“And I can?” She turned her face away.
He ended up kissing her cheek. “We’ll continue this when I get back.”
She pulled the covers up around her chin. “Don’t bother coming back.”
“Don’t be like that, Tref.”
She didn’t reply. She felt his weight leave the bed as he stood.
“What about the open window?” she asked him. “You’re just going to leave me vulnerable?”
And believe her, she felt extremely vulnerable and ready to shatter completely.
“I never leave you unprotected,” he said, without turning around.
She watched as he walked to the window, picked up a rope and hook, and crawled out the window, swinging to the balcony and flying into the night like Batman.
Then he was gone. Just like always, the job came first. It came before pleasure. It came before her. It came before everything. Hard not to feel jealous and spiteful about it.
As always, he left her having to deal with the shattered pieces. Just like he left her every time. Fortunately, this time she only had to cope with sexual frustration, disappointment in him, disillusionment with love, and an open window, a clear invitation to anyone hanging around with a lei ready to strangle her.
At least this time he hadn’t left her alone, scared, and miscarrying the baby he never knew about into a toilet.
She sat up, slipped her cami over her head, pulled her knees to her chest, rested her head on them, and cried. As she did every time she thought about the empty ache inside her and the little thrill-seeking child that would never be.
CHAPTER TEN
The alarm played “Aloha Oe.” Mmmm … happy sigh. The weight of Ty’s arm felt comforting and warm around Treflee. So nice to have him home. Good thing he was the one who always got up first. But why had he chosen a corny oldies station to get up to? She snuggled in.
“Tref! Tref, babe. Time to get up and meet a volcano.”
“You’re not making any sense.” She lazily opened one eye. Three-thirty. “Go back to sleep.” She pulled the coconut-scented sheet up to her chin. Coconut?
Her eyes flew open! This wasn’t home. And it wasn’t happy days, either. She tossed Ty’s arm off her. How had he sneaked back in without waking her? At least he hadn’t tried to resume where they’d left off. He’d been smart enough to leave her alone when she was angry and hurt.
“What are you doing back?” Thankfully her voice was back to normal.
“Good morning to you, too, sunshine.”
It was pitch-black in the room, but she was sure he was grinning.
“Out!”
“No way,” he said. “I still have another fifteen minutes to sleep.”
“Don’t you have a window to fix?” She rolled to a sit. Fifteen minutes to get ready. Men were just plain ridiculous with how little time it took them to get handsome.
“A guy’ll be here at sunrise to take care of it.” He rolled over.
She grumbled and went to the bathroom to get dressed. When she came out, the lights were on, the bed was made, and Ty was dressed in a pair of skintight black bike shorts and a moisture-wicking white T-shirt. The thing about bike shorts—they show every bulge. Every bulge. And the man had a nice one.
She averted her eyes.
She, on the other hand, was dressed in a loose T-shirt and Carrie’s extra pair of neon-orange bike shorts. Good visibility, Carrie had told her when she’d balked at them. Cars can see you coming for miles. Yeah, no duh. Hers were also two sizes too large. Even made with a healthy dose of spandex, they bulged at the hips and made her look like she was wearing a pair of cutoff jodhpurs.
His gaze roved over her.
“Don’t say anything,” she said. She tugged at the extra material around her hips. “These are Carrie’s.”
“Way to come prepared.”
“Oh, shut up! No one told me we’d be bicycling down a volcano.”
“Look on the bright side—it’s better than being sacrificed to it.” He grinned.
She rolled her eyes.
He turned and grabbed something off the nightstand. As he did, the reflective strips on the sides of his shorts caught the light. Yeah, reflective strips did the trick. Let’s see, reflective strips or orange the color of safety vests? She could just picture her cousin—yeah, orange worked for her.
Ty turned back and held her phone out to her. “Liar! You had a picture or two of me still on it.”
She shrugged. “Simple oversight on my part. I imagine you scrubbed them off?”
“Oh, yeah. But if you can’t live without one, I’d be happy to pose for another in either my surfer dude or bicycling disguises.” He strutted, making a muscle to show off. “Hell, I might even put on my Speedo if you ask me nicely.”
She shook her head at his peacock antics, trying not to let her admiration for his body show, and grabbed the phone from him. “I’ll pass.”
“Your loss.” His turn to shrug. “Your boyfriend called. And texted. Several times. Tell him that’s overkill. It looks desperate. Chicks don’t dig desperation.”
She looked at her phone and suppressed a shudder. One missed call. Three new texts. All from Hal. “How did he get my number?”
“You didn’t give it to him?”
She shook her head. “No! Like I’d give out my number to someone you set me up to spy on.” She tried to sound exactly as exasperated as she felt. “But I bet I know who did.”
“Laci?” he guessed.
“You got it. The bitch. She wants me diverted so she can have you all to herself.”
He chuckled.
“It’s not funny!” She gave him a gentle shove in the shoulder, warning him to knock it off. “But keep it up and I can make it funny. I’ll just bow out gracefully and turn you over to her, carte blanche. You can be her new boy toy. Won’t I have fun watching you try to escape from her clutches?” Not really. But she wasn’t going to tell him that.
Treflee stared at him, trying to pin him with a look. “Who exactly is Hal? Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy?”
Ty rubbed his shoulder.
As if I really hurt him!
“Let’s just call him a person of interest,” he said.
She silently read Hal’s first text. “He wants to see me again. Fat chance.” As she reached for the delete key, Ty grabbed her wrist and stopped her.
He stared into her eyes, looking like he was working up to saying something.
She got a bad feeling. Ty was never at a loss for words. Lies and glib comments rolled off his lips with surprising ease. “What?”
“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I need you to go out with him again.”
“No!” She shook her wrist free of his grip and took a step back away from him, shaking her head. “No way! I don’t go out with bad dudes.”
“He won’t hurt you.”
“Uh-uh.” She shook her head more vehemently. As if that could dissuade Ty when he wants something badly enough. I know better. “I’m not the spy here.”
“Babe.”
Not that word again! Not spoken in that sexy, silken key.
“Don’t call me that!” she said. “And don’t use that tone on me. It won’t work.”
“Okay, my little coconut, do it for love of country.”
Still clutching the phone, she put her hands on her baggy jodhpur-bike-short-clad hips. “What’s at stake?”
“Life as we know it.”
She rolled her eyes. “Seriously.”
“Seriously. The free world. National defense.”
She blew out a breath. “Really?”
“Would I lie?”
“Is that a rhetorical question? You’re a professional liar and you know it.” Still, she was fully awake now. She couldn’t believe he’d even given her something that vague rather than his standard I-can’t-say-anything line. This must be serious.
“Text him back. Tell him you’re busy today and tomorrow morning. That you’re off on an overnight trip t
o Hana with the girls. But you’ll be back tomorrow afternoon and would love to see him.”
She stared at him as if he were crazy.
“Please.”
Sometimes you can’t fight fate. Even though Treflee hated spying with the core of her being, and she was a world-class coward and scared spitless, she caved. “If I do, do you promise you’ll sign the divorce papers as soon as this mission is over?”
He shrugged, seemingly casual and unconcerned, but his eyes were hard. “Yeah, sure. Anything you want.”
She didn’t fully trust him, but she didn’t have many options. “Okay, then. Tell me what you want me to say.”
“Tell him you’re hot for his bod and can hardly wait to see him.”
She gave him her deadpan stare. “Very funny. Now give me something I can work with. Nothing too eager or sexual.”
He shrugged. “You’re no fun.”
She texted Hal exactly what he dictated.
“Thanks,” he said when she finished. “Time to get to the van. We don’t want to miss the sunrise.” He took her arm to lead her out.
She dug in her heels. “Wait a minute. There are a few things I need to know first. How much backup do we have? Is Greg an NCS agent?”
He stared at her, looking as if he was weighing how much to say. Finally, he shrugged. “Yeah.”
“Tita?” she asked.
He shook his head no. “Come on. Let’s get going.”
“Wait! One last thing—what’s our cover today? Are we into each other? Or will you be taking me up on my offer and putting the moves on Laci?” She put a tease in her voice, but her heart hammered as she asked the question—traitorous thing.
“Jealous?” He perked up and his eyes twinkled.
It was probably just her imagination, but he looked hopeful.
“Just trying to get the cover story straight. I don’t have as much practice as some people.” She looked him in the eye, hoping he caught the accusation in her tone. “I need to know how to play things. Consistency makes not getting caught in a lie easier.”
He didn’t flinch. He grinned and whispered in her ear, “Today you’re hot for me. Can barely keep your hands off me.”
“Really.” She arched a brow, trying to conceal how near he was to her true feelings. Last night had been too close. If not for that phone call …
“And you?” she asked.
“Crazy about you. Like I’ve been since the first time I saw you.” His tone was dangerously low and sexy. Convincingly sincere.
He was probably just being glib. But tell that to her heart. And why in the world did she feel almost breathless?
He squeezed her arm and leaned in closer. “And hoping to get lucky. Very lucky.”
Her pulse raced and she felt flushed. Of all the great guys in the world, why did she have to have do-it-on-a-lab-bench chemistry with Ty? The one guy who broke her heart.
She swallowed hard. “Good. If I’m going to be acting, it’s nice to have my motivation.” She took a deep breath, trying to cover how flustered he’d made her. “Let’s go ride a volcano, Joe.”
* * *
Four lousy hours of sleep. Ty’d gotten by with a whole lot less. There was the time in Afghanistan when he’d gone forty-eight straight without sleeping. But since playing beach bum and abandoning nine-to-five for picking up odd jobs here and there these past months, he’d grown lazy and used to sleeping in.
Yeah, he could have dozed in the van like the ladies who surrounded him. But he had a mission to plan.
Much as it galled him, Treflee had attracted just the right man’s attention at just the right time, succeeding where some of NCS’s top femme fatales had failed. Maybe the Agency had overestimated Hal’s ego and shot a little high with some of their attempts to get close to him. Or maybe they’d underestimated Hal’s analytical skills and knowledge of NCS’s MO and ability to spot a setup. Having hung around Langley, he was smart enough to be suspicious of beautiful women who suddenly showed too much interest, no matter how coy they tried to play it.
Treflee was anything but fawning over Hal. Maybe he found that a turn-on. The best thing she could have done was walk out on Hal after lunch. With that one move, she’d solidified both of Ty’s missions. Hal wanted her. Ty could use that.
Ty wanted her, too. Wanted her back. He had renewed hope he could make her see how much he loved her, and make both himself and his boss happy.
Somehow even after suffering what should have been a crushing rejection, Hal had decided that Treflee was in his league. Damn him! The thought galled Ty to no end.
Tref was beautiful, sexy, hot, and when she wasn’t on the warpath with those damned divorce papers, as sweet, sensitive, and understanding as they came. She was The One. His One.
But something had changed the last time he’d come home. It was like something had snapped in her. He’d been off on a mission. When he left, everything was great. A few months later, when he came back he was suddenly pretty much the biggest ass on the face of the planet, in her opinion.
It couldn’t have been anything he’d done. He hadn’t been around to mess up. He asked what was wrong, but she wouldn’t talk about it. Her mother, her friends, no one knew anything or had any ideas what had happened. Suddenly Treflee wanted a baby. Now. He wanted time to think it over, make sure he was ready. That made him a first-class jerk.
A baby was a liability for a spy. Another person to love that the enemy could use against you. Or hurt.
If Ty hadn’t known better, he would have suspected she’d been trying to get pregnant without telling him. But that was crazy. They’d always been honest with each other about their relationship. They didn’t keep secrets like that from each other. She would have told him.
He dismissed the very idea. It was more likely watching her friends and coworkers having babies that had sparked her sudden maternal urges.
She filed for divorce. And he left. If only he could find out what had happened, he could make it right. Fix it. That’s what he did, fix things. Save the world. So why couldn’t he save his own marriage?
In the meantime, he had an opportunity to show her what she was missing and giving up. Sometimes what he thought he really needed was a geomarital analyst to tell him where they’d gone wrong.
Women were too complex. Ty preferred the straightforward nature of his other mission—stopping Hal from delivering the real Pinpoint Project to RIOT.
Part of the intel for the Pinpoint models came from the Air Force Maui Operations Observatory, or AMOS, located at the crest of Haleakala. With practically no light pollution, Haleakala was the perfect spot for an observatory, and it housed the Department of Defense’s largest telescope.
Hal had been assigned to go to AMOS and collect the data, see how operations ran, and assess how to use this data in the new tool. Not only did Pinpoint predict enemy actions, but if it fell into enemy hands, it could be used to predict the location of American submarines, battleships, satellites, even drones, with pinpoint precision.
Unfortunately, Hal did more than his job while in Maui. He was busily selling the Pinpoint Project off a piece at a time to RIOT, using the Fuk Ching as an intermediary.
The State Department wanted the whole ring caught red-handed. Time was running out. Saturday was fast approaching. And now Hal had real data to pass on.
Ty was supposed to expect a drop—a nonvolatile secure digital extended-capacity memory card, SDXC card, with altered data and falsified code—from an air force officer during the crowded sunrise viewing at Haleakala’s summit. Somehow Ty had to switch it for the drive Hal planned to sell.
That’s where Tref came into the plan. Ty was going to use her to get to Hal. But she wasn’t going to like playing Bond girl.
Greg pulled the Auau van into a parking lot at the base of the volcano and turned the engine off. A van and trailer from the bicycle touring company waited to take them to the top of the mountain. From here, Greg would drive around to the campsite near Hana and set up. Ty
would stay with the women, meet his contact, and escort the women on their ride down the switchback roads of Haleakala to Baldwin Beach Park in Paia. At the park, he’d pick up a rental van and drive the women to Hana.
In a secluded pool beneath a waterfall near Hana, he planned to seduce his wife.
* * *
Treflee woke when they made the transfer to the Exciting Maui Bicycle Adventures van. Groggily, she decided she didn’t want an adventure. She wanted a sunrise stroll on the beach. She could have gotten up nearly three hours later and just walked across the lawn to the beach for it.
It was still dark. Settled into her new seat, she wanted to go back to sleep, but the twisting switchbacks and narrow road made her too nervous and carsick. She stared straight ahead instead.
Half an hour later, they wound up Haleakala Crater Road and came to a stop at the second visitors’ center, the one at nearly ten thousand feet. The parking lot was filling quickly.
Keoni, their beefy Exciting Adventure guide, looked more like a football center than a cyclist. He opened the van door and ushered them out. “Aloha. Welcome to Haleakala!”
Carrie scanned the thickening crowd. “It’s getting busy already.”
Keoni looked around and shrugged. “Eh, no more than usual. Don’t worry. There isn’t a bad seat in the house. The horizon’s a large stage.”
Carrie didn’t seem reassured. Without waiting for Treflee to get out, she, Carla, Faye, Brandy, and Laci headed toward the viewing spot.
Treflee was last out of the van. Ty gave her a hand out and hung on too long. “Still remember how to flirt?” he whispered.
“Barely.” She wanted to goad him.
“Give it the old college try.” He leaned in and kissed her neck.
“Stop it.” Ignoring the tingles running down her spine, she pushed him away. “The others will see.”
Moot really. Carrie and company were already elbowing their way to the front of the crowd, vying for a spot on the edge of the crater.
“Come on.” He took her hand. Without pushing or shoving, he led her through the crowd to a spot by the visitors’ center right in front of the railing that kept visitors from the crater and stood behind her.
The Spy Who Left Me: An Agent Ex Novel Page 13
