“Argh!” Luke said, his entire face collapsing in a kind of queasy disgust. “Why do you have to go there?”
“Because of that very reaction!” Dani pointed at him and David, who had dissolved into varying levels of embarrassment. “Works every time. Besides, no one in this frat house is going to know a damn thing about this subject.” She turned back to Katie. “That’s perfect!”
“But still risky,” Luke interjected. “Don’t forget who you’re dealing with.”
“Believe me, I never have.” Katie’s reply was so loaded and so flat it spoke volumes, but if there was subtext Dani wasn’t following. Something in the evil glances the girl was continually giving both men. Dani had thought that perhaps Katie simply didn’t like men in general, or was simply disgusted by the way neither of them seemed to have moved beyond puberty. But she seemed perfectly at ease in her continued proximity to the Neanderthals Benny called guards when it seemed to Dani that they would be the men for her to fear.
“All right.” Dani didn’t necessarily like putting the girl at risk a second time, especially after their discussion that afternoon, but what choice did they have? Lacking any better ideas, she turned to Luke. He looked at her and nodded agreement. In for a penny, in for a pound then. Whatever the hell that meant. “Take David. Find out where Benny is. If he’s not in the office, David can come back and tell us. You stall Benny for as long as you can. Just make sure you keep him away from the office.”
Katie nodded but Dani still didn’t like it, though she couldn’t put her finger on why. The whole plan was shoddy, made up too quickly. This isn’t what she’d learned in the military. Operations weren’t created on a whim. You planned things. The problem was she didn’t have the time to plan anything just now. And there was no superior officer to tell her what to do.
Except Luke, maybe. Only he was sitting there, arms crossed, looking every bit as put out as she felt. He didn’t like it any better than her.
“And Katie?” Luke said.
“Yes?”
“Be careful. Don’t risk yourself for anything. Just stall... and say you didn’t want to say anything to the guards. That you felt uncomfortable. Maybe then mention that you want to know how your family is. He’ll buy that.”
“Okay.”
Okay, sink or swim, this was what they had. They just needed David to cooperate. Dani turned to David, looking at him hopefully, realizing that now more than ever she needed her little brother back, and she hadn’t seen that kid since before she left for active duty years ago. “David, I need you to be honest with me. You okay with this?”
He simply nodded and stood.
She guessed that was as good as she was going to get. She would work with that. They could work with that. She and Luke were a team, right?
But Luke wasn’t speaking to her now. He wasn’t even looking at her. Given what they’d been doing fifteen minutes ago, it was a slap in the face. Here she was, trying to put together an operation to get him to where he wanted to go, and he was sitting there staring at today’s newspaper.
Page eight.
“What?”
Luke shook his head. “Something isn’t right. I don’t know... just...” He looked at her and she saw in his eyes the same confusion she’d been feeling since David had come into the room. No, something was seriously off. Something they weren’t seeing at all.
“Guys?” Katie was at the doorway, suddenly tall and imperious, David slinking around her heels.
“It’s good. Just... don’t worry. Something else entirely. You’re good.” Dani waved them off, frowning.
Luke moved past Dani to press an ear to the closed door. A moment later he turned back to Dani, shaking his head. “Can’t hear a thing. Why does every door in the place have a solid core? Who has solid doors on every room? In my house the doors were made of paper.”
“Maybe because my family makes more money than yours does. How the hell should I know?”
“Something wrong?”
The very fact he was asking was answer enough. She stepped away from him, feeling the icy jolt go through her. Why? Why am I always so unlucky in love? Here he is, the perfect guy. Sex is amazing. Combat skills. Intellectually someone I can respect. And he hates me.
Nothing had changed at all.
“Forget it. I just... nothing.” She picked up the discarded newspaper. “Why is this in here?”
“I grabbed it from the table when we left.”
“You thought to grab the newspaper?”
“Benny seemed awfully fixated on it at dinner.”
While I was stupid enough to be fixated on you. Biting back words that she knew she would regret if she said them at all, she glanced down at the article and failed to see what was so interesting. “Someone he knew, I take it?” She shook her head. “I don’t see it.”
“It’s not the article, it’s what he said...”
“What did he—”
The door opened, and David appeared, a caricature of a spy. He edged around the door, darting so many glances over his shoulder it was a miracle he didn’t trip over his own feet. “If you’re going, you have to hurry. Benny’s in the bathroom. We have a few minutes, if you know what I mean. But Katie will make it last as long as she can.”
“Eww.” Dani shook her head. “That sounds so wrong. I’m assuming you mean she’s ready to offer distraction.” She’d spent too long on commentary; Luke was already halfway down the hall. Cursing under her breath she sped after him, catching up at the office door.
Surprisingly, the door was unlocked. Half-expecting some kind of trap, Dani peered around Luke’s shoulder and saw immediately that, yes, the office did look very different. Benny had definitely been living there. There was a small fridge in the corner that hadn’t been there before. A microwave on the shelf next to some fancy coffee machine that she’d only previously seen in Starbucks. A fresh shirt hung on the coatrack next to the door. A shoe shine kit was stuffed on the shelf next to the heavy law books that had belonged to her father, back in the days when he’d practiced law.
Before Benny, Dani thought as she entered the room. He stopped practicing law when Benny offered him a chance to invest in those resorts.
I wish he’d never done that. Why hadn’t he said no?
“David,” Luke called over his shoulder as he stepped further into the room. “Keep your eye on the door; let us know if you see anyone coming!” David looked unconvinced, but stood where he was told. Luke nearly leapt over the desk to get to the computer.
He dug into his pocket and pulled out a USB stick. Dani blinked. Not A stick. THE stick.
“You had it all along?” Dani asked, realizing that if Luke had kept this from her that maybe been keeping a lot of things from her.
Her stomach lurched. She was seriously going to be sick.
Luke nodded. “Jimmy should have searched me properly when I got back.” He laughed.
He actually laughed.