Page 14 of Covert Mission
The sharp pain refuses to go away. Like a swallowed briar bush, it works its way down my throat and starts to grow in my chest.
Carson Trembow used to call me Poppy. Amongst other things. Red, Copper, Hothead, to name a few. With him it was always a good-natured tease by a close friend.
Carson.
His name whispers through me. I always hoped he’d get away from William’s Springs. But before he got his chance, he died of an overdose.
I blink rapidly and look away with tears biting at the back of my eyes. These are private feelings. Not meant for this infuriating meathead.
But he doesn’t take a hint. He stands there, pretty much breathing down my neck, until I look at him.
Weirdly, that hurts too. Gone is the fire. In its place is a glacial detached inspection. It makes my skin tingle and my muscles twitch to move.
“I’m not leaving,” I say hoarsely.
“You’re not staying.”
I lift my chin and meet that hard, arctic stare. “At the risk of sounding like a bitch, you’re wrong. I’ve already made it clear, I have a job and you’re not my boss. The only other way you’d get a chance to earn a say in my life is if you put a ring on it.”
His gaze burns a frigid path to my ring finger. Something tightens in him. The humid air shifts. Whipped into an angry tornado.
“That’ll never happen. Especially with a woman like you.”
Ouch.
He pivots with military precision and stalks away.
I’m trembling. I can’t tear my eyes off the massive width of his shoulders as he advances across the opening.
A weird pain turns my marrow hot. Why do I feel like I just got eviscerated?
ChapterFive
Shit. Show.
I’m not just talking about the fact that my team just rescued a bunch of polo-shirt-wearing aid workers in the middle of a third world country.
The whole damned situation is jacked. Our mission is to find a missing woman.
One.
Not a stubborn redhead.
But the whole village is destroyed, crawling with earthquake teams, rebels, and aid organizations. I knew it would be a mess, I didn’t expect it to be a war zone.
And there’sher.My thorn.
I should call her Rose, not Poppy.
“What did they say?” I’m pissed and my voice is a snarl as I approach the team.
Evan nods toward the group of rag-tag people my men just saved. “The woman, Belle, is scared, and rightly so. The men are rattled, but they’ve seen this before.”
“We need to get this solved so we can get to work. The longer we dick around with this, the more time we aren’t working on locating our missing subject.”
Grunts of agreement follow. We all know why we’re here. Agile was hired by a billionaire to find his missing daughter.
Scout tugs off his ball cap and reseats it. “So, Chief, their company could be useful. Maybe we could team up.”