by Mara Jacobs
***
A bargain with the Devil, Grace thought as they sat at one of the small tables in the bar, eating hors d’oeuvres. She picked up a carrot stick and munched on it. Her breathing was back to normal now, thank God, and the regular intake of oxygen was helpful in keeping the logical part of her brain functioning. Time to start the get-to-know-you-better portion of the date. Maybe she would discover she really didn’t like him. That would be helpful. “I don’t know where to start with the questions.”
His smile was wry. “I find that hard to believe.”
She picked up a spear of something that was probably chicken and took a bite. “Are you implying I usually have a curious mind?”
“Your mind is definitely curious,” he agreed, humor in his gaze.
Her lower lip curled in a pout. She’d never tried to pout on purpose, but she’d seen both Tess and Annabelle use the move effectively when being teased by men. “This is how you talk to your dates?”
“Let’s get one thing straight, Grace. You’re not my usual date.” He reached out and gently rubbed her lower lip. “Stop that or I’m going to take a bite.”
She sighed. “I don’t usually do this sort of thing.”
“Date? I noticed that. Why? Men ask you out.”
“Hey, I date. Sometimes.” Okay, that sounded defensive. “I work long hours and then a lot of my free time is spent with the squad poker games or movies with you.” Even more defensive and after all, he went to the same poker games and movies and still managed to date. “What I meant was, I don’t usually do the whole flirty pout thing.”
“You don’t usually flirt?” He looked surprised. “Don’t all women flirt?”
“No, all women don’t flirt.” She frowned at him, offended. “That’s a stereotypical statement.”
“No, it’s not,” he said. “Anthropologists have identified flirting behavior in almost every culture. It’s an important social interaction. Men do it as well.”
“Oh.” Great. Now she felt unintelligent and socially inadequate. Maybe it was a good thing this relationship was only two hours long. “I’ll have to practice more.”
Leo handed her a stuffed mushroom. “Try this one.” He watched her take a small bite and chew. “I studied up on male female interactions when I was in therapy.”
“You were in therapy?” She took another bite of the mushroom.
“The incident with Dill involved the use of deadly force. Therapy was strongly encouraged.”
Grace put down the mushroom, suddenly not hungry. “You’re the agent who killed the suspected terrorist.”
“That’s the pretty way of saying it. In reality, I killed a twenty-two year old kid who had the not-so-great judgment to become involved in a small dope-growing business. ” Leo said the words without emotion.
“He also had the not-so-great judgment to be armed and to start shooting when the FBI knocked on his door. Two agents died and one was injured, if I’m remembering correctly. He was no innocent kid.”
Leo rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at his plate. “Yeah.”
“You got a commendation.” Grace watched his eyes squeeze shut briefly.
“The whole thing was fucked from start to finish. Dill totally lost it.” His face was expressionless when he looked up at her. “She came on to me when I was assigned to her unit. I had no interest in starting a relationship with her. According to her diary, she thought she loved me. The day after I put in for a transfer, she sent us into an apartment of suspected terrorists without proper intelligence and without back up. Only it turns out it was an apartment full of guys with guns growing weed, not terrorists at all.”
Leo was all about emotion. His dark eyes laughed, sympathized, sparked with intelligence. She’d never seen the blank look that was in them now. “You think you’re responsible for what happened,” she said slowly.
“Dill was angry and not thinking clearly. Her diary said she wanted me to die.” His finger touched Grace’s lips, silencing the words she wanted to say. “Because of her feelings toward me, Parker died and Stravinsky got injured. Because of me, some kid won’t have the chance to learn from his mistakes. Dr. Hawkins is a good therapist and my co-workers were a hundred percent behind me, so intellectually I know that Dill is responsible for her behavior and none of what happened is my fault.” He grimaced. “It’s hard to put my head in charge on this one.”
She didn’t even try to argue with that. Guilt was a hard nut to crack. “And so you’re steering away from any romantic involvements at work, because if they go bad, they can go really bad.”
“That was my logic.”
“We’ve established your head is not in charge on this issue, so your logic is questionable.”
“Very good, Devine. If the whole special agent thing doesn’t work out for you, maybe you should try law school.” He looked faintly amused now. He leaned back and took a bite of a chocolate-covered strawberry.
“Thank you, but I intend to be phenomenally successful as a special agent. And my name is Grace.” She wished she’d paid more attention during the psychology sections of training. She had no idea what to say that would be helpful so she opted for her honest opinion. “If you make rules for your life based on the crazy behavior of an unstable person, your rules will be crazy too.”
“Tell me what you really think.” His tone was dry but there might have been a hint of humor in it.
Since he asked she kept talking. “Most people aren’t psychos, Leo, so it doesn’t make sense to live your life as if they are.” She paused and modified that statement. “Okay, maybe most people have something odd about them, but they’re not dangerously damaged like Dill.”
He took a petite brownie from her plate. He liked chocolate. “In what way are you odd?”
“I said most people.” She took a mini-cheesecake from his in retaliation. She let him change the subject, not sure what else to say about Dill. “I happen to be one of the select few who have absolutely no little quirks in their personality.”
“Is that so?” A corner of his lip curved up. “I seem to remember you throwing popcorn at the couple sitting two rows ahead of us during The Seven Samurai.”
“That wasn’t odd. That was justified. The guy was watching a football game on his phone. And you didn’t have to flash your ID when he hopped the seats and grabbed my popcorn.”
“He was going to dump the bucket over your head. I just wanted to watch the rest of the movie.”
His smile made her smile. “So you’re really here to see Lewis?”
“The Raleigh office called this morning and wanted to speak to you. They requested help to set up a meet between Kampmueller and the code breakers.”
“Seriously? Lewis and the NSA?” She had a hard time wrapping her head around that one. “He’ll drive them bonkers in five minutes. He’s brilliant, but not government material. He’s not into rules and regulations.”
Ramos shrugged. “He’s already driving the Raleigh office bonkers. He ignores their messages. I said I’d give it a try tonight.”
“Why didn’t you just call me or text me? I would have talked to Lewis.”
“You might still have to. But I didn’t have any plans tonight. Driving down was no big deal.”
“Really? You expect me to believe you didn’t have plans for New Year’s Eve?”
He pushed his plate aside and leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “You’re right. I’m not being honest. I don’t give a damn about Lewis or the NSA. I do have plans for tonight. Big plans. I intend to dance with you.”
“You drove four hours to dance with me.”
“Yes, I did.”
She swallowed. Crap. This fling wasn’t going to get him out of her system. If she was honest with herself, she didn’t want him out of her system.
Leo lifted his hand and ran his thumb across her cheekbone. He liked to touch.
“You are so soft and yet so damn tough, Grace.” His finger traced past her ear, along
the line of her jaw, then followed her throat to the hollow of her collarbone. “You take my breath away.”
Music started playing in the other room. He stood, took her hand and led her back into the ballroom.
