Page 47 of One Last Stand

“How’d it go with Boo?”

She lifted a shoulder. “I’m a coward. I didn’t go home.”

“You didn’t tell Boo?”

“I didn’t know what to say. Flynn is going to tell her.”

“London.”

She sighed. “I . . . I know. But it would be another couple hours of explanations and . . . I was hoping it could wait until I got back.”

Shep gave her a slow smile. “So, you’re coming back.”

It was the first time, really, that she’d said it aloud. But that life had suddenly started to sift through her hands, and she didn’t know if she could get it back.

But that kiss . . .

He touched her hand. “London, everything is going to be fine.”

“You’ve never met the Petrov Bratva.” Her jaw tightened, and when he drew in a breath, she wished she hadn’t said that. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’m not completely helpless.”

Right.She had forgotten about his time in the military.

“And it seems like you have some, um,skills.”

“The Black Swans aren’t military. We’re mostly a surveillance-gathering organization, although sometimes we’re tapped to acquire something sensitive or to procure information.”

“So, thievery and torture too.”

“What? No. Like . . . attending diplomatic functions and sneaking into an office to snap a few clandestine pictures. Or maybe making friends with the girlfriend of a known gun smuggler to discover his next buy.”

“Just that.”

She sighed. “It sounds more exciting than it was. Mostly, it was sitting at café tables, a microphone aimed toward our mark, listening, eating a croissant and drinking tea.”

“Mm-hmm. In three different languages.”

“Keeps it interesting.” She smiled at him. Then she unfolded her legs and put them on his lap.

Like they might be a couple?

Maybe, because he massaged her feet.

“I could get used to this.”

“What, Learjets and foot rubs?”

“You knowing my life.”

His strong hands stopped, just holding her feet. “I don’t know your life, London.”

Her mouth opened, and he held up a hand. “I knew you were an operative of some sort—Colt told me that much. But . . . honestly, I didn’t know what to think. And maybe I didn’t want to.”

Oh. “And now?”

“And now, I think that I’m very much interested in how the fifteen-year-old girl with freckles and braids that I met at Glacier Peaks Wilderness Camp with her cousins Sam and Pete ended up leaping tall buildings.”