Jagger

 

 

 

“Take a Chance . . . on me.” Tennessee bent over in his swivel chair with a full belly laugh.

My eyes slid to my partner. He was wiping the tears from the corner of his eyes. His breath was coming in gasps as his laughter dulled.

“Oh, man, that joke never gets old,” he said with a stammer still trying to ease back the chuckle.

“It’s definitely old,” I said trying to finish the paperwork so I could leave a little early.

I had tickets to an improv show at IO theater in Wrigleyville with Cate. Good old Cate. I smiled at the thought of making my fuck buddy come on my cock in her office above the theater.

The great thing about Cate, she was boring. I don’t mean her personality but her life. A squeaky-clean history and no outstanding debt.

There was no way she could be bribed and give me away. Not that she knew anything about me. I told her once I worked downtown and that’s all she cared to hear.

Bonus points to her for not wanting a relationship. In the line of work I did, a relationship just brought desk duty.

And who wanted that? I didn’t. Sure, it sounded nice to one day have someone to come home to or discuss problems with, maybe binge-watch a television series. But I worked over a decade to get where I was in the government. That love stuff could wait.

Besides, relationships, even family, weren’t always what you hoped they’d be. I learned people were selfish from my job, giving up on their loved ones when things got tough.

“Here, I have a good one you might like,” Tenn said as I tapped away on my keyboard and continued to ignore him. “Why was everyone so tired of April first?”

He’s not going to stop until I acknowledge him. That was the thing about Tenn, he craved attention. He should be up on that stage tonight trying to be funny with how much he performed for everyone. Of course, Tenn wasn’t adult funny. He’s five-year-old funny. Perhaps he should perform for kids’ birthday parties like a clown or a pony.

“Because it isn’t funny?” I asked.

Like that joke he was telling. But that didn’t stop him. I could almost smell his eagerness. There was a gleam at the corner of his mouth, and I wondered if it was drool.

“No. Because they had just finished a March of thirty-one days!” He dissolved into laughter before he could get out the last word, his blond hair falling onto his face.

The door to our shared office opened, and a petite woman with short graying black hair and the boxiest looking jacket I had ever seen stood in the doorway.

I felt both fear and relief at the same time.

“Chance, I need to see you in my office. Now.” Katlin Chester’s deep voice clattered the window on our door before she turned and walked off.

“Uh oh, is there a chance you’re in trouble with the boss.” Tenn chuckled but stopped once I glared at him.

I stood and turned to him before I left. “You know Jagger Chance isn’t my real name. Just as Tennessee Golden isn’t your real name. The government gave us all aliases when we started working at the Inter-Terrorism Agency, yet you keep making fun of what they gave me. Why?”

He shrugged. “Because you’re my partner. I always joke around with people I like. My therapist tells me it’s a defense mechanism. I don’t let people close to me and keep them at a distance with my jokes.”

“Personal or Randy?” I asked.

“Personal.”

Everyone here had to meet once a month with our in-house psychologist, Dr. Randy Tenner. Randy worked for the government to make sure the stress of the job hadn’t gotten to us and we could still do our missions.

“Tell your therapist to try to work with you on better jokes,” I said before turning to leave.

After walking across the cheap brown carpet to the corner office, I knocked once before I heard my boss, Katlin Chester, yell back to come inside.

I took a seat in the small black pleather chair across from her as she leaned back and stared at me.

“What is this, Chance?” Katlin said just before her lips pursed into a hard line holding up a piece of paper.

I swallowed hard before clasping my hands on my lap. “A marriage certificate, ma’am.” I willed my eyes to stay on her steel gray stare but faltered.

Not good.

“I know what it is. What I am asking, agent, is why your name is on it?”

My head raced with possible replies. Confess everything—tell her I drank on the job and let this happen—or lie through my teeth. Blame it on Tennessee. Make it into one of his stupid pranks.

“Surprise,” I waved my hands in the air like a magician, “I’m married.”

Her thin lips frowned. I should have known better not to make a joke about it. Katlin Chester did not help create the newly formed ITA, , a specialized go-between of the CIA and FBI, because she had a sense of humor.

This place was so secret that most people in the CIA and FBI didn’t know of its existence. A person doesn’t get asked to help form a new government agency because they were good at cracking jokes.

Katlin sat in her government-issued black chair and focused on the certificate. “It says here this was in Nevada three weeks ago, back in June. I seem to recall you being on a reconnaissance mission to gather info on the Jewel, Emma Hawthorne, in Las Vegas in June. You got lucky when she spilled everything and you had the opportunity to bring her in.”

Despite the smirk on her face, I knew her words were no compliment. She had already congratulated me a few weeks ago when I brought back the criminal, we nicknamed the Jewel, that we had been targeting for over a year. Emma Hawthorne was planning to infiltrate the government with her family and friends and destroy it like ice in a cement crack.

Despite the takedown, I fucked up. I made one very big mistake that I hoped my boss wouldn’t find out about. I don’t know which was worse, believing my boss—who had access to every piece of information about every government employee—wouldn’t find out I got married, or, that I never did anything about getting a divorce.

“Did you decide that would be a great time to bring your fiancée along and have a cheap wedding on the government’s dime?”

My jaw ticked. “No.”

She placed the paper on her brown particle board desk and leaned forward. I tensed knowing this was far from over as she placed her elbows on the arms of her chair and steepled her fingers to her lips.

“I never realized you were engaged, agent. Why did you never say anything? Did you have an engagement party? I figured you would have invited someone from the department. I don’t recall anyone mentioning it. Your partner, Golden, never said a word.”

Crap, that was the second time she called me agent. I was in some deep shit now.

“I was drunk,” I mumbled.

She cupped her ear. “I’m sorry, agent, I don’t believe I heard you.”

I rolled my head back staring at the drop ceiling. “I was trailing some of her son’s friends who happened to be at the hotel bar. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to gather some intelligence and they bought me a drink.”

Katlin held up her hand. “Wait, they bought you a drink? Did you even test the contents? Were you drugged?”

This wasn’t going well.

Why did I let my dick do my thinking that night?

Oh, I know. Because the woman was beautiful and funny and sweet. There was something about flirting and spending time with her that felt wonderful. I missed it. Being a government spy for eight years in the CIA and then the past two years in ITA, I missed being a normal guy hitting on a woman in a bar.

There were too many steps I had to take just to consider having sex with a woman. Background checks, credit checks, pulling up files on her friends and family. And after all that, I’m only allowed to sleep with them, nothing more.

Technically, I’m allowed to have a relationship with someone, but that would mean I had to lie to them on a regular basis. Never tell them the truth about me. Something about all that felt wrong.

My life could be lonely but at least I had Cate. I liked Cate, well, I liked her body. I rubbed my chest. There was an odd sensation that made me frown when I thought of Cate.

That never happened before.

“No, I wasn’t drugged.”

I remember everything perfectly clear.

“You realize you compromised the mission, yourself, and the agency?”

I nodded.

“Where is this,” Katlin looked down at the certificate before continuing, “Tiffany Blackburn now? Has she signed the divorce papers?”

As much as I dreaded telling my boss I was married, I loathed having to explain I haven’t seen or spoken to Tiffany since that night in Vegas.

“Maybe a divorce isn’t necessary. What is a divorce anyway but a slip of paper?” I stood and walked over to the window in the office that overlooked the Chicago River. “Technically, she didn’t really marry me. She married Jagger Chance. Maybe I should get a new identity, social security card, and—”

“Agent Chance!” Katlin stood, bringing her fist down on her desk with a loud thwack. “The United States Government does not give out identities like pieces of gum on a playground. According to your record, you are now legally married to Mrs. Tiffany Blackburn. I suggest you rectify this or your clearance and job will be taken away from you.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said as I turned to leave.

“Oh, and Chance?” Katlin said just before I crossed the threshold.

I kept my back to her. “Yes?”

“Remember what happened to Agent Snow? She disobeyed orders and it cost her, her life. Take care of this as soon as possible. Now close the door behind you.”

“But what about Agent Hack or Grey?” I asked.

“They aren’t agents anymore, are they?”

I nodded. Both of them left the agency. Grey moved out west and Hack owned some kid’s sporting center or something with his wife just outside of Chicago. But, they chose love and marriage over their jobs.

I swallowed and did as she requested.

Snow was a great agent. They still used her missions as teaching tools for new recruits. But then, she let her heart do the thinking for her.

Katlin was right. I had to end this marriage, and quick. Too much was at stake.