Engaged In Espionage (CAUGHT IN CHAOS COLLECTION #3)

1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Amelia

I drop the binoculars onto my lap. “I am going to murder my boyfriend.”

I probably shouldn’t say things like that out loud, seeing as how the last man who wronged me ended up dead. That sounds worse than it was.

No wait. It legitimately does not get worse than death.

Oh, I didn’t kill him. ?I want to make that abundantly clear right off the bat.

But tonight is a different story. I may have to kill someone. Caleb. And the woman sitting across from him, leaning over the table to display a ridiculous amount of cleavage. I don’t have half of what she does. Am I jealous? Yes, obviously.

“I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for this,” Maddie says from the passenger seat, where she has her binoculars aimed right at my boyfriend, catching him in the act.

“I can’t believe this is happening again,” I groan.

“He’s not Justin, he’s not cheating on you, he’s working. That’s what he told you.”

“Yes, yes, I know. My boyfriend is a government agent and incapable of being dishonest with me,” I mutter in a monotone.

I know he’s not cheating on me. Maybe. Then again…there may still be some lingering fears in the pit of my soul in a place only Taylor Swift could accurately describe through poetic song.

But this is more than that.

This is a missing persons case. Caleb told me he was going to be busy with work for a while. He did not say he was going to disappear for an entire month. I hadn’t seen my boyfriend for thirty-one days. I needed proof of life! So I enlisted Maddie’s help to track him down.

And we caught him. In the act of enjoying steak with another woman. That is a food best savored beside me.

“Did he tell you what he was working on?” Maddie asks.

“Something top secret, yada yada.”

I pull the binoculars back up to my eyes. Caleb touches the woman’s hand, and I want nothing more than to chop off her fake nails.

Caleb picks up her hand and presses a kiss to the back, offering her a smile meant solely for me.

Red hot fury rages in my stomach.

“I’m killing him.” I toss the binoculars in the back seat.

“Whoa, hey.” Maddie yanks my arm off the door. “Let’s just wait it out, and see what happens.”

“You think I should wait until he kisses her?”

“Well…”

“I’m going in there.”

“And you’re going to what? Make a huge scene?”

I look over at her. “Yes.”

“What if he’s undercover?”

I already considered that. I take a deep breath. “Relax. I noticed approximately seven minutes ago that all the servers are wearing black. So am I. I’ll steal an apron and walk by. I won’t even engage.”

“That is a terrible idea.” Maddie shakes her head.

“Probably. But it's also a fun one.” I shoot her a smile before hopping out. I dodge around the side of the building and locate the employee entrance. The door is cracked open, and a mouth-watering aroma filters into the alley.

I peek through the opening, feeling like a professional spy.

Everyone is busy. The chef tosses food in frying pans, the servers run around with plates. Not a single soul looks up from their task as I slip inside.

There is an apron on the back of a chair and I snatch it up, wrapping it around my waist.

This was significantly easier than I thought it would be.

I scoop two plates off the dessert counter and scurry out of the kitchen.

Once I hit the dining area, I slow my pace. It has been a while since I’ve been a server, but it all flies back to me in a flash. It’s not that hard. All you have to do is be super kind, and a little flirtatious, and you’ll get great tips. And of course, remember the correct orders, which was never my strong suit.

I’m ten steps from their table. Caleb hasn’t seen me; he’d have to take his eyes off Miss America for that.

Caleb says something to the woman, and she purses her lips, leaning back in her seat with disinterest.

“Did I tell you how well you wear that color?” Caleb asks in his most sultry voice.

He’s got a point. Few people can pull off that shade of vibrant purple, but how dare he compliment her when I’m standing right here!

“Someone ordered dessert?” I drop the two plates on the table in between the home wrecker and the cheater.

The home wrecker glares at the piece of chocolate cake like it could kill her. The cheater looks like he just swallowed an olive. But I don’t feel like jumping in to give him the Heimlich.

“These aren’t ours.” The woman waves her hand at them, frantically trying to shoo them away like the calories will stick to her if she just looks at them.

“They are now.” I smile sweetly at her, then lower my voice. “There’s no need to worry about the carbs going to your waist. It’s just a myth.”

The woman gapes at me. Then I turn my attention to my boyfriend. “This looks like a man who would encourage a lady to eat what pleases her. Am I right?”

Caleb takes a breath, placing a smile on his face. But I know him well enough to read the emotion beneath. He’s fuming.

He’s so sexy when he’s mad.

“I believe a lady can make her own decisions.” He gazes adoringly at the woman, and then his tantalizing green eyes shift to me. “A lady should be confident enough with herself that she doesn’t do something she’d regret.”

He’s calling me out right now? He’s the one wearing his most expensive suit to schmooze a woman who's at least ten years older than him.

Hmm. The binoculars didn’t pick up on that one.

Crap. He’s working. Well, good thing I didn’t bring any unnecessary attention to myself.

I turn a fake smile back at the lady. “My mistake, ma’am. When they said to take this to the beautiful lady in the back, I just assumed that was you. Clearly, I was wrong.”

That sounded nicer in my head.

The woman gasps and shoots to her feet.

She’s a lot taller than the binoculars let on as well.

“I mean, you’re not ugly or anything it’s just—”

“There she is!” A high-pitched voice breaks through the dining room and everyone turns toward the sound of the young server. “That’s the woman who snuck in the back!”

I swallow. She could be referring to anyone.

“And stole my apron.”

Two seconds later I’m tackled to the ground, handcuffs cinched around my wrists.

Unnecessary attention: check.

“Are the cuffs really necessary?” I ask Cruz.

A wicked gleam grows in her eyes. “Oh yeah.”

She’s having too much fun with this. My shoulder is still sore because she tackled me to the floor like a freaking lineman. She could have led me, with dignity, out the back. But instead, she announced to the whole restaurant that I’d escaped a mental facility, then marched me through the front, very slowly. Then she continued to haul me down the street to where the van was parked. I’ve been stuck in this uncomfortable chair for ten minutes now.

“Is this how you got Liam to fall in love with you? You know you don’t have to handcuff people to get them to like you. You just have to be nice—”

“I’m nice.” She cuts me off with a glare.

I tilt my head to the side. “Try saying it with a smile and I might believe you.”

“Seriously, Amelia, you can’t keep doing this. You can’t keep showing up in the middle of missions. Caleb is undercover right now. I barely even know what he’s doing. I’m just here in case things go south.”

A pit forms in my stomach. I feel appropriately chastened. “I know, I just…I haven’t seen him in a month. I wanted to make sure he was okay.”

Her scowl softens incrementally. “If you’re not careful, next time you’ll end up in the middle of a gunfight.”

That would be less than ideal. "Can I get a gun on the off chance that happens?"

She rolls her eyes.

It was worth a shot.

One knock on the door is the only warning before Caleb enters the van. His face is a mask of frustration and…more frustration.

I screwed up. I realized that twenty minutes ago, but I feel roughly the size of a grain of dirt right now.

“Want me to stay?” Cruz asks.

Caleb just shakes his head. Cruz hops out of the van and Caleb leans against the closed back doors. “I just got off the phone with my boss.”

“Your new boss, right? Not the old one that turned on Cruz?” I could kill that guy, and I never even met him. “That guy made a real mess of things…”

And so did I. These handcuffs are probably on the right person.

I sink lower in my seat. “Caleb, I’m so sorry.”

“My undercover boss.” He shakes his head. “I don’t know how you did it. I’ve been trying to get in with that woman for months, I’ve been working for her organization and everything, but when I defended her against the crazy lady—”

“Unnecessarily harsh.”

“She invited me to a private event,” he finishes.

On second thought, maybe the cuffs should be on her.

“Do I, uh,” I scrunch up my nose, “want to know what kind of event this is?”

“It’s illegal, and classified.” He pushes off the wall and stalks toward me. “What was going through your head tonight, sweetheart?” He kneels in front of me and brushes a strand of hair out of my face before releasing me from the cuffs.

“You’ve been MIA for a month! I missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too.” A smile creases his cheeks. “How did you find me?” He mutters a curse through a clenched jaw. “You asked Liam for help, didn’t you?”

I squirm in my seat. “A good spy never reveals their secrets.”

“You’re not a spy.”

“No. But I think I’ve found something better.”

His brows furrow, but he doesn’t speak, so I take that as my cue to start the conversation I’ve been waiting a month to have.

“So you know how I love being a hairdresser?”

He frowns while massaging my wrists. “You don’t love it. You enjoy it.”

“Right, I love you. Anyway, I figured out my passion.”

Caleb gives me his full, undivided attention, and I’m momentarily distracted by his beautiful lips. I could make a career out of kissing those.

I shake my head. “I’ve had a lot of alone time to think, and I’ve decided I’m going to be a private investigator.”

Caleb stares at me, dumbfounded. “What?”

“You know those people who don't work for the government, but can still solve crimes and cases even faster because they’re not tied up by red tape?”

“You know the term red tape doesn’t mean actual tape, right?”

Hmm. Disappointing.

“Way to kill that one for me. Anyway, I’m already good at this. Remember, I solved the case of your missing T-shirt.”

He bites down on his bottom lip. “You mean the shirt you forgot you stole from me and found in your laundry pile two months later?”

“But I found it. And I figured out why Shawn was peeing in your shoe, remember?”

“Because he’s untrained?”

“Right.”

He sighs, but a smile teases his lips. He scrubs a hand down his face. “I’m going to regret this, but I have an idea.”

“I’m in.”

“You haven’t even heard what the idea is.”

“Does it matter?”

He shakes his head. “I’m hiding something right now. If you figure out what it is, I’ll support your dreams.”

“You’ll quit the FBI and work for me, and we’ll become the detective duo of my dreams?”

He raises a single brow. “That’s not what I said.”

“Oh, right, you're hiding something from me. Are you on a dating app? Secretly undercover and have been the whole time we’ve been together, and tonight was your real life. No wait, you have an identical twin, and I’ve been dating both of you, but one of you is a better kisser—”

“Amelia.”

“Right, head in the game. You’re hiding something?” I clench my fists, but my legs are bouncing like crazy. Focus.

“Figure it out and find it,” he says, giving me a mission. I’m living for this. Mission accepted.

I tap my foot on the floor. “That’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Any hints?”

“Just this one.” He leans across the distance between us and kisses me. His lips are soft and teasing, then rough and firm. And with this kiss, I know.

I know exactly what he’s hiding from me.