Lisa Childs - Agent Undercover

Her slight body slumped down in the passenger’s seat of his Bureau-issued black SUV. She was nearly asleep, but she fought back a yawn and told him, “You didn’t have to drive me home.”

He heard the surprise in her voice; she hadn’t expected him to bring her home. She had suspected him to arrest her. Earlier that evening, he would have thought that was because she had a guilty conscience. But now that he was beginning to get to know her better...

He wasn’t sure what to think of Claire Molenski anymore. She was smart, but he’d already known that. She was sexy; that he hadn’t known. He hadn’t known how his body would react to hers. While she shivered slightly despite the heat blowing out of the vents, his skin was hot, his body tense.

That could have been just because of the adrenaline. He had nearly lost her a couple of times. He had to be vigilant because it wasn’t a question of if there would be another attempt to grab her. It was a question of when.

And that made him wonder about her guilt.

Maybe her only crime was being too smart. But then who had offered her knowledge for sale? He had been so certain she was the threat that he hadn’t really considered other suspects. Only Nowak Computer Consulting, or “No Hack” as it was known in inner circles, had the means to infiltrate those sites.

“You could have just brought me back to my car at the hotel,” she said.

He could have. Or he could have handed her off to another agent to drive home. He didn’t do security detail. His specialty had always been putting himself at risk, going undercover rather than protecting other people.

“No, I couldn’t,” he said. While he worked with good agents, damn good agents, he hadn’t wanted to trust anyone else with her safety. “There have already been two attempts to abduct you.” He suspected there would be more—many more—since so many radical groups and subversive governments wanted the information she possessed.

“Me,” she murmured.

“Yes, you.” They hadn’t been after him...except to kill him and get him out of their way.

“They were after me,” she said, as if she were strangely trying to reassure herself of that fact. Then he understood her reasoning when she added, “So Dad and Pam will be safe...”

“Pam?”

“She’s my dad’s new wife,” Claire explained. “And a very sweet lady. Like my dad, she was a single parent for years, so she never had enough money to travel. Because of that they’re taking a long honeymoon to visit all the places they’ve always wanted to see. They won’t be home for months.”

She jerked her head in a sharp nod. “So that’s good. They’ll be safe...”

Even as his focus stayed on the road, checking for a tail, he could feel her gaze on him. But again he wouldn’t offer her any false reassurance. He would leave that to her. It sounded as if she was doing a good job of convincing herself that her loved ones weren’t in danger because of her.

But then she sighed and admitted, “But someone could still track their credit cards.” Now she played her own devil’s advocate. “They could pull up their travel itinerary and find them—”

“I’ll put a protective detail on them,” he offered as he steered the SUV into the lot of her apartment complex. “We’ll make sure they’re safe.”

She reached across the console, grasped his arm and squeezed. “Thank you. But they’re not even in the country right now.”

“It’s okay,” he said. “No matter where they are, we can still protect them.” At the moment he was more concerned about her safety, though. Ever since he had suspected that she was the threat to national security, he’d had a detail on her apartment, so it should be safe.

But several agents had been watching her earlier that evening, and she had been drugged and nearly abducted...

He worried that she may not be safe anywhere. While the only security he specialized in was national security, he would do his best to keep her and her family safe.

She breathed a heavy sigh of relief. “Thank you for protecting them. They deserve to be happy.”

“What about you?” he asked, as he turned off the engine.

When he had been thinking like an FBI agent, he had only been concerned about her professional life. Now he was thinking like a man around her, and he wondered about her personal life. He hadn’t missed her assistant’s shock that she might have a boyfriend.

Didn’t she date very often?

When had he had his last date? He couldn’t remember one where he’d been himself and not undercover and just dating for information.

“What about me?” she asked. The lights had shut off inside the SUV, but in the dim glow of the parking lamps, he could see her pale brow furrow in confusion.

He turned fully toward her. Despite the console between the bucket seats, they were close. And with her fingers clenching his forearm, they were touching. He stared into her face, into her eyes that sparkled in the shadows. And he asked, “Do you deserve to be happy?”

She snatched back her hand from his arm and turned away from him. As she pushed open the passenger’s door, she replied, “I served my sentence.”

He wondered now if that had been too harsh. “I’m not talking about that,” he said as he hurried around the SUV to her side.

To protect her...

He glanced around the dimly lit parking lot as he led her toward the door to the building that housed her unit. There were several buildings in the complex. And in that building there were several floors, several apartments. Someone could have slipped past that security detail he had on her place. He shouldn’t have brought her back here.

“What are you talking about?” she asked as she dug inside that mammoth bag of hers for the keys that he pulled from his pocket. She took the ring from his hand and quickly found the key that opened the door to the lobby. It was nothing fancy—worn terrazzo floors and chipped plaster walls. But it was close to her office. He wondered if that was why she’d chosen to live here.

He waited until they stepped inside the elevator before he replied to her question. “I was just wondering if you are...”

She arched a blond brow. “Are what?”

“Happy.”

She leaned wearily against the mirrored wall of the elevator. The image of her in that tight, sexy red dress reflected around him as if she were surrounding him. Ash struggled to draw a deep breath when he felt like panting as his pulse quickened.

“I thought I was,” she said. “Until I saw how happy my dad and Pam are.”

Now he knew why she had been at that speed dating event and it hadn’t been to sell security secrets as he had suspected. She had posted online that she would be there, which he’d thought was her way of opening the bidding for information. But she had actually been there to find her happiness. She had really wanted to meet someone and she didn’t need to tell him for him to know that she hadn’t been looking for him. It was clear that after that arrest in her teens she didn’t have any trust or affection for FBI agents.

Not that he could have dated her had she been interested in him. He had no time for a personal life and no inclination to make time, either.

The elevator was old, but it was fast and came quickly to a stop on the fifth floor. He breathed a slight sigh of relief that it had saved him from having to comment on her statement.

She stepped out of the elevator and headed down the dimly lit hall. Uneasy, Ash pulled his gun from his holster as he walked beside her. And when she stopped and extended the key toward the lock on her door, he covered her hand with his to turn the knob.

She glanced up at him, her green eyes wide with sudden curiosity. And she asked, “Are you?”