“Okay, okay,” he said, chuckling. “Come over here.” He patted the seat beside him. Warily she made her way over to the sofa and sat down. Taser tapped a few keys and then closed up his laptop.
“Nix, I am not going to kill you today, nor am I going to fuck you.” He grinned. “I do, however, reserve the right to do either – or both - at some future point in time.” Nicki rolled her eyes and snorted. “Now that we’ve cleared that up, know this: Your vacation ends now. Get in the kitchen and make me some breakfast, woman.”
“Fuck you,” Nicki said with affection.
Taser laughed. “That’s my girl. I already ate anyway. Go grab something for yourself and bring it back here. We can talk while you eat.”
Nicki rose and began to walk away, then turned suddenly and regarded him. “You’re serious, aren’t you? You’re not going to do it?”
He made an “X” over his chest. “Cross my heart.”
She believed him, even though he routinely insisted he’d had his heart surgically removed years ago, and it felt like a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She stared at him for a few long moments, wondering if anyone really knew the man before her. “You know, you look an awful lot like Tommy Gunn with the whole ‘stache/beard thing going on.”
Taser chuckled at the adult film star reference. He really was quite attractive when he smiled like that. And when he wasn’t trying to kill her.
“Where do you think I got the idea? He’s one of my idols. My rod’s bigger though,” he winked. Nicki sighed, her expression martyred, and wondered why she even bothered sometimes.
––––––––
“You know, I still can’t believe you’re just reinstating me, giving me another assignment.” Nicki tossed the apple core toward the woods for some creature’s later delight and licked the last of the peanut butter off the spoon. They sat on the swing together, rocking lightly. Nicki’s foot was tucked at an angle beneath her; Taser was lounging back, regarding her with those golden eyes, reminding her of a huge cat sizing up his prey.
She still housed some doubt as to whether or not Taser was being honest with her. Maybe this was all part of the plan, a ruse to get her feeling comfortable and unthreatened, to relax her guard. Even though she had already decided she wouldn’t fight her “elimination”, her instincts would probably kick in anyway. She was more than capable of inflicting some serious damage, and maybe Taser just didn’t want to take the chance of losing anyone else. There weren’t that many of them to begin with.
“Oh, it’s not that easy, sweetheart. This is not just any assignment. There are consequences for what you did, you know.”
Nicki narrowed her eyes. Maybe Taser’s plan all along had been to put her in an unwinnable situation. She’d go down in the line of duty. It made sense. Even if she couldn’t make it back alive she’d take a few of the bad guys with her, and Taser wouldn’t have her blood on his hands. Sure, everyone knew the rules, but there might be a few agents genuinely upset if Taser did her in. If someone else did it, it was a win-win. For everyone except her, that was.
“Just what are we talking about here?”
“I’ll let your partner fill you in on the details.”
Nicki frowned. Partner? Ah, shit. Taser wasn’t going to make Fisher or Brookes take her out, was he? A form of penance for not checking her before things got out of hand? They all looked out for one another, took care of one another. Their teams were so close it really didn’t matter who actually messed up. They all shouldered the responsibility. Sharing the blame was the only way they all managed to remain upright.
But surely this didn’t count. Fisher and Brookes couldn’t possibly be held accountable for anything that occurred in Pine Ridge; they weren’t even there until they showed up at Sean’s place. Technically, she’d been on leave.
“Fisher didn’t know. Neither did Brookes,” she blurted out. “They had nothing to do with what went down up north.”
Those golden eyes burned right through her. Taser was the only one she knew of – besides a certain hard-assed Irishman – that could truly out-stare her. “They should have been watching you more closely. If they had, we might have minimized the collateral damage.”
Collateral damage. A.k.a., Sean Callaghan and the Ghost Team. Icy blue eyes and the expression Sean wore that last time she’d seen him – surprise, desire, determination – rose unbidden in her mind’s eye. Had he been searching for her? Had he enlisted the aid of his brothers? Fisher already told her they’d been attempting to do a background check on her.