“Why didn’t you tell me what you were doing for the Bureau?” His lips pulled back from his teeth and she swore his incisors looked just a little more prominent than she remembered them being. “Why didn’t you come to me first?”
Lifting her eyes, Chelsea stared back at him and forced herself to breathe slowly, evenly.
“Would you like a cup of coffee before we begin this argument? Or do you just want to start now?” she asked, her lip curling in disgust. “Because I find it highly distasteful arguing in my bedroom. And I’m sure as hell not doing it while you’re holding on to me as though I were a suspect in need of detaining.”
His gaze flickered, then dropped to where he was holding her firmly. He released her slowly, almost finger by finger, until she was free. “Answer my question.”
“Not until I’ve had my coffee,” she informed him, her voice sharper than she intended. “Hell, maybe a drink too. Dealing with you is becoming harder by the day.”
Of course, it would help if she didn’t allow herself to get drawn into conversations about his former marriage or her own doubts about her ability to measure up to the femininity his deceased wife had once possessed. That was always guaranteed to put her in a bad mood.
Add the instant arousal the minute she caught sight of him into the equation and there probably wasn’t enough coffee or alcohol to settle her nerves.
Stalking through the dimly lit living room and into the spacious kitchen, Chelsea raked her fingers through her hair and told herself she was not going to become distracted by his touch or that gleam of lust she’d glimpsed in his eyes as she moved past him.
If she didn’t keep her wits about her, then Cullen would end up destroying any chance she had of proving herself as a dependable agent. She wasn’t going to allow that.
Sliding two cups beneath the dual spouts of the coffeemaker, she programmed in the strength of the brew and waited the five seconds or so it took to fill them. When she turned back to him, she placed his cup on the table before cradling her own and leaning against the counter.
And if he started toward her as he had the last time he was in her kitchen, then she was going to run. She was not letting him touch her. For some reason, his touch just fried her brain synapses.
The fact that they were facing off in the kitchen once more wasn’t lost on her, though. The irony of it was really kind of amusing.
Every discussion her family had ever had that was of any importance had taken place in a kitchen over coffee or alcoholic drinks. Hell, it was here where she’d met with Ashley and Cassie just after her contact, an employee for a desert tourist guide business, had called her and given her a lead on the Genetics Council’s upcoming plans.
A week after she’d resigned from the Agency and walked away from Cullen. A week of questioning herself and her decision, and the answer to what she was going to do after Cullen, had come in the form of that phone call.
Taking the information she’d gotten from her contact, she’d contacted Ashley and Cassie, asked them over for coffee, then proposed the operation she was currently conducting. Cassie had immediately called Director Breaker, and within the hour he and
his brother, Operations Commander of the Western Division, had been on her doorstep. From there, the operation had become her baby.
She didn’t appreciate Cullen’s desire to take it away from her.
“I’m waiting on that answer.” His voice rumbled with demand. “Why didn’t you come to me if you suspected the Genetics Council was up to something?”
She shrugged with a tight, tension-filled movement. “I didn’t suspect crap, Cullen. A close friend of mine, a contact I’ve used when working with the Underground, contacted me. He overheard a Coyote and one of the other guides discussing the Genetics Council sending a team into the area to abduct a high-profile Breed target as well as placing double agents within the Breed community being established here. I took that information to the Bureau, and Director Breaker gave me lead on the operation. That Coyote and guide disappeared before enforcers could get to them, but we still have a chance to save their target.”
His eyes narrowed on her, brooding and not in the least pleased. “How did you verify this information?” he demanded, suspicion flickering in his gaze. “For all you know it could just be some story your contact concocted for you. You know exactly how unreliable information like that can be.”
She shook her head, incredulity filling her now. “I’m sure that’s what you want me to believe, Cullen.” She scoffed at the accusation. “This wasn’t some carefully designed fairy tale, I promise you that. Within days the Bureau had taps on several known Council associates, and the information was verified and reverified before we ever finalized the parameters of the operation. We’ve been trying to identify the Council Breeds and the target the team is coming after. The targeted window of the attempt is within two to four weeks. And we’re getting closer, I can feel it.”
The phone taps as well as the listening devices she and Ashley managed to place in areas where suspected Council associates were talking in those clubs had brought in several clues. Nothing concrete, nothing they could act on. It was more questions than answers, but they knew they were on the right track.
“And the attack against you last week?” he bit out then, anger brewing in his eyes. “Did you consider that your status on this operation has been compromised? Or worse, they identified you as Louisa Cerves’s rescuer?” Frustrated outrage filled his tone. “For God’s sake, Chelsea, you should have never taken this assignment after you snatched that child from those Coyotes. You needed to stay low for just a little while.”
She’d considered that the operation might have been compromised. She, Ashley and Cassie had actually discussed it several times. It wasn’t possible, though. She knew she hadn’t given herself away and neither had anyone she was working with.
As for being identified by Louisa’s rescuer, that one she didn’t worry about as much. Had it happened, Samara Cerves would have already had her executed, no doubt.
“Only the director, the operations commander, Ashley, Cassie, Draeger and Tobias are aware that it’s even an operation. And I trust them as well as you trust Ranger. That attack had nothing to do with the operation, and it definitely doesn’t have anything to do with Louisa,” she argued calmly, refusing to let her rage and anger over that baby free.
She wasn’t going to let herself become angry, and she damned sure wasn’t going to let him draw her into another of those fights where she was made to feel that every word she said only made her appear weaker.
“Then why attack you?” Skepticism filled his voice and his expression. “Why else would a Council Coyote attack you? Your cover had to have been blown one way or the other. There’s no other reason to come after you with a blade.”
Her lips thinned at the certainty in his voice. Of course he believed every word that passed his lips. And once he decided he knew the answer, there was no convincing him otherwise without proof in black and white, or in blood.
His lack of faith in her abilities was enough to completely piss her off, even on a good day.