“Well, he probably wants to make sure you’re safe, considering you’re friends.” She shrugged and put another dish in the sink.
“Colleagues,” I corrected, wrinkling my nose and brushing some of my hair that was frizzing away from my face. “Definitely not friends.”
Lilah peered over at me like she was questioning my sanity. I’d probably announced that last part a little too loudly. “Noted,” she grumbled, and I turned to the sink to wash the barbecue off a dish, hating that I’d let Cade get to me at all.
Still, I’d had enough people not believe in me over the years. And he was the worst of them. He never gave me more than a glance when he walked into the room, and I knew he’d bad-mouthed me when I’d first started.
Suddenly, my sister stopped and pointed over her shoulder, yelling, “Gotta go to the bathroom, Izzy,” as she beelined it out of there.
I spun around, knowing Delilah wouldn’t speed off unless she was avoiding something. And sure enough, the reason was standing right in front of me. All six feet plus a good couple of inches of him loomed over me like he was trying to intimidate me.
He wouldn’t. I didn’t care if he was a whole head taller. The more I thought about it, the more irritated I became that he even attempted to come around me outside of work. I crossed my arms. “Don’t sneak up on me in my parents’ house, Cade.”
He quirked a dark brow like I sounded ridiculous. “Hardly sneaking considering I’m stepping right in front of you.”
“Whatever. This is a family party,” I pointed out, trying to make one thing clear. “You shouldn’t even be here.”
There. Now he knew I didn’t ever want to see him outside of work, that I didn’t like him, that he wasn’t wanted.
“Technically, I’m Dante’s family.” He glanced down at his phone like he didn’t even have time to have this conversation. Then he peered back up at me, and his stare held a condescension I wasn’t ready for. “Want to go so far as to say we’re related too?”
Why did that feel like he was goading me? I turned around to scrub a dish way harder than necessary. “God, you’re so annoying.”
“If you think I’m annoying, quit your damn job.”
Yep.Thereit was. Him being an absolute dick. Cade didn’t want me on any team within the government. He’d had it out for me since day one because he thought I couldn’t handle the pressure of our work. It didn’t bode well for me. We all knew his ties to the president, to the Pentagon, to everyone. The man infiltrated everything because he had access to it all. A few clicks for him, a few hacks, and he’d be raking through my deepest darkest secrets.
“Start working in corporate America.”
I stopped my assault on the poor dirty plate and winced at his recommendation. I liked to think I worked as hard as he did. And I had unfinished business with the government. I’d researched enough while undercover to learn that a large Albanian family was breaking laws within our country. We’d caught them once, and I wasn’t going to stop until I had them all behind bars. “The Albanians aren’t done. You and I both know it.” I waved between us like he should understand. He’d seen what they were capable of in the past, and it was our job to make sure it never happened again. As I got better at sifting through the data, I’d found more evidence. “The drugs are a fucking cover for nuclear warfare, and I’m gonna help bring them down.”
“You’re digging where you shouldn’t be. And you may be good, Izzy, but not that good. I’ve tracked every fucking hack you’ve done,” he said, an arrogant smirk on his face. Then he leaned in and whispered, “It’s not warfare, love. It’s the laundering of so much money they would control everything. We’ve built alliances, though. It’s fine. You need to back off.”
The way his breath felt on my skin, on my neck, so close to me that I could smell him... I loved it in a way I shouldn’t. My body instantly gravitated toward him as if I should lean in instead of away. “They won’t honor that alliance. So either let me do my job or fuck off,” I ground out, trying to ignore everything he was doing.
He hummed low, not moving back even an inch. “If you get kidnapped, I’m leaving your ass with them.”
“Great.” I peered up into his eyes and turned my face so our lips were just a touch away from each other. “They’ll probably be better company than you anyway.”
“Say that again, and try to mean it this time,” he growled.
Our stares held, his full of something I didn't normally see. Cade was alive right there next to me, his gaze no longer dark and cavernous but wild and full of adrenaline and joy, like a kid ready to play his favorite game. That look mirrored mine when I found something to keep my mind off my own demons. We’d have worked well together in another life.
We heard the bathroom door opening and stepped away from each other. My brother-in-law came in, too, swooping Delilah under his arm, smiles a mile wide as they hurried through saying goodbye to me.
Cade ushered them out of the house without a backward glance.
Well, good riddance to him, too. Except I wasn’t proud to say I did flip him off as he exited.
Still, I went to bed with deep-brown eyes threaded with gold in the back of my mind. I tried my best not to slide my hand between my legs, imagining what it would have been like to lean in an inch farther and taste that man’s lips.
I hated myself for it the very next week.
The followingMonday started terribly with rain pelting down on me as I made my way into work, drenching my navy blouse and pinstripe pencil skirt. I didn’t even have time to dry off, though, before HR called me in.
My stilettos squished with the rainwater as I made my way down the hall, hoping they had a simple update for me of some sort. I’d never been summoned like this, not even for a review of my work.
As I turned the corner and knocked on the already open door, though, understanding dawned. Cade in a black three-piece suit sat behind a small elderly woman at her desk with what looked like one outrageously expensive Berluti loafer propped on a bent knee to hold his laptop across his thighs. He was the epitome of a successful and very intimidating businessman.