During his time in Russia, if he’d suspected that a high-ranked politician was engaging in suspicious activity, he’d break into their office to install a key logger on their computer. He’d bug their phone, wire their entire damn house if needed.
Over there, he’d always known what was around the corner.
But here, on American soil, he couldn’t help but feel that his wings had been clipped. With the potential for an adversary as powerful and well-connected as Stan Young, an adversary who could unearth the nasty details of Zane’s past, he wished he could still fly. He wished he could break the rules.
The familiar beep of the keypad drew him away from the rumination.
So much for an hour to make myself look like less of a paranoid lunatic.
As the door opened a crack, he prepared to summon a calm smile to his face. The practiced expression faltered as the visitor slipped through the narrow opening, a paper cup of coffee in each hand.
“Amelia?”
Her eyes met his as she used her foot to close the door. With a bright smile, she stepped to the side and set the drinks on the laminate table. “Long time, huh?”
Dragging a hand over his face, he let out a self-deprecating chuckle. “It sure feels like it. It seems like I haven’t seen you in a month.”
She dropped her handbag in a broken office chair and turned to him. Though the wariness he’d spotted the night before was gone, she still looked like she’d just crawled free from the gates of hell.
As if she could sense the darkness in his thoughts, her expression turned mischievous. “You look like shit, Palmer.”
Right on cue. Just the snarky greeting he had needed.
Zane made an exaggerated show of rolling his eyes as he laughed away some of the tension he’d been holding on to. “Right back at you, Storm. You look like you just got back from the beaches of Normandy on D-Day.”
“Well, you look like you just stepped off The Event Horizon.”
He’d missed her oddly funny but accurate quips.
“Great.” His laugh halted abruptly as he realized he didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. “Wait, what?”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t seen that movie.” Her mouth hung open in what appeared to be authentic shock. Clearly, she was going to have to educate him on the sci-fi greats. “The spaceship that went through a black hole into hell and came back?”
“Right. That one.” He chuckled again, but he felt sure that the look in his eyes said he was still clueless. “We’re on the same page, then. We’ve both literally been to hell and back and lived to tell the tale. Ready to get to work?”
Her smile turned wistful. “I missed you.”
His heart skipped a beat at those three words. “I missed you too.”
Before he could add to the simple statement, she stepped forward and threw her arms around his shoulders.
Surprise stole his breath for a moment, but as she melted against his body, he realized as much as she needed to hug him, he needed it too. Zane wrapped her in a tight embrace and rested the side of his face against her hair. He’d hugged her before, but he swore he’d never been this close to her. Amelia wasn’t a fan of physical contact with most people, and for her to throw her arms around him without prelude was unprecedented.
Worrisome. Especially after the haunted look he’d seen in her eyes the night before. He could admit that he liked the sensation of her body so close to his, but more than anything, her display of affection concerned him.
Flexing his fingers against her lower back, he gave a little squeeze. “Something was wrong last night, wasn’t it?”
“Yeah.” Her nose brushed his chin. “And something’s wrong with you right now, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” He rubbed her shoulder before he moved out to arm’s length. As their eyes met, he moved a piece of hair away from her forehead. “You’re okay now, though?”
“Yeah. What about you?”
Zane stared into her eyes, wanting to spill the secret eating away at his soul, but it wasn’t the time. Not yet, at least. “Yeah. For now.”
“Good.” She brushed something from his sleeve. “You don’t have to tell me anything if you don’t want to. But if you do, I’m here.”
Amelia was one of the good ones, of that he was certain. And eventually, he would tell her. She was one of the few people he knew he could trust. And this time, when he smiled, it didn’t feel strained. “Same goes for you.”
Clearing his throat to pull himself from the moment of reverence, he draped an arm around her shoulders. Like a used car salesman trying to persuade a buyer to spend more money than they had, he turned her to face the whiteboard.
He waved a Vanna White hand to it. “See this bad boy here? This puppy can fit so many suspicious financial records on it, let me tell you.”
“Oh my god.” Amelia snorted. “I brought you coffee, but I’m starting to wonder if you need it.”
He squeezed her upper arm. “I do. Thank you. Come on, I’ll catch you up on what we’ve been working on while you were chasing Cliff Allworth. Kantowski should be here in a bit too.”
“Okay. I’m excited to finally meet her.”
Zane stepped over to the table and chuckled. “I’m pretty sure you’ll get along.”
31
Leaning back in the driver’s seat of her car, Amelia tapped a green button on the screen of her phone and raised the device to her ear as she let her gaze drift to the little coffee shop she’d just visited.
For two full weeks, Amelia hadn’t heard so much as a peep from Joseph Larson.
She hadn’t delved into the reason for his absence, but she’d hoped he wouldn’t come back. But when she’d left for her lunch break that day, she’d spotted Joseph’s gunmetal sedan, parked three stalls down from Zane’s silver Acura.
So much for her fantasy that
