Her Spy to Hold (Spy Games Book 2)

by Paula Altenburg

  Two weeks would change nothing other than make it harder for her heart to let him go. Wistfulness tugged at it even now as she watched him sleep, a white throw pillow tucked beneath his blond head and one long leg hanging off the cushions so that his bare foot rested flat on the floor. Why couldn’t he have been a linguistics professor? Or the rumpled, affable, unemployed, kite-surfing gym teacher he’d pretended to be?

  She’d be fine either way.

  But a spy…

  While her fears for her physical safety had largely dissipated now that the threat was no longer faceless, the reality was, Irina hadn’t liked the stress and uncertainty of the past few weeks. She hated being caught up in espionage, online or otherwise. Those things were part of Kale’s world, not hers, and he lived for them. He’d made no secret of where his loyalties resided either. He’d want to pass what she’d found with the VPN on to his boss, and sooner rather than later.

  She shook his shoulder. He was awake in an instant, sitting upright and blinking the sleep from his eyes.

  “You aren’t going to believe this,” she said to him. “Christine’s personal email traffic and the information the botnet stole off my computer all ended up in Ottawa. In the Ministry of Defence office no less.”

  Kale’s face registered shock as the significance sank in.

  “Holy shit.”

  * * *

  And wasn’t that a complete understatement?

  Irina showed him what she’d found, explaining it to him as simply as she could with him doing his best to keep up. He might speak five languages, but he’d flunked out of geek.

  “Any chance you’re mistaken?” he asked, although without any real hope.

  She gave him that pokered-up, disbelieving, Dr. Glasov stare and shook her head. “You’re looking at the same results I am.”

  Maybe so. But he didn’t understand them even half so well. Man, she was smart.

  “Since I’m using a VPN supplied by CSIS to hack into a Canadian government site, I didn’t dare go any farther,” she was continuing, unaware she’d left him miles behind. “That can’t be legal.”

  Hell, no. It was not.

  “I’ve got to make a phone call,” he said.

  Seconds later he had a sleepy, very cross Dan on the line.

  “What couldn’t wait two hours until morning?” his team leader growled. “If the doctor is pregnant that’s your sorry-ass problem and I don’t want to hear about it. Not now and not ever.”

  Kale hoped Irina hadn’t heard any of that. He half turned away from her, switching the phone to his other ear. “You’re still a dick, Dan. And if I’d waited two hours to tell you what Irina found out you’d have me shot.”

  Dan listened without interrupting as Kale filled him in.

  “I take it all back,” he said once Kale was done. “I’d rather hear how you two are naming your first born after me.” There was another long stretch of silence that Kale waited out. “Here’s what we’re going to do. Dr. Glasov is going to file a harassment complaint against the admin assistant for the porn tape. We’ll get the assistant fired and out of a position where she has access to government information.” He cut off Kale’s protest. “Dr. Glasov is going to have to suck up any embarrassment she’ll suffer. Let’s not tip anyone in Ottawa off that the admin assistant’s RBN activity has been traced. There are bigger, more important fish to go after, here.”

  “Understood.” Kale hoped Irina would too, because she’d done CSIS a favor and this was her thanks.

  “And Martin?”

  “Yes?”

  “You probably think I’m being a complete shit right now, but you should know that one of the names on the email list you gave me is a nuclear physicist who turned up dead in London yesterday morning. It’s being reported by the press as a heart attack, but our intelligence claims it was an assassination. Happened right outside his hotel room door. Someone was waiting for him. He was working on the drone project too.”

  Irina was watching Kale so he worked hard to keep his reaction off his face, but he couldn’t stop his hands from shaking.

  “Do you think there’ll be any more incidents like this?” he asked carefully.

  “Meaning is Dr. Glasov’s life in danger? We don’t think so, no. While she’s designing the weapons systems placement on the drone project, this guy was building the actual weapon. The CIA’s had an interest in him for a while too, so it’s unlikely he was an innocent bystander. The director believes the physicist’s name was cross-referenced against Dr. Glasov’s email list simply to confirm he was the hit they needed to make. It might or might not have something to do with that drone—either way, we don’t want anyone, including the CIA, tipped off that Canada is now investigating. Whoever Dr. Glasov’s company is building this drone for it won’t be the actual end customer and we want to know who that end customer is. This is why we have to keep that admin assistant from figuring out she’s been caught distributing a lot more than pornography. You have until Friday to finish up things with Dr. Glasov and get that admin assistant out of her office,” Dan added. “And be sure to pass on our thanks to her for cracking the RBN for us. But don’t tell her the truth about the nuclear physicist’s death.”

  “What happened to the two weeks you gave me?”

  “I’m taking them back. I really need you in London right now. I wish you’d been there six days ago. Why should the CIA have all the fun?”

  Kale disconnected the call. The truth about Irina’s colleague’s death wasn’t information he’d ever share. He didn’t want her to find out that someone she knew had been assassinated, and probably thanks in part to information stolen from her. She’d take ownership of it.

  He also wished he had more than five days to confirm she wasn’t in any danger. It was easy enough for Dan to shrug off. He’d never met her. He wasn’t involved.

  “Dan says to say thanks.”

  “Tell him I’m overwhelmed by his gratitude.” Irina’s hands balled into fists at her sides, morphing into a familiar, irate little pixie with three pencil stubs sticking out of her untidy knot of hair, too cute for words. If she had any questions about that two week comment he’d made she wasn’t letting on. Instead, as usual, she focused on what was important. “What happens after Christine is arrested?”

  Kale cursed Dan some more for leaving him to be the bearer of bad news, then bucked up his courage. Irina was the most reasonable and logical woman he knew. She always seemed able to work through her emotions and grasp the big picture.

  “About that,” he began, ill at ease and fighting hard to hide it. Lying to her didn’t come as easily anymore. “She’s not going to be arrested.” He explained the problems it would create if she were. Irina kept nodding, seeming to be in complete agreement with Dan’s line of thinking. Encouraged by her understanding thus far Kale dropped the bomb. “We do, however, need to get her away from any further access to government information. You need to file a harassment complaint against her so we can get her fired.”

  It took Irina all of three seconds to figure out the problem with that. “And admit to the entire senior management team that it’s me in that video?” Her voice trembled with anger, the outrage behind it making him wince. She had a right to feel she’d been betrayed. “No. They’ll want to review it to confirm they have just cause to dismiss her. They’ll know I circumvented their security measures to try and hide the video too. This will ruin my career—or at the very least my credibility.”

  “Whether you go to senior management or CSIS does, they’re going to find out about the video sooner or later. And yes, they’ll want to watch it.” Kale didn’t dare delve any further into their possible reasons behind that curiosity either. She was angry enough without feeling completely exploited. “The only difference is that if CSIS has to officially report what you found about the Ministry of Defence connection it will compromise an already ongoing investigation into national security.”

  “I’m caring less and less about national secu
rity by the second. When does my security come into play?” she demanded.

  And then she was blinking back tears.

  He rubbed the back of his neck. This whole day had derailed on him. He’d wanted to take her out. Let her get to know him as more than the government agent currently invading her space. Instead she’d been dragged into doing work that walked a tad south of the finer lines of the law. She’d been lied to, then thrown under the bus. To top it all off he wasn’t good with crying women. He hated the feeling of helplessness it always gave him.

  But it was almost five in the morning and she’d had her second big shock in less than twenty-four hours. A reaction like this was long overdue, so he did the only thing he could think of, which was to wrap her in his arms and hope like hell it made her feel safe and secure.

  His hope was short-lived. She turned into a tight ball of tension.

  “I wonder if this is being caught on video too,” she said, her tone dripping sarcasm.

  The living room curtains were open. He hadn’t wanted to keep them drawn all the time, possibly tipping anyone off that the camera had been discovered. Now it no longer mattered.

  Her reaction, however, provided him with another insight into her complex character. The thought of being caught in a moment of weakness wasn’t any more acceptable to her than being videotaped in a sex act.

  Or maybe she was simply too exhausted to get her priorities straight.

  He switched off the lamp, plunging the room into that thin gloom of morning before the sun rose and the street lights winked out. “I can remove the camera right now if you’d like,” he offered.

  “It doesn’t matter. I’m going to bed.”

  She twisted out of his arms, putting her words into action, but he wasn’t about to let her leave in this uncharacteristically dark mood. She sounded not just tired but defeated and he couldn’t allow that. Not when he was responsible for it. He caught her elbow. “Couples rules, remember? Never go to bed angry.”

  “I shouldn’t have to keep pointing this out. We aren’t a couple. Couples rules don’t apply. Besides, I’m not angry with you.”

  She was a terrible liar. Right now she was so pissed she couldn’t even look at him. She was also wrong if she thought they weren’t a couple. It might not be a permanent arrangement, but he’d never had this kind of relationship—whatever this was—with any woman before. He wasn’t going to suddenly stop caring about her. Therefore, in his books, this counted and those rules applied. “I don’t like to see you upset.”

  “Then you should have thought of that before you asked me to do CSIS’s dirty work for them.”

  His blood pressure took a sharp upward spike. He couldn’t allow that jagged-edged barb to go unchallenged. He believed in the work he did. It wasn’t always pretty, it was rarely straightforward, and often there was no happy ending. He knew it and had to live with it. She didn’t get to ignore the fallout from the type of work she did either.

  “You’re a smart woman, Irina. You didn’t do it because I asked you to. You did it because it needed to be done.”

  Her chin tilted upward, eyes wide, indecipherable pools in the semi-dark room. “Is that what you think?”

  Well, yes. But the sudden stillness to her expression made him a whole lot less certain of it.

  She shook her elbow free of his grip. “And I thought you were a smart man. It looks like we were both wrong tonight.”

  She’d done it for him.

  Blindsided, his blood pressure leveled off and his gut took a plunge. Until this very second he’d had no reason to consider that he might mean much to her beyond her personal safety and a warm body for sex. Even though he knew she liked him—hell, he liked her too—it didn’t take a genius to figure out they were both more wrapped up in their careers than they were in each other.

  But if she’d hacked into the RBN because he’d asked it of her, it cast their friendly relationship in a whole different light, and if she wanted to take things to the next level, then he was on board. He was heading to London in a few days. She’d be in Paris in a few weeks. They both traveled a lot. A long distance, casual relationship—friends with benefits, so to speak—might well suit them both.

  An exclusive one though. She didn’t get to talk dirty science with anyone else.

  He followed her into the hall and stuck out a hand before she could close her bedroom door. “You don’t get to walk away in the middle of a disagreement,” he said. “I have a few things I’d like to say too.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m listening.”

  He leaned against the door frame, refusing to enter her private sanctum without the invitation he wanted. “That’s part of the problem, babe. You listen, but you don’t always hear. I blame your fancy degrees.”

  She put a few extra feet of distance between them. “You bring up my education a lot. You have advanced degrees of your own, don’t forget.”

  “And I use them to pay attention to what’s going on. For example.” He looked around the room, examining each piece of furniture before once again settling his gaze on her. “Do you know how long I’ve been hinting around for you to invite me in here?”

  “The sofa, the hall, and the spare room weren’t enough? What difference could using my bed possibly make?” She looked bewildered, but he wasn’t buying it. She had to have known. She’d been too careful about keeping him out.

  “Oh, it makes a big difference,” he assured her. She was rubbing her arms now, a sure sign he’d struck a nerve, so he applied a little more pressure. “You need to pay attention to people, Irina. What am I saying to you?”

  Her eyes slid away from his. “I never have any idea what you’re talking about.”

  No way was he letting her get away with that tired excuse. “Yes you do.”

  “Fine.” She brought her gaze back to his face, biting the inside of her lip. “This is my private space and I don’t want you in it.”

  He continued to push. “Why not?”

  Her lower lip trembled. “Because I want one room in my house where I won’t be reminded of you. Are you happy now?”

  He was the furthest thing from it. She’d heard him ask Dan about those two weeks and realized he wasn’t going to be here as long as he’d planned on. “So once I’m gone you never plan to think about me again?”

  “Do you plan to think about me?” she fired back.

  “Every damn day. But we both knew going into this that our careers demand a lot of our time.” He took a deep breath before plunging ahead. He’d never offered a woman this level of commitment before. “That doesn’t mean we can’t keep in touch. We have one thing in common and you’ve got admit, it’s pretty spectacular. We can always pick up where we leave off whenever we’re in the same city.”

  She didn’t leap into his arms, wrap her legs around him, and scream yes. Her bottom lip, however, stopped trembling. Dr. Glasov reappeared.

  “I’ll sleep on it,” she said with that calm, professional politeness that always intimidated the hell out of him and at the same time turned him on. “In the meantime you can use your own fancy degrees and intelligence training to figure out what I’m saying to you, since you always pay such close attention.”

  She shut the door in his face. He heard the gentle but firm click of the lock.

  Well, that sound was easy enough for him to understand.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “What I do in the privacy of my home is my business.”

  Irina had requested this meeting with the director of Human Resources for eleven o’clock. It was now almost noon, meaning she’d been answering questions for the better part of an hour, and mentally she was exhausted. Her stomach quivered like jelly and she knew her face had to be as red as the cranberry carpet. There was no avoiding the humiliation of this.

  Fortunately the director of Human Resources was professional. A trim, fifty-something woman wearing black-framed glasses and a pale pink business suit, she radiated a kind but no-nonse
nse demeanor. If she had an opinion on the whole matter she wasn’t letting it show.

  “I know that, Dr. Glasov. But this is a serious complaint. No one is questioning why you chose to track down the origins of that video yourself. Under the circumstances it’s perfectly understandable.” A smile briefly flickered. “While they’ll never admit it you probably saved the IT department a lot of time and a massive headache.” The smile slid away. “You do realize, of course, that we’ll require that video as proof, as well as the information on how you were able to track it to her?” Irina nodded. She’d already filtered the details so the path to Christine was more direct, omitting the RBN and Ottawa connections. The director continued her gentle probing. “I can’t imagine what reason someone you say you barely know would have for harassing you in such a manner. Can you think of any?”

  “None.”

  Kale had done some digging and passed on a little of what he’d found out. Christine’s former college roommate was a Liberian woman who’d been studying in Canada and now lived in the Netherlands, working as an engineer for a company specializing in port construction. The Liberian’s connections were murkier and would involve CSIS discussions with Interpol to sort out, because they crossed several international boundaries. Kale said his boss believed the Liberian—through Christine—was after information about the drone’s end user too. Why, they didn’t know. Neither did they know why Christine’s cyber trail led to the Canadian Ministry of Defence office. It wasn’t information they’d share with Irina even if they did discover the connection.

  She stood, beyond ready for this meeting to be over. “Thank you for your time, but I’ll have to leave the matter in your hands. I have a lunch appointment in the city and I’m going to be late.”

  She’d called her friend Beverley right after contacting Human Resources and asked if she were free any time that day. Since Bev had to be at a working group session in the downtown area of the city all week they were having lunch at a trendy pub popular with the local business crowd.