How Spy I Am (4 page)

“Um. A lot of things
got cleared up in the debriefing. And we talked afterwards. I
think… we’re still friends.”

I bit my tongue and
shut up. It wasn’t strictly a lie. We could still be friends as
long as I pretended he hadn’t used the L-word…

Arnie’s too-perceptive
gaze surveyed my face, and something in my expression must have
prompted him to leave it alone. He reached out his arms and bounced
his eyebrows, grinning.

“So, ya gonna come
over here an’ comfort a poor injured man?”

“In a minute. First I
have to call Kane and tell him you’re okay.”

My call completed, I
cuddled close beside Hellhound on the couch and ran a careful hand
over his powerful chest. “You’re so beat up, I’m afraid to touch
you. I don’t want to hurt you.”

He captured my hand
and slid it south. “Some things ain’t hurtin’.”

I stroked him, smiling
when he moved slowly against my hand and let out a raspy
half-groan, half-purr.

“I don’t know,” I
teased. “That’s some pretty serious swelling you’ve got down there.
Maybe I shouldn’t take a chance on making it worse.”

“Trust me, darlin’,
that kinda swellin’ only gets better. An’ I got some creative ideas
to keep from hurtin’ anythin’ else.” His deep growl caressed my
ears and vibrated in some very interesting places.

I let him see my
shiver of hot anticipation. “I know just how creative you can
be.”

He pulled me closer to
trail whiskery kisses down my neck, and the shivers spread like
wildfire.

“Ya ain’t seen nothin’
yet, darlin’.”

Some time later, I
emerged smiling from Arnie’s apartment to tap on Miss Lacey’s door.
When it opened, her bird-like gaze raked me up and down. “Please
come in.”

I stepped into her
tidy apartment and took a seat in the wing chair she indicated.
“Would you like a cup of tea?” she inquired.

“Yes, thank you.”

“And perhaps a snack,”
she suggested. “You must be hungry after all that exertion.”

I snapped a look up to
meet her sharp black gaze. “…Uh…?”

“The walls in this
condo are paper-thin,” she said. “I do hope you were using condoms.
Arnold tends to be promiscuous, you know.”

“Um,” I said, feeling
my face heat up. “Yes. To both. I mean, we always use… um. And I
know Arnie has lots of other female company. Sorry about the, uh,
sound effects.”

“It’s all right,
child. I quite envied you. He must be an expert lover.”

“Um… yeah… he’s…
amazing, actually.” I willed the heat out of my cheeks and tried to
look nonchalant.

She chuckled as she
passed me a delicate bone-china cup and saucer. “You’d do well to
remember that old age doesn’t necessarily equate with prudishness.
So is he your… what do you young people call it? Your booty
call?”

I laughed and shook
off my discomfort as I readjusted my evaluation of Miss Emma Lacey.
“Not exactly. We’re friends with benefits. I’d like to think the
friendship would remain even if the benefits ended.”

She perched in the
opposite chair and tilted her head, increasing the impression of an
inquisitive bird. “Please excuse my prying, but I’m keenly
interested in the social and sexual mores of the younger female
generations. With how many men do you have such an
arrangement?”

I eyed her for a
moment, debating whether to tell her it was none of her damn
business.

I shrugged. What the
hell. “Arnie’s the only one.”

“Doesn’t it bother you
that he has sex with other women?”

“No. We’re both free
to be with anyone else, any time, as we choose.”

She leaned forward,
her black gaze piercing. “Why aren’t you jealous? I can tell you
care about him deeply.”

“Yes, but I don’t want
a committed relationship with him. Or with anybody, for that
matter.”

“Why not?”

“I’ve been married
twice. I’m done working at relationships.”

The keen gaze searched
my face. “Did you have bad marriages?”

I hesitated. “One was
good.”

Oh, Robert, if I’d
only known…

“But…” she
prompted.

“He was killed a
couple of years ago, trying to protect me.” I swallowed the lump in
my throat with a gulp of too-hot tea.

“And now you’re afraid
to love and lose again. You poor child, don’t cut yourself off like
that. Love is worth the risk.”

“No, that’s not it at
all,” I denied. “I don’t want to make the sacrifices it takes to
make another relationship work. I like my autonomy.”

“But what happiness
and fulfilment are you denying yourself by clinging to this shallow
relationship with Arnold?” she asked softly.

I bit into a brownie
and chewed, studying the vivid patterns of the oriental carpet
while I considered the best way to escape the conversation.

Miss Lacey
straightened. “I’ve pressed you too far, and I apologize. I
actually invited you here so that you could give me your honest
opinion. How is Arnold? And I’m not referring to his sexual
prowess,” she added.

I hid my sigh of
relief. “He has a sprained ankle and a broken nose, a couple of
cracked bones in his face, and lots of scrapes and bruises. He’s
pretty badly beaten up, but he doesn’t have any serious
injuries.”

She leaned back in her
chair with a sigh of her own. “Thank heaven. I’m very fond of him.
You know that he drives me to all my appointments and takes me
grocery shopping.” Her bright black eyes met mine. “He’s a good
man. And he conceals a brilliant mind behind that dreadful
facade.”

“I know.” I smothered
a smile. “I like his facade, though.”

“I do tend to fuss
over him a little more than I should. I hope he wasn’t upset that I
had called you.”

“No, I’m sure he
wasn’t,” I reassured her. “But if you didn’t get my number from
him, how did you find me? My number is unlisted.”

She hesitated. “Arnold
and I exchanged emergency contact lists some years ago, shortly
after I moved into this complex. I won’t bore you with that story,
but in all the time I’ve known him, he has had only one contact, a
John Kane. Last week he added your name.” She smiled. “I’ve known
you were special to him ever since he introduced us this summer.
You are the only woman he welcomes back repeatedly, unlike his
usual conquests.”

“Oh.” My heart swelled
at the unexpected honour. I knew how cautious Arnie was in
bestowing his trust.

Miss Lacey leaned a
little closer, her bright black gaze searching my face. “He warned
me never to divulge your name or number to anyone. He said you were
in a difficult personal situation.”

“Uh.” I rapidly
dredged up the cover story that had served me in the spring. “Yes,
my ex-husband is, um… well, I’d prefer to avoid him.”

She sat back in her
chair, nodding. “I understand. Your information is completely safe
with me. I’m not in the habit of giving out personal information,
particularly not to men like those ruffians who were showing your
photo around here last week.”

The brownie turned to
cardboard in my mouth.

Time for damage
control, indeed.

I was about to demand
details when a rap on her door made us both start.

“Please excuse me,”
Miss Lacey said as she rose, and I slouched in the chair and gulped
more tea while she went around the corner to answer the door.

My mind raced. Could
the ‘ruffians’ have been the hired goons who’d been contracted to
kill me last week? Or were they working for Fuzzy Bunny? A tingle
of fear rippled over my skin, and I reached down to skim my
fingertips over the reassuring shape of the gun at my ankle.

God, please let them
have been the contract killers. I knew they’d been called off.
Fuzzy Bunny, on the other hand…

I spared a sudden
moment of empathy for Stemp’s insistence on knowing my whereabouts.
Leaving so abruptly this morning had probably been really stupid,
but at least I’d told Kane where I was going this time. I’d better
get back to Sirius, pronto.

“Aydan, you have a
caller,” Miss Lacey said as she rounded the corner again.

I sprang to my feet
and dodged behind the wing chair at the sight of the handsome young
man following her. A spasm twisted Mark Richardson’s face when my
hand flew to the wound on my arm.

“Aydan, I’m so sorry,”
he said. “I never wanted to hurt you.”

I took a deep breath
and let it out slowly. “I know. Sorry, I’m just a little twitchy.
I’ll get over it.” I stepped out from behind the protection of the
chair. “So what’s up?”

His blue-eyed gaze
wavered. “I… I’m here to take you back to Sirius.”

“No need, I’ll drive
myself.”

He hesitated. “I have
orders not to let you out of my sight. Your car can stay here.
You’re to ride back with me.”

Alarm prickled the
back of my neck, and I sidled over to lean on the wing chair with
feigned nonchalance, placing it between us again. “What’s going
on?”

He shot an uneasy
glance over his shoulder. “You’ll be briefed when we get there.
Come on, let’s go.”

“I’ll just check in
with Kane first,” I said casually, and whisked my phone out of my
waist pouch to punch the speed dial button.

“Sirius Dynamics.” The
crisp female voice on the other end of the line made me jerk the
phone away from my ear to frown at the display. I’d dialled Kane’s
number, all right.

“May I speak to John
Kane, please?” I inquired, watching Richardson’s gaze dart around
the room. His hand hovered in the vicinity of the concealed
shoulder holster I knew he wore under his jacket.

“I’m sorry, Captain
Kane is on vacation,” the woman responded.

“What do you mean,
he’s on vacation?” I snapped. “He was in the office this morning. I
have a meeting scheduled with him this afternoon.”

“I’m sorry, but I was
told he’s on vacation,” she repeated. “What is this in regards
to?”

Richardson stepped
toward me, reaching for my arm, and I jerked back. “Aydan, never
mind,” he said urgently. “Let’s just go, okay?”

I backed away a few
more paces, noticing Miss Lacey moving quietly in the direction of
the door. Thank God. She’d be out of the line of fire, if there was
one.

“It’s Aydan Kelly. Let
me speak to Clyde Webb,” I demanded, still staring Richardson
down.

“I’m sorry, he’s in a
meeting and can’t be disturbed.”

Richardson’s hand
hovered near his holster. “Come on, Aydan, let’s go. You’ll be
briefed when we get there,” he insisted.

Dammit, there was no
way I could reach my gun before he got to his. Why the hell hadn’t
I worn my waist holster today?

“Give me Stemp,” I
barked.

Relief gushed through
me when Hellhound rounded the corner behind Richardson, moving fast
and silently despite his limp.

“I’m sorry, he’s in a
meeting and can’t be disturbed,” the woman singsonged.

Richardson whirled to
face the movement and froze at the sight of Hellhound’s gun.

“Tell Stemp one of his
agents is about to take a bullet to the brain,” I snarled. “Get him
on the line. Now.”

“Just a moment,” she
squeaked.

Seconds later, Stemp’s
flat voice came on the line. “Ms. Kelly, is there a problem?”

“I don’t know. You
tell me.”

“None that I’m aware
of,” he said coolly. “I presume Richardson is the one on the
business end of your gun?”

“Yes.” I didn’t
elaborate. Stemp didn’t need to know about Hellhound’s illegal
weapon. “Did you send him?”

“Yes. You can stand
down. His orders are to bring you back to Sirius.”

“Why?”

“You’ll be briefed
when you arrive.”

Dammit. He wouldn’t
tell me anything more than I absolutely had to know, and he
couldn’t tell me anything over an unsecured line anyway.

I sighed and hung up.
“It’s okay, Arnie, thanks. Sorry, Mark.”

Both men relaxed, and
Richardson gave Hellhound a tentative smile, the elusive dimple
flickering in his cheek. “I was hoping you weren’t going to pay me
back for tranking you the other day.”

Hellhound grinned and
stuck the gun into the waistband of his jeans. “Nah. I’ll do that
when ya least expect it.” He limped over and sank into the chair
I’d vacated, wincing when the weight came off his ankle. “Hope ya
don’t hafta report this.”

“I told Stemp I was
holding my gun to his head,” I said quickly. “Mark, if you have to
report what really happened, it’s okay, but-”

“No, it’s all right,”
he interrupted. “I don’t blame you for not trusting me, and I’m not
going to report anything. But we’d better get going.”

“Okay.” I stowed my
phone back in my pouch. “Where’s Miss Lacey?”

“In my apartment,”
Hellhound said. “She came an’ said some guy was tryin’ to force ya
to go with him. I told her to stay there until I came to get
her.”

“I’ll go get her, and
I’ll get your crutches, too. You shouldn’t have been walking on
that ankle.”

He winked. “I wasn’t.
I was walkin’ on my foot.”

“Wise-ass.” I dropped
a kiss on his lips and went to retrieve Miss Lacey.

On the long drive back
to Silverside, I tried to pry more information out of Richardson,
but he refused to tell me anything. His eyes were constantly in
motion, scanning the countryside, the oncoming traffic, the cars
behind us, and even the sky. Nervousness skittered in my stomach.
This couldn’t be good.

My uneasiness
ratcheted up another notch when he parked a block away from Sirius
Dynamics. As he shot a wary glance around the bowling alley’s
almost-deserted parking lot, I gave him a suspicious glance of my
own.

“Why are we here?” I
asked, trying to keep the mistrust out of my voice.

“Secret entrance,” he
muttered. “Come on.”

We got out of the car
and he hustled me through the back door of the dilapidated building
as if he expected a flock of ninjas to descend from the rooftop.
Hell, by that time, it wouldn’t have surprised me.