“Hey,” Luke murmured in the gathering light.

Caught mid-sneak Dani smiled down at him, looking as guilty as a kid with a hand caught in the cookie jar. She’d managed to put on a shirt, one of his, and underwear, but her shorts were still in her hand. “I was trying not to wake you.”

“You didn’t,” Luke protested, bleary-eyed and by no means awake. “I sleep light.”

“Sure you do. I only showered, got mostly dressed…”

“Seriously?” He fumbled for his phone on the nightstand and squinted at the display.

“It’s daytime,” Dani said quietly, hands twisting the fabric of her shorts, leaving them crumpled and somewhat the worse for wear. “I should get back.”

“Stay.” It came out sounding like an order. He cringed, knowing how much she loved being ordered around—not. Somehow he dropped his phone on the bed and immediately lost it in the sheets. “Have breakfast with me at least.”

“They’re waiting for me downstairs,” she protested, but he could tell her heart wasn’t in it in the way she wavered, taking first one, then another tiny step in his general direction.

“All the more reason, don’t you think?” Luke rose and, naked, walked over to her before she could change her mind and flee outright. He took the shorts from her grip and threw them somewhere behind him, and wrapped his arms around her. Her upturned face, scrubbed free of makeup, revealed soft freckles across her nose. He wanted to kiss each and every one. “Eggs.” He held her tighter. “Bacon.” He almost sang the word, tempting her.

She laughed.

“And… that’s it.” He looked over his shoulder in the general direction of the kitchen. “I have eggs, and bacon.” He turned toward her with an awkward shrug. “I think that’s all I have. I haven’t had time to do much shopping lately.”

“No bread for toast?” She raised a hand and ran her thumb over his lips.

“I had to throw it out,” he said and hesitated, finally leaning in to whisper. “I don’t want to think about it… I think it could almost walk out of here on its own.”

“No.” Dani almost laughed. He could tell from the way she crinkled her nose and grimaced that she was trying really hard not to. “Don’t think about it. Are the eggs at least somewhat fresh?”

“Laid them myself yesterday.”

This time she did laugh. Luke realized that it was a sound he could get used to in short order. What was more, he desperately wanted to get used to that sound. Every day for the rest of his life.

It was a startling thought.

He leaned back, keeping his hands on her waist, and tried his best little boy smile, desperate to keep her there with him just a little bit longer. “Pretty please?”

Dani leaned forward and dropped her forehead on his chest with a muffled thump.

“Breakfast,” Luke repeated. “Most important meal of the day? Good start to the morning? Fresh squeezed eggs? Ripe bacon from Florida?”

Dani smacked his chest. “All right, all right.” She looked up at him. “You silver-tongued devil.”

“I recall you complimenting me on my tongue…” Luke started but was cut off by 110lbs of girl, flung around him in a display of affectionate battering that left them both breathless with laughter.

“Animal!”

He picked her up in his grip and made a humping noise because he could never figure out how to make an impressive growl. It had the desired effect, and she was laughing again as he set her on the floor.

“Not too many could do that, you know,” Dani said, eyes sparkling as she looked at him.

“Not too many would have the balls to try, I would think.”

“How about you?” Dani asked, and her hand slipped down to find evidence. She found it. Luke stiffened up. “Get dressed,” she purred, leaving him wide-eyed and wondering just what the hell it would take to get her back into the bed. “I’ll start the eggs and maybe the…”

“Bacon?”

“Yeah.” She got on her toes and kissed him and wandered out, leaving the shorts on the bed.

Luke stood for a long moment, feeling the residual heat of her body on his arms, on his lips, on his balls. It was a rather intoxicating moment.

And she wanted breakfast.

He stepped toward the door, intent on convincing her that if she could stay to eat she could likewise stay to be eaten. But the phone rang, sending him to stare at the bed in consternation, knowing he’d just had it, but no idea where the sound was coming from.

Sheets hit the floor. Something hard and plastic hit the top of his foot. Wincing, he grabbed up his phone and caught it on the fourth ring.

“Yeah?”

“Luke.” As usual, Randy sounded over-caffeinated. “We got a lead on our runaway.”

“Rinehart?” Luke said, lowering his voice. He dug through the nightstand for paper and a pen that said Charlton Hotel that had been hiding among his possessions for a long time, though to his knowledge he’d never even heard of the place.

“We got a tip that the man has been seen on a plane headed for Morocco.”

“Wait, like, play-it-again-Sam Morocco?”

“Yeah, beautiful friendship, get on the plane, all that.” Randy sounded frustrated. “It’s a desert heap and the current management isn’t too crazy about Americans, but…”

“But they don’t extradite,” Luke finished for him. He dressed quickly while tucking the phone between his shoulder and his ear. “So, we can’t go get to him, either.”

“He’s not there yet,” Randy corrected him. “There’s no such thing as a direct flight to Morocco from Atlanta. The tip we got was that that’s where he was heading.”

“It could be a false lead.”

“See, now, that’s why you’re the brains of the outfit,” Randy said in a tone that would have burned water. “We have an entire department down here and it never occurred to any of us that it might be a false lead. Thank goodness for you.”

“All right,” Luke said a bit more loudly than he had intended. “Don’t bite my head off, what the hell?”

“The hell is that we’ve spent a shitload of time and money getting you inserted into the company and the family, and you’re compromising the whole fucking thing by sleeping with the suspect’s daughter, who might very well end up being a suspect herself!”

Luke turned, as though expecting to see cameras in every corner. Of course there weren’t. At least not any in sight. The un-curtained window mocked him from across the room. “You’re spying on me?”

“Spying? Really? You have the balls to ask me that? Who’s paying for that apartment? Who’s paying your salary? You’re there on our time, buddy, and you are not, I repeat, NOT going to blow the biggest and most expensive case in the last five years because you can’t keep it in your pants around her!”

Luke said nothing because, right then, his first instinct was to ask for a rating on his lovemaking and whether Randy had any advice as to his technique. He also suspected snarky remarks wouldn’t go over real well. He knew Randy; he was a friend in as much as a superior can be a friend. Better to bite his tongue and wait him out.

“Just…” Randy said softer, almost conversationally, “just tell me you’re not in love, okay? Please tell me that much.”

Luke said nothing. He’d stood like this as a soldier during basic, waiting for the drill instructor to burn himself out, standing until he’d gotten the nickname of ‘The Mountain’ for the way nothing moved him. Like this wouldn’t move him now, though inside he felt a million potential answers pound against his teeth, just daring him to open his mouth and let them out.

“Shit.” Randy sighed, long and loud. “We just talked about this, Luke, remember? Keeping your head in the game? You realize that just because of your… because of any relationship you have with this girl, the entire investigation is compromised? A good attorney could have the whole thing thrown out. And, just so you know, I’m pretty sure that $23 million will buy a damn good attorney.”

“She’s not a suspect,” Luke said, but it sounded weak even to him because how much did he really know her? She’d been not only naked in his arms last night, but she’d gifted him with her vulnerability as well.

“That’s hardly the point, is it?” Randy countered. “Now, tell me this, Romeo, what happens if she is a suspect? What happens if you find out she’s up to her tits in this and she’s aiding and abetting?”

“Her father?” Luke scoffed and forced his feet into his shoes, already relaxing, thinking that the worst of the lecture was over and done with. “Not damn likely.”

“But not impossible,” Randy pointed out. “You leave me no choice, Luke. We’re pulling you.”

“No!” He’d been expecting it, had even told Dani that it would happen last night. Shouting now wouldn’t solve anything, would in fact only bring into the room the one person he needed to stay out, at least until this particular conversation was over. He gritted his teeth, looking uneasily at the door. From the kitchen he heard utensils clatter, the sound of the refrigerator door opening and closing.

“Answer one question, lover-boy,” Randy said, his voice harder than he’d ever heard before. “Are you angry about losing the mission, or losing the girl?”

Luke held the phone to his ear, and no word could escape from the tightness in his throat.

“Yeah,” Randy said, “what I thought. Pack your shit, show’s over. Come in for debriefing within the hour, or expect us to come get you. Your choice.”

Luke stood holding the phone to his ear, with no one on the other side of it. The smell of bacon wafted in from the kitchen.

I never should have promised her.

One hour.

He was absolutely fucked.

 

 

“Smells good,” Luke came out of the bedroom and threw a leg over one of the stools by the counter. He perched there and enjoyed the view, adamant that she wasn’t going to see so much as a hint on his face that everything wasn’t hunky-fucking-dory.

Dani had taken it upon herself to make the meal in his absence. The eggs were steaming on a plate and she was flipping the bacon with an expertise that actually surprised him a little. He hadn’t pegged her as the domestic type.

“You could do something useful,” she said, and pointed over her shoulder at the coffee pot. Luke jumped down and set to work on it, considering that part of coffee was water, and water was gotten from the sink right beside the pretty girl wearing only a t-shirt and panties, made all the sexier for some reason by the fact that she was wearing his t-shirt. Odd how Led Zeppelin never looked anywhere near that good on him.

She jumped the first time he brushed against her, but soon seemed to enjoy the feel of his hand on her as she cooked. For some reason, he couldn’t resist—a touch as he leaned past her to fill the carafe with water. A hand on her shoulder to steady himself as he reached past her to grab a plate from the shelf just over her left shoulder. Maybe it was the fact that in an hour…no, forty-five minutes now…everything would change. He would likely be taken back to some office somewhere for a debriefing. Once he disappeared, would he ever see her again?

He looked at her, feeling the tragedy in his eyes, and had to work hard to school away the sadness. Mountains didn’t weep, plain and simple. He needed to focus on the here and now. To savor the companionable silence they enjoyed as they toiled side by side in the kitchen.

Soon enough, too soon for his choice, they had finished, and sat down at the table with eggs and bacon between them. If they were a normal couple this would be a comfortable meal, where neither seemed pressured to speak. She seemed dreamy. Thoughtful. Looking at him shyly over each forkful of eggs. She’d changed last night, in opening up the way she had. Sure, there had still be tension over her brother, but that was something they’d have to work through—

I can’t believe I’m doing this. Acting like there’s a tomorrow.

Each bite of eggs nearly choked him; the bacon, an impossibility.

He saw her left hand idle on the table and reached out to take it with his. She smiled. God, that smile.

It broke his heart.

So what do you do, moron? In twenty-three minutes they’ll come bursting through the door, consequences by damned.

“It’s possible I may have to leave for a while,” he said carefully, tearing off a piece of bacon. She stopped, her mouth full of eggs, and pulled her hand free. She used it to lift her mug and clear out the eggs with a sip of coffee, but Luke felt like she was using that to buy time, to figure out her response.

“What do you mean, leave?” she asked, her voice testy. “Leave where? When?”

Already he was losing her. Her eyes had become hooded. Wary.

“There’s a good chance that I might be able to catch him…”

Dani tossed her fork down hard enough that the dish rattled when struck. She stood, shoving back her chair so hard it snagged on the carpet and nearly tipped over. Without another word, she stalked into the bedroom.

“What?” Luke threw down his bacon and was after her in a second. She was already pulling on her shorts and jamming her feet into shoes.

“I cannot believe you!” Her eyes positively blazed when she turned her gaze upon him. “I suppose I shouldn’t have expected more from you. Why should you be different from any other man?”

“What the hell?” Luke leaned against the doorframe, not wanting to have this conversation, not wanting to say these words here. The room was likely bugged; someone somewhere already knew all the sweet nothings that had been whispered in that bed the night before. But any hesitation he had on speaking his heart didn’t matter. Even mountains could crumble, given enough time. Let the authorities record every word of what was in his heart and mock as they would. He wasn’t about to let her go without a fight. “Can’t you trust me even the littlest bit?”

“Trust you?” Dani stood, not even bothering to tie her sneakers, and stalked to him like a very angry leopard. “Trust?” She poked his chest with all five fingers spread out. It was enough force and at the right angle that he nearly fell backward.

“All that bullshit about wanting to help David, trying to get me to join you to ‘save David’, and you’re every bit as bad a liar as every other man in my life. You stick your nose into the lives of my family and then, when I could really use the help, you run after the old man like a baying hound and leave David alone with whoever is TRYING. TO. KILL. HIM!” She spat the last four words at him like an epithet.

He’d had it by this point. Like he had any choice in the matter. He’d thought he had, but obviously he’d been an idiot. He’d thought he’d been close enough that it would count for something. “It’s not really my choice!”

“No, no, I’m sure it isn’t. It’s the job. It’s what you have to do. I get it. I grew up with it’s the job. My mother died, and no one was there, because it’s the job. I am well aware of THE JOB.” She was halfway through the door and spun back long enough to look at him with all the hatred and anger that up until now had only been reserved for her father, he suspected.

“I’ve been recalled,” Luke said, trying to be reasonable. He stepped toward her, hands open like he was trying to calm an angry dog. He didn’t even see the open palm, but she struck his cheek with enough force that his head whipped around; he twisted, lost his balance, and landed on his ass at her feet.

“So, what?” Dani said, matching his tone. “So, what? So now, the job won’t let you keep your word? The job won’t let you help me protect my brother?”

“Did it ever occur to you,” Luke rubbed his face from his awkward position on the floor, where he wondered angrily if this one would make the FBI blooper reel for the annual Christmas party, “that maybe David isn’t as innocent as you think he is?”

Dani’s eyes flashed, but her mouth fell open.

Not that he was about to let her say another damn thing about her fucking brother. “Listen to me,” he said, leaning back against the dresser and crossing his arms across his chest as though he had fucking chosen to sit on the floor. “He wasn’t at all concerned at the party when he got a threatening note on his jacket. Not one bit!”

“He thought it was joke!” Dani yelled, though something flickered in her eyes. A hint of uncertainty perhaps?

“No, he didn’t! Remember? That was your father who made that up. David was looking around, as though trying to determine where the note had come from.”

“That means nothing!”

“Fine, then, rock climbing. When the graffiti was etched into the car, he wasn’t pissed.”

“He was, too!”

“NO, HE WASN’T! He’s not that good an actor! He was pissed after you determined to call your father. He was pissed when the party was over, but when that empty box was found under the car…”

“Oh, I do not have time for this!” Dani turned her back on him. He could see her in the living room, headed for the door.

“He wasn’t surprised it was empty!” Luke shouted to her retreating back, still making no move to get up.

The slam of the door ended the conversation. He hadn’t even had time to bring up Katie.

Luke pulled himself to his feet. He had about ten minutes left before they sent a team in after him. ‘Debriefing.’ It was administrative double-speak meaning “finding blame.” Well, there sure as hell was plenty of that to go around. He looked around the room, trying to determine if there was a thing in the place that he needed to take with him. Then realized painfully that there wasn’t. There wasn’t a thing he cared about right now in the whole place, save the Led Zepplin t-shirt that Dani had just taken with her right out the door.

It figured.

He was turning to go when he saw it on the floor.

A USB stick.

One that most certainly wasn’t his.