Page 26

Frustration fills her pretty blue eyes. “And you need me too. I can give you information. Good information.” There’s hesitation in her voice. Which isn’t like her.

Huh.

She has intel I need. And she’s ruthless enough to throw a colleague under the bus for her career.

But something is off.

She glances out the window just as the police car pulls up downstairs. "Damn it. I was looking forward to this."

She pulls me into one more sweet, slow kiss, then she releases me and races out the window.

She makes her way to the sidewalk, one death-defying jump from balcony to balcony at a time.

After the cops search the place, and deem it a dead end, I linger in the room.

I study the clothes and toiletries she left. I lay in the bed and inhale the scent of her citrus soap.

The smell of her skin.

God, I can almost taste her.

She slept in this bed.

Fucked herself under the sheets.

Let her lingerie to tempt me to fuck myself.

It’s working. But I can work with that.

For hours, I dig through what she’s left. A suitcase worth of clothes. To sell this room as hers. Or fuck with me further. The same sort she used to wear. Sexy sundresses, breezy shorts, cotton bikinis and thongs with lace trim.

Then I find it. The matchbook pressed in the bible.

An Italian bar controlled by a rival crime syndicate and some of the more corrupt Polizia.

But I have a far more terrifying enemy to face first.

My boss, with a stern message on my phone.

What the fuck did I say about tailing your ex-girlfriend Agent Locke? I hope you’re happy with yourself, because you just signed your own death warrant.

Call me in the next ten minutes or you’re fired.

Chapter

Seven

MATTEO

I stick to the facts most likely to convince him. Her mission. Her target. What we can do to make her an asset. That's the only way this works, professionally speaking.

Jamie is loyal to Olympus, but she’s human. If her choice is life in prison or testifying against her employer, she’ll do what it takes to protect her freedom.

"Huh," my boss says, in a tone that's all epiphany. "She still trusts you, even after you turned her in."

That’s one way to put it. And it matches what he knows. I’ve never told him we were together, but he must have put the pieces together by now. “We have a relationship.”

He pauses, considering it. “I want to use you as an asset.”