9. Where is Chris Roman?
Where is Chris Roman?
At six forty-five the next morning, Chris Walker walked into the FBI field office looking like a man who had slept approximately twelve minutes.He hadn’t.Twenty-three.Maybe.
Not because of the operation.Not because Mateo Vargas had begun pulling Roman deeper into his organization.Not because Diego Serrano was watching him like a suspicious pit bull.Because every time Chris closed his eyes, he saw Camila Vargas sliding across the center console and settling onto his lap.Her hands on his shoulders.His hands around her waist.Her mouth against his.Him Inside her.
This can’t happen.It already did.“Shit.”
He’d said it out loud last night.He nearly said it again now.The elevator doors opened.
Chris stepped into the secure corridor carrying black coffee and wearing jeans, boots and a dark jacket.Walker clothes.Not Roman.That distinction used to feel obvious.This morning it didn’t.Badge.Biometrics.Secure door.Chris entered the operations room.Mercer was already there.Sloan sat at the conference table with her laptop open.Logan leaned back in his chair with one boot hooked against the edge of another.Parker,Owen and Ruiz stood near the evidence wall drinking coffee.Everyone looked at Chris.Then kept looking.Chris stopped.
“What?”Nobody answered.That was never a good sign.He walked toward the coffee machine.Logan watched him pour more coffee into the cup he was already carrying.
“That your second?”Chris looked over.“How do you know?”
“You’re holding one.”
“This could be the same one.”
“You just poured coffee into it.”
“Observant.”
“Federal training.”Chris stared at him.Logan smiled.Chris took a drink.Mercer looked up from the report in front of him.“How’d last night go?”
“Fine.”Sloan immediately looked away from her laptop.“Fine?”
“That’s usually what fine means.”
“How was the assignment?”
“Charity dinner. Nothing operational.”
“Mateo?”
“Wasn’t there.”
“Camila?”There it was.Chris’s face remained completely neutral.“Was.”Logan looked from Chris to Sloan.Then back to Chris.Chris noticed.Of course he did.Sloan slowly closed her laptop.“What happened?”
“Nothing.”
“I don’t believe you.”Chris looked around the room.Everyone was staring now.Even Parker.Chris spread one hand.“Nothing happened.”Logan leaned forward.“You look like you’re about to light a cigarette.”Chris stared at him.“I don’t smoke.”
“Exactly.”Ruiz snorted into his coffee.Chris pointed at him.“Don’t encourage him.”Sloan folded her arms.“Walker.”
“What?”
“You’re different.”Chris looked down at himself.“Still devastatingly handsome.”Logan muttered, “Debatable.”
“Still annoying,” Sloan added.“Apparently.”
“But distracted.”
“I’m tired.”
“You don’t get distracted when you’re tired.”
“Maybe I’m evolving.”Mercer finally lowered the report.“Did something happen with Camila?”
“No.”Too fast.Chris knew it.Sloan knew it.Hell, everybody in the room knew it.Logan’s face changed.Slow smile.Chris looked at him.“Don’t.”Logan held both hands up.“I haven’t said anything.”
“Your face did.”
“My face is innocent.”
“Your face has never been innocent.”Sloan stood.“Chris.”He looked at her.“What happened?”Nothing.One kiss.Camila’s hands.Her mouth.Her body settling onto his lap.
His hands around her waist.Chris took another drink of coffee.“I drove her to a club.”
“And?”
“I stayed.”
“And?”
“I drove her home.”
“And?”Chris looked at Sloan.“That is generally how driving assignments work.”Sloan didn’t blink.Chris sighed.“She flirted.”Logan laughed.Chris’s eyes snapped toward him.
“You find something funny?”
“You.”
“Fantastic.”Sloan wasn’t laughing.“She flirted?”
“Yes.”
“And you?”Chris paused.“That depends on your definition.”Mercer closed his eyes.
“Jesus Christ.”Sloan stared at him.“Walker.”
“What?”
“Did you kiss Mateo Vargas’s sister?”Silence.Logan sat forward.Parker stopped pretending not to listen.Owen and Ruiz actually lowered their coffee.Chris looked around at all of them.
“This suddenly feels hostile.”
“Did you?”Chris scratched his jaw.“That question feels judgmental.”Sloan stared.
Chris finally sighed.“She kissed me.”Logan slapped a hand over his mouth.Chris pointed at him.“Not one fucking word.”Logan nodded rapidly.His shoulders were shaking.Sloan looked horrified.“You kissed her back.”Technically not a question.Chris rubbed the bridge of his nose.“For a minute.”
“A minute?”
“Not literally sixty seconds.”
“That’s your defense?”
“I wasn’t aware I needed one.”
“Chris!”
“Okay.”He put his coffee down.“Yeah. I kissed her.”Silence.Then Logan said:“You kissed the cartel boss’s little sister.”Chris slowly turned his head.“Price.”
“What?”
“You have exactly three seconds to become invisible.”Logan grinned.“One—”
“I’m going to kill you.”Mercer slapped his hand against the table.“Enough.”
The humor disappeared.“This isn’t funny.”
“I know.”
“Do you? You’re inside one of the most dangerous organizations we’ve investigated in years. Vargas is finally trusting Roman, and the first thing you do when he puts his sister in your car is make out with her?”
“She kissed me.”Mercer stared.Chris sighed.“Yeah. That doesn’t sound better when I say it out loud.”
“No.”Sloan came closer.“Does Mateo know?”
“I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so?”
“His house has cameras. I don’t know which ones capture the driveway.”
“You didn’t check?”Chris gave her a flat look.“I was slightly occupied.”A strangled noise came from Logan.Chris didn’t even look at him.“I swear to God, Logan.”Silence.Sloan lowered her voice.“This ends now.”Chris’s jaw tightened.“There is nothing to end.”
“You kissed her.”
“Once.”
“You told yourself that last night too, didn’t you?”Chris looked at her.Damn her.
Sloan knew him too well.“Camila isn’t an informant.”
“I know.”
“She isn’t an operational asset.”
“I know.”
“She isn’t part of this case.”
“I know.”
“And she doesn’t know you’re Chris Walker.”Chris went silent.That one landed.Hard.Because Camila had called him Chris last night.Not Walker.Not even Roman.
Just Chris.And for those few minutes inside the Range Rover, he’d forgotten that the man she was kissing wasn’t entirely real.Sloan watched his expression.“That’s the part you’re forgetting.”
“I’m not forgetting anything.”
“I hope not.”Chris picked up his coffee.Mercer changed the subject.“Did you learn anything useful?”Finally.Work.Something safer.Chris’s entire demeanor changed.“Yes.”
He walked toward the evidence board.“Mateo is talking about me to Camila.”
“How do you know?”
“She knew about the chase.”Sloan’s expression sharpened.“How much?”
“Enough to know someone followed us and that I lost them. She also knows Roman supposedly street-raced.”Mercer made a note.“Anything else?”
“Security at the estate is tighter than our surveillance suggested.”Chris went through everything he’d observed.Gate guards.Camera placement.Interior security.Access points.Staff movement.Mateo’s office building.Reception.Diego’s behavior.Everything.
For twenty minutes, Chris Walker was back.Focused.Precise.Clinical.Camila disappeared.Almost.When the briefing ended, Mercer gathered his papers.“Mateo have you scheduled today?”Chris nodded.“Security work. And apparently more driving.”
“Mateo?”
“Camila.”Sloan stared at him.Chris smiled faintly.“Apparently she didn’t fire me.”
“This isn’t funny.”
“I know.”
“Keep your distance.”
“I will.”Logan muttered:“Good luck with that.”Chris grabbed a pen from the table and threw it at him.Logan caught it.“See?” Logan said. “Different.”
“Go to hell.”
“Already invited.”Chris headed toward the door.“Walker.”He stopped.Sloan waited until the others had moved away.Then she lowered her voice.“Don’t confuse what she feels for Roman with knowing you.”Chris looked back at her.That silenced him.“She doesn’t know who you are.”
“I know.”
“Make sure you remember it.”Chris left.
By nine fifteen, Special Agent Chris Walker had disappeared again.Chris Roman sat behind the wheel of a black SUV outside the Vargas mansion.Same face.Different wallet.Different gun.Different life.And apparently absolutely no common sense where Camila Vargas was concerned.The front door opened.Camila emerged wearing jeans, a fitted white top, sunglasses and an expression suggesting she’d been looking forward to this.Chris watched her approach.Last night came rushing back.Her mouth.Her body in his lap.Her smile when he’d said shit.Nope.He looked straight ahead.The passenger door opened.Camila climbed in. “Morning.”
“Morning.”She buckled her seat belt.Then looked at him.Chris kept his eyes forward.
“What?”
“You’re being weird.”He looked over.
“I’ve spoken one word.”
“Exactly.”
“I can stop if you’d prefer.”She smiled.“There he is.”Chris started the SUV.
“Where to?”
“Coffee.”
“You have a kitchen the size of my apartment.”
“I don’t want kitchen coffee.”
“Of course you don’t.”
“Then the florist.”
“Why?”
“Flowers.”Chris looked at her.She stared back.He nodded.“Right. Stupid question.”
“Then the boutique.”
“You shop a lot.”
“I have a life.”