by Joss Wood
“None of the above,” Knox replied. “All I know is that she has been hinting to visit me, wanting to get to know Coe and I better. On a more fundamental level, she said.”
Reagan grinned. “That’s woman talk for wanting to jump your bones.” Then a thought occurred to her and she frowned. “But you’ve known her for a while. Didn’t you do another movie together?”
“I had a brief cameo role in the last movie she and Sula did together. She and Sula were old friends but we didn’t socialize together.” Knox rolled his glass between the palms of his hands. “She and Marina and Mickey Kane—”
“The director of Interconnected, the movie you were working on?”
“Yeah, they all knew each other, they’ve done lots of projects together. Funny that we are together again but without Sula this time.”
“You still miss her, don’t you?”
Knox’s hand tightened on his glass, and for a minute she thought that she’d overstepped the line, but when he shrugged and sent her a sad look she knew that he trusted her enough to talk to her about his dead wife. “I miss the woman I married. I don’t really miss the woman she turned into. God, I sound like a bastard but, crap, she was hard work at the end.”
“In what way?”
“The depression nailed her, I mean, she turned paranoid. She acted like someone was out to get her, constantly looking over her shoulder. Then she seemed to be better and for a few months Sula was back and we were happy. That’s why I still don’t understand her suicide. She was fine, better than fine!”
“I’m so sorry, Knox. It must drive you nuts not knowing.”
“It really does. I want to move on but there’s the craziness of Hollywood and I don’t trust my own judgment. What if I pick someone else who goes a little south on me again? I don’t know if I could go through that again.”
“Well, maybe you should try and date someone normal, someone who isn’t impressed with you being an A-list star,” Reagan suggested.
“And where am I going to find her?”
“You found me.” Reagan smiled. “I’m not impressed by your rock-star status at all.”
“But neither are you attracted to me. Which, I have to tell you, sucks.”
Reagan felt like she’d dropped down Alice’s weird hole. There was no way that Knox Callow could be attracted to her.
No.
Freaking.
Way.
Oh, dear. Um . . .
There was only one thing to say and it was her favorite get-out-of-shit card. “It’s firmly against the rules for PPOs to have a personal relationship with their principals. It’s like the most important of our ten commandments, and my boss would kill me.”
“And one of your bosses would kill me. And for a totally different reason.” Knox smiled into his glass.
Reagan frowned, confused. “What do you mean?”
“The tallest one would kill me just for having this conversation with you. You’re very much his property.”
“I’m nobody’s property,” Reagan protested. “God, that sounds archaic.”
“Archaic or not, he wants you like he wants to take his next breath. And, honey, be honest, you don’t have eyes for anyone else but him,” Knox said, his tone self-deprecating. “My ego is shattered . . .”
Reagan looked at him, her mouth falling open. Come on, he had to be pulling her leg. “You’re not really attracted to me, are you?”
Knox shrugged. “You’re gorgeous, have a body to die for, and you rescued my kid from an inferno. Of course I’m attracted to you!”
“Well . . . shit.” Reagan looked up at the ceiling.
“That was what I thought when I realized that you and the scary dude—what’s his name?”
“Axl?”
“You and Axl could start a wildfire with one look.” Knox laughed and patted her knee. “Relax, Reagan, it’s all good. This too shall pass. In the meantime, there’s always Marina.”
Reagan draped one thigh over the other and leaned forward, happy to move his attention off her. “So, are you going to let her visit?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Well, if you do, just remember that we’d need CJ to brief her about your situation. There are members of the press floating around and her arrival will bring back the vultures.”
“I didn’t think about that,” Knox said, his expression resigned. “Maybe I’ll just ask her for a rain check.”
“Depends how badly you want to get laid or not,” Reagan said and slapped her hand over her mouth when she realized that she’d spoken her thoughts out loud. “Sorry, sorry! That was wildly inappropriate!”
Knox laughed. “Relax, Reagan. Friends can say that to one another. And yes, I would like to get laid and I’m weighing up whether sleeping with her would be worth the drama.”
Reagan, relieved that he hadn’t taken offense, clasped her hands over her knees. “Is she a long-term prospect?”
Knox shook his head. “Not in a million years. She’s fine in short doses, but as a girlfriend? I’d find a bathtub and chew my wrists off.”
“Does she know that you’re just using her for sex?” Reagan asked.
Knox lifted his phone, pushed buttons, and showed her a naked image that Marina sent him. She was really grateful that his thumb covered the space between her spread legs. The caption read: Want some of this?
“Okay.” Reagan lifted her eyebrows. “That’s fairly clear.”
“Well, since you’re not available . . .” Knox said in a teasing voice and laughed when she scowled. “I’m joking! Peace.”
“Just remember that I know a thousand ways to hurt you, Callow.”
Knox propped his feet up on the coffee table as she stood up. “A hot chick who can kick my ass. Now that’s just playing dirty.”
“Good night, Mr. Callow,” Reagan said primly, trying not to laugh.
“Good night, Reagan.” Shadows and sadness returned to his eyes. “Let me know what your man finds on that thumb drive.”
***
Reagan waved at the Cas guard on gate duty and sighed when she noticed that the press contingent had vacated the area for the night. Who could blame them for not wanting to sit in a car or van on the side of a desolate road hoping that Knox Callow might leave the premises?
They were vultures but they weren’t complete idiots.
Reagan turned right to take the road into Mercy, picked up her cell phone from the passenger seat. Hitting speed dial, she hoped she managed to connect with Axl before she lost signal. For some reason there was a dead spot between the estate and Mercy itself, and she wanted to give Axl some warning that she was about to crash his evening.
She was going to deliver the flash drive and speak to him about the case. She was not going to touch him, kiss him, get naked with him.
At least she didn’t think so.
“Reags?”
In fantasy land with a very naked Axl, she jumped when she heard his deep voice in her ear. “Hey, hi.”
“Hi back. What’s up?” Axl said, his voice neutral.
“Yeah, I need to see you. I’m on my way into town, can we meet?”
Axl didn’t immediately answer her and Reagan thought that she’d lost signal. “Damn, Reags, I’m about to head to Clarksville.”
“You’re going to see your parents? Now?” Reagan looked at the clock. It was after eight and it was, at least, an hour’s drive to Clarksville. And it was wet and the roads were slick. “Pretty late, don’t you think?”
“I have a situation brewing in Brazil. I might have to leave in the morning and I need to speak to them.”
“Want some company?”
“What?”
Reagan was as surprised at her words as Axl seemed to be. She hadn’t meant to make the suggestion but she needed to talk to Axl about the thumb drive
and she’d have an hour there and back to discuss that topic. And she didn’t want him on the icy, slick roads by himself. It would be late by the time he headed home and she could keep him company, be another set of eyes on the winding and lonely road.
“You haven’t got something better to do?” Axl asked.
“Seems not.”
“I’d like the company but, the thing is, my parents . . .”
“I’ll wait for you in the car. Or at a diner in Clarksville. I won’t intrude,” Reagan hastened to assure him.
Axl waited a beat before speaking. “I’ll wait for you in the Cas parking lot.”
“Fifteen minutes.”
“Make that twenty and don’t you dare speed! It’s wet and slick.”
“Yes, Dad.”
“Trust me, Hudson, I’m only being protective of your hide because I’d like to see it naked sometime soon.”
Right. Well. Okay, then. Hand me a fan.
***
Axl watched as Reagan turned into the parking lot, and glanced at his watch. Sixteen and a half minutes. He frowned at her as she pulled into the parking spot next to his; she’d definitely had a heavy foot on the accelerator. Axl opened his door, ran around the cars, and hustled her into the passenger seat of his rented luxury SUV. Reagan tossed him a grateful look when her pretty butt hit the heated leather seats. Axl slammed the door shut and softly cursed as a wet raindrop found the space between his sheepskin jacket and ribbed undershirt and rolled down his back. He scowled up at the heavens before climbing back into the driver’s seat, and it was his turn to sigh at the toasty seats and the soft, warm, and, thanks to Reagan, now-perfumed air within his vehicle.
Axl rested his wrist on the steering wheel and looked at his passenger. Reagan pulled a black scarf from her neck and pushed the beanie off her head, allowing soft curls to tumble down her back. Reagan lifted a hand to her head and looked self-conscious. “In this weather my hair does its own thing.”
Axl reached out and wound a curl around his finger. “I love your curls.”
Reagan didn’t look convinced. “I don’t, they are the bane of my life.” Her eyes tracked across his face and she cocked her head. “You look stressed. Tough day?”
Strange that she was one of the few people who could look past his inscrutable façade to the emotions bubbling beneath. “No tougher than usual.”
“Liar. You look like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. Want to talk about it?”
Axl turned away from her, pulled on his seat belt, and started the engine. It was his default response to change the subject, to steer the conversation on to more neutral subjects. He opened his mouth to do that but as they pulled out of the Cas parking lot, he glanced left and saw her concerned expression. It was so strange to have someone worried about him. The shoe was normally very firmly on the other foot. “I just got word, a few hours ago, that the teenage daughter of a Brazilian businessman has been kidnapped. She’s just thirteen.”
“No! She’s just a baby.”
“Yeah. My Brazilian team are working like demons to find her; if they don’t have a ransom demand or a solid lead on who has her and where she is by morning, then I’m going to fly out to Brazil to help them.”
Reagan half turned in her seat so that she was partially facing him, her bent knee on the seat. It felt natural to rest the forearm of his right arm on her leg. “So, talk me through it.”
“Through what?” Axl asked as they left the city limits, the headlights of his car piercing the impenetrable darkness of the wood-lined road.
“Someone is kidnapped. Then what? What do you do?”
“Right now someone from my team is trying to determine exactly what happened, where she was kidnapped from, and who might have taken her. Someone else is liaising with local law enforcement, and I have another member of the team talking to the family. The team leader is co-coordinating their efforts and is recommending and implementing a negotiation strategy, thinking about the ransom payment and delivery, and is formulating a backup strategy to recover her if the ransom drop goes wrong.”
“So you don’t rescue everybody?”
Axl shook his head. “Usually the safest and easiest resolution is to pay the money and get the person back. That happens nine times out of ten. We only go in on exigent circumstances. Rescue is a dangerous strategy and it’s always a last-resort option.”
Reagan rested her head on the back of the seat and looked contemplative. He expected her to jump in with another demand to join the team, but instead she just tucked her hands into the pockets of her coat and looked out of the window.
“Flick hauled me over the coals this morning and told me that it was unfair of me to demand to be on your team, that I can’t demand your trust. That trust like that is earned over years and many missions, that it’s born out of training, fire and blood and sweat. Possibly tears.”
Axl raised his eyebrows. Well, Flick wasn’t wrong. When they were in a hot situation the three of them slid into a space that required no words. Each of them knew what to do and how to do it. He implicitly trusted Kai and Sawyer to make the safe decision, the right decision to ensure that they all returned without holes in their hides.
“I haven’t had that experience and there’s no way, short of doing a couple of stints as a SEAL, unless you take me along, that I can get that experience.”
Again, there was nothing to say to that. It was the truth after all.
“Are you retracting your request to join MKR?” Axl heard Reagan’s long sigh.
“I . . . I’m . . . I don’t know. I want to join your team but only if you, absolutely, want me there. And a part of me still wants to see whether I can hack the selection process.”
Well, hell. He hadn’t expected her to be so honest, to shift her position. Not wanting to argue, he nodded. “Okay, let’s do this: I’ll put you through your paces and I’ll give you an honest and impartial review of your skills and temperament and suitability. After that, we’ll sit down and have another discussion. Sounds fair?”
“Fair.”
“I have to warn you that it’ll be tough. Why put yourself through that, Reags? It won’t be fun.”
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw her shoulders rise and drop. “There’s a part of me that hopes you’ll be surprised at what I can do, maybe I’ll impress you. God knows that I never have before.”
Axl frowned. She’d never impressed him? What the hell was she talking about? She impressed the hell out of him, all the time. She was independent and feisty and tough and she had the mental strength that a lot of men lacked. How could she possibly think that he wasn’t impressed?
Axl stared out at the empty road, driving by instinct, trying to find the words to tell her that she was so far off base that she was on another continent. Why would she think that?
Possibly because all you ever do is nag her? Criticize her choices and underestimate her capabilities? He didn’t second-guess any of the other female agents. Hell, he didn’t underestimate any of the Cas and MKR agents. He fully accepted and expected them to do their jobs, to make the right choices, to trust their training.
He didn’t play favorites and he didn’t judge on gender. He treated everyone the same . . .
Except for Reagan. Reagan he judged by another set of rules. Because he was scared of something happening to her, because he was so protective of her—because of Mike but mostly because he couldn’t live in a world that didn’t have Reagan in it—he second-guessed her and constantly checked up on her.
Reagan was an adult and, as Kai and Sawyer kept telling him, a damn good and highly skilled agent. Maybe it was time he started treating her as one.
Ashamed of himself and of his treatment of her, Axl pulled in a deep breath and sent her a quick look. God, he felt like a fist was squeezing his heart like a tube of toothpaste. “I’ve always been fucking impre
ssed by you, Hudson, and I’ve spent far too much time, over the years, thinking about how damn . . . impressive you are.”
And hot. And sexy.
God, he so wanted her naked. Axl speared his hand into his hair and glanced at dashboard clock. Still another half hour to go. If he kept thinking about Reagan naked, he’d steer the car onto one of the logging roads that peppered this area and do what he’d been thinking about doing for far too many years to count. Best to change the subject, and quickly.
“Earlier, on the phone, you said you needed to talk to me . . . Why?”
Reagan sat up and crossed her legs. “Oh, yeah, right. I need to talk to you about Knox.”
“The only thing I want to hear about Callow is when you are planning to move out of his house.” Hell, Rhodes, could you sound any more jealous if you tried?
“Tomorrow actually.”
Axl took his eyes off the road to look at her. “What?”
“I’m renting Flick’s old room,” Reagan told him. “Happy now?”
Axl felt his lips twitch. “Very,” he admitted. He felt like one of the many rocks had been lifted off his shoulders.
“I didn’t think that you had a jealous bone in your body.”
Axl heard the teasing note in her voice; it was there along with the note that told him that she might, in a galaxy far, far away, like his possessiveness. “When it comes to you I never rule anything out.”
Not entirely comfortable with the direction of this conversation and thinking that his statement cut a little close to the bone, Axl pulled back. “So, shoot.”
Axl listened to her explain about the corrupted video files and told her that he had some software that might be able to read the corrupted files. He didn’t tell her that the software was highly illegal and sourced via the Dark Net.
“But it will take time,” he warned Reagan.
“But you’re not holding your breath.”
“It could be a simple solution, it could be impossible. We won’t know until we try,” Axl said and placed his hand on her knee. Reagan immediately rested her hand on top of his, her fingers sliding between his. This felt nice, Axl thought, it felt real. Reagan wasn’t another girl out to impress him, she wasn’t another broken bird that he needed to heal. She was just a woman he was absurdly attracted to, but she was also more than that. She was also a friend, someone who seemed to get him on a level that went way beyond sex. She understood him, more than she should and far more than he felt comfortable with.
