Love Op: A Spicy, Cat-And-Mouse, Thriller Rom Com (Love and Other Jobs Book 5)

7. Mattie

Either I was hallucinating, or Ghost—Kael—had agreed to be a double agent. I stared at him with undisguised, silent surprise, my eyes darting from him to the road and back to him again. We’d been driving for a good hour since the heart attack incident, and while I didn’t think the authorities would be looking for good Samaritans who had ducked out after providing CPR, I knew Kael was likely being cautious before stopping again.

The radio was playing some sort of classic rock that droned on in the background, and Kael held the steering wheel loosely with one hand, leaning his face on the other that he’d cocked against the window. I watched passing lights flare over the swirling, graphic tattoos that had formed a solid sleeve from his wrist to his defined bicep. They had faded quite a bit, but I made out a mythological-type being with wings and a skull face, along with other winged women who all seemed to be done in the classical, sculpture style. I wanted to ask him what they meant, but I was more interested in what the hell he planned to do with me.

He took an exit suddenly, heading into a sleepy city edge, and then pulled into a twenty-four-hour pharmacy and convenience store. He shut off the engine, and then the leather seat creaked, filling the sudden silence as he turned to me. “If I leave you here,” he said quietly, “will you stay put for ten minutes?”

I gave him a heavy blink. “Would you believe me if I said I don’t think I could walk ten steps without falling on my face?”

He gave me an up-down perusal. “I would.”

“You agreed awfully quick, there,” I said with hooded eyes.

“You look like death,” he returned callously. I gave him a middle finger, and it caused him to smile faintly. “I’ll be right back.”

He locked the car after closing the door and then jogged out into the light drizzle that seemed to be a perpetual state of existence for this part of Washington. I watched him go, my brain sifting through what the hell had just happened. It had been a long shot to tell him about my parents. And he’d reacted pretty much how I’d expected him to. He’d shut me down and had told me it didn’t change anything.

Except it had. I wasn’t sure exactly when I had realized it, but sometime between arguing over what type of cold medicine to get and performing CPR on a heart attack victim, I’d been able to confirm what I’d already suspected about Kael.

He’s a decent human being.

I’d hoped it was true, of course. But you never knew with people like him. He was practical, well-trained, and largely devoid of emotion when on the job. I was certain he had to be. But then, in that pharmacy, he’d made a choice—he’d run away from me to find an AED for a dying old man rather than ensure his two-million-dollar payout stayed put, and that was how I knew for sure that Kael-the-Hot-Ghost-Guy wasn’t half as mercenary as he seemed.

Maybe.

I still had my doubts, but…

Maybe.

When Kael returned, he had a plastic shopping bag in his hand along with an electrolyte drink and a bottle of water. He handed me the blue drink, sliding back into his seat and shutting the door. “I took a guess and figured you for a blue girl.”

I studiously resisted the urge to look into his eyes that were a perfect match for an icy Christmas pond. “I love blue.”

“Good, drink all of that.” He put the bag in his lap and rifled through it before producing cold medicine. “And here is a package of daytime cold medicine. You’re welcome.”

I accepted the package that contained huge gel capsules that promised relief from cold and flu symptoms. “Thanks… Kael.”

He shifted an amused look my way. “You’re welcome, Bunny.”

I clicked my tongue. “Now that we are on a first-name basis, are you going to tell me what exactly you plan on doing with me?”

Kael set the bag in the back seat and returned his attention to me. His silver-streaked hair had caught droplets of misty rain along the tips, and he scratched his dusky upper lip as he thought. Finally, he said, “Don’t take this the wrong way, but you aren’t much help to me right now even if I were to start investigating your parents.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Wrong way taken. I might be sick, but I can still talk.” As if mocking me outright, my traitorous body launched into a coughing fit that filled the quiet car with painful, hacking noises.

Kael reached back, unzipped his rugged, man-dude backpack, and then fished out the thermometer gun. Without another word, he pointed it at me, pulled the trigger, and waited two seconds for the beep. As the thing went haywire with irritating alarm beeps, he turned it wordlessly to face me.

104.5. Yikes.

Kael tossed it behind him. “Medicine. Sleep. Then we can talk.”

“How long are we driving for? Where are we going?”

“I told you—we’re meeting my operative and she has a van.” Kael started the car and zipped his seatbelt over his body.

I pulled my eyelids together in suspicion. “The plan is to take me to your creepy van? That’s rather disconcerting.”

“You’re disconcertingly sick, so take the medicine, and then,” he emphasized again, pulling the car into reverse, ”we can talk.”

“You’re just snarly because I caught you being a good person,” I muttered, tearing into the medicine box.

“I am not snarly. And I’m not a good person—I don’t know where you keep getting that idea.”

“He said with a snarl,” I narrated under my breath. Kael rotated a look my way that brought to mind demon kings of the underworld, and I held up the medicine box like a shield. “Jesus, okay, sorry. I’ll take the meds and sleep.”

“Preferably without saying anything else that will make me regret helping you,” he added testily.

I smiled to myself. Snarly Ghost was on my side. Who would have thought.