Jude’s eyes flare and an entirely inappropriate image of me pressed up against his body flashes into my mind. My cheeks heat and I look away.
Jude gets out his phone and makes a call. “She just confirmed her identity,” he says. A second later River comes back in. He places some papers on the desk in front of me. It’s an immunity agreement.
“You already had this prepared.” I tip back my head. I hate that they made me think I was facing prison time when this was their plan all along.
River sits down on the opposite side of the desk and meets my eyes. “It seemed the most likely outcome. After your little escapee act earlier, I do have a condition of my own though.” He opens a drawer and pulls out a tracking anklet. “You get a five-mile radius. Do we have a deal?”
I eye the thick black plastic anklet. It’s sleek, like everything at the FBI, but it’s still takes away your freedom. It’s going tomake what I need to do tricky, but five miles is lot better than a 3x4 cell.
I look back at River. “Deal.”
He smiles, but there’s nothing gentle about it.
I read the agreement, which basically says I need to tell them anything I know that could aid the investigation. They’ve agreed to keeping me up to date with the case so long as I’m an asset but if they discover I’ve held something back the agreement is void and I’ll be thrown in prison. This is where it gets a little tricky. There are some things I can’t tell them, but this is my best shot at catching my father. I guess I’ll just have to make sure they never find out what I’m hiding.
I sign on the dotted line.
Agent Park or River, I don’t know what to call him anymore, stands up and crouches down beside my chair. He lifts my foot and places it on his knee. His fingers brush against my leg as he rolls my pants up and I have to force my breath to stay even. The click of the tracking anklet locking shut fills the room.
River takes off the cuffs holding me to the chair and tugs on my hands till I’m standing in front of him. He looks down at my shiny new piece of jewelry. “If you don’t turn up when I call you or you step one foot outside of your radius, we’ll be on you in minutes. Understood?”
I nod.
“Use your words, Freya.”
I bristle at his tone but I’m not exactly in a position to argue right now. “I understand.”
“Good.” River’s eyes drop to where Jude left the hairbrush on the desk then flick back up to me. “And Freya,” he says quietly, “if I were going to spank you, I wouldn’t use a hairbrush. I’d use my bare hand. And the imprint would mark your pretty pale skin for hours.”
I suck in a breath. His words set me on fire and freeze me at the same time. River leaves the room but I stand there like a statue, trying to get over the shock. I know what I said earlier was inappropriate, but I never expected him to respond like that. I don’t know whether I’m more surprised by his words or the way my body reacted to them. Because right now my panties are wet and having River’s hands on me sounds like a far better idea than it should.
Jude coughs and I jump. I’d forgotten he was still here.
“Well, I guess that answers that question,” he says cheerily. Then he takes my hand and pulls me towards the door. “I wonder what the rules are for fraternizing with an asset because if River’s going to go there, I am most definitely throwing my hat in the ring.” Jude looks over at me and grins. “Metaphorically of course, Eli’s the only one with an actual hat.”
I stare at him, my mouth hanging open.
He winks. “What do you say Angel, want to go on a date?”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Freya
JUDE’S IDEA OF a date ends up being an interrogation with not just him but the entirety of River’s team. I’d only just got home after signing the immunity agreement when my phone rang, Jude’s name flashing up on screen. At some point, after they’d confiscated my belongings, one of them had programmed all of their numbers into my phone. Despite his order, if River had been the one calling, I’d have been tempted to ignore it, but the memory of Jude’s gentle fingers in my hair had me picking up. I like Jude—he’s goofy, in a way the others aren’t. Case in point, he’d set his ringtone as Taylor Swift’s ‘Love Story’, so I’d answered, and he’d lured me to his house the next day with the promise of Chinese food.
His place is different to mine. It’s not that it’s messy, because it’s not. The books under the coffee table sit in neat piles and the kitchen is tidy apart from a couple of mugs on the draining board. Maybe it’s the warm yellow light from the lamps in the corner of the room or the fact that the books have clearly been read from the creases in the spine, but the house feels lived in. Comfortable. Against all odds I find myself relaxing but we only have the living room to ourselves for about ten minutes before River, Eli and Oz arrive.
Oz blinks at us through his glasses, taking in the spread of Chinese boxes on the coffee table and the way I’m sitting cross-legged on the couch next to Jude. “Well, this is cozy.”
Eli tears off his cowboy hat and stares at me. “No.”
“Eli–” Jude takes his legs off the table.
“No,” Eli snaps again. I don’t know what happened to the flirty version of Eli from the crime scene, but this Eli is looking at me like he would rather kill me than kiss me. “I don’t want her in this house. Our house.” Eli turns to River. “Get her out of here,” he says, before storming from the room.
River sighs and pins Jude with an exasperated look. “I told you to arrange a meet-up, not invite her to our house for a damn date.”
I swallow the mouthful of spring roll I’d stopped chewing when everyone arrived. “So, you guys all live here together?”
