CHAPTER THREE
Two perfectly polished brown brogues came into view, and Lucky silently cursed herself for not making her escape earlier. Looking up slowly, she saw Sam Barton’s dazzling smile and sighed. “Hey, Sam.”
“Lucky.”
“What brings you to the Athletic Club?” Collecting her things, she shoved them into her bag and stood. Maybe this could be a two-minute conversation and she could get away quickly.
“I had my semi-annual meeting with my boss where I get reminded of the rules and regulations.” He looked her up and down and grinned. “What about you…date?”
“Not any of your business.” Stepping around him, she saw his hand move to her arm. “What?”
“Let me take you to dinner.”
“No, thanks, lots to do at work, no time.”
“You had time to kiss the guy who was here earlier, so I think you can spare some time to have a meal with me.”
“Why, Sam?”
“Why not?”
“You and I don’t get along, and I don’t have the energy to bicker.”
“The last thing I want to do is bicker, and I promise to be on my best behavior.”
Looking into his guileless expression, she realized he believed the drivel that was coming out of his mouth. “I don’t think so.”
“One meal together and then I’ll leave you alone.” He picked up her hand and ran his finger over the rings that covered her left hand. “I have some intel, and we should talk.”
“No, thanks, I’m still coughing up water from the last time you left me to drown.”
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“After we worked together on Belikov and Firtash, your friends at the FBI were crawling all over my network for weeks. It took an amazing amount of control for me not to send a nice troll back with every attempted hack your sorry techs attempted.”
“The FBI doesn’t need to hack into SAI, so perhaps it wasn’t them.” Sam looked from side to side and then cupped her elbow. “I’m here to protect you.”
Seeing his serious expression made her swallow the nasty zinger she was about to deliver. “From what?”
“According to my boss, you need to back off of Vazov and stay out of the FBI network.”
Looking down at her shoes, she shook her head and felt her throat clog up. Hating that emotion was getting the best of her, she took a deep breath and then looked up. “I can’t let Vazov go.” She pushed her hair behind her ear and squared her shoulders. “And I would never crawl into the Intelligence Branch’s network because there are far better sources of intel and, even if I did, no one would know I was ever there.”
“Well, someone thinks you’ve been visiting.” He stepped closer and spoke quietly, “Lucky, you have to trust that I’m going to take Vazov down.”
When she saw Sam’s sincerity, the animosity that had been her constant companion seemed to lessen its iron grip. “I appreciate the sentiment, but the FBI has lots of priorities, and a man based in Brussels isn’t one of them.”
“Let’s grab something to eat and figure out where our mutual interests lie and see if we can help one another out.”
“I’m not backing off, Sam.”
“If you don’t want the full weight of the FBI’s anger slamming down on your head, then you’re going to have to.”
“I’ve not been inside the FBI’s network since I was a teenager, so you back the hell off and tell your friends if they try and hack into my servers again, I’ll send back a gift. I don’t have time to waste on their sorry attempts because I’ve got more work than my team can handle.”
“Let’s not discuss this in the middle of the lobby and go to the Game Room and grab something to eat.”
Looking around the room, she debated with herself and then reluctantly decided to go. She might as well see what he had to say. “Fine.”
“See, Lucky, that wasn’t so hard.”
“Yes, it was,” she muttered in response.
The sexy smile he threw her was filled with more satisfaction than she was ready for and she felt like taking back her acceptance. Deciding it wasn’t in her in her best interest, she kept her mouth shut and followed him out of the lobby.
As they walked side by side toward the elevator, she firmed her resolve not to get into a snit and take any of his comments personally. After all, this was nothing more than two business acquaintances catching up, and as long as she focused on that and nothing else, she should come out of it unscathed.
Lucky stepped into the bar and felt Sam put his hand on her lower back. Why in the hell was he so touchy-feely? He’d never been that way before, and she wondered if there was some ancient Cro-Magnon thing going on where he saw her kiss someone and then decided he was interested too.
Whatever, she wasn’t going to make a big deal about it because she wanted to keep things out of the personal realm and strictly in the professional one. “Bar or table?”
“Let’s grab some seats at the bar since all the tables are communal. The last thing we need is for someone to interrupt us.”
Seeing two on the corner, she headed toward them and hopped on one. Slipping her bag on the hook under the bar, she noticed Sam do a little hop-step as he sat himself down. Must be because of his prosthetic.
Before she could say anything, the bartender came by, so she glanced at the menu briefly, then decided to stick with her usual favorites. “I’ll have an old-fashioned and the Heffelfinger hot dog with a side of onion rings.” Sam gave her an approving smile and she rolled her eyes in response. Why he thought she cared a bit about his opinion was mind-boggling.
“I’ll have the Metropolitan Flywheel Pilsner and a hot dog with a side of fries.”
Once the bartender left, Lucky turned in her chair. “Why does the FBI care what I do in my free time and why do they think it’s their business?”
“Not sure.” Leaning his elbows against the bar, he shrugged. “Simon didn’t give me any details that I haven’t given you. All he gave me was a friendly warning to pass on to you, and I have no intel as to why that’s the case. He told me he enjoys the mutually beneficial relationship that we share and doesn’t want to see it end.” Holding up his hand, he shrugged. “I wish I had more.”
Taking a deep breath, she shook her head, “It doesn’t make any sense because all the research I’ve done on the Dark Web has employed anonymizing software and encryption that completely blocks my identity.”
“You’ve just used a bunch of terms that I’m only vaguely familiar with, so I can’t answer your questions. But know that once I have the intel, I’ll share it with you.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m never going to let anything bad happen to you and if someone is spreading false info, then I’ll end it. Also, we’re an unbeatable team, and I’d like that to not end because your work was the key to taking Belikov down.”
“Why were you such an ass, then?”
“Honestly?”
“No, tell me a lie so we can waste one another’s time.”
Throwing his head back, he let out a laugh. “I missed you, Lucky. Why didn’t you ever return one of my phone calls?”
“Answer my question, Sam. You insulted me almost daily—why?”
He scrubbed his hand down his face and then looked at the bottles behind the bar. “Jealousy and insecurity.”
The bartender delivered their drinks and Lucky lifted her glass and took a healthy sip, and when that didn’t make his statement understandable, she took another one. “Hard to believe, Sam. You’re a damn war hero, as well as a former star of HRT. Why in the hell would you be jealous of me?”
“Because you’re smart, fearless, and take absolutely no bullshit.”
“Which pretty much makes me your dream girl, right?” Setting down her glass, she snorted in disbelief. The idea of being anything other than a nightmare to Sam was inconceivable. Feeling his hand on her arm, she looked up and saw a pained look in his eyes. “What?”
“You are my dream girl, and I poked at you so you wouldn’t get close and figure out that I’m nowhere near good enough for you.”
Their food was delivered, and Lucky stared down at the plank that her hot dog and onion rings were resting on and decided that Sam was pulling her leg. No way was he insecure. He was physically perfect, smart as hell, and a damn fearless operator. He was also arrogant and short-tempered. “I got over my crush a long time ago, Sam, and there’s no way to resurrect it, so let’s just be professional acquaintances and leave it at that.”
“I totally screwed up, Lucky, but that doesn’t mean I can’t fix it, and I ask that you keep an open mind.”
“Let’s just talk about Vazov and see where our mutual interests might intersect.”
“I’ll leave it for now, but know that I’m going to circle back to us at some point.”
Lifting an onion ring, she pointed it at him. “You can circle yourself silly, doesn’t mean that I’ll be there.”
He lifted a fry and tapped it against her onion ring. “Guess we’ll see about that.” He shoved the fry into his mouth and then winked.
“Yes, we will,” she said quietly. He could think whatever he wanted; didn’t mean a thing to her. The Sam Barton crush had ended long ago, and there wasn’t a thing that was going to bring it back to life.
Not even his perfectly beautiful face and honesty. She was a strong woman, and a couple of sentences that made him seem like less of an ass weren’t going to make her change her mind.
Stubbornness. She had it in spades.