Chapter 1
I knew three things as absolute fact: the woman sitting across the table from me was a liar, her need for a bullshit cover story was not my business, and she had the best pair of legs I’d ever seen.
The shiny black fuck-me-heels drew attention from her calves all the way up to her toned thighs.
Hot damn . Yep, I had no business checking the woman out, yet there I was analyzing her, and completely distracted by a great set of calves and sexy heels.
The dossier my boss, Zane Lewis, had sent to the team said her name was Tatiana Jones.
Declan, Max, Thad, Kyle, and myself had combed through the sparse documents.
Supposedly she worked for the UN as a Political Affairs Officer.
The job title fell under the office of counter-terrorism.
The department was legit, she may have even been on their payroll, but her body language and knowing gaze screamed ‘operative.’
We’d barely entered her office when she’d made it clear she wasn’t pleased we were in the Kingdom of Bahrain.
She knew why we were in the country. We had a singular objective, follow the money trail and click another piece of the puzzle together.
A simple recon expedition that should’ve in no way hindered the UN task force’s counterterrorism strategy.
Unless she was bullshitting. Which she was.
“I’ve been in contact with Mr. Lewis. He briefed me on the Militrix transoceanic cabling contract in the Gulf of Bahrain.
My divers inspected the area around the King Fahd Causeway.
There’s no cabling.” It sounded as if she’d practiced her speech, wanting us out of her office as quickly as possible.
“Your divers?” I interrupted.
Why would a Political Affairs Officer have divers on hand and at her disposal? She wouldn’t .
“Yes. Mine. The area is clear.”
Interesting. In her desperation to keep us away from what she was working on, she’d slipped up. Rookie mistake. Maybe she wasn’t as well-trained as I’d originally thought. Maybe she was a junior agent.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to take a look myself,” I pushed.
I didn’t need her permission, nor did I really care to get it. I simply wanted to keep her talking. Tatiana Jones and whatever she was doing in the region had zero impact on my mission, yet I wanted to know. Actually, I wanted to know more about her in general, which was crazy.
“There’s no need. I have the utmost trust in?—”
“Right. You may, but I don’t. And all due respect, I trust but verify.”
Tatiana leaned back and eyed me with a critical stare.
Yep. I’d been correct and she was getting ready to show her hand.
I doubted many people cut her off mid-sentence.
I’d also bet she gave the orders, and wasn’t pleased when she had to follow them herself.
There was a glint in her dark eyes that was sexy as hell.
A flash of fire and icy annoyance. Yeah, she could order me around anytime .
The look made me want to piss her off some more just so I could see it again.
“I know all about your verification process, Mr. Miller. I’m also well-acquainted with men like you.”
Here we go. I’d hit a hot button topic for her. Overbearing daddy or husband maybe.
Men like you … I wanted to tell her she’d never met a man like me and that was a goddamn guarantee.
“Oh, yeah? And what kind of man am I, Doll?”
“An overachiever. Demolitions expert. Divemaster. Low and high-altitude jumpmaster. Rappel Master. Fast Rope Master.”
She was missing a few of my quals, and I had to fight the urge to school her on all things Brooks Miller. Like how good I was with my hands, I was top of my class in close quarter combat. My hand techniques were the best around.
And it was more than me knowing hundreds of ways to kill a man without breaking a sweat.
“Glad to see you’ve done your homework. Unfortunately the work-up we received on you was only a paragraph. There was nothing listing your accomplishments.”
“My accomplishments aren’t important. The only thing that’s imperative is you don’t fuck up my op.”
Interesting. She’d laid her cards on the table. The question remained, was it intentional, or had she fucked up?
“Well, Miss Jones. It is Miss , correct? We wouldn’t want to get in your way. I’ll take a quick look around this afternoon and hopefully in a few days we’ll be on our way.”
“It’s actually none-of-your-business ,” Tatiana sparred. “I’ll take you out there myself. Tomorrow, oh-five-hundred.”
“You’ll take me out?”
“Good to know all your combat tours haven’t diminished your hearing.”
“What do you know about diving?”
“You’re not the only one with special quals, friend. If we’re done, I have shit to do. I was promised you guys wouldn’t be an issue.”
I wanted to keep pushing the spunky woman, but Declan looked like he was ready to stroke out. We’d been warned not to piss Tatiana off. While the details about her were sketchy at best, the report was clear she knew and had worked with some very important people.
“There will be no issues from us,” Declan confirmed. “Recon and out.”
“Good. I have something scheduled in less than a week. I’d prefer you were gone by then.”
“Ah. You’re kicking us out of your country?” Unable to stop myself I dramatically covered my chest.
Tatiana shook her head, not the least bit amused by my behavior. “With big egos, comes bigger mouths,” she mumbled. “Have a nice afternoon, gentlemen. Mr. Miller, I’ll see you at the docks off fifty-ninth, slip fifteen.”
All I needed was a few hours and I’d wipe the disdain off her pretty face. It wouldn’t take long to show her that my big ego was hard-earned confidence and not bullshit talk.
Tatiana didn’t wait for us to stand before she took her exit. I kind of found that sexy, too.
“Damn, brother, I was having grade school flashbacks.” Kyle chuckled.
“All that was missing was you pulling her hair,” Max threw in.
“Mark this, assholes. If we had more time, I’d be doing more than tugging on Miss Sex Kitten’s curly mane. Holy hell, those legs in those sky-high heels. Hot damn. And that mouth, she can throw some sexy attitude my way anytime,” I told the group.
“Keep your dick in your pants. Recon only,” Declan mumbled.
“Copy that, Boss.”
“Brooks wishes he had time for a quick recon mission.” Thad laughed at his own joke.
We made our way out of the UN annex building, and for once I didn’t feel the need to bitch about the temperature when the heat blasted me in the face. I had better things to think about, like all the ways I could fluster Tatiana Jones.
“What has you laughing?” Max asked.
“Just thinking about how pissed she’s gonna be tomorrow morning when she finds out I’ve already been diving and cleared the area.”
“You gonna tell her?” Kyle joined in.
“Hell, yeah.”
“Please do not fuck this op up. In and out, that’s it,” Declan groaned.
“That’s what he’s hoping for, a quick in and out.” Thad clapped Declan on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll still be on schedule, he only takes five minutes.”
Declan cracked the smallest of smiles and shook his head. As the newcomer on our team, he’d learn we jack-assed around but when it was go-time, we were on our game and as deadly as we needed to be.