Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Alex paced the length of the living room space in her light blue pants and cropped-top pajamas. The thick, terrycloth robe the hotel had provided added only the slightest touch of comfort.
What’s taking him so long?
She glanced at the clock on the wall, realizing it had actually been less than an hour since Agent Swensen had escorted her to her room.
An hour. Maybe two.
That’s what the other woman had said when asked about Colt’s impending return to the hotel. Which meant he should be back soon.
She’d tried showering away her anger, though she only made it as far as washing off her body from the neck down. Impatient and angry, Alex had gotten out and dried off, not bothering with her face or hair.
Completing her online check-in for tomorrow morning’s flight hadn’t taken but a few short minutes.
She hadn’t brought much with her for the short trip to L.A.
so packing was also a breeze. Especially since Colt’s CIA buddy had packed up and brought her stuff here from the other hotel less than twenty-four hours before.
With those two tasks behind her, Alex had turned to flipping through channels. When that didn’t work either, she tried scrolling social media, which bought her a whole ten minutes.
So here she was, marching angrily from one end of the room to the other in her pjs and a robe that wasn’t hers. But hey, at least she’d managed to keep her hair dry and her makeup intact.
Like any of that even matters.
Her appearance was the last thing on Alex’s mind. She was too busy picturing all the ways she could inflict pain on a man she thought she knew.
A knock sounded on the door followed by her intended victim’s low voice.
“Alex? It’s me. Open up, we need to talk.”
She froze mid-pace, and her spine went ramrod straight. Her gut grew tight with anticipation and dread.
Damn straight, they needed to talk, and she wasn’t afraid to put the CIA agent square in his place. But after tonight, Alex knew things between them would never be the same, and that acknowledgement filled her with dread.
“Come on, Al.” Colt’s tone grew softer. “I know you’re pissed, but I can explain.”
She stormed that way, flipped the oblong door security guard free, and pulled the door open with a narrowed stare. “You crossed a line tonight, Coulter.”
Regret shone back from behind his enticing blue eyes. “Can I please come in?”
“Why? So you can lie your way back into my good graces?”
“No lies.” He shook his head. “I promise. But we can’t have this conversation with me standing in the hall.”
Alex held her glare but took a step back, giving him room to pass. She shut the door and locked it before turning her wrath his way.
“How dare you?”
“I know.” Colt raised a palm to shield himself from her anger. “You have every right to be mad, and I—”
“Mad?” A humorless chuckle escaped as she crossed her arms tightly in front of her chest. “Mad doesn’t even begin to describe what I’m feeling,” she seethed. “You used my sister, Colt. You made me think Avery had been hurt. Or worse, that she could very well die.”
“I know.”
“But why?” She threw her hands to her sides, letting them slap against her outer thighs as they fell.
“If you wanted Gordan all to yourself, why bother having me go through the motions in the first place? The shopping, the dress . . .” Her head slid angrily from side-to-side.
“Why did I do any of that if you planned to sabotage the evening from the beginning?”
“Okay, for one, I didn’t know if the plan was going to go through until later this afternoon. And two, I needed to meet with Crawford alone, and the only way to do that was—”
“To get rid of me?”
“Yes.” He didn’t hesitate in his blunt response. “I needed you out of that restaurant, but there had to be a plausible reason to explain your sudden exit.”
“And your first thought was to have some woman you work with pretend to be an E.R. nurse from Charlotte? Do you have any idea what I felt when she told me my sister was hurt? That Avery’s condition was critical? I mean, at the very least, you could have given me a heads up.”
“Actually, I couldn’t.”
“You couldn’t or wouldn’t?”
“Both.” Colt inched closer. “If that upsets you, I’m sorry, but I promised I’d tell you the truth. And the truth is, if you’d known what I had planned, your reaction when you got that call wouldn’t have been sincere.”
“My reaction?”
He nodded. “I know it was harsh, but you needed to hear the news cold so your reaction to it was genuine. Crawford needed to believe the story, which meant making you believe it, too.
“But why?” Her elevated voice echoed off the hotel’s thin walls. “I still don’t understand why you couldn’t wait until after dinner to meet with Gordan. Or why not wait until tomorrow, when I’m on a plane back to North Carolina?”
“It couldn’t wait.”
“Why not?”
“Because.”
Alex scoffed as her back teeth crunched painfully together. “Really? That’s what you’re going with? ‘Because?’”
“I don’t know what else you want me to say.”
“I want you to tell me the truth.”
“I did.”
“The whole truth, Coulter.”
“That is the whole truth, Alex.” He took a broad step toward her. “I did what was needed to get you out of that restaurant and away from that son of a bitch.”
“And that was the best plan you could come up with? What the hell were you thinking?”
The guilt and regret that had been on his face before vanished with the hardening of his stare.
“Funny. I was about to ask you that very same thing.”
“Me?” Alex flinched. “What did I do?”
“Please, you were practically swooning all over the guy.”
She sucked in a disbelieving breath. “I did no such thing.”
“I mean, it makes sense, right? Given that you prefer your men to be ‘a bit more mature’.”
Her brows dipped inward with confusion before his words finally sank in.
Son of a—
“You were listening to us?” Alex’s voice rose to a higher pitch. “But how?”
Colt remained quiet as he glanced down at her wrist.
She followed his gaze. “The bracelet,” Alex whispered. “No wonder you gave it to me.”
And here I was, stupid enough to think he was merely being sweet.
“There’s a tiny mic hidden inside the clasp,” he confirmed. “I needed to be able to hear what Crawford had to say.”
“Why? Did you honestly think the guy would be so utterly mesmerized by my presence he’d start spilling his guts about his disgusting crimes?”
“Sometimes guys like Crawford let little things slip when their guards are down. They say things that would mean nothing to you but might make a huge difference in the investigation. I couldn’t risk missing out on the possibility he’d say something to incriminate himself.”
“You could have told me you were planning to listen to us.”
“You knew I’d be there, watching.”
“I thought that meant you’d be sitting at a table in a dark corner alone hiding behind your menu or something.”
Wasn’t that how they always did it in the movies?
“I was in a van parked across the street. And what difference does it make? If you’d known about the bracelet ahead of time, what exactly would have changed? Would you have held back your flirtation? Acted less interested in a man who literally sells innocent women for money?”
Alex shot him a searing frown. “That’s not fair, and you know it. You said to act normal. The guy was flirting, so I flirted back. I thought the whole point of keeping the dinner date in the first place was to make nice with the jerk so he wouldn’t grow suspicious.”
“Make nice, sure. Acting like you’re ready to invite him back to your room is something altogether different.”
The ridiculous accusation sent her jaw to the floor. “You did not just say that to my face.”
“Actually, I did.”
The jerk didn’t look the least bit sorry about it, either.
“Go to hell, Coulter.” She turned and stormed toward the door.
“Dammit, Alex.” He followed. “What’s the matter with you?”
“Me?” She swung back around with a glare. “What’s the matter with you? I mean, seriously, Colt. Why are you acting this way?”
“What way?”
“Like an insanely jealous boyfriend, rather than some seasoned CIA spy.”
“I’m not acting jealous.” He blinked, his tone instantly shifting from accuser to defendant.
“Uh . . . yeah. You one hundred percent are.”
“Am not.”
“Are, too.”
“I am not acting jealous.”
If she wasn’t so mad, Alex would have laughed at the juvenile back-and-forth that was so very them. It’s what they did. The bantered insults and typically benign jabs were commonplace for her and Colt. From the moment they met, they’d been as compatible as a tub of oil and water.
But something about this conversation was different. At first, she wasn’t entirely sure what was happening between them. The conversation had shifted, and deep down, she knew it was no longer about Gordon.
No, this was something else altogether, and as she studied his breathtaking stare, the shocking truth finally hit her.
“Oh, my God.”
“What?” Colt scowled. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
How did I not see this before now?
The phone call. Making her think Avery was hurt so she’d be guaranteed to leave. Colt hadn’t interrupted the date for the sake of his job. No, this was something far more personal.
“You really are jealous.” Alex took a few slow steps back in his direction. “That’s why you cut the dinner short, isn’t it? It had nothing to do with needing to meet with Gordan, yourself. It was driving you crazy seeing the two of us together.”
Colt’s denial began with a shake of his head well before she’d even finished the thought. “I already told you it was imperative that I speak with him tonight.”
Yeah, she wasn’t buying that lame excuse a second longer.
“And what the two of you had to discuss simply couldn’t wait until morning, is that it?”
“Dammit, Alex—”
“Go ahead, Colt.” She continued closer. “Just admit it. You couldn’t stand the fact that I was with him.”
“Of course I didn’t like it. I was the one who tried getting you to cancel your plans with him from the first place, remember? The guy’s a freak. A monster. I didn’t want you anywhere near him.”