Chances Are

chapter Two

“Come on, sweetheart, you know you want it. Come and get it. I won’t hurt you.”

It had once been said that Jake Mallory’s gruff whisper could charm the birds from a tree, the snarl off a grizzly and the panties from the most virtuous woman. He had never seen it happen but the talk had always made him laugh.

Today he was trying to do nothing more than charm a mouse from behind his fridge. Didn’t seem fair to kill the poor thing but dammed if he wanted to share an apartment with it. The cheese, an expensive Gruyere, had been a small sacrifice. Now if only the creature would cooperate.

His eyes scanned the miniscule kitchen with its two-eyed burner, coffee-stained sink and 1960s-style fridge. He needed to find a nicer place. The flat had been temporary digs to hang his clothes when he’d first moved to Paris. Working for Last Chance Rescue had seemed like the perfect job but he counted on nothing anymore. Everything in his life was on probation, especially the things that seemed too good to be true.

Working for LCR had panned out so far. He’d been an operative about four months now, been on a dozen or so rescues, saved lives, and helped put bad people away.

Nice to know that some things actually were what they seemed.

A year ago he hadn’t trusted a soul. Betrayal and a boatload of guilt will do that to a man. And now, he trusted an entire organization. Working for LCR had restored his faith in people. Not all of them. Hell, he’d seen too much evil shit for that to happen. Even now, he stayed wary, just in case. Jake didn’t trust easy. Never again.

His attention moved to the present as a tiny, whiskered face peeked out from behind the fridge. Holding his makeshift mousetrap in readiness, Jake stood statue still. A colander might seem like an odd device to catch a mouse but it was his best bet for a live capture and release. Giving up the cheap kitchen utensil was no problem, especially since he’d never used it.

The creature scurried to the cheese chunk lying in the floor. Jake waited till the twitching nose touched the cheese. Quick as a cat, he dropped the colander over the small heap, scooped up the now squiggling mouse and dropped it into a waiting shoebox.

Grabbing his keys and jacket, Jake tucked the shoebox under his arm and headed out the door. The abandoned building two blocks away seemed the perfect relocation and should offer plenty of company for the little guy.

The cellphone in his pocket played a familiar ring, telling him that his boss, Noah McCall, was calling. He pulled out the phone and held it to his ear. “Mallory.”

“Can you come in?”

“Yeah. Half an hour okay?”

“Yes.”

The line went dead before Jake could say anything else. Phone etiquette wasn’t high on McCall’s ‘must do’ list. Most of the phone conversations they’d had consisted of one or two sentences but the tone in his boss’s voice sounded ominous and grim, more so than usual.

His head low to battle the icy, brutal wind, Jake strode to his car. Opening the door, he deposited the box on the front passenger seat and cranked the engine. As he pulled onto the street, he reflected on his boss. Before coming to Paris, Jake had thought Noah McCall was an urban legend. As a cop, he’d heard stories about LCR’s successes but had dismissed most of them as someone’s wishful thinking. It wasn’t until he’d gotten caught up in the middle of an LCR undercover operation that he realized everything he’d heard was true.

Jake had been a typical tourist the day he’d met McCall. He’d been in Paris for two weeks, staying at hostels, roaming the streets, soaking up the atmosphere. He’d stopped in for a cold beer and a cheap meal at a not-so-high-class establishment. What he had gotten was a busted mouth, a black eye, and a job offer.

LCR had been running a sting. He hadn’t known that. All he knew was two men were attempting to pull a young woman out of the bar and no one was stopping them. Jake had intervened and ruined the mission. Thankfully another sting had been set up a few days later that brought down a human trafficking operation.

Even though Jake had blown the op, McCall had been impressed with his intervention. Days later, the LCR leader had called and asked to speak with him. Though wary, Jake agreed to the meeting. And after listening intently, Jake’s world seemed to right itself at last. For two years, he had been mired in bitterness and grief, with no real purpose other than to get as far away as he could from the life he’d once lived. McCall’s offer had shown him a new path. Now he couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

Making a quick stop at the abandoned warehouse, he unboxed his uninvited houseguest and watched it scurry away before he got back into his car. Not his usual kind of rescue, but what the hell. Killing something just because he could wasn’t his way. If it had been, there’d be at least five less sons of bitches serving life sentences in Danville.

Twenty minutes later, Jake pulled into a parking lot five blocks from the LCR office. Probably could have gotten closer but he was counting on a long walk in the frigid air to keep his mind from wandering where he couldn’t let it go. The moment he walked into the office, he would be greeted with what he told himself he shouldn’t want and couldn’t have. Maybe this new assignment would get him out of the city for a while. Lately that had been the only way to keep his hands off Angela Delvecchio.

The light-hearted flirting was becoming more than he could handle. The other day, she’d said something particularly provocative—dammed if he could remember the words. All he remembered was how he had responded. He’d been within a half second of pulling her to him for a hot, deep, thorough kiss—an open-mouthed, tongue battle while their hands ripped at each other’s clothes. She had been turned away from him and if not for McCall’s voice on the intercom telling her to send Jake up, he would have gone for it—and most likely regretted it for the rest of his life.

Grateful that the freezing temperatures seemed to have stiffened his resolve, Jake pushed the door open. The instant he saw her beautiful face, every frozen part of his body was instantly heated. And the most frustrating thing was, Angela made no secret of her attraction to him. That kiss he’d been so tempted to give her the other day would have been reciprocated, of that Jake had no doubt. But what was also obvious was her innocence and vulnerability. Beneath that tough-girl persona, he’d seen the gentle, caring heart of Angela Delvecchio. A heart that could be crushed by some cruel bastard’s uncaring selfishness. Dammed if he would be that man.

Exotic dark eyes gleamed up at him. “Bonjour, Monsieur Sunshine.”

Figuring he looked like an ominous thundercloud, Jake grimaced a smile. “Sorry. Need coffee. Spent my morning catching a mouse and haven’t had any caffeine yet.”

Her pretty nose scrunched up. “You need to find a nicer place to live.”

“Can’t argue with that.”

“Deidre just made a fresh batch of coffee.”

“Thanks. I’ll grab a cup after I see McCall.”

He could swear her eyes flickered with secrets at his comment. Which was damn odd—Angela was the most open person he’d ever known.

“Something wrong?” Jake asked.

Silky black hair swished around slender shoulders as she shook her head. “Have a good meeting. I’m running some errands, so I won’t be back today. I’ll be late tomorrow, too. And then I won’t—”

Jake held up his hand to stop her. “I gotta get up to McCall’s office. Let’s talk later. Want to meet for coffee? Say around four?”

Her eyes went wide at the invitation but instead of agreeing, she gave another quick shake of her head. “No thanks, too much to do.”

Before he could respond, she pressed a button to open the elevator for him. Another oddity. It was against protocol. All employees had to verify their identity by pressing a sensor key on the elevator. And usually she went out of her way to keep him talking for as long as possible. He told himself he wasn’t bothered by her eagerness to get rid of him.

She turned her back to him. “See you later.”

Frowning, Jake walked onto the elevator and waited impatiently as it shot to the tenth floor. What the hell did he think he was doing asking her for coffee anyway? That was going down a path he’d sworn he would avoid. Stupid didn’t even begin to describe his rashness. For a man who wasn’t known for impulse, that’d been a dumb-ass thing to do.

He’d done his best to keep their relationship on a friendly basis, but he was coming to the realization that it wasn’t going to work. Being friends with someone you wanted to strip naked wasn’t possible.

At that insane thought, arousal rose swift and urgent. Dammit, walking into McCall’s office with a hard-on wasn’t exactly a good idea. Gritting his teeth, he concentrated on everything but Angela.

The elevator door opened. Relieved that he’d been successful in dampening his desire, he strode to his boss’s office. He’d table the self-castigation until after his meeting. Hopefully a new assignment would get him out of town, might even get him out of the country.

He knocked on McCall’s door and then opened it at the gruff “Come in.”

The LCR leader stood behind his desk, looking out the giant picture window. When Jake entered, he turned and nodded at one of the leather chairs in front of his desk. “Have a seat.”

McCall wasn’t known for his cheerfulness but the man’s grim features seemed even more austere than usual.

“What’s up?”

“You and Angela seem to have a good rapport.”

Jake frowned. Where the hell had that come from? Mentally shrugging, he said, “Yes, I guess we do.”

“She’s still very vulnerable from the loss of her family.”

His frown turned to a scowl. “I’m aware of that.” That had been one of his main concerns when Angela made it known she would be open to something more than friendship between them. The last thing he wanted to do was hurt someone who’d already been hurt so much.

“She seems to think a lot of you.”

Puzzled and getting slightly pissed, Jake said bluntly, “Want to tell me what the hell you’re getting at, McCall?”

As if Jake hadn’t spoken, the man continued, “Angela started working for LCR when she was seventeen years old. She’s like family.”

It’d been a long time since a father or brother had warned him away from corrupting a young woman, but from McCall’s expression that was exactly what was about to happen.

“Not that it’s any of your business,” Jake growled, “but there’s nothing going on between Angela and me.”

“You’re sure?”

“Hell yes, I’m sure. I think I’d know if there was. Did you call me in for an assignment or to dig into my personal life?”

“So if there’s nothing going on between you two, you won’t mind working with her.”

Feeling like a dimwit, he said, “I haven’t had any problems working with her.”

“I mean on an op.”

Jake’s entire world shifted. “Angela? On an op? But she’s a researcher.”

“She’s also a fully trained operative. She’s asked for her first assignment and I’ve agreed.”

His thoughts reeling, he tried to come up with a reasonable objection that didn’t look like it was more than simple concern for a fellow co-worker. “She’s had a tough time the last few months. You said yourself she’s still vulnerable. You really think she’s emotionally ready for an op?”

“She’ll go through a mental eval, just like all operatives.”

“But why put our best researcher at risk?”

“Angela’s been training Deidre for the past few months. She’s highly qualified and Angela believes she’s ready to take over the researcher task full time.”

Hell, he had no issues with Deidre. She was a sweet, middle-aged woman who had a tendency to mother everyone. She was also, reportedly, a whiz on the computer. What he had problems with was putting Angela in harm’s way. His mind told him if she was a fully trained operative then she had every right to be out in the field, his gut said something different.

“Angela’s wanted to be an operative since she came on board with LCR,” McCall said. “We both agreed that her family came first. Since she was supporting them, she couldn’t put herself at risk. Sadly, that’s no longer an issue.”

A heartbeat of a pause, then McCall raised a cool, questioning brow. “You have some objections?”

Yeah, he had some objections, but none of them were valid. Voicing the real reason for his concern was out of the question. Especially when he refused to pull at that particular thread himself. His shrug was deliberately casual. “Just surprised, that’s all.”

“I think you’ll be impressed with her skills. I’ve asked her to complete a two-day refresher. Dylan will oversee it, but I’d like you to be there, too.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re going to be her partner on the op.”

Hell, hell and double damn hell. So much for staying out of her way. Still, even as he cursed, he couldn’t deny the relief. He would protect her. He had failed in protecting the last woman he cared for…he would not fail Angela.

McCall stood. “The other operatives will be here tomorrow afternoon. Be back here at three for the briefing.”

Still feeling off-center, Jake got to his feet and followed McCall to the door. “How many are on the op?”

“Ten, including you and Angela.”

He didn’t know whether to be concerned with the size of the op or not. Having that many experienced operatives should ensure Angela’s safety. “So what’s the mission?”

“We’ve been asked by British authorities to assist in apprehending the Red Rose Killer.”

Jake froze mid-stride. No way could he hide his reaction at the news. Angela was going to be working to capture a man who had been deemed one of England’s most horrific murderers of the 21st century? A killer who had been referred to as a modern day Jack the Ripper. And the bastard liked only one kind of victim: Tall, beautiful brunettes…just like Angela Delvecchio.

Shit!