Fuck, he needed to keep his mind in the game and not on the woman who had been driving him crazy. It was bad enough she had been slipping into his dreams at night.
As if that particular woman could hear his thoughts, his phone vibrated. He knew without looking who it was. Damn the woman. She had been under his skin for years, and now he knew exactly when she was calling. She had been very good at predicting trouble the last couple of months.
“You probably need to get Melanie,” he said to Eden. She nodded and left to find the other woman. She was sort of her handler as her mother, Francine, who acted as her manager, wasn’t on the trip. He drew in a deep breath, then clicked on his phone.
“Have you ever had a dog?” Sam asked.
It was always like this. Most of the time, he felt as if he’d walked in on a conversation already in progress. “Did you just call me to ask that?”
“No.”
Then nothing. He sighed.
“Yes. We had dogs when I was growing up.”
“Hmm. I think I would like a dog.”
“Is that why you called me?”
“I just told you no. Did that concussion mess with your memory?”
He closed his eyes and counted back from ten. Yes, he’d had a concussion a few weeks ago thanks to a blow to the head on an assignment for Dillon. It had been slight and he’d been fine for weeks. Sam mentioned it every time they talked. She seemed particularly worried about his well-being.
When he felt calm again, he opened his eyes.
“Why are you calling?”
“You got trouble coming.”
“What?” he asked as Eden came in, a frown marring her face.
“You got problems. That client of yours is a nightmare, and she doesn’t fall that far from the mama tree. You have two assholes coming up in the elevator. Not very smart, but I think they’re lazy.”
“Get Raquel. We have two threats coming up in the elevator.”
Eden nodded and headed to the bedroom.
“Do you want me to stop the elevator?”
“You can do that?”
He knew she had the skills, but she wasn’t always someplace where she could access it.
She snorted and his dick twitched. “In my sleep.”
Why was she so attractive to him? He had yet to meet her face to face. The only time he saw her was from afar, so it had nothing to do with her actual looks. Her confidence about her tech skills and the way she stood up to him left him slightly aroused after every altercation. It wasn’t like him. He liked smart women, but ones that got under his skin? No, thank you. He didn’t trust other spies—even former ones. And he knew how hypocritical it was, but he knew the beast because he was the beast.
“What’s going on?” Raquel said, resisting Eden who was dragging her out of the bedroom.
“Put me on speaker.”
“That isn’t a good idea,” he said.
“Come on. You know I’ve saved your ass multiple times in the last two months. Plus, that terror needs to understand that she’s in danger.”
That was true. Still, he hesitated.
“Ian Charles Smith, put me on speaker or you will regret it.”
