The door opened again, admitting the women of the inner circle. They were led by Felecia, Evan’s wife, followed by two others. There was Diha that headed up their lab along with her assistant Cat.
Kelsey squeezed past him to join the women in a tight cluster. His apartment was spacious, but cramming all these people in it was too much.
All they were missing was his second-in-command and the head of this little operation. Well, not the actual task force director. That man hadn’t bothered to show up more than a handful of times. Running things was left up to NSA agent Zora Clark. And if Logan had to guess where his second was, it would be with her.
What Logan wouldn’t give to understand that history.
Tucker had never talked about it, but it was obvious he and Zora had worked together before. There were times when Logan couldn’t get through to Zora, but a few words from Tucker changed everything. And then there were the other times when Zora couldn’t be in the same room as Tucker without seeming to blow a fuse. They were volatile, to say the least. Complete wild cards.
Harper smacked Logan’s shoulder. “Missed you this weekend, man.”
He grunted a non-reply.
“You check out the Cyber Monday deals yet?” Harper pulled out his phone. “I bet you could score a bigger TV.”
“Mine is fine.” He checked his watch again.
Where was Zora?
Harper groaned. “Please don’t tell me you worked all weekend.”
Logan just looked at him.
“Shit,” Harper muttered. “How bad is this op going to get?”
Logan shook his head. They’d discuss this once, as a group.
A burst of laughter from the cluster of women drew Logan’s gaze, though he knew he shouldn’t look.
Kelsey had her head thrown back. Her throat flexed, and she reached out, gripping Cat’s shoulder. Kelsey fit with them. She was a puzzle piece the team hadn’t known they were missing. And yet he couldn’t stop butting heads with her.
She was beautiful and fierce and completely irritating.
A single, brisk knock was the only warning given before the door opened and Zora Clark entered, flanked by Tucker Popadopoulos.
“Good morning,” Zora said in that frosty, professionally brisk way of hers and stepped into the apartment. She was a tall, athletically built black woman with short, wispy hair. Today’s pant suit was like a million others she’d worn, dark, tailored, pressed and perfect.
Tucker was the last to enter and took his time. He turned, peered both ways behind him before pulling the door shut and locking it, then giving Logan a single nod of the head.
Logan gestured at the table. “Let’s sit, everyone?”
“How bad is it going to get this time?” Harper sat and pulled one of the donut boxes toward him.
Logan hung back, allowing the others to take seats around the table. It could fit six, which was where his guys headed. Diha, Felecia and Cat perched on stools by the bar while Kelsey remained standing.
“Everyone take a seat. We’ll pass around coffee.” Logan squeezed into the small kitchen.
Zora joined him, because the kitchen was the easiest place to address everyone in the small space. She set her satchel on the counter and turned her head toward him.
“Sorry I’m late,” she said softly.
Logan shrugged and hid his surprise at her apology. Zora wasn’t the kind of person to spare words. Especially not for I’m sorry.
“We are going to step up our hunt for the mole,” Zora announced to the room at large.
Logan nodded. That made sense.
They’d been at this job for half a year. The mole had been there before them, at least that was their best guess seeing as they’d had issues since day one. It was a problem that had to be resolved. Especially now that they had evidence and multiple confirmed instances of a leak or interference.
The mole was why they had real briefings here, in Logan’s home.
The mole was why the suspects had died. Why any time they got too close to someone they were killed. Sometimes in custody. All their efforts thus far hadn’t uncovered the person.
“So what does that actually mean? Stepping up our hunt for the mole?” Harper asked between bites of his donut.
Logan leveled a stare at him. “She’s getting to that. Shut your mouth.”
Harper saluted and stuffed his face with the rest of the donut.
Zora glanced around the room, meeting each person’s gaze. “Several things have been going on over the last week. A lot of things are in motion, so please be advised that as of now, we’re sprinting. I need everyone at their best and focused.”
Logan crossed his arms over his chest and resisted the urge to fidget.
Finally, they were getting to the heart of it all.
In all these months, Zora had never let on to what they were really doing for the task force. They got bits and pieces of the picture doing what they did, but they were still blind. There was still a lot she wasn’t sharing with them, but they were glimpsing the bigger picture. He knew it.
“Two important things have happened. First, we have a name to add to our targets. Miran Samaan, our Halloween-National Mall terrorist, spoke about acting on the orders of someone who calls themselves Skilton. I asked each of our other suspects in custody and while they didn’t have a lot to say, they each reacted to the name. Which means Skilton is someone they all have in common. I want Skilton. If anyone hears or even thinks they have something, bring it to me. Understand?”
Harper perked up. “So you’re saying this is all connected? The arms dealer? The forger? The rogue SEALs? The hacker?” He ticked off each operation they’d run the last few months.
Zora’s gaze sliced toward Harper. “I’m saying they have a person in common.” Her tone so frosty Logan almost shivered.
It was connected.
Logan grit his teeth.
It was frustrating to be kept in the dark like this, but he’d waged this war with Zora long enough to know he wouldn’t be able to pull an ounce of intel out of her if she didn’t want to give it up. The woman had an iron will. There was no budging her.
“Moving on,” Logan said over the mutters arising from the others.
Zora didn’t miss a beat. She launched into the rest of it. “Our backdoor into the hacker Valentino’s server is still active. That undercover operation was a massive success. Logan? I hope you’ll pass along the praise?”
Logan nodded despite feeling daggers coming at him from Kelsey.
She was still sore about the last job they’d done hunting down a hacker’s servers. It had been an undercover thing, which normally was what Kelsey did. She was an FBI undercover agent, after all. But this one had been more sensitive and needed a specific kind of undercover that didn’t fit her. Kelsey hadn’t liked being passed over for the job, and she blamed him for it.
He’d do it all over again, even knowing how it had all ended.
The job had been dangerous and their undercover team had barely escaped with their lives. Technically, one of the two was listed as dead, but Logan had his doubts. It seemed more likely those two were alive and tucked away somewhere together, if he had to guess.
Deep down, Logan’s hesitance about sending Kelsey in had boiled down to one thing.
He didn’t want to risk her.
It was selfish and unreasonable, but it was how he felt. The woman had gotten under his skin from the very beginning, and he was done denying the fact to himself. When it came to Kelsey, Logan was going to be unreasonable.
“We have learned from Valentino’s extensive network feeding the server that a coordinated attack against an American Senator is eminent. This is the second thing we’ve been working on and what our focus will be for the foreseeable future. We don’t know how to drag Skilton out into the open, so while we work on that, we need to also protect this senator. We don’t know why or when, but we know who.” Zora tapped the screen of her tablet and held it up to show the room. �
�It just so happens that this plan has been in the works for a while. Here is a list of names given to Obran for processing.”
The forger.
Their second operation.
Logan glanced right toward Felecia. Obran was her father. The man had kept her locked up for most of her life, helping him forge identities and documents. Logan had wanted to warn her ahead of time about this connection, but Zora had wanted to keep everything quiet until now.
Logan watched Felecia take a big bite of a donut. She didn’t show any hint of emotion at the mention of her father.
He glanced at Evan, who was looking at his wife with some concern. Evan’s gaze slid right and locked with Logan’s. He shrugged and Evan nodded.
Felecia had grown up in a locked box. She didn’t always react to things as expected. Today Logan was glad for it.
Zora kept going, paying no heed to the potential bomb she’d lobbed at them. “The target, Senator John Dixon, is filling vacancies in his staff tomorrow and Wednesday. Aegis Group team? You are all applying to be part of Senator Dixon’s security detail. Kelsey? I want you applying, too. But focus on the office positions. I’d rather our team get the jobs on your own merit rather than me placing you on the senator’s staff. We don’t know why these people are targeting him, and until we figure that out, we’re being cautious. Overly cautious. We don’t know what the senator is into or why he’s of interest to them. Understood?”
There were muttered words and nods of heads.
She stared around the room, her gaze hard as steel. “Now, tomorrow’s intel briefing is our first chance to smoke out our mole. I’m going to share another version of this plan with everyone else, but leave your involvement out of it. I need each of you watching. Our mole will make a mistake and with this many eyes watching, we will catch them. There won’t be a lot of people in the office today, so I’d like to use this time to prepare you all for this operation. First, let’s go over the meeting. You need to know both reality and the story we’re selling to the team.”
Zora detailed a list of conflicting facts she would share later versus what the truth their small team was armed with. It was a lot to keep up with, especially for a handful of guys who weren’t well-versed in covert work. Still, they were paying attention, asking questions, and even sounded like they knew what they were doing.
Logan was damn proud of his team. They’d been tossed into this world with no preparation, kept in the dark and expected to produce a miracle every time they were in the field. So far, they hadn’t failed a job. There’d been some tough calls in there, but they’d survived.
He glanced at Kelsey.
So far.
They’d survived so far.
2.
Tuesday. Task Force Headquarters. Washington, DC.
Kelsey Young ducked into the large briefing room fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. She wasn’t typically the early bird type. Early birds stuck out and as an undercover FBI agent, she was trained to blend in. But today she couldn’t help it. She was too excited.
She was going undercover again. Finally.
Her last gig had a rather climatic ending, which was how she’d wound up part of the task force. At first her being absorbed into the task force had been about controlling who knew what, but she’d pulled her weight, helped out the team, shown herself as trustworthy and made herself useful. Now she was part of the inner circle based on her own merit and the fact that she could be trusted. It was nice working as part of a team, even if it felt foreign and weird.
There were only three other people in the room so far, and she didn’t know them.
Kelsey decided to sit on the back wall, out of the way and where she could comfortably watch the room. It should be interesting to see how this plan of Zora’s played out.
She knew the guys were hoping to wrap up the mole issue quickly. The reality was, this was yet another move in a long-term game of chess. Chances were, they wouldn’t find the mole soon, but she wasn’t going to tell the others that.
“Young.”
That deep, rumbling voice stopped her brain completely.
When the hell had he gotten here?
She stared straight ahead for another moment, trying to ignore how even the sound of his voice affected her. She didn’t allow herself to shiver, and she hated the way her insides began to knot knowing he was near.
Damn man.
She screwed on her smile. Too many people were talking after their little incident in the break room last week for her to risk another altercation. She’d let her frustration get the best of her. Giving into that wasn’t a good idea. Especially with him.
Kelsey lifted her chin and turned her head.
She thought she was ready for him.
That was her mistake every time.
And just like all the other instances, the first look at him was always a punch to the gut.
Logan Muller was a different kind of man. She didn’t know how to describe it. He was just otherworldly in a way. Superhuman.
He stood a few feet away, facing her. His jet black hair was almost chin length now. There was one tiny tendril pointing at his lips. She wanted to tuck it back behind his ear, but wouldn’t dare. He was big. Taller and broader than the other men of his team, he made her feel like David facing off against Goliath. Only, she didn’t think David wanted to do things with Goliath the way she wanted to with Logan. Not that she’d ever actually indulge that way. Logan wasn’t the kind of man one indulged with. She swallowed and shoved her hands in her pockets.
Logan closed the distance between them until he stood at her knee.
“Can we talk? Mind if I sit?” he asked.
Her nipples tightened at the sound of his voice.
She much preferred jeans and T-shirt Logan to this. For some reason this rough cut man in a navy suit playing at the office professional did it for her. In a big fucking way.
Exasperated with herself, she rolled her eyes. “Fine. Sure. Yes.”
There were plenty of attractive men in the world.
Why was it this one made her brain stop working?
She stared straight ahead so he wouldn’t see her face.
This was the other reason she’d wanted off the team.
Her attraction to Logan was a problem. Normally she didn’t have an issue with taking care of her own needs. She wasn’t shy when it came to men. Normal men, at least.
Logan wasn’t typical.
He was an alpha guy. The type that liked to call the shots. He had to be listened to. Hell, he probably liked to be obeyed in bed, too. And that was so not her style.
Kelsey was a team player. She knew how to take orders, but damn it, she had to have a voice, too. But Logan never listened to her. Not unless she made him, and that often resulted in shouting at each other. Right now they borderline worked, which was why she knew indulging in this attraction was a terrible idea.
Logan wouldn’t be the kind of lover she needed. No give and take. Just what he gave. And she deserved better than that.
Logan shifted in the seat next to her. His shoulder bumped hers. She grit her teeth as tendrils of awareness snaked through her.
Damn him.
“Sorry,” he muttered.
“Don’t worry about it.” She waved her hand. Most men didn’t notice the space they took up. Logan was conscious of everything. Double damn him. “You can’t help that these chairs were made for mere mortals.”
He frowned at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It was a compliment. Or a joke. Take your pick and move on.”
He blinked a few times as though he were trying to figure her out.
She crossed her arms over her chest and looked straight ahead.
Stern Logan in a navy suit with a sky blue shirt was too much. She’d gotten used to him in every day clothes. Like this? She’d do something like stare at the buttons and wonder how they didn’t just pop off him or something. She was grateful that she could just stare at the people tricklin
g in and not be rude.
“What’s up?” she asked to fill the silence.
“I want to know if we can work together,” he said.
“Haven’t we been doing that?”
“If everything goes according to plan and we’re all undercover together, I need to know if we can make this work. Me and you.”
She turned her head and glared at him. “No, what you want to know is if I’ll blindly take orders from you like a good little girl once we’re undercover.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“But that’s what you meant.”
His gaze narrowed. “What is your problem?”
“My problem?” She snorted.
“You’ve had a problem with me from day one.” He twisted to face her, causing his knee to press against hers. This time he either didn’t notice or care.
Her gaze snagged on the button at the center of his chest. It strained against the movement, causing his shirt to gape just enough for her to glimpse warm, brown skin. He didn’t wear undershirts. That was new knowledge she didn’t need.
Kelsey sighed, annoyed at herself. “We didn’t have a problem before you made one. Undercover is what I do. I know how to do my job and follow orders. But for some reason you need me to bow and scrape to you. Why?”
“How do you do this every time?” He lowered his voice to a harsh whisper and shoved a hand through his hair.
“Me?” She gaped at him.
Was he really saying she was the problem?
She wasn’t the one running a person down to have a talking to that was completely unnecessary.
He gestured between them. “All I want to know is if we can not do this. This right now.”
“Sure.” She shrugged and resisted the urge to point out that nothing had been going on between them until he decided to create something.
Why were men so complicated?
The doors leading into the room opened and a group of people entered.
Logan glanced at the people, then at her. He didn’t look like he was finished, but he also didn’t open his mouth to argue more about nothing.
She needed to do something to get her mind off Logan. A fling. Something to reset her system.
Intercepted Risk (Aegis Group Task Force Book 5) Page 2
