uncle Adam’s company.”
“He’s the one who developed the facial recognition software, right?”
She nodded. He must have been talking to the guys. She’d notice him deep in conversation with Cooper and TJ before she’d tried to nap. “Yes.”
“I find it so interesting that a rich girl ended up at the Agency,” he murmured.
She didn’t feel like a rich girl. Oh, she recognized her privilege. She’d grown up in a big house, never worried about where her next meal was coming from or if she’d have a place to stay. Her parents owned a couple of vacation houses, but they shared with the family. It was all a big family, and when one struggled the rest helped.
Maybe that was what truly made her a rich girl. But the way Ben said it gave her a bad feeling. She stared straight ahead as her dad and Damon kept arguing and her mom set up the presentation.
It was an actual physical ache in her chest that he wasn’t who she thought he was. Or maybe that he didn’t care about her the way she did him.
“Just bored, I guess.” She took a sip of her tea and wished her older sister was here. Tasha could walk her through this. Tasha would tell her to be patient, that they’d put this man through a lot of confusion and he needed some time.
