Chapter Twenty-Five
Jared shut the war room door with an ominous thud that mirrored his hulking, brooding demeanor. He rounded the room and took a seat at the head of the table. Across from Hagan, Amanda squared her shoulders and chin, refusing to shrink from his glower. “Boss Man.”
Her stubborn, defiant streak did something to Hagan. He knew it might haunt him one day, but until then, he wanted to clap Amanda on the back and say good job.
Jared’s expression tightened, clearly not happy to have been pulled into this job, but he finally greeted her, dipping his head. “Sparkler.”
Hagan gripped his chair’s armrests and refrained from telling his boss that cutesy fuckin’ nicknames weren’t needed in the war room. Amanda’s gaze clashed with Jared. But as her nostrils flared, she seemed to acknowledge he’d scored some kind of point in their asinine, silent battle.
Angela walked in, unknowingly breaking the tension, and distributed briefing books. Parker joined them and closed the door. After everyone had a booklet, she dialed on the conference call line, briefly speaking to someone before announcing that Halle was on the line.
“The gang’s all here.” Jared flipped open the briefing. “Let’s talk about penetration.”
“Don’t be a two-year-old,” Amanda chided.
Hagan cut a hard glance between them and tried to see Amanda as the head of another security company.
This was essentially a joint task force.
A joint op. She didn’t work for him, no matter that they contracted together.
For this job, Jared and Amanda were equals.
And, no matter their history or games, right now she seemed ready to remind everyone of that fact.
Jared gestured to Hagan. “Isn’t that what we’re all here to talk about?”
“No one needs to be an asshole,” Hagan muttered.
“Just so we’re clear.” Jared leaned forward, set his elbows on the table, and eyed them around the table. “I am an asshole.”
“This isn’t going to work.” Amanda stood up and smiled toward Hagan. “Thanks for offering to help.”
“Wait,” Halle called from the speakerphone. “I’ve already put things in motion. I think we can all agree that two people are better than one.”
Amanda crossed her arms and looked as though she might hang up on Halle. “We’re not pen testing their system. Simply scouting for information.”
“Too bad,” Jared added.
Hagan witnessed Amanda’s struggle. It couldn’t have been far from how he felt.
“Let me guess.” She stiffly returned to her seat. “You plan to be as obnoxious as possible until we go our separate ways?”
He smirked. “How’s my plan working?”
“All right you two. Enough,” Halle demanded.
Hagan glanced at Angela and Parker. Angela didn’t seem to know what was going on, and Parker seemed to orbit somewhere between laughing his ass off and standing in solidarity with Jared.
Jared held up his hands. “No more talk of penetration testing.”
Despite the dynamics of the room, Hagan almost laughed.
He bit the inside of his mouth and prayed that he could show the smallest slice of control.
He’d never claimed to act mature. The nature of his job forced him to find humor in the shittiest of situations.
This meeting wasn’t the shittiest situation, but it had to be the most uncomfortable.
Lord, give him strength to finish this meeting without fighting his boss or laughing out loud.
“If you can’t control the urge,” Amanda said, “you just say pen testing. It’d be less of a distraction, Boss Man.”
“Noted,” Jared grumbled.
Something that sounded suspiciously like choking laughter came from Parker.
Hagan wondered how he’d gone his entire life without attending a meeting where someone had said penetration.
That had to be impossible. Off the top of his head, he recounted a half-dozen missions in the last six months that required him to breach a line or infiltrate enemy barriers, and yet today that word sounded as inappropriate as … finger.
Hagan dropped his chin and pinched his eyes shut, knowing damn well that if he were to look up, he wouldn’t be able to keep it together.
Shuttlecock. Diphthong. Dreamhole. Hagan rubbed his temples. Innocuous words from long-finished crossword puzzles had come back to haunt him. His dirty mind did one better, ensuring that he somehow heard words like kumquat, dongle, and angina in Amanda’s voice.
“Everything okay over there?” Jared demanded.
Hagan’s thoughts had transformed into weirdo pervy word lists. Hell, his grandma had had angina. This meeting might ensure his place in hell if he weren’t careful. “Yeah. Fine.”
Jared opened his booklet again and flipped a few pages. Everyone else took it as a sign they could get down to business. Hagan skimmed the first pages and stopped cold. Newlyweds.
He glanced up. No one seemed shocked as they read the briefing contents.
Was he the only one who hadn’t put two and two together?
Amanda and Halle had discussed the benefits of a cover that operated as a couple.
In theory, he’d digested that information.
But to see the details of their coupledom written in black and white.
Newlyweds, no less. As if he wouldn’t have had sex on his mind already.
But that word equated into lots and lots of sex.
Angela pushed a shoe-box-sized container toward the center of the table. Hagan realized that he’d spaced on the discussion. Amanda reached for the box and extracted three smaller boxes. She opened the first, and without much fanfare, shut it and slung it across the table to Hagan.
Hagan eyed the box, not ready for what was inside. How the hell could he face off with his boss over a woman but let a fake marriage make him feel as cagey as a captured lion?
Amanda settled in her chair again. Two unopened boxes remained by her side.
Hagan refocused on the briefing and turned to the details of their joint operating agreement. Nothing much to see except for legalese.
He turned another page and skimmed. The summary read a little wordier than Titan’s usual mission briefings, but nothing out of the ordinary. Then Hagan read the first details of their cover. He’d never worked a job like this before.
Pieces of their cover surprised him. Hagan glanced up, confirming, “You’ll stay Amanda?”
She nodded. “And you’ll stay Hagan. There’s too high of a risk that the casino’s security system might register an unacceptable time variance if we interacted with different names.”
“You’re saying a fraction of a second could blow our cover?”
“Yeah,” Parker agreed. “We’ve kept what we have to and slightly adjusted everything else.”
Hagan reviewed his information. “We live in Bardstown, Kentucky.”
“Right,” Parker said.
“Because I grew up in—”
“No!” Amanda held up her hands. “Don’t share anything with me unless it’s on this paper.”
Jared sighed. “That ship has sailed.”
She ignored him. “Are we on the same page?”
Back to this again. Hagan ground his molars. What choice did he have? Then again, until Jared started poking him with a stick today, Hagan had been okay. He studied his profile. “Got it. I’m a pilot for UPS.”
She relaxed. “You know how to fly?”
“Says so right here.” Hagan tapped the briefing book.
Jared sighed.
Angela set another box on the table. This time, Hagan grabbed it first and dumped the contents onto the table. A flowery cloth purse and a well-worn masculine leather wallet fell out. Hagan slung the purse toward Amanda, then flipped open his new wallet and inspected his ID and credit cards.
The briefing wrapped in a matter of minutes. Jared and Parker left when Angela picked up the phone line and chatted with Halle. Only Hagan and Amanda remained. He scooped his new gear and moved to the seat at her side. “Time to check out the good stuff, huh?”
Her business-as-usual attitude had disappeared. “Guess so.”
Hagan gave his box a shake. It was heavier than he’d expected and required him to tug off the top. Amanda opened her two boxes and placed them in a row with his. Inside the velvet-lined boxes were his-and-hers earpieces and mics, an engagement ring, and two matching gold bands.