“I wanted to come down in person to find out how Agents Trent and Dawson are working out for you.” His choice of words ricocheted around in Shiloh’s brain.
Nicholas had worked out all right. All night. And oh, what a workout that was.
“They’ve been very professional. Both are well-trained agents, sir.”
“Good, glad to hear that. I knew both the boys’ fathers. They were exemplary agents. Oh, before I forget, I also wanted to ask about the maid service I sent to help put your apartment back into order. Did they do a good job?”
Shiloh nodded. “Yes, thank you.”
“Good. Well, I know you’re busy. I’ll be going, but if you need anything, just let me know.”
“I appreciate your consideration.”
He waved his hand in the air. “Nonsense. I’m here to help.”
Shiloh walked him to the door, wondering why a man as busy as he was wouldn’t have called instead of coming all the way down to talk to her in person.
As she stood by the door, watching Danfield leave, she caught a glance pass between Hank and Sandra. Not an ordinary or casual look. No, it was tender. Hum. Something was going on between them. Now she had to worry about Hank’s job too—and Sandra’s.
Sandra was a very efficient secretary and Shiloh didn’t want to lose her. “Sandra, could you come here?” Shiloh waited until she stood next to her secretary, by the door, then continued. “You need to be careful not to let anyone else see what’s going on between you and Hank. It’s more than obvious and you both could lose your jobs.”
Sandra’s eyes grew huge. “I… ah.”
“I won’t say a word. Just try to be more discreet.” Talk about calling the kettle black. Shiloh returned to her office and closed the door. She leaned hard against it, battling her emotions.
Thoughts of Nicholas came flooding back. Tears stung the back of her eyes as she recalled his recent cold indifference. It was her fault, of course, but the man ran hot and cold, and she didn’t know which one she found easier to deal with. Both turned her on, and she had to find a way to fight that or she’d be miserable all the time.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Nick stomped into the elevator, in no way looking forward to this uncomfortable evening with Shiloh. He still couldn’t get over how she’d so casually cast him aside.
His hands clenched. The woman definitely had ice water in her veins.
The elevator stopped. When he exited the platform, he bumped into a tall, dark-headed, older man in a gray suit. He thought he knew him, but couldn’t place where or how.
“Agent Trent, I wanted to talk to you.”
“Talk? About what?” he asked, again wondering why the man’s face seemed so familiar? Nick thought he’d let the man talk and hoped he’d give away his identity.
“Director Templar seems happy with your performance, and I just wanted to thank you for giving her your personal best.”
Nick’s jaw slacked. Was he talking about his performance in bed? Had Shiloh told this guy they’d shared a night together? Or could this be a ploy to get him to confess?
“Sorry, who are you?” Nick brushed his perspiring palms on the sides of his slacks. Guilt took another bite out of his gut, and he hoped his nervousness wasn’t too apparent.
“I’m sorry, I just assumed you knew.” He extended his hand. “Drake Danfield.”
Nick’s anxiety escalated and sweat trickled between his shoulder blades as he gripped the elder man’s hand. This was the big shot upstairs. He’d never met Danfield before today, but he’d heard about him his first day on the job. The man was old money and had clout with every government agency from here to Siberia. The guy behind DNS, the man Shiloh had to report to––and had to please.
Danfield shook his hand vigorously. “You’re doing a fine job, son. You will keep her safe, won’t you?”
Nick sensed his comment wasn’t a question, but a demand to keep Shiloh alive… at any cost.
Nick glanced into the man’s eyes and noticed they were a warm, smiling green. “Of course, Mr. Danfield. You can count on me, sir.”
“Good. Glad to hear it. I have to run. Have a pleasant evening.”
“Thank you, sir.”
When his superior entered the elevator, Nick headed to Shiloh’s office for yet another confrontation.
Maybe he could talk Hank into a shift change. It was going to be murder for him to spend the night in her apartment and not touch her. The whole day had been spent thinking about what had happened between them, and how he’d felt when she’d told him they couldn’t continue their affair. He still wasn’t sure about what his heart was experiencing. He’d never had the sensation before.
Was it love? If he had more knowledge about the emotion, he’d know. He’d cared for Kiley after only weeks in her company, but it hadn’t hurt like this when she’d chosen Vale. Of course Nick hadn’t slept with her. In comparison, this thing with Shiloh felt like a tidal wave to his gut.
For his heart’s sake, he hoped he’d get over it soon. Because as hard as it was for him to admit, he knew Shiloh didn’t love him.
Damn it. What was happening to him? He was turning into a fool… the type of man that always annoyed him.
With that thought in mind, he opened his cell phone and pressed a sequence of numbers, then waited.
“Hello,” a female voice chimed.
“Mia, it’s Nick. You got plans for this weekend?”
“Nick, honey, you know I always have time for you. What did you have in mind?”
“How about a matinee? I have surveillance at night, but I’m free in the afternoon.”
“I’d love to.”
“Great. I’ll pick you up around twelve.”
Nick hung up and smiled. There. One way to get over a woman was to jump back into the dating pool with another. To hell with Shiloh Templar.
Shiloh adjusted the glasses on her nose, and read the report on her break in that just arrived from the WPD. She was frustrated they hadn’t found a match to the fingerprint yet. So far they’d run a check through their criminal case computer system. They still had to run a general print check.
She pushed the report aside, stood, and walked to the window. Below, cars and people rushed by to get to wherever they were going. She leaned against the window frame and allowed her mind to drift back to Nicholas for the umpteenth time that day. The man had literally taken her places she’d never been before, to heights of passion beyond compare. Her body still trembled inside at the thought of his caresses, his kisses, his large…
Stop it!
A knock on the door brought her out of the reverie. “Come in.”
As she turned toward the door, she heard a loud pop. Behind her the window burst into an arsenal of glass shards flying all around her.
“Hit the deck!” Nick shouted.
She dropped to the floor, her heart beating so fast it hurt.
Nicholas belly crawled to her and covered her body with his own, seconds before another shot rang out—the bullet whizzing by, just inches above their heads, slamming into a bookshelf, splintering the wood.
Time ticked by as they waited for another shot to come.
“Stay down.” Nicholas lifted himself off her, pushing her back down with one hand while holding his gun ready. He eased his way to the window, plastering himself against the wall to scan for the shooter on the roof of a nearby building. Nick lowered his weapon and turned back to Shiloh.
“Are you hurt?” He pointed to her arm.
A strange tingling sensation radiated from her arm. She looked down and watched blood seep through a tear in her beige blouse. Shiloh hadn’t even noticed until Nick asked. She must be in shock.
Nicholas carefully ripped apart her sleeve and found a piece of jagged glass sticking out of her forearm.
“Hold your arm up.” He raced to the adjoining bathroom and came back with a white hand towel.
“Hold still while I pull the glass out.” She flinched as he gently pried
the sliver free and placed the towel over the wound. Then he applied pressure.
Before he could stand, three agents burst through the door. Gary Freeman ran to Nick and Shiloh; the other two agents rushed to the window.
“What the hell happened?” Gary stood with his weapon drawn.
“Someone took two shots at the director through the window. They had to come from somewhere above. Have a team check the Sizemore Building.”
Freeman stood gaping at them.
“Now,” Nicholas demanded with a measured tone of authority. Shiloh loved how he took control. Another sign he was a good agent.
Freeman scowled, but turned and followed the other agents from the room.
“You’ll need stitches this time, Shiloh. I’m taking you to Washington General.”
Nick rose and held out his hand to her. Shiloh hesitated for a moment, then took his hand and allowed him to escort her out the door.
With his laptop on the table in front of him, Nick ran his hands through his hair roughly. He tapped his foot, waiting for the information he’d been looking for to appear on his screen.
Shiloh was sleeping off the painkiller she’d been given after the doctor patched up her arm. It had taken eight stitches to close the wound. Nick’s blood pressure still raged. When he caught this sniper, he was going to pound him into the ground.
He could have lost her.
When the first shot was fired, the thought of her dying just about knocked him over. He loved her—though he wasn’t at all happy about that either. Especially when he knew Shiloh didn’t share his feelings. How was he going to deal with this situation?
A flash on his screen brought him back to the monitor.
Karen Templar.
Born: May 18, 1947 in Washington DC
Died: January 14, 1982 in New Hampshire.
So, Shiloh’s mother had died at the same age Shiloh was now. A coincidence? Or were these attempts on Shiloh’s life somehow linked to her mother?
He needed to find the cause of death.
Nick panned down the page, and froze.
Suicide. Karen Templar killed herself with an overdose of barbiturates? But was it really a suicide?
Searching through another file, Nick found her marriage license to Ben Templar. September 1, 1967, and Shiloh was born in February of ‘68.
Wait a minute. How could that be? Unless? Ben and Karen Templar had to get married.
Nick thought back to what Ben had said to Shiloh in the hospital. ‘Your mother had liked them young.’
He shook his head, remembering the look of pain on Shiloh’s face when her father said, ‘She couldn’t live with her betrayal.’ What had he meant? What betrayal? Did she have an affair with a younger man while they were married? Had the guilt eaten away at her so much she couldn’t live with herself?
And did Shiloh know anything about this? He’d have to do a little prying to find out just what Shiloh did know. Then, maybe he could piece together why her father resented his wife, and now seemed angry with his daughter. Nick suspected the disease just loosened the old guy’s inhibitions, not made him delusional.
“What are you looking at?” Shiloh asked from behind him.
Nick quickly exited the site and shut down the computer. “Nothing. How’s your arm?”
“Stiff, but I’ll be fine.”
“Are you hungry?” Nick asked. “I could order a pizza.”
“Sure. I think I’ll go take a shower while we wait.”
Nick’s mind rolled into the gutter. Again. He imagined them together under the spray, making wet, passionate love. He’d always wanted to try that, at least once with her. Hell, with Shiloh, he wanted to try everything—and over and over, for the rest of his life.
She walked into the bedroom, and Nick smiled as he picked up his cell phone and pressed the quick-dial button for his favorite pizza joint. Shiloh might think it was over between them, but to him, this had just begun.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Shiloh ran around the track, Hank lagging a short distance behind her.
“Director, could you slow down a little?” Hank hollered, gasping for air.
Shiloh slowed her pace, just glad to be out in the sunshine, enjoying the beautiful summer day. If Nicholas knew she was an open target right now, he’d have her hide. But she’d talked Hank into running with her. Didn’t hurt that she had something on him. Sandra. She grinned and wiped her forehead with her towel.
“So what is Nicholas up to today?” She hoped her question appeared nonchalant.
Hank took a deep, labored breath and said, “Had a date, I believe.”
Shiloh stumbled, catching herself before she fell. “What?”
“He had a date to go to the movies with a girlfriend of his.”
Hank’s words screamed around in her brain to taunt her.
Nicholas had a girlfriend? When did this happen? Had he slept with her one night and this woman the next? Was he what today’s society would call a ‘player’? If so, he was a jerk. No wonder he hadn’t been all that upset she’d ended it between them. There was someone waiting in the wings.
Shiloh picked up the pace, her heart crushed by Hank’s news. How could Nick have slept with her when he was seeing someone else?
Tears stung her eyes as she thought about the loving words he’d spoken to her that night. Obviously he hadn’t meant one of them. Just convenient truths. But then again, what had she expected from a man of his age––a two-timing asshole with the skill to take a woman to heights of ecstasy never before reached or even thought of?
Isn’t this exactly what you asked for? You told him in no uncertain terms it was over between you two. What did you expect?
Shiloh felt a crying jag coming on and she would be damned if she’d give Hank something to tell Nicholas.
Stopping abruptly, she threw the sweat towel over her head, shading her face from his gaze.
“I’m going to the showers.”
Hank frowned at her. “But I thought we were going to do weight training first?”
“I’ve changed my mind.”
He smiled. “Okay, I’ll be waiting for you outside the women’s locker room.”
Shiloh raced to the door of the showers, trying hard to hold back her sobs. Heck, why was she so upset? They’d made no commitment to each other and she was the one who insisted that he move on. If she was hurting now, she only had herself to blame. It was just much easier to blame Nick. She entered the locker room and went to sit on a bench, her throat tightening with emotion. When the tears started, she quickly covered her face with her hands and allowed herself a good cry. Later, she’d pull herself together and become the Shiloh everyone expected. Cold and unemotional. But right now she was going to bawl like a baby.
Nick held the door of the Remington Court apartment building open for Mia. What a date. How weird it seemed that he used to think she was fun to be around. Now what used to be amusing was boring, even tedious. His mind kept flying back to Shiloh. Even the action flick they’d gone to hadn’t distracted him. She was constantly on his mind and no five-star movie or attractive other woman was going to change that. Shiloh was what he wanted.
Mia’s amber eyes narrowed and her mouth tightened into a thin line. “Nicky, what the hell is wrong with you?”
“I’m sorry, Mia. This was a mistake. I shouldn’t have called you.” He tried his best to sound sincere.
“Why? What’s going on?”
Nick lowered his gaze, sure his eyes would give his disillusioned feelings away. “I don’t think we should see each other anymore.”
“Oh, really.” She reached out to touch him, but he backed away. “You’ve changed. You used to be a lot of fun to hang with, but now you’re just a big downer,” she snapped. He saw some hurt in her eyes as she lashed out with words.
Nick shook his head. Now he knew why he’d been so attracted to Shiloh. She had this quiet intelligence and maturity that made him want to be around her.
He looked
to the heavens for help, wondering what he’d ever seen in the blonde standing in front of him.
“Hate to be this so-called downer, but I thought it was time to grow up. I like having responsibilities. Having people count on me. Sorry you don’t find that appealing.”
“I’m sorry you’re not the guy I thought you were. You used to be a blast until you got all tied up with your I Spy crap.”
Nick shrugged. “Frankly, I’m glad I’m not the man you thought I was. I gotta go. Have a good life.”
Nick left the building angry with himself for even calling Mia. She was a brainless twit with a life-of-the-party mentality. Nothing at all like Shiloh.
He respected the director’s toughness. Especially since she was a beautiful woman in a man’s world––not a smooth path even on a good day.
Smiling, Nick jumped into his Mustang and started the engine, determined to do everything he could to thaw the heart of his Ice Princess.
An hour later, Nick pulled into the empty DNS parking garage, wondering how Hank and Shiloh had spent their day. Even on a Saturday, she’d insisted on coming into the office. Hank had taken over his shift with her there. Nick was sure his partner was bored to tears by now since Sandra was out for the day.
After passing security, Nick walked to the elevator, amazed at how quiet it was in the building. Almost like a tomb. He’d never been in on a weekend before and the place gave him the creeps.
He took the elevator up to the eighth floor and got off, heading toward Shiloh’s office.
Anticipation tugged at his heart. He’d thought about her only a thousand times in the eight hours they’d been apart. He missed her confrontational mouth… her warm, inviting mouth. The thought of her honey-sweet lips made his body come to life. As he stood in front of her outer office, he took some deep, cleansing breaths, trying to get a handle on his desire.
Slowly, he opened the door… and found Hank asleep in a chair in front of Shiloh’s office.
Nick grinned. It’d be too easy just to wake him. He leaned over and clapped his hands together so loud that Hank leaped out of the chair, going straight for his gun before he recognized Nick.
Agent in Training Page 11
