“Babe.”
If any other man had used that term with her, she would have kicked him in the nuts. Kap had told her once that he had never used it with another woman, and she had believed him. He was good. He wasn’t a dirty spy who lied.
“You’ve got me worried. Tell me.”
She shoved a hand through her hair. “I’m worried they will fire El and me since we’ve created this big mess.”
“First, if they fired you over this, they are dumbasses. And one thing I know about those two men, they aren’t dumbasses.”
“No, they aren’t.”
He leaned forward to take her hand. With gentle ease, he tugged her into his arms. “And this isn’t your fault. This bastard is the root of the problem, not you and not El.”
She knew it was indulgent, but she snuggled in closer and drew a deep breath. Kap always smelled of crisp, clean air and something deeper, masculine. When they had been dating, she thought it was cologne, but she soon realized it was just Kap.
“That’s not all you were thinking about there.”
Dammit. He had always been able to read her, since the first.
“I’m not an agent.”
“I know that. I mean, I know you don’t work for The Company anymore.”
With a sigh, she leaned back to look at him. “No. I was never an agent. I had the training, but I was never in the field like El. I was hosting parties and meetings and basically playing spy.”
She waited for a response, but he said nothing. Kap revealed nothing as he studied her, and she couldn’t take it anymore. Breaking away from him, she walked away to look at the pictures he had on the wall. But she didn’t see them. Not really. Instead, she realized her entire world was breaking apart because she knew at this point, he would walk away.
“Can you explain something for me?”
“I’ll try,” she said, without turning around.
“Did you have training like a typical spy?”
She nodded. “Mom insisted. She said that we were going to be put in danger, so she wanted us to at least have the background to deal with it.”
“Who went after El?”
Turning to face him, she blinked against the burning in her eyes. She was trying very hard not to be a blubbering idiot, like she had been the night before. “I did.”
He took one step, closing the distance between the two of them.
“That seems like something an agent would do. You saved his life.”
“Of course I did. He is my brother and was my partner at the time. I would never leave my partner behind.”
“And I’m sure the higher-ups wanted you to leave it alone. Once caught, CIA agents are usually SOL.” Shit out of luck.
She nodded.
“But you went. With no support. Would you do that for Ian?”
“Of course. I just said I would never leave my partner.”
“One thing I’ve noticed about you is the way you hold your body.”
She blinked at the switch in topics.
“Okay?”
