SCHULTZ RESISTED THE urge to pour himself two fingers of Old Puteney 21 single malt scotch, his preferred drink when he was unwinding after a long day at work. The problem was that it was only going on three in the afternoon and alcohol would cloud his better judgment. He needed to remain sharp for a lot of reasons, mainly the upcoming no-holds-barred confrontation with Julia. He could easily see that she didn’t regret how she’d handled things or the fact that she’d purposefully kept him in the dark. It was like salt in the wound. He’d hear what she had to say and then spend the rest of the afternoon making her problem disappear forever. He just didn’t appreciate the doubts swirling in his mind that she’d vanish with them.
“You’re all clear, sir. Nothing on the waterfall other than your neighbor’s Wi-Fi router and your security system’s encrypted cellular transmitter.” Braeden said, walking out of the bedroom holding a portable spectrum analyzer developed by the NSA specifically to counter detect electronic eavesdropping devices including the CIA’s own miniature burst transmitter models. “Will there be anything else?”
“No, thank you,” Schultz said, turning from the large picture window that overlooked Lafayette Square. His view of the White House from his penthouse apartment above the Hay-Adams was impeccable, but he’d been too caught up in his thoughts to appreciate it. “I don’t want to be disturbed once Ms. Melina arrives. Inform Matt and Scott of that as well.”
“Understood, sir.”
Braeden walked to the door, only to have Emmett open it before the other agent could turn the knob. The two agents wouldn’t be on shift much longer before their replacements took over. Emmett announced Julia’s arrival and before long she appeared looking as beautiful as the day he’d met her. He remembered that night as if it were yesterday.
They’d both attended a small gathering of friends to celebrate Jon Rudnick’s decision to open the doors of G.A.P.S. Schultz and another friend of theirs, Gavin Crest, had made an appearance to show their support. The moment he’d entered the door, his eyes had been drawn to the blonde beauty who’d been standing across the room with a glass of red wine in her perfectly-framed French-manicured hand. He’d known the moment that her blue eyes met his that he would have her for his own, but it had gone beyond a simple matter of conquest within the first month. She’d become such an intricate part of his life that he’d never questioned the path they’d taken. Now…it was as if a woman he’d never met before was entering his home.
“Thank you, Don,” Julia said quietly, taking something from her agent’s hands after she’d crossed the threshold into Schultz’s apartment. The grey blouse tucked into her white slacks accentuated her slim waist, showcasing her voluptuous body that did nothing to diminish her professional demeanor. She was only five feet four inches in height and yet her confidence was that of a six-foot man. She was a pit bull in negotiations and an intelligent woman who knew how to get the job done. Why then did she not come to him when she’d first received the blackmail notice? “Would you please let Ken know that I’ll be in for the evening?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Don replied, closing the door behind her.
Julia turned and stopped in her tracks, their eyes connecting. The air had become as stifling as it was outside and Schultz slowly reached up, loosening his tie. His fingers itched to pour himself that drink he’d wanted earlier but he refrained. He gestured toward his office behind her, indicating that’s where she could deposit her laptop and the small box that Don had placed on top of it. He had an idea of what it contained and he wanted nothing to do with it.
“Do you remember the day that I said I needed to stop by my apartment to pick up some more clothes?” Julia asked, turning on her heel and marching across the hardwood floor to his office. She didn’t waste time getting to the heart of the matter and it was apparent that she hadn’t expected Schultz to answer when she continued straightaway. Her voice had an edge to it, similar to when she was doing business. He could see that she was emotionally distancing herself from the decisions she’d made. He’d listen to her, but damned if she would rationalize her choice to omit him from her life. He followed at a distance and allowed her to feel as if she had the upper hand. The tables would turn soon enough. “I found an envelope filled with pictures that I had taken in college, along with a note demanding one hundred thousand dollars. It was placed on the entry table in the foyer with no signs of forced entry.”
Schultz leaned against the doorjamb, folding his arms across his chest. Julia had claimed part of his desk as her own shortly after they’d all but moved in together and now was no different. She set her laptop case down on the left side of the hard oak, picking up the small box and turning toward him. She held it up and then placed it on the chair that was in between them, as if he’d go right on over to see what was in there. He already knew what it contained and he had no desire to see the pictures again. He willfully stayed where he was until she thinned out her full lips, showing her agitation. Only then did he walk closer and lean his hands on the back of the seat.
“Fine, just listen to me then,” Julia stated, leaning back against his desk and crossing her arms the way he’d done just a minute ago. Her chin tilted in defiance, making him want to kiss her instead of being forced to listen to the irrational reasoning of why she hadn’t trusted him. Schultz was one of the most resourceful people anyone could ever know. He had executive access to the world’s most powerful intelligence network and yet she still chose to go to another man. She stood in front of him as if that didn’t matter. It did. “I was nineteen when my father lost his job. I was in my second year of college, and at the time it didn’t look as if I’d finish because we didn’t have the money. A friend of mine told me about a reputable photographer who was scouting for models. I trusted her and I jumped at the chance, especially seeing as she’d already done a photo shoot with him. The pictures were tasteful and her face was cropped out of every shot for the showing…so I went for it.”
“Julia, I think you’re missing the salient point.” Schultz pushed himself up and then walked around his desk, opening the drawer to where he’d stored the other photographs. He dropped the manila envelope on her side of the desk, the sound echoing throughout his office. “I don’t care that you had pictures taken when you were nineteen years old. I could care less if you were a stripper who’d put herself through college collecting one dollar at a time. In all honesty I have no desire to look at them because the woman I want is standing in front of me. I have you in the flesh, but yet it’s more than apparent that your heart isn’t in it. Lying causes both of us to lose trust in one another.”
“Schultz, this person wants to use me to get to you,” Julia stressed, having already turned around to face him over his desk. She’d spun so fast that her blonde hair fell over her left shoulder, reminding him once again of the day he’d met her. “If Jon had either located him or her, I could have put an end to this and—”
“I just want a clear answer, Julia,” Schultz barked, raising his voice and taking both of them by surprise. He couldn’t remember a time when either one of them had ever exchanged words in anger, but this went beyond that. She didn’t understand that her decisions had caused a fracture in the intimacy they’d established. He curled his fingers into his palms and rested his fists on his desk, trying to choose his words carefully. “Why didn’t you come to me when you needed help?”
Julia parted her glossy pink lips to tell him, but then appeared not to know what she was going to say. Her hands went slightly up in the air, as if to say she didn’t have a reply. He waited, wanting all of this to make sense when all it seemed was that she thought this was nothing more than a brief affair. She’d had him fooled and he fell for the façade hook, line, and sinker. He shook his head, at a loss of words himself. He never would have thought she would have been the one to cause him so much pain, but what she’d done to them was worse than anything he’d ever experienced. Her silence answered more than she knew and now there wasn’t anything between them for him to fight for. Damn if that didn’t hurt most of all.
“A trusted agent is taking care of things,” Schultz said, controlling the emotions in his voice to the best of his ability. He started to roll down his left sleeve, giving himself something to do so he wouldn’t have to look into her disheartened blue eyes. He refused to feel guilty over a choice she’d made with her actions. He couldn’t stay here with her recognizing how this would play out. He’d rather be out in the field catching the son of a bitch that had forced them into this situation to begin with. “I’ll have one of the agents assigned to you let you know when things are taken care of. You should stay here until then, so feel free to make use of the spare bedroom.”
Schultz started for the door, his sole focus to get away from Julia so that he could clear his head. He was liable to do something foolish if he were to stay…like kiss her and try to forget this situation had ever occurred. One thing would lead to another and they’d end up in bed where a whole bag of regrets would be waiting for them afterward. He’d made it halfway to his destination when he heard her call his name.
“Schultz, you work with the President of the United States,” Julia said desperately, the plea in her voice causing him to come to an abrupt stop. He lowered his hands and rested them on his hips, bending his head back as he told himself that nothing she could say could make this okay. “I might work for the State Department, but my career wasn’t in the spotlight until we started dating. Everything you’ve worked so hard for is going to be gone by Monday morning if I don’t figure out who is behind the blackmail or I break down and pay. Your career will be reduced to a break room joke. You would have used your position to make my problem disappear if I’d come to you at the first…just like you’re doing right now. On top of that, my bad choices are going to be out there for the world to see and they’re going to think that I’m some sort of trash that has slept my way into my career in government and that I don’t deserve you.”
Schultz spun around at the insult that Julia had just given herself. Anger filled him that she would think so little of either one of them. Hadn’t he just got through telling her he didn’t care about her past mistakes? He went to take a step toward her when she put up a hand to stop him, the shaking of her head adamant that he not come closer.
“Listen to me,” Julia implored him, making Schultz want to touch her now. He barely refrained, but the hurt shining in her blue eyes were like flickers of a flame in a fire. They burned bright, telling him that she still didn’t regret how she’d handled things…only how he’d perceived them. This back and forth was more than he could take and he was shocked when she continued to surprise him even more. “I love you, Schultz Jessalyn. Don’t think for a second that I didn’t think of coming to you, but you were in the middle of that Iranian nuclear enrichment plant confrontation with Israel. You still are and me dealing with my issues on my own by trusting a friend of ours was the decision that I thought best. You and I both know that should those above you find out that you’re using your inherent professional power to rid yourself of a potential personal scandal…you’ll lose everything you’ve worked for. I won’t apologize for how I handled this and maybe, just maybe, I would have come to you had Jon told me that my apartment was bugged. I’m smart enough to know when I’m in over my head, Schultz, and also when this falls into the realm of political extortion and quite possible espionage. The listening devices turned that corner for me, but I wasn’t made aware of that fact until today. I would have come to you if it were beyond the level I believed I could handle through Jon. Trust goes both ways, so you don’t get to stand there and judge me for doing what I thought was right.”
Multiple thoughts were going through Schultz’s head—especially that Julia was intelligent, independent, and downright stubborn. Most of all, she’d just confessed that she loved him. It was rare that he didn’t know how to react, but she’d turned the tables on him and he stood there with one sleeve up to his elbow and the other loose around his wrist. His tie was half undone and he’d run his fingers through his hair enough times that he must look as if he’d just gotten out of bed. He was already in disarray and she’d just spun his world on its axis once again.
“You are…” Schultz was at a loss of words and he shook his head in incredulity. It wasn’t that he didn’t know that Julia loved him, but the fact that she’d never said the words. Neither had he, which was why he’d planned on such an extravagant proposal. She’d just blown that out of the water, as well as declaring that she thought she’d been protecting him from political embarrassment. It was one thing to have a friend get his six in the heat of battle, but it was another thing entirely to have a woman try and protect his entire life’s work. “Come here.”
Schultz walked up to Julia, placing his hands on her hips and backing her up until her heart-shaped ass hit the desk. He leaned down and captured her pink lips before she could say anything else. He was having their problem taken care of using every resource that he could marshal and he wouldn’t apologize for that. It wouldn’t hurt his career because he’d accessed people through colleagues that owed him—personally, loyal members of his very own network within the services. Being in his position offered him doors that others couldn’t go through and while he didn’t often take advantage of that, he would certainly compensate those individuals through his personal patronage. It was a win-win for everyone involved. Right now he needed to show Julia what words alone couldn’t.
“We’re done arguing,” Schultz murmured against her pliant mouth, which tasted of cinnamon. She had a penchant for hard candies and the flavor almost always remained on her tongue. “We’re going to spend the rest of the afternoon breaking in this desk like we’ve been wanting to.”