Chapter Twelve

Oliver

If she drove away, I didn’t stand a chance. I didn’t give a shit that she figured out where I’d been going … that she spied on me. I wanted her in my life so I sprinted to her car and knocked on the window. Her head rested on the steering wheel and it ripped me in two to see how broken she was.

“Michelle, at least let me in the car. I can explain, I swear to God I can. You can’t drive home like this.”

The tear-stained face that met my eyes held such anger I nearly jumped backwards. Her window went down and she said, “How long has it been going on? I just want to know.”

“Honestly, you’re not getting it. There’s nothing between us other than work. I swear it.”

“Oh, come on, Oliver. Give it up already.”

I ran around to the passenger door and was surprised to find it unlocked. Once I was seated, I started with my explanation.

“I couldn’t tell you before … hell, I’m not supposed to tell you now. Tara and I are with Homeland Security. We work undercover investigating companies who we believe have been linked to cyber threats. That’s why I wasn’t able to reveal anything to you.” He held up the little black thing and said, “I was showing her how to wear this wire when we heard you.”

“Homeland Security. Undercover.”

She wasn’t buying it.”

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my credentials, which I rarely carried when I was working undercover. For some reason I had them with me, but couldn’t explain why.

“Your name’s not Oliver Griffith.”

“No. Well, sort of. Oliver’s my middle name and the one I prefer. But my full name is Griffin Oliver Baker. That’s why the card says Griffin O. Baker. Oliver Griffith is my undercover name.”

She held my badge and ID for a while, staring at them, running her fingers over them.

“Michelle, I couldn’t tell you. Even now, it puts everything at risk.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know. The people running the company are dangerous. That’s why we’re undercover.”

“But it’s a computer company.” She was resisting my explanation. I would’ve too.

“That’s right. But they’re doing illegal things and we’re on the cusp of breaking their operation open. It’s taken us about eighteen months to infiltrate it and get to this point. If they find out that we’re on the wrong side, they’ll pack things up and be gone before we can nail them for everything.”

She rubbed her face and flinched. In all this shit, she must’ve forgotten about the scratches on her cheek.

“Will you please come back inside so I can at least clean off your face? And then maybe Tara can help explain all this. I swear to God we are not fucking nor have we ever been.”

I was more than a little shocked to see her hand reach for the door handle. Then she got out and headed for the porch. I tagged along even though I wanted to grab and hug the shit out of her. When we walked inside, Tara grinned.

“I see you salvaged this mess.”

Michelle spoke up, saying, “I want to hear the whole story. From both of you.”

“This big jerk isn’t supposed to get involved while he’s on a job,” Tara said.

I answered quickly. “This job’s been going on for too long. Besides, when this woman entered my life, there wasn’t anything that could’ve prevented me from getting involved with her. What I never expected was to fall in love.”

“Yeah, well, good luck explaining that to Ren.”

“Who’s Ren?” Michelle asked.

“She’s our ball-busting boss. And she’ll be mad as hell at me for telling you all this, but too fucking bad. Now let’s get your face cleaned up before you get an infection.”

Afterward, Tara and I gave her a brief explanation of how each member of the team was hired by the company to do our respective jobs. Then after a time, when they figured they could trust us, they began asking us to do shady shit. I didn’t give her all the details of how it started with small things, like tapping into accounts only to check balances, on the guise that they were clients. We knew they weren’t, but we did as they asked. Then when they gave us more ‘responsibilities’ and we didn’t raise any flags, we built up their trust. Now we’ve gotten to where they have us hacking into banking systems, healthcare systems, almost anywhere that stores social security numbers. To the average employee, they might think they’re moving funds for a client, but we know better. We have a detailed list of who their clients are and none of them require what they’re having us do. This company is a den of cyber thieves. They bury the money in Swiss banks and then launder it. We couldn’t believe how wide their operation spanned and how deep it ran. We’re about to break this case and I didn’t want Michelle to get in harms way.

“This company is a bogus shell and we have to put an end to it,” I said, “but now I’m worried since you’ve entered the picture.”

“Why are you worried about me?”

“What I can tell you is the men who run this company have ties to organized crime. It’s best you don’t know anything else.” These were dangerous people we were dealing with. They were not your every day petty thieves.

Tara stepped forward and added, “Michelle, Oliver really has been worried about you finding this out. He was never supposed to reveal what he did, not only because it puts you in danger, but it puts the entire team in danger too. It has the potential to expose us and blow our cover.”

Michelle’s hand covered her neck. I wished Tara hadn’t been so blunt but it’s too late now. “I would never tell anyone about this. My lips are sealed.”

“What if someone abducts you and holds you hostage? What if you’re tortured for information? You would easily identify us.” Tara asked.

“Jesus, Tara, you’re scaring her.”

“I know, but she has to understand the gravity of the situation.”

Michelle had gone ghostly pale. I reached for her hand and said, “I think it might be best if you stayed with me from now until we finish our work here.”

“And then what?” she asked.

“We’ll figure it out later. I don’t want you to be alone. You go to work, and come straight home. Either Zack or I will be there. Okay?”

“Does Zack know about this?” Michelle asked.

“Zack is on our team too,” I told her.

“Zack too?”

“Yeah. So you’ll be safe at my place. Will you do that for me?” I asked.

Tara grabbed her hand, which startled her. “Do it, Michelle. It would make us all feel better knowing you’re safe.”

She chewed on her lip for a second before she agreed. But then she asked, as an afterthought. “Are you sure you won’t mind me being there all the time? And what about Zack?”

“No, it’s fine. Zack loves when you’re around and you know how I feel about you.”

She was so still, I wasn’t sure she heard me.

“Michelle, why don’t I follow you back to your place where you can pack some clothes?”

She gave a slight nod and stood. She thanked Tara, but was still acting off. I told Tara we would stick to our plan and hopefully this op would be over within the next couple of weeks.

When we got to Michelle’s car, I made sure she was okay, before I jogged back to mine. An hour later, we pulled into her driveway. Before we went inside, she walked over to my car and reached under the front fender behind the left wheel. Then she handed me the GPS device that had been tracking me.

“Here. You can throw this away, or do whatever you want with this. I don’t need it anymore.” Her eyes were cast downward as though she couldn’t bear to face me.

“I do have to say it was a bit aggressive.”

A bubble of air blew out of her. “Yeah. If you had done this to me I’m not sure I’d be standing where you are.”

“There were so many times I wanted to tell you and it killed me to hurt you. I saw it in your eyes every time. I guess that’s why I wasn’t mad to know you did this.” We stood there a bit awkwardly for a moment when I said, “Do you want to go inside?”

“Oh, gosh.” She chuckled a little. “ My head is swimming with so much stuff, I’m not thinking straight.”

“It’s fine.” I took her elbow and gently led her up the porch steps. Once inside, I had her sit. “So, let me tell you a little bit about myself. Things I couldn’t before. I’m from Chicago. That’s where I went for Christmas … where my parents live. I have a sister, Deanna, who’s married to a guy named Randy and a new niece, Ariana, who’s almost six months old. I graduated with a degree in computer science, from Carnegie Mellon, and my mom thinks I work at a hospital here in Atlanta in their medical records department. Honest to God, Michelle, I think I fell in love with you the night I saw you out on the dance floor. Not a day has passed that I haven’t thought about you and wished to fuck I could tell you this story. You are my every fantasy come to life. Sometimes life puts you in the right place at the right time and that happened to me the night I met you. I am not supposed to get involved on a job. But when I met you, you were my shooting star. I couldn’t look away for anything and I still can’t. Tara gave me a ton of shit about it. But I didn’t care. You are my girl, like it or not.”

After she stares at me for several long seconds, she says, “Can you please hug me for a minute?”

Was she kidding? I moved to her side and wrapped my arms around her. It was something I’d been dying to do ever since I saw her stuck in that bush in front of that crummy house, all scratched up.

“I’ve missed you so much, Oliver.”

“Not even close to how much I’ve missed you, Gumdrop. I can’t begin to tell you.” My hand smoothes her hair and I don’t ever want to let her go.

That nickname got a little laugh out of her. I leaned closer to her and inhaled her scent. The familiar floral fragrance filled my nostrils, sending my dick signals I wasn’t quite prepared for. The little fucker needed to be smacked down before he acted like that. But the truth was I wanted her so much. I wanted to feel her silky skin sliding against my own. I wanted to feel her soft pussy sheathed around my dick as I pumped into her. I even wanted her nails to score my skin as she came, panting out my name. Most of all, I wanted her heart, as much as she had mine.

“As much as I’d like to stay here, I think it’s best if we get your things and head over to my place.”

“Yeah, okay. I should probably text Sheridan to let her know I won’t be staying here for a while. We usually talk every day. She might think it’s strange if I don’t tell her.”

“Michelle, you can’t tell her any of the details.”

“Nothing?”

“Not a word, other than you’re staying with me. I’m an undercover agent. Remember?”

She rubbed her forehead. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking,” she said.

“It’s a lot to adjust to.”

She disappeared into her room and came back a little while later with a large duffle bag. “I’m ready.”

It was fairly late by the time we got to my place. Zack was watching TV when we walked in. Tara must’ve given him the heads up because he just laughed when we came in. “I’ve gotta say, I’m fucking happy I don’t have to sneak around and say shit behind your back any more Michelle.” Then he sat up straight and asked her, “What the fuck happened to your face?”

Her fingers flew to her cheek as she lightly touched the scratches there.

“Uh, yeah, I sort of fell into some bushes.” She explained what happened and even I didn’t know about the paint bucket. It was funny and Zack cracked up. She did too.

“I hate to break this to you, but that’s not going to look so good in the morning,” I said. “The scratches aren’t bad but it’s super puffy and might be even more so when you wake up.”

“You think?” she asked.

“Yeah.”

“I’m such a klutz.”

“You’re the prettiest klutz I know,” I told her.

“Okay, guys, that’s enough. If you’re gonna get all gooey and shit, take it upstairs,” Zack said.

Michelle parked herself on the couch, much to my dismay, and said, “I have a question for the two of you. Were you all talking business stuff and when I showed up is that why you went silent?”

“Yeah. Every time. I told them to stop because you thought they were talking about you. But they thought they were discreet.”

“You guys were giving me a serious complex,” she said. “At least I know I’m not crazy. So how many of those people do you work with.”

I hesitated for a second, but Zack jumped in and told the number in our team. I’m surprised he didn’t tell her their real names too. Talk about letting the cat out of the bag. No doubt she would’ve figured it out anyway. Zack was genuinely fond of Michelle so he was chatting up a storm with her. I finally caught his eye. All I wanted was a little alone time with her. It had been far too long since we’d been together.

“Well, I’m going to call it a night,” he said. “Why don’t we plan on a group dinner tomorrow night?”

The fuck. Was he going to want to have a threesome too?

“Why don’t we do that the night after tomorrow. Michelle and I have a lot of catching up to do.”

“Oh, sure. It’s a plan. Our favorite pizza place—you know the one with the wood fired grill.”

“Yeah. Let’s do it. Good night,” Michelle said. And we headed up the stairs. I carried her bag for her. It was loaded to the gills, but that was fine by me. She could move in here full time if she wanted.

Once in the room, I helped her get settled. If she wanted space, I would give it to her. But she clung to me like a winter blanket, warm and soft, saying she didn’t want to let me go. Finally, she went to wash her face and brush her teeth. When she was finished, I took my turn at the sink, then crawled under the sheets next to her. Her hand immediately went for my dick, which was hard as stone, but tonight wasn’t going to be one of those nights. This was about mending what had broken between us. Michelle needed to understand that she wasn’t just some woman I had a thing for. Yeah, I told her already, but actions always speak louder, or so they say.

Taking her hand in mine, I brought it to rest over my heart. Then I looked into her beautiful eyes, the ones I dreamed about every night, prayed that I would see again some day, and said, “You have no idea what it means to have you back here with me. Yeah, I’ve said the words, but I’m not sure you understand the depths of my feelings for you. I wish you could hear my thoughts when I see you, what the sound of your voice does to me, or how your smile affects me. I wish you could feel my heartbeat when I look into your eyes, or know that I fucking get butterflies when you touch me sometimes. My place is here, in your arms, always, if you’ll have me. I know this is crazy rushed and you don’t have to say anything back, but I wanted you to know that all those times you thought I was with someone else, even if I wasn’t in the room with you, I was always there, Michelle. Always.”

She grabbed my face and planted her lips on mine. I loved her lips, the way she kissed, all sweet yet fiery at the same time. There were so many things I wanted to say, yet all I wanted to do was hold her tightly and never let her go.

“I love you too, Oliver.”

“I’m going to marry you someday. But it has to be when I’m free of this undercover stuff. And the DHS won’t be too happy about this. I’m only warning you now.”

Her hand rubbed a circle over my heart. “We’ll figure it out. Look at Beck and Sheridan. They’re making it work. Even after all that stuff they had to deal with. They’re going to have a party this summer to celebrate.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. But back to us, we’ll make it work. All that matters is Team Oliver and Michelle are back in business.”

I kissed her and we soon fell asleep.