Covert Cover Cracked

by Missy Marciassa

  “Yes.” She looked him in the eye. “I’d do it all again.”

  “Well, now I know, at least.” His eyes darted away for a second before focusing on her again. “We haven’t talked much since we graduated, but I hope we can stay in touch, be friends.”

  They had been great friends even before they started dating. Now that they’d had some time apart and heal after the difficult way their romance ended, the idea of rekindling their friendship sounded great to her.

  She gave him a genuine smile. “I’d like that.”

  ***

  Preston was waiting for her in the hallway of the medical center. “How is he?” he asked as she approached.

  She nodded. “He’ll be okay.”

  Preston nodded. “Good to hear.”

  He looked like he wanted to say something else, so she simply stood there. “You- you’re going to go far in this business,” he finally said. He looked sincere.

  She pretended to stagger back in shock, which made him laugh.

  “I knew you were talented with the data,” he said, “but I have to admit, when I heard you’d become field rated, I thought you were out of your league.” His smile was grudging.

  Although she tried to be nonchalant when she nodded, she couldn’t keep herself from grinning, but she knew she needed to admit something.

  “I learned a lot, working with you on this op. I appreciate it. Really.” She hoped he could hear the sincerity in her voice.

  He seemed to hear it as he gave her a genuine smile of his own. “I hope it all works out for you. The sacrifices this job requires aren’t small.”

  That was for damn sure.

  “Bu maybe you can figure out a way to have it all.” He gave her a wink. “The teams are due back in tonight.”

  She felt a flare of hope. “Tonight?” What would Reese have to say? He might still be done with her.

  “Well, we’ll see what happens.” She shrugged. “Maybe I’ll get a call. Maybe I won’t.”

  Preston gave a knowing nod. “You’ll get a call.”

  For the second time, she hoped he was right.

  Chapter 32

  Of course, this was one of the times Preston was wrong. Elle was jittery all night as she forced herself to cook dinner (alone), then eat dinner (still alone), clean up the kitchen, and watch the TV, although she didn’t comprehend what was actually on the screen.

  Was Reese pissed that she lied to him about her job? He should understand, but it didn’t change the fact that she’d been lying. At least now what she was doing with Preston should make sense.

  Yet… would he feel like he didn’t really know her, since she’d been keeping such a big secret?

  Finally she forced herself to get ready for bed, cursing herself for not thinking to ask Preston what time the SEAL platoons were due in. Worrying about this was pointless. She’d try calling him tomorrow.

  Elle was just dozing off, telling herself it was possible Reese hadn’t gotten into town yet, when the pounding on her door had her eyes popping open. She jumped out of bed as if she hadn’t even been dozing before hurrying through the apartment.

  “Who is it?” she called out as she peered through the peephole. There was enough light for her to make out Reese.

  “Elle, it’s me: let me in.” Demanding as always, which was sexy as hell.

  She had the door open within the blink of an eye, and he strode in, shutting the door behind himself, never taking his eyes off her as he spoke.

  “I knew you were some kind of high tech Librarian-”

  “Information Scientist.” The words escaped without thought. Like that mattered right now.

  “Information Scientist,” he amended, “but… Jesus, Elle.” He stared at her, his chest heaving as if he’d been running. “You’re a spy.” Incredulity saturated his voice.

  She couldn’t stop a shiver and rubbed her arms, willing herself to stand still, trying to interpret his response. Was he pissed? Amazed? He hadn’t kissed her or even touched her.

  “I know- I know I lied to you, but I had no choice.” Her heart beat so fast, she struggled to breathe. “Confidentiality- it’s part of my agreement with the CIA- the terms of my association with them…”

  Her voice trailed off as he stepped closer, close enough for her to feel his body heat. She wanted to touch him, hug him, but wasn’t sure how he’d feel about that. The intensity emanating from him practically crackled in the air.

  “I figured that out.” His eyes held hers.

  She tried to swallow, but her throat wasn’t cooperating.

  “Did something go on between you and Raddick?”

  She nodded. “Yes, a little over a year ago, but it’s purely professional now.”

  “So when he came over to apologize…?” His gaze didn’t miss a thing.

  “It was because he withheld critical information from me about the case: the fact that it was Adam who was kidnapped.”

  “Clemento: the guy we extracted.” At her nod, he continued. “He seemed to know you, too. I thought we were going to have to carry his ass out of there.”

  She tried to smile but found it difficult: everything felt too intense to do something as lighthearted as smile. “He didn’t know who to trust: that’s one of the reasons why I went into the compound.” She took a deep breath. It was time for complete disclosure. “Adam is my ex-boyfriend from college.”

  Reese nodded. She felt frozen in place; even as he nodded, he continued to hold her gaze. “And now you two have an opportunity to… reconnect.”

  Elle reached out and took his hand, unable to just stand there anymore. “As friends. That’s how we started out and really what we should have stayed.”

  He clasped her hand. She didn’t shrink away; she had nothing to hide anymore.

  In the blink of an eye, he tugged her close, hauling her up against his chest as he pressed his lips to hers, his tongue pushing at the seam of her lips, demanding entry, which she gave without hesitation. His tongue surged into her mouth as his hands squeezed her ass before he lifted her up with his strong arms. She wrapped her legs around his waist, kissing him the entire time, as he carried her to the bedroom.

  He dropped her onto the bed and had his clothes off before she could even think. His hands were sliding up her thighs, under her night shirt, making her quiver as he pulled it off and tossed it to the side. Then he touched her all over, with his fingers, his lips, and his tongue, until she was crying out as she rubbed her body against him. It was as if her body knew him at this point and was glad to feel his touch again.

  They seemed to fit together perfectly, effortlessly finding their rhythm, which sped up, faster, until they were both wracked with spasms as their bodies pressed together.

  Elle didn’t know how long they laid there as their heartbeats gradually slowed to regular speed. She enjoyed the feel of his fingers stroking her hair and then his lips nuzzling the side of her neck after he gave her another kiss. She forced her eyes open. Although they hadn’t even stopped to turn on the light in the bedroom, light from the living room shone into the room, so she could see his face.

  “I’m going to miss you.” She didn’t know where the words came from, but there they were, out in the open, hanging between them. She knew he was going to be deployed soon, and she already missed him. “When do you have to leave?”

  “Four days.” The sadness in his eyes told her he felt the same way. At least she thought they did.

  The silence hung heavy in the room as he continued to stroke her hair. She watched his adam’s apple bob as he swallowed hard. “I know it’s hard, the long separations.”

  She nodded. There were many nights of eating and sleeping alone in her future, but she couldn’t imagine being with anyone else.

  “But dammit, Elle, I don’t share.” The fingers stroking her hair slid down her body until he reached her hip, which he grasped. His grip was firm. “I don’t share, and I admit that. It may be a character flaw, but there it is.”

&n
bsp; She wanted to laugh, but her throat was too tight. She tried to swallow, but the swallow got stuck.

  “The idea of you being with another man…” His grip tightened, although not to the point of being painful. “It makes me want to tear that guy apart with my bare hands.” She could see the intensity in his eyes. “And I’m trained to do things like that, you know.”

  She lifted her head to kiss him. “Is this where you go all cave man on me?” She found she didn’t mind the idea of that. She gave him a grin.

  He remained serious. “I can be that way. Occasionally.” He swallowed hard again. “But you can handle it.”

  She ran her fingertips down his chest, enjoying the warmth of his skin. “I can.” She threw her leg over his his, rubbing her inner thigh against the rough skin of his leg. “And as you now know, my job keeps me pretty busy. I can focus on new… professional experiences. There’s no shortage of opportunities.”

  His grin made her heart leap as he pushed her onto her back with the full weight of his body. “I’ll make it worth the wait.”

  She kissed him again. “I have no doubt about that.”

  Epilogue

  “It’s over.”

  The guy dropped the disc with the surveillance video on Michael Kagan’s desk as he spoke.

  “Compound’s in ashes. We’re shut out of all the networks.” He settled into a chair on the other side of Kagan’s desk. “All our guys over in Turkey were taken into custody, and most of our assets in Washington are missing.”

  Kagan swallowed his Scotch and snapped his fingers for another one as he slid the disc into his laptop. He didn’t even look at the curvaceous woman in a fitted dress that left virtually nothing to the imagination as she put another cold glass in his hand. Instead, he was staring at the screen, watching the sight of the special operators storming into the buildings after blowing the doors open. Damn US commandos.

  Kagan swallowed the second drink, too, barely managing to avoid sucking down an ice cube in the process.

  “The off-site backup?” he asked as he continued to watch the disaster unfold onscreen.

  “It was last backed up about ten hours before this strike.” The guy paused, swallowed. “Since they got the backup on the server, though, it’s worthless. They know what we have.”

  Kagan snapped his fingers again. There wasn’t enough alcohol in the world for this, but it wouldn’t hurt anything. That disc had been worth millions of dollars. At least. Some of those oil families may have even offered upwards of a billion for all the intel he had. It would’ve been the single biggest transaction of his career, and his career was extensive.

  His jaw remained clenched, loosening up only when he swallowed more Scotch. He could feel a muscle clench as he watched them reach the server room on the video.

  Damn them all to hell.

  But when a woman lifted her night vision goggles and lowered her scarf to reveal her face to the tech guy, he had to blink. Repeatedly.

  He stopped the disc, touching the screen to move the video back by a few seconds. He knew that face. He leaned in closer as the video began to play again.

  “Likely CIA,” the guy said as Kagan stared.

  He knew that woman. Eleanor Paquet. Elle. The daughter of one of his business associates who made him look legit. He’d had his suspicions about her, but his investigation of her had turned up nothing. She really did seem to be an Information Scientist who worked for the Library of Congress.

  No damn Library of Congress employee would be joining a special forces unit in Turkey.

  He watched her defend herself against one of his men, attacking with expert moves before a soldier shot him.

  Information Scientist his ass.

  “Have you checked in lately with our asset in Charlottesville?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” The guy smirked. “He’s enjoying law school.”

  “No new information?”

  The guy shook his head. “Says he hardly ever sees the target. She spends most of her time in Norfolk.”

  Kagan sat back in his chair. So he had a person in the wrong place. He hadn’t thought Elle was really worth following, but Daniel was a lightweight, he needed something simple to do, and Charlottesville was where he’d traced her after she left Washington.

  Yet again, he realized his instincts were never wrong. He’d lost millions of dollars in business last year due to a leak he couldn’t find. Now he’d lost even more.

  Elle Paquet was responsible.

  He went back in the video again, freezing it on her face, before turning the laptop so his guy could see the screen. “This is Eleanor Paquet. I know you checked her out before, but obviously you missed something.” He fixed the guy with a piercing stare. “Check her out again. Thoroughly.”

  She’d escaped from him once, but he wouldn’t let it happen again.

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  Other Books by Missy Marciassa

  Covert Assignment (Book 1 in the Covert Series)

  Covert Interview (Book 2 in the Covert Series)

  Upcoming Releases

  Goodness of Fit (Smart is the New Sexy Series): Zoe Tawn is about to finish her bachelor’s degree and start a PhD program in quantitative psychology. Yet her friends don’t think she’s quite ready to graduate: she still hasn’t played her v-card. Zoe’s friends don’t know her v-card was played years ago; she doesn’t talk about that crap. She does agree that dating would make her a more well-rounded individual, however, so she tries, and realizes the dating game isn’t for her: she’s a geek, not a flirt. Zoe decides to utilize her strengths with the mantra “Smart is the new sexy” and develops a predictive model for companionship to replace those outdated compatibility questionnaires. Her model goes viral in no time, so her friends secretly enter her profile into it. When a match comes back, it shocks them all: it's Wesley Williams, the twentysomething CEO billionaire of Quantitative Solutions, where Zoe is doing an internship. Zoe insists the error in her model must be unacceptably high until she gets an email requesting she stop by Mr. Williams' office at her earliest convenience…

  Due out June 2014

  Covert Series Book 4 (August/September 2014)

  Covert Series Book 5 (November 2014)

  About the Author

  Missy Marciassa loved getting lost in novels from the time she could read, so it’s no surprise she wanted to write. After becoming rather disillusioned writing literary criticism as an English major, Missy focused on her enjoyment of learning about people and studied psychology. Reading fiction fell to the wayside with all the reading and writing for college and graduate school, but once Missy became a doctoral candidate, she rediscovered her love of fiction. Then she started getting the urge to write, an urge that wouldn’t go away (she refuses to label it a compulsion). You just read the end result of that urge.

  Acknowledgements

  Writing may be a solitary endeavor, but the finished product of a novel is the result of collaboration. The encouragement and support from family and friends is invaluable. The author wishes to thank Laura Kingsley for her wise insight about what this story really was, her encouragement and “kick in the butt” editing that elevated the final product.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chap
ter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Epilogue