Lisa Phillips - Double Agent

“Let me.”

She looked up. The warmth of his fingers on hers registered, along with the look in his eye. Her throat thickened, and she forced herself to nod.

While he made quick work of the bandage, Sabine felt her heart stretch and come awake for the first time. That had never happened any of the other times she’d met Doug—MacArthur, as the guys called him. The simple name suited his steady and uncomplicated nature.

At the few backyard barbecues for the team and their families that she’d attended, Sabine had always felt like an outsider. She’d been attracted to Doug, but any time they had talked he steered the conversation through small talk and never lingered for long.

He clearly didn’t feel anything special for her. That was when she began to make excuses to her brother and say she had to work—which wasn’t a lie. Now that Ben was dead, she wished she hadn’t made him look at her that way or feel sorry for her.

Sabine cleared her throat. “So why are you guys here?”

“Why don’t you tell me why you’re here first?”

“You tell me, and I’ll tell you. Otherwise I have nothing to say.” It was juvenile, but she wasn’t in the mood for a heart-to-heart. Her ankle hurt like nobody’s business. Not to mention the weight of a man’s life was now on her shoulders.

She didn’t know what the recourse of all this would be. No doubt there’d be some kind of investigation into Christophe’s death. When her name came up, she hoped she had the strength to stand up for herself. Not to mention that there would be enough evidence to prove it wasn’t her who had murdered him.

Doug rubbed his eyes. Was he frustrated this wasn’t turning out like he had planned? Good. Immediately she wanted to take that thought back. Despite the imposing size of him, he did look sort of lost.

Sabine had enough to deal with without letting him distract her from her job, so she ignored him. She had the hard drive. It really was time to go before someone identified her. After dumping everything into the rolling carry-on she traveled with, she slipped her feet into silver flats, put her sunglasses on top of her head and turned to the door.

Doug grabbed her elbow, but she kept going. After a tug of war in which she lost her sunglasses and found herself sitting on the desk chair, she finally acknowledged him. He towered over her, his hands on the armrests.

Sabine lifted her chin. “Make this fast. I have a plane to catch.”

“I’m coming with you.”

Sabine almost swooned with the vulnerability in his tone. Almost. “I don’t think so.”

“Sabine, this is serious. Right now, where you go, I go. That’s how it has to be.”

“Why?”

“You’re seriously asking me that? We have to figure out what just happened. You want to find Ben’s killer? Well, so do I. If we pool our resources together, we have the best chance of that. So we’re going to meet up with my team, and you’re going to tell me what you’re doing here, what you want with that hard drive you hid in your purse and whatever else you know.”

She smirked. He thought she was going to spill everything just like that? Yep, amateurs. “Answers, answers. Let’s see. Life...the universe...and forty-seven.”

“Funny.” He wasn’t laughing. “I think you know something. Maybe it’s a small thing...or maybe you’re the key to all of this.”

She sighed. “Am I supposed to know what on earth you’re talking about?” He should know how it was. They both lived their lives under the radar. That was the whole point of being a spy. He was Special Forces. They only told the people closest to them what they did.

“I guess we’ll find out.”

Sabine glared. “Even if I could help you, there’s no way I would give you even one second of my time. You were there when my brother died—”

“I can’t talk to you about that. It’s classified.”

“Look, MacArthur—”

“Doug.”

Sabine rolled her eyes. “The only thing I care about is bringing whoever killed Ben to justice. Whatever association you and I might’ve had has now ended. Unless you care to share what happened that night.”

The muscle at the corner of his eye twitched. “You need my help if you’re going to get out of this hotel without getting questioned for Christophe’s death.”

“You said yourself we don’t have much time before those two guys find us, or someone raises the alarm about Christophe being dead and the whole place swarms with cops.”

He held out his hand. “Let’s go then.”

She brushed it aside and stood. “This is where we part. It’s been an experience, really. But like I said, I have a plane to catch.”

“Look, I know how hard this must be for you.”

Was he serious? “You have no idea—”

“Let me finish.” He had the decency to look apologetic. “Please. I can help you put this to rest, but I have to know how you fit in.”

“You think I had something to do with Ben’s death?” She forced the words past a resurgence of the complete and utter desperate, aching solitude that had followed her brother’s death. To her horror, a slice of her private grief tracked its way down her cheek.

She swiped away the moisture and shoved past him.

“Try seeing this from my perspective, Sabine. The team is shadowing the man who paid for your brother to be executed—”

“Executed—” The word was a whisper from her mouth.

Doug winced. “We’re trying to get to the bottom of it. You can help me find out what happened. If need be, we’ll clear your name. We both want justice. Let’s work together.”

She shook her head. “I can’t. Christophe is dead, and I plan on getting as far from this as possible. Unless there’s something seriously incriminating on the hard drive that leads to the killer and lays out the whys of it all—which I seriously doubt—then it’s over. My brother is dead. Justice is just a vain hope.”

“Sabine—”

Her stomach churned. “No. I was wrong to attempt this. A man is dead. Yes, he was a criminal. And most likely responsible for Ben’s death. That means in some way justice has already been served. Let’s leave it there. Please. I’m going to turn the hard drive over to my handler and walk away.”

Doug’s eyes were wet. “I can’t let you do that. I have to know what happened. I won’t beg for your help, but I don’t see how you can walk away and let this lie.”

The heartbreak on his face nearly did her in. Sabine touched his cheek, feeling the warmth of his skin and the late-day stubble. “We need time to grieve. Both of us.”

Something flickered in his eyes, and everything changed. She drew her hand away. Her stomach plunged like an elevator at the thought of exactly what that look might mean. But she couldn’t let it penetrate the fortified walls of her heart.

For the first time, Doug was more than her brother’s team leader. Despite what had brought them together, he was being a friend to her. Since she had few true friends, it was hard to recognize one or to trust the offer of friendship when it was given.

Ben had reacted...badly, when she had told him what she really did for a living. Granted, he’d been thrown after finally admitting to her what his position was in the army. Delta Force.

After he had told her that he was Special Ops, Sabine couldn’t let the opportunity pass to open up about her own occupation. How was she to know he would hit the roof when he found out her job was just as dangerous as his—maybe more so, since she didn’t have a team to back her up?

She didn’t want to know what would have happened if Doug hadn’t been there today. She’d needed him to get her out of Parelli’s room after she realized she was going to be framed. So much for being a capable agent. Did that mean she couldn’t handle this job on her own?