Cole moved into the living room, trying not to cringe (again) at the neutral, soulless décor, and dropped to one knee at the outlet behind the TV console with his surveillance case in hand.
First up was a camera disguised as a smoke detector.He popped the fake fixture open, checked the board, then closed it and stood on the arm of the couch to mount it, angling it to capture the whole living room and front door.He jumped down before the stupid piece of crap couch could shatter under his weight.
Setting up the rest of the hidden cameras throughout the house only took a few minutes.By the time he was done, he was starting to feel better about his chances of getting this mission done before he did something stupid where Hadley was concerned.
You can do this, he told himself.Focus on the job.Laser focus.There’s only themission.
He glanced up the staircase just in time to see Hadley step out of the master bedroom, holding a handful of girly, silky things he imagined would bealmostas soft as her skin.The sun pouring in from the skylight shined on her like a golden spotlight, lending her the visage of an angel.
He didnotcare for the effect it had on his heart rate.
“If you do decide to share the bed with me, which side do you prefer?”she asked.
Such an innocent question.The direction of his thoughts when she asked it?Anything but.
Fuuuuccckkk.
So much for his laser focus.
Chapter15
She’d asked Cole how long he thought it’d take for the first of the neighbors who’d been blatantly staring into their house since they arrived to come over and introduce themselves.He said one day.He was wrong.
It only took them three hours.
Hadley had just finished reorganizing the kitchen cabinets (what idiot had put the glasses so far away from the sink?) when the doorbell chimed.
She glanced over at Cole, who’d been studiously ignoring her since that impulsive kiss on the porch.He met her wide-eyed look with an exasperated one of his own, setting down the black box that looked like an internet router but wasn’t.(He’d explained what it was to her twice already, but it’d been so technical that she gave up trying to understand and dubbed it a spy thingamabobber.)
“Show time,” he muttered.“You ready for this?”
Hadley smoothed her hair and brushed some schmutz off her yoga pants.Weirdly enough, she was totally ready.This was the only part of the mission she wasn’t nervous about.She wasgreatat socializing.“Ready,” she told him.
Cole, on the other hand, looked like he was in the middle of a colonoscopy prep and just realized he’d run out of toilet paper.
That’s when he plucked a pair of wire-rimmed glasses off the kitchen counter and slid them on like Superman donning his innocent farm boy persona.This shouldn’t have taken her by surprise.After all, Franklin had suggested the glasses, which were outfitted with the tiniest camera Hadley had ever seen.
But—and she couldn’t stress this enough—nothingcould’ve prepared her for how unbearably sexy Cole Clayton looked in a pair of slutty little glasses.
He looked like he’d just stepped out of a dark-academia forbidden romance.And while that wasn’t normally her reading vibe, it was working for her.
Like,reallyworking.
“Remember, we don’t know who the target is yet.Everyone is a target until they’re not.”
She gave herself a sharp mental slap across the face to shift her focus from his unnatural hotness back to the mission at hand.“Got it.Schrödinger’s targets.”
His brow furrowed.“What?”
“Never mind.”She gestured to the foyer.“Let’s go be normal, hubby.”
He muttered something that sounded like a curse as they headed to the door.When the doorbell rang again, Hadley pasted on her best friendly-neighbor smile and pulled the door open.
The couple on the porch looked like they’d been grown in a lab where HOA board members engineered their perfect citizens.Like,The Stepford WivesmeetsGattaca.
The woman was petite and blonde with a glossy bob, flawless makeup, and a pristine white athletic dress.She could be boxed up as is and sold in stores as Tennis Pro Barbie.
The man behind her was also blond and tall with the classically handsome features of every jock villain in every teen movie ever made.Polo shirt, chino shorts, leather boat shoes…yep.If Hadley was playing stereotypical suburbs bingo, this dude would’ve just filled out her whole card and made her a winner.
