The Complete Red-Hot Collection. Kelly Hunter
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the rest of their meal in silence. It wasn’t a companionable silence—more like a heavy, expectant waiting. Jared cleaned up. Rowan helped. His shoulder brushed against hers—the chambray of his shirt soft and well-worn against the bare skin of her shoulder—and her nipples pebbled tightly beneath her bra. She had a jacket somewhere. Wouldn’t hurt to put it on and get the hell gone from here before the mind-melting awareness between them turned into hot, sweaty sex.
‘If I was ten years older would you take my attraction to you more seriously?’ he asked.
So much for ignoring the elephant in the room.
‘It’s not the age difference.’ Nothing but the truth. ‘Given your experience with life, loss and the demands of intelligence work, you’d be a good match for me. Your body in its prime would just be a bonus.’
‘Is there someone else in your life?’
‘No.’ Not for years.
‘Who do you get intimate with?’
‘Since the director’s chair? No one.’
‘Well, that can’t be healthy. How long do you plan on keeping the chair?’
‘It’s hard to say. It was my end-game. I got here a little sooner than expected. Now I’m regrouping. Starting to plan ahead.’
Next thing she knew she’d be revealing that sometimes she questioned what had driven her to this and whether the power she now wielded had been worth the sacrifice. The gruelling hours and the responsibility. Always having to watch her back on account of the power games people played. She could count on one hand the number of people she truly trusted.
Even Jared trusted more people than she did.
‘You could set your sights on the top job,’ he said. ‘Run the division.’
‘I could. That’s likely to depend on the mistakes I make in this job and the never-ending politics. Are you going to be a mistake on my résumé?’
‘No.’ He held her gaze. ‘That’s not the plan.’
‘Then what is the plan? You come in here this evening, bearing food—’
‘People eat in this building all the time.’
‘Yes, in the twenty-four-hour cafeteria.’
‘Never seen a director eating in there yet. You could have asked me and my duck to leave.’
‘And I will—but not before you give me the name of your informant.’
‘And what will you give me in return?’
‘Permission to leave the room and the country.’
‘I want a kiss.’
Nothing but challenge in the rough purr of his voice and speculation in his eyes.
‘Because that’s not going to undermine my authority at all?’ she offered dryly.
‘You’re a little hung up on authority, Ro.’
‘It comes with the territory.’
‘Last chance,’ he offered. ‘You want a name; I want a kiss. Think of it as a trust-building exercise.’
‘Or blackmail?’
‘A freely given exchange,’ he countered smoothly.
‘If you don’t return—if you crash and burn or simply decide that your attention is needed elsewhere—my head is going to roll unless I have something to bargain with. I’m trusting you to do your job, and I have precious little reason for doing so other than gut instinct. I want the name of your informant and I want you back here in six days—free of all Antonov baggage, clearheaded and fit to work.’
‘Then do I get my kiss?’
‘Then you gain my trust—and, for what it’s worth, my respect. Finish the job, Jared. And then we’ll talk relationships and sex.’
JARED STARTED WITH money for the families first. Local currency and plenty of it. Their dead loved one had had an insurance policy, courtesy of their employer, he told the head of each family. Blood money—nothing more than a Band-Aid applied to his conscience and a couple of years’ financial security for the families—but he had to believe that it would help. Money always helped—stained red or not.
He went after Yegor Veselov next, who was in Singapore. It took him another day to get to him and extract the information he required, and by then he’d missed his scheduled flight back to Australia.
His new director was not going to be impressed.
He rang Sam instead. ‘Tell her I missed my flight.’
‘Oh, no. You can tell her yourself.’
He guessed he didn’t have to identify himself.
There was a click, two rings, and he almost hung up—like a kid on a prank call. Instead he waited.
‘Jared?’ his director offered curtly. ‘This better be good.’
He gave her the name of another director and smiled mirthlessly when the first words out of her mouth were ‘I knew it.’
‘You’re sexy when you’re smug.’
‘Does that line ever work for you?’
‘I’ve never used it before. It’s a first.’
‘In that case I’ll attempt to feel flattered. Is our informative friend in travelling shape? Can you bring him in to testify against our man?’
‘Doesn’t seem wise. He’s currently dining with an Eastern Bloc president. Or aren’t we caring about that?’
‘I guess we’re caring,’ she said. ‘So, have you tied up all your other loose ends?’
‘I still need to check on the kid. I need another couple of days.’
‘No, you need to prove yourself reliable and be back here when you said you would be. That’s non-negotiable.’
‘Even though I’ve given you a name?’
‘That name is going to need your weight behind it. Is there any reason you need to see this kid in the flesh?’ she countered flatly.
Besides wanting to see Celik for himself and gauge the child’s wellbeing …?
‘He’s being monitored by the Dutch authorities,’ she offered next. ‘Check up on him that way, and if you’re still not satisfied I’ll send you to the Netherlands to see him—no question.’
‘I’m already halfway there.’
‘I’m sending you the contact details for the Dutch who are monitoring him. Call them. And then, in the interest of your future career and my current one, get back here.’
‘Is that an order?’
‘You don’t take orders, so let me put it another way. You asked for my co-operation and trust and I gave them to you. How about you goddamn earn it?’
Jared walked with new purpose and confidence. He wasn’t fixed, by any means—he still slept far less than any man should, and indecision still plagued him—but there was no denying that a weight had lifted from his shoulders now that he’d finally finished what he set out to do. Expose the rot in the counter-intelligence organisation he worked for—all the way back to the roots. Maybe now he could rest and get his life back. Figure out what it was he wanted now.
Apart from that kiss.
Director