I had just gotten down to the lobby when Reggie and Jack emerged from the secured area, hand in hand. Taking advantage of their absorption in each other, I studied them with pleasant warmth rising in my chest.
Beside Jack’s angelic blonde beauty Reggie’s scars looked even more horrific, but it was the undamaged side of his face that captured my attention.
He was smiling.
A warm, genuine smile; not the sardonic smirk he usually wore. His muscular shoulders were relaxed, and his easy gait belied the prosthetic legs concealed by his khaki slacks. For the first time I realized how rigidly he usually held himself, as though braced for the inevitable reactions of horror and pity and curiosity that confronted him outside the safe haven of his lab and trusted co-workers.
Realizing I was standing there grinning like an idiot, I got my face under control and hurried across the lobby to intercept them.
“Hi,” I greeted them. “Where are you going?”
“Lunch,” Jack replied. “Would you like to join us?”
“Sorry, I don’t have time.” My stomach underscored my regret with a loud rumble. “Now that you mention it, though, I’m starving!”
“Well, it is nearly one o’clock,” Jack pointed out. “You need to eat. Come with us; we’re just going to the Melted Spoon.”
“Thanks, but Arnie’s on his way and we’re going to grab a late lunch when he gets here. Reggie, do you have time to meet this afternoon? I need to pick your brain-”
“Kelly!” Holt’s demanding voice interrupted from across the lobby. He jerked his chin in an arrogant ‘come here’ gesture that made my middle finger itch to flip him the bird.
Lowering my voice, I spoke for Reggie’s and Jack’s ears only. “Holt The Magnificent has issued his summons. Guess I’d better go see what he wants.”
Reggie snorted. “Like you ever obey anybody.”
I grinned. “This is enlightened self-interest. He has information I need.”
“So do I,” Reggie countered.
“Yeah, but I like you better, so I’m going to let you go for lunch.”
He gave me his usual mocking half-smile. “I’m touched.” He sobered and added, “I’ll be in the lab all afternoon. Drop by whenever you want.”
“Thanks, Reggie. See you la-”
A short shrill whistle interrupted me, followed by Holt’s impatient shout. “Hey, Kelly! Get your ass over here!”
Like calling a none-too-obedient dog.
My temper flared.
Reggie took in my expression, his face twisting into an unholy grin. Through the static of rage that jangled in my ears, I barely heard him stage-whisper to Jack. “Wait for it. This is going to be awesome.”
With an effort, I wrangled my temper under control. Deliberately turning my back on Holt, I said to Reggie, “Sorry, you’re not getting a show today. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t get away with shooting him in front of three witnesses.” I inclined my chin in the direction of the security wicket, where Leo watched with interest from behind the bulletproof glass.
“No witnesses here,” Reggie drawled. “Leo likes you. He’ll keep his mouth shut. And I can’t see anything.” He gestured toward his prosthetic eye, smirking. “I’m blind. It sucks, but what can you do?” He turned to Jack. “Do you see anything?”
She shook her head, her prim expression at odds with the wicked glint in her eyes. “At the moment I’m quite distracted by mental calculations for my latest research. My observations would be unreliable at best.”
Suddenly recalling that she had been the unenthusiastic recipient of Holt’s romantic overtures a few months ago, I grinned. “What do you say, Jack? Should we double-team him?”
She shook her head. “It’s not fair to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man. Anyway, you know what his temper’s like; and you said you needed information from him.”
“Oh, he’ll get over it, he’s just a-”
The widening of her eyes was the only warning I got.
A hard hand clamped onto my shoulder and jerked me around.
Shock and rage exploded adrenaline into my veins. I spun in the direction of the yank, multiplying its force as I uncoiled and slammed an elbow strike into my attacker’s jaw.
Holt absorbed the blow, hitting the floor and rolling instantly back to his feet. For a bare second he rocked precariously, legs straddled and eyes glazed.
My stomach plummeted to my toes. I’d just hit a top martial artist. He was going to beat the living shit out of me.
Holt shook his head like an infuriated bull, his eyes snapping back into focus as his lethal fists clenched.
“Is there a problem?” Stemp’s cool voice was the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard. Standing at the edge of the lobby, his hard amber gaze measured us. His posture was easy, but his hand rested casually close to his concealed holster.
“No problem,” I croaked through a paper-dry throat.
“No problem,” Holt growled, his cold steel gaze eviscerating me.
“What happened?” Stemp asked. When nobody said anything, he prompted, “Kelly?”
“I didn’t hear Holt coming up behind me,” I mumbled. “He grabbed my shoulder and startled me, and I spun around and hit him before I realized who it was.”
I secretly crossed my fingers. Please let Stemp believe that mixture of truth and lie.
“She knocked him ass over teakettle!” Reggie contributed gleefully. “Rattled his brains but good!”
I threw him a ‘shut-up’ look and said, “It was just a lucky shot. I didn’t know what I was doing.”
“Holt?” Stemp inquired, one eyebrow rising.
“No big deal. She didn’t hurt me,” Holt grated, scowling and fingering the reddening mark on his prominent jaw. “I thought she knew I was there. I shouldn’t have grabbed her.”
“Shouldn’t have pissed her off, you mean,” Reggie said under his breath, still grinning. Jack gave him a quelling look and squeezed his hand hard enough to make him wince.
“Do I need to review the security footage?” Stemp asked ominously.
Holt shrugged, exuding confidence and honesty. “Go ahead if you want, but you won’t see anything but what we told you. Ask him.” He cocked a thumb in Leo’s direction.
As Stemp approached the security wicket, Leo shot a questioning look at me. I gave him a nod and stepped over to stand beside Holt, hoping Leo would get the message.
“Well?” Stemp inquired. “What did you see?”
“Um…” Leo eyed Holt and me standing side by side. Despite the painful-looking mark on his jaw, Holt wore a calm and pleasant expression. I did my best to match it.
“Just… what they said,” Leo said slowly. “Aydan had her back to Holt, and he came up behind her fast and grabbed her shoulder. She spun around and hit him once. That’s all.”
“See? No big deal,” Holt said easily. “Nice elbow strike, by the way, Kelly. Have you been studying martial arts?”
I managed a laugh that didn’t sound too false. “Nope. Like I said, just a dumb-luck shot.”
Nobody needed to know about the heavy bag I’d installed in my basement, or the muay thai training videos I’d been studying.
Stemp gave us a look that made it clear he could smell bullshit, but he turned back to Leo without comment. We stood in silence while he signed out at the security wicket, and when the exit door closed behind him I let out a breath of relief.
“Show’s over, folks,” I deadpanned to Jack and Reggie. “Just move along. Nothing to see here.”
Reggie snorted amusement, but the smile didn’t stay on his face long. Taking a couple of steps forward, he stood toe to toe with Holt, staring up into the taller man’s face with deadly intensity.
“Don’t manhandle Aydan again,” he said quietly. “Or I will fuck you up in ways you can’t even imagine.” His fire-ravaged features lent the words spine-chilling menace, and he gave Holt one last glare before turning his back and stalking away. Jack gave us a tentative smile and a little finger-wave before hurrying after him.
“Christ, that fugly sonofabitch gives me the creeps,” Holt muttered. “What’d you do to get on his good side? Suck his-” His eyes widened at my expression, and he snapped his mouth shut so fast I heard his teeth click. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “That was Holt The Asshole talking.”
I fought my anger under control. “I thought I recognized that voice,” I said lightly. “I’m glad he’s gone now.”
Holt’s posture eased. “Yeah. Listen, I need to talk to you. Not here.” He indicated the public lobby with a jerk of his chin.
“Let’s go up to my office,” I said, hoping this wasn’t just a ploy to get me alone so he could kill me at his leisure.
We walked upstairs without speaking, and when we entered my office he swung the door shut behind him.
“So what’s up?” I asked, holding my voice steady and wondering whether I could grab my gun out of my ankle holster before he could twist my head off.
Holt dropped onto my sofa and propped his boots on my coffee table with a weary sigh. “Fucking Grandin.”
“Um… would ‘fucking’ be a verb or an adjective?” I inquired cautiously. “Because if it’s an adjective I’m right there with you; but if you’re talking about literally fucking Grandin, he’s all yours.”
Holt barked out a laugh. “Don’t tell me; let me guess. You were an English major.”
“Nope. Bookkeeper. Accuracy is very important, especially if it keeps me from ending up in bed with guys like Grandin.”
“True.” Holt’s grin vanished, his jaw hardening. “So… things just got a whole lot more complicated. Grandin’s claiming he was under official CIA orders the whole time.”
“To kill an FBI agent and an MI6 agent and sell me? How stupid does he think we are?”
“That’s what I thought.” Holt frowned. “But… the lie detector corroborates his story. He said he had orders to have the U.S. scientists fake their weapon demo; so he coordinated that with them and their Weapons director. That whole thing was just a ruse to frame you and extradite you.”
“Yeah, we’d already figured that out,” I agreed. “And somebody in the U.S. government has a lot of explaining to do to Five Eyes about that. But there’s no way Grandin had orders for the rest of it.”
Holt rubbed his forehead, frowning. “He swears he got a second set of orders after he framed you at the conference. The orders said Dirk and Rand were dirty and he was authorized to use deadly force against them; and he’d get a cash bonus if he abducted you and handed you over to a contact instead of waiting on the official extradition. Then he was supposed to pretend you’d attacked him and escaped.”
My stomach tightened as I processed that. “So they intended to bury me. Extradition would have taken too long and left a paper trail, but this… it would look as though I’d gone rogue and vanished. The U.S. could claim ignorance of the whole thing, and nobody would ever know where I’d ended up.”
“Yeah. And Grandin’s orders said if anything went wrong he should sit tight, claim diplomatic immunity, and they’d have him safely back on U.S. soil within twelve hours. That’s why he wasn’t talking earlier, but now the twelve hours is long past and the U.S. government is denying they ever issued those orders. Grandin says he got set up.”
“But… hang on.” I planted my fists on my hips. “When he kidnapped me he said he had a better market, and he called me Arlene Widdenback. And I seriously doubt the CIA pays cash bonuses to agents just for following orders. He’s bullshitting. He might have gotten so-called ‘orders’ from somewhere, but he had to know they weren’t legit.”
Holt scowled. “Maybe. He’s been careful about the way he answers my questions. But the Arlene Widdenback thing is probably a dead end. Grandin knew about your cover identity from your dossier with U.S. Customs, so he just assumed that’s what it was about. He says nobody specifically told him to abduct Arlene Widdenback.”
I grimaced. “Great. Nothing like narrowing the field.”
Holt grunted agreement and went on, “So Grandin finally coughed up the phone number for his contact. He was supposed to call the number and arrange a drop as soon as he had you. He’s never met the contact in person, but we have to assume they know who he is. So it looks like our only option is to set up a sting with you as bait.”
I fell into my chair and buried my head in my hands. “Absolutely fucking marvelous.”
My voice came out thin and tremulous, and Holt snapped, “Have you got a problem with that?”
I had been teetering on the edge of admitting I was in no shape mentally or physically to undertake that kind of mission; but the contempt in his tone prodded my stubborn pride.
I raised my head from my hands and gave him a level look. “We have a problem with that. Stemp just rescinded my active-duty status.”
“What the hell? What did you do?” Holt demanded. “Couldn’t you game the psych evaluation? I thought you had that covered.”
Still prickling with irritation, I snapped, “I passed my psych evaluation.”
“But?”
“Stemp nailed me on a technicality.” Before Holt could dig for details, I went on, “It’s no big deal. I should be back to active duty tomorrow.”
“Oh.” He relaxed. “Okay, good. I won’t have anything set up before then anyway.” He removed his feet from my coffee table and rose, stretching and flexing his neck. “Christ, did you have to go to town on me like that?” He touched the swollen spot on his jaw and winced. “You knew damn well it was me.”
“I’m sorry,” I said sincerely. “I did know it was you, but you startled the hell out of me and by the time my brain caught up with my reflexes it was too late.”
“Huh.” He gave me a narrow look. “Lucky for you Stemp showed up when he did.”
“I’m still thanking my lucky stars.”
Holt must have heard the profound truth in my voice. He laughed. “Way to suck up, Kelly. Don’t worry, I probably wouldn’t have killed you outright. Remember, I’m gaming my psych evaluations, too.” Heading for the door, he added, “I’ll run the sting mission by Stemp and bring you into the loop as soon as we have a strategy. Catch you later.”
As he vanished down the hall, I fell back in my chair with a whimper of sheer despair.