Manny had done an excellent job of masking his intentions. He’d “helped” Maggie’s boss and seemed like a perfectly reasonable man while Ben looked like a raging lunatic.
One slender shoulder shrugged. “Well, we believe you now, and we’ll take care of it.”
She was so fucking gorgeous standing there in the middle of Old Town. They were meeting in front of his hotel, and she seemed to light up the night around them. And he felt the white hot blaze of anger. “You think you can cut me out?”
She sighed. “I think I can’t trust you. I think I’ve spent months mooning over a man who would use one of my closest friends to prove a point.”
“I didn’t mean to.” She was being unfair. “And you’re not exactly an angel, or have you forgotten Mongolia?”
She flushed, the first sign that she felt anything about what happened that day. “I didn’t mean for you to get hurt.”
It was his turn to roll his eyes. “Then why did you kick me out of a plane at twenty thousand feet?”
“I didn’t kick you out.” Her arms folded under her breasts, making them even more glorious than normal. She regained her confidence and looked him in the eyes. “I simply took the last parachute. I fully expected you to follow me. Which you did.”
It had been the single most frightening experience of his fucking life, and that was saying something. He’d followed her out because the only other option had been hanging around so the bad guys could torture him before murdering him. He’d leapt out of that plane and turned his body into a bullet headed straight for her.
When he’d caught her, he’d wrapped his body around hers, looking desperately for the connection he sometimes felt when she was around. He’d clung to her and she’d…seemed to tolerate him.
It was her thing. She was hot and cold, and that was how she manipulated him.
He was taking the bait. Again.
He took a long breath as the car rolled up. Tim was in the driver’s seat. His long-time tech gave him a grin. “Hey, boss. Looks like we got the invite. Ms. Magenta, good to see you.”
She frowned Tim’s way. “You, too, dude I do not know.”
Tim hopped out. He was dressed in a suit and tie, looking to all the world like a professional driver. He opened the door for her, and she moved with elegance and grace.
Ben opened his own damn door and sat beside her. “Are you going to screw me out of this intel, too?”
She stared out the window as Tim took off, making his way on the narrow streets. “I’ll make sure you get a copy. Lou is hanging out waiting to do exactly that. Hopefully you don’t try to murder her.”
His chest felt too tight. “I didn’t try to kill her then.” He let a moment go. “Why the hell are you here if you hate me? Somehow I think there are other women operatives who could do this job.”
“And yet you got me,” she shot back, still not looking his way.
“I’d like an answer, Maggie. I’d like to know how thoroughly you intend to fuck me over.”
She finally turned, and her blue-eyed gaze burned through him. “I intended to fuck you in numerous ways, Benjamin Parker. I was going to ride that hot bod until I couldn’t see straight and we began a truly epic love story. Like one for the ages. Like my mom and dad, but you turned out to be one more ruthless asshole who’s willing to sacrifice whoever you need to in order to complete your mission.”
What the hell? Epic love story? Her mom and dad? She’d never talked about them, and they’d talked. Sometimes. When she was in the right mood, he could talk to her about anything. “I wasn’t going to let Lou get hurt.”
“I bet you said that about whatever that dude’s name is, too.”
Whatever that dude’s name is? It struck him for the one thousandth time that Terry was dead and it was his fault. He was the one who sent him in. Terry had infiltrated the group that kidnapped TJ Taggart thinking young Mr. Taggart was the international arms dealer known as The Jester. The German-based group had been working with Huisman to find the bombmaker. Ben had known it was his only shot at gettingHuisman’s name to come out of the bad guy’s mouth in front of the American team, so he’d set Lou Ward up to be the one to get the message. Lou and the rest of the American team had been safe, but Terry had taken a fatal bullet in the middle of the battle.
He would live with that guilt for the rest of his life.
He sat back, his soul threatening to sag. How was he this tired at the age of thirty? How was this his life? He should be working at some Toronto office, married with three kids and a mortgage he couldn’t afford.
For years he’d seen Deanna when he thought of that life. Not because he wanted her. Not at all. She’d cheated on him with his best friend, but the guilt was still there.
The trouble now was whenever he thought of that life he could have had, it was the woman beside him who was the wife of his dreams. Which proved he was fucked in the head because his dream wife shouldn’t steal the last parachute and nearly kill him.
“I shouldn’t have said that.” Her voice was softer now. “There’s a part of me that understands why you did what you did. We were on the fence about Huisman. Now I think I’m getting a real idea of how dangerous the man is. Look, Ben, I’ve made calls, too. Not quite like that but I’ve put other operatives in what felt like a necessary line of fire, and it’s not easy. It’s certainly not easy when that person is someone you care about.”
She belonged to an odd team. Ben worked with different teams, but he was always the guy on the ground, with Tim backing him up. Maggie worked with one team, including military backing in the form of Cooper McKay, Tristan Dean-Miles, Zach Reed, and now TJ Taggart. From what he could tell only Maggie herself, Tasha, and Lou were actually Agency. And that big guy who handled the team. Mr. Lemon was kind of an asshole, but he brought out all of Ben’s instincts to please his freaking dad. Who couldn’t care less about him since he’d gotten dragged into the middle of his war with Manny.
