Sweet Reward (10 page)

The instant Jared knocked on Mia’s door, she was there to open it. “Uh-oh. Either Noah didn’t convince you that I’m more than capable of being your partner or you’re just determined to hate me with no justification.”

“I don’t hate you.”

She gave a theatrical, overloud sigh. “You might as well come in and let’s have it out.”

If he hadn’t been in such a sour mood, he might have laughed at her dramatic statement. Since he hadn’t felt like laughing in over a year, just the thought that he could actually do it made him somehow feel better.

He stood in the middle of her living room and gazed around. “How long have you lived here?”

“I moved in today.”

The room was already stamped with her personality. Bright splashes of color on the walls blended with the bold colors on the furniture. Everything should have clashed, but for some reason, nothing did.

He’d lived in his apartment for a year and a half and didn’t even have a single picture on his walls.

She put her hands on her hips and gave him a challenging look. “So what did Noah tell you?”

“That you’re qualified to work this op and that he trained you.”

“I am and he did.”

“So you quit LCR.”

“Is that what Noah told you … that I quit?”

“No, he told me I’d have to ask you.”

She nodded as if she’d known that all along. “Have a seat. Want something to drink?”

“I want an answer to my question.”

“Excuse me, but you didn’t ask me a question. You just assumed I quit.”

Jared blew out a sigh. For a man who never lost his cool, he couldn’t seem to do anything else with this woman. “Fine. Why did you leave LCR?”

“Noah fired me.” She raised a hand before he could speak. “And it wasn’t because I wasn’t qualified.”

“Then why?”

“Because he said I took too many risks. When I told him that’s how I operate, we agreed it was best if I left.”

“What did you do?”

“If you don’t want something to drink, at least sit down. I’m tired of straining my neck to look at you.”

Mia held back a sigh of exasperation as he eyed her arrogantly without moving. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to be satisfied until she proved herself to him. The reason she’d left LCR wouldn’t help her case. He would jump all over it as the very reason she wasn’t qualified.

Fine. He didn’t want to sit down; that didn’t mean she couldn’t. She dropped onto the sofa, propped her feet onto the coffee table, and gazed up at him. “There was a hostage situation. I traded myself for the hostage. It all worked out, but Noah flew into me the moment it was over.”

She had trouble concealing her surprise when all he said was “There was no other way?”

“I didn’t see any other alternative. The man had two young girls he’d held for over a week. He said he’d kill them before he allowed himself to be taken. We believed him. One of the girls had asthma, and we could hear her
struggling for every breath. I couldn’t stand it anymore. I took off my weapons and offered myself in exchange. Fortunately, he was tired of hearing her gasping for breath as well and agreed to let her go. The moment I got inside, I explained how much more valuable I’d be than the other girl he still held. He believed me and let her go.”

“What happened?”

“We talked. He knew he was surrounded and was terrifled of what was going to happen to him. He’d been in prison before, in some small facility in North Dakota where he said he was cold all the time. I promised him that if he surrendered, I’d see to it that he got to go to a Florida prison.”

“And he believed you.”

“I can be very convincing.” She shrugged. “Anyway, it took longer than I’d thought it would, but six hours later, he gave up and it was over.”

“And that’s why McCall fired you?”

Remembering some of their fiery arguments, Mia shook her head. “No. It had been coming for a long time. I was much younger and more impulsive back then. And he has a tendency to be overprotective … or at least he did then.”

“I’m sure it couldn’t be because you look like you couldn’t swat a fly without feeling guilty about it.”

“Noah was never shallow enough to judge a person just by their looks. He knew better than anyone what I was capable of. He just didn’t like my methods.”

The grim twist to his mouth told her she had managed to put a dent in his wall of doubts but he still wasn’t convinced. She shook her head, confused and disappointed by his narrow-mindedness. “Have you never worked with LCR women before?”

“Of course I have.”

“Then you know how capable they are. Why do you
act as if it’s completely out of the question for me to be just as skilled as you?”

Jared had no answer. In his years at IDC, he’d worked with some of the most beautiful but deadly women in the world. In many cases, he’d trusted them with his life. Since he’d been with LCR, he’d worked ops with at least a dozen female operatives. Each one had possessed the skills, knowledge, and experience to be a lethal weapon if necessary.

But this woman … she just didn’t have the toughness he expected in an LCR operative. There was only one way for her to prove him wrong. “I have a place a few miles from here. It’s where I do a lot of my training. Show me what you’ve got. Convince me, and I won’t question you again.”

She raised her brows in an arch and said coolly, “No.”

“Why?”

“You either believe me or not. I’m not about to take some arbitrary test just to satisfy your off-the-wall doubts.” She went to her feet and headed toward the kitchen. “I’m going to make myself some dinner—would you like to join me?”

Jared didn’t know what made him do it, whether it was her abrupt dismissal or his refusal to believe her. Or hell, maybe it was just the sheer need to touch her. For whatever reason, he grabbed her arm to pull her around to face him. Before he knew it, he was slammed to the floor and Mia was sitting on top of him with her knees pressed into his chest. The intense burning of his nose and eyes were an indication that she’d hit him in a vulnerable area—above his upper lip and just below the nose. Quick. Effective. Hurt like hell.

Blinking past the sting and the watery sensation in his eyes, he looked at the woman sitting on top of him. He expected anger, maybe even smugness. Instead, she grinned
good-naturedly at him and said, “You were awfully easy to take down. Maybe
you
need to show
me
how good you are.”

Jared fought it for all he was worth but couldn’t stop the laugh that erupted. Though it rumbled in his chest like an old truck starting up after being dormant for a long time, damned if he didn’t like the feeling.

“Touché,” he growled. “Now get off me before I take you up on that challenge.”

She hopped off him with such agility and grace, he couldn’t believe he’d missed it before.

“You’re classically trained, aren’t you?” he said.

“Ballet, gymnastics, and tae kwon do.” She held out her hand to help him up. “You never had a chance, my friend.”

Jared stared at the hand: slender, delicate, but with a strength that could rival that of any man twice her size. She had set out to impress him, and she’d done it in spades.

Ignoring her offer, he surged to his feet. Her smile flickered only slightly at his rejection of help. If they were going to work together, she would have to get used to that. Touching was just not his thing.

“So, are you going to stay for dinner so we can talk about the case?”

“Have you had a chance to look over the file?”

She headed to the kitchen. “I’ve checked out a couple of the names already. Didn’t see anything too suspicious.”

Jared leaned against the doorjamb and watched as she whizzed through the kitchen, seeming very comfortable in a place she’d just moved into. And because his curiosity had been piqued even more by her impressive display moments ago, he asked, “And you’re weapons trained, too?”

“Yes.” She paused in the midst of chopping vegetables
and threw him a look over her shoulder. “Uh-oh. Am I going to have to shoot you to prove that?”

His mouth twitched as he once again fought a smile. “I’ll take your word for it.”

She returned to her cutting and asked, “What’s this thing you have with underestimating others?”

He was sure a psychologist would have a field day determining the answer to that question. Trust had always been an issue for him … always would be. But he had to admit that his lack of trust in Mia had been over the top. And while a small voice in his head told him it was because he refused to believe that anyone could be so damn perfect, he couldn’t accept that explanation. She wasn’t perfect. She was just a beautiful woman with a lot of different talents.

Instead of giving her a vague answer, he changed the subject. “If this is an organization or an individual abducting these infants, what’s your take on the reason?”

She turned and set a salad bowl filled with colorful vegetables on the small kitchen table. A slight arching of her brows was her only acknowledgment of his sidestep. “My guess is they’re being sold.”

Jared nodded. “That’d be my theory, too.”

“How long have you worked for LCR?”

Her switch to a personal question was a good maneuver, but not one he couldn’t counter. “Question is, who’re his buyers.”

When he heard her explosive sigh, he knew she wasn’t going to be detoured. “Okay, before we go any further, let’s drop all the pretense and tell each other what’s offlimits.” She raised her hand and ticked off “I don’t like to talk about my family or politics.” Dropping her hand, she gave him a challenging look. “What about you?”

Jared figured he was the least curious person when it came to others. He understood better than anyone that
everyone had secrets. And rarely was he curious to learn them. Yet now, knowing that Mia had areas she didn’t want to talk about made him intensely curious to learn them all.

But fair was fair. “I don’t talk about my past at all, under any circumstances.”

“So yesterday is off the table.”

Jared not only appreciated her humor, he liked that she’d accepted his words. The last time he’d told a woman that, she’d immediately asked him why. That’d been the last time he’d seen her.

“I don’t cook, but want me to set the table?”

The delight in her face made him wince. That’d probably been the nicest thing he’d said to her so far. Charm had never been an issue for him. He could be anything and anyone he wanted to be. With Mia, he’d been exactly who he was, and the fact that she hadn’t slugged him harder a while ago attested to her integrity and patience.

She handed him plates, silverware, and cloth napkins. As he set the table, he asked, “Did you bring this stuff with you from Chicago?”

“No, between the meetings this morning and this evening, I had a couple of hours to spare. There’s a great place on the Rue de Longe that has everything from kitchen supplies to linens.”

Jared didn’t know what amazed him more: the fact that she’d been able to turn her rented apartment into a home in only a few hours or that she had the energy to do all of this and didn’t look the least bit tired.

As she turned to place a large bowl filled with pasta and tomato sauce on the table, his stomach suddenly went into overdrive. He sat down and started serving himself. He looked up briefly as Mia pulled out her chair and sat across from him. A smile curved her beautiful mouth, and the gleam in her eyes told him she was amused by
something. The food in his mouth turned tasteless as another need swamped him. Hell, why did one look from this woman turn him on? It wasn’t like she was even trying to attract him. She was just being herself.

“Everything taste okay?” she asked.

Jared swallowed the food in his mouth. “Yeah. Fine.”

Apparently not the least bit perturbed by his less than enthusiastic words for her culinary skills, she dug into her meal with obvious enjoyment. And that’s when it hit him. In the short amount of time he’d known her, he’d seen that expression on her face more than any other. Mia enjoyed everything. The photographs on her walls showed her skydiving, mountain climbing, and surfing. The pets, her old-fashioned, somewhat sloppy home. Her ready smile, her sense of humor … hell, even her volatile temper told him she didn’t hold back. The fact that she’d accomplished so much in such a small amount of time was just another indication. Mia wasn’t one to hesitate. Her exuberance for life was both fascinating and intriguing.

He tried to remember if he’d ever felt that way. Being shuffled from one foster home to another didn’t exactly create a secure, happy kid, especially with all the problems he’d had. He only vaguely remembered his parents—or that sense of peace and security that comes with knowing you’re loved, protected … cherished. Actually, what he had was more the knowledge of those feelings than the memories of the events. Bedtime stories, hugs, laughter, and delicious, plentiful food. He had vague, obscure recollections of a woman with soft hands and a pretty smile, and a father with a gruff laugh and broad shoulders.

Even now, after all that had happened, he would occasionally catch a scent that would remind him of that time before. The first few years after his parents were killed, he’d tried to hang on to as many of those memories
as he could. At night, he’d close his eyes and pretend that it had all been a nightmare. Those few hours of fantasy each night had sustained him for a long while. But then, as he got older, the fantasies no longer worked. Reality became impossible to deny.

He figured that’s why he was so good at his job. Pretending to be someone else came easily to him. He didn’t necessarily get lost in a fantasy life, as he had before, but he could become so thoroughly immersed in the role he was playing that even when he was alone or didn’t need to pretend, he was still that person. That skill had gotten him through the few years of his marriage.

“Do you not like the pasta?”

The soft voice pulled him from the depths of introspection. When was the last time he’d gotten lost in thinking about his past or the reasons for his bad decisions? He’d learned long ago that the past couldn’t be changed or altered; it was what it was.