Page 9 of Steel Vengeance

He growled, but it wasn’t a no. “What did you have in mind?”

Encouraged, she pressed on. “It’s my job to follow him and report what he’s doing, who he meets, all of that... And you want to know what he’s up to, too.”

His cold gaze didn’t budge. “Go on…”

“Maybe we can work together. It’s pointless for both of us to tail him. It just increases the chance he’ll notice he’s being followed.”

He gave a small nod, acknowledging her point. “What will you tell your handler?”

“Nothing,” she said quickly. The red light flickered behind him, casting his giant frame in shadow. She stayed still—she was finally getting somewhere. “He doesn’t need to know.”

He scowled. “You expect me to believe you’re not going to report what happened here?”

“Why would I?” she said evenly. “It’d just make me look bad. This is my first assignment, and I’ve already screwed it up. I don’t want my boss knowing I got ambushed by an American soldier and spilled details about the operation. They’d fire me. My career would be over.”

He frowned. “What makes you think I’m a soldier?”

She waved a hand in the air. “Everything about you—even though you’re trying to hide it. And you’re clearly American. Doesn’t take a genius to figure it out.”

He snorted. “Fair enough.”

“I don’t know what you want with Omari,” she said quietly, “but we have the same objective. It’d be stupid not to work together.”

There was a long pause as he studied her. She stayed still while he decided if he could trust her.

He couldn’t. They both knew that.

The question was, did he want the intel badly enough to go along with her plan?

“If this is going to work,” he said finally, “you report to me. Got it?”

She hesitated. What choice did she have? As long as he shared his information with her, did it matter who was in charge? Men and their egos. Besides, this would give her a chance to learn more about him, figure out what he really wanted with Omari. Once she had that, she’d have something valuable to feed back.

“What about my handler?” she asked. “He’ll get suspicious if I don’t report regularly.”

“Keep to your schedule,” he barked, his voice sharp, like he was used to giving orders. “Don’t make him suspicious. He needs to think it’s business as usual.”

“I’ll have to report the three men from today.”

He nodded. “Go ahead.”

She blinked, surprised. “Now?”

He nodded toward her laptop. “Why not? You’re all set up.”

She grimaced. “Not quite. Give me a minute.”

The soldier watched as she plugged in her phone and connected it. Once she had a signal, she composed an email to Jeremy, attaching the photos. While she typed, he circled in, peering over her shoulder. His presence behind her was unsettling. The hairs on her arms stood up as if alerted by his magnetic force.

“Is Jeremy your handler?” he asked, leaning in closer to look at her screen.

“Yes.” She could feel his breath on her cheek.

“Last name?”

“I don’t know.” She hesitated. “He never told me.”

She hit SEND, and the email whooshed out of her inbox.