Page 7 of Keeping Eveline

He couldn’t believe he’d let those two words out. Never before had he shown anyone his indecision. He’d kept that shit locked down because hesitating could’ve gotten Ox and his teammates killed. He wasn’t out in the field anymore. He was sitting in an office, in downtown LA, no terrorists lurking around the corner waiting to take him and his team out.

“Need to talk about it?” Angel asked and came into the room. “Yolanda mentioned you had someone here.”

Ox sighed; he shouldn’t be surprised that the receptionist had mentioned it. The calendar was shared by everyone in the office. They all knew he didn’t have any appointments scheduled for the morning.

It wasn’t as though the woman was gossiping. If one of the guys had asked her why his door was shut when he didn’t have a meeting—and his door was always open as he had an open-door policy—she would’ve told them about the interaction between him and Eveline.

Ox glanced at the papers and thumb drive still sitting on his desk. He could admit he’d only given them a cursory glance, not willing to take what she’d brought him seriously.

Why would he when she worked for his direct competition?

Not that Triple Z was much of an inconvenience to their business. Ash and Storm had built up such a good reputation that Alliez wasn’t hurting for personal security business. Working with the FBI was an extra string to their bow. Not that Triple Z knew about that arrangement. Triple Z didn’t hire the specialist personnel that Ox hired.

Still, maybe he should have Angel take a look at what Eveline had brought him and see what he thought about it.

“My visitor was Eveline Durville from Triple Z Security. She brought me this information.”

Angel took the seat Eveline had been in not too long ago. “Why did she come here? And what does she want from us?”

“That’s the question. Is this a setup, or is this legitimate? From my quick look, it didn’t look too out of the ordinary. But I’m not going to say any more because I want to hear what your first thoughts are and what your gut is saying.”

“Okay.” His buddy took the papers Ox had pushed toward him.

Ox’s gaze narrowed in on the thumb drive, and he grabbed his laptop from his bag. He hadn’t had a chance to get set up, with Eveline’s surprise visit. His mind hadn’t been on booting up for the day. He’d been focused on the fact that only that morning, on his run, he’d been thinking about Eveline and the night they’d shared.

Her turning up had been unexpected, and his body had been fighting what his mind wanted. His body wanted to get close to her. Bury his face in the crook of her neck and remind himself of her sweet taste by nibbling her flesh.

Ox swore under his breath as his dick reacted to the mental image he was creating. Not only was Eveline Durville a burr in his side, she worked for the opposition, something he shouldn’t forget. Nor should he forget what had happened the last time he trusted someone who swore they were giving information to him to help him.

How misplaced trust could cause real harm. Viviana’s betrayal still stung. His stupidity that he’d believed everything she’d told him. Believed that she cared for him, like he cared for her.

Only she’d been playing him—the Delta soldier who should’ve known better.

In the end, he’d found out before things could’ve gone to shit, but the mission had been a bust and he’d taken the blame, leading him to re-evaluate everything about his life.

“Does it seem strange that every client Triple Z contracted all had added more of their services to their initial contract?”

Angel’s question was a welcome break from his inner thoughts. Ox needed to lock his past down and concentrate on what was happening in his life now—mainly his professional one.

“I admit, I raised my eyebrows at it, but we’ve had the same thing happen to us. We provide one service, and the client adds a little more.”

“Sure, but not every client does that. And I guess our jobs are a little different to Triple Z’s jobs. Most of these recent jobs are small-bit bodyguard duties and then alarm systems for homes.”

“They are. I’m not sure what caused Eveline to bring this to us. This information isn’t the type of information that will help us outbid him on a contract, not that that happens.” Ox grabbed the dongle out of his top drawer and plugged it into his laptop so he could access the thumb drive. “She also gave me this.” He held up the drive for Angel to see.

“And you didn’t question her about why she brought it to us? What her thoughts were when she was here?” the guy asked.

“Nope.” Ox wasn’t going to say anymore. Wasn’t going to admit that he needed her out of his office.

“Right. And she happily left all this behind for you to look at? Isn’t that a little strange?”

At the time, Ox hadn’t given it much thought. He was just glad that she was out of his space. Now though, the idea that she’d deliberately left the information took root, and with it, his suspicions from earlier returned. “It is. I don’t know what to make of it.” He hated the fact he couldn’t get a clear-cut read on the situation.

Angel studied him as if he was trying to crawl into Ox’s mind and work out what the hell he was thinking.

As a former SEAL, he’d had similar training to Ox. He also had a lot of field experience, working through the minds of the sick fuckers who wanted to burn the world down. That was one of the reasons why he’d hired Angel—his impressive psychoanalysis of the enemy—and right this moment, Eveline Durville and Triple Z were indeed the enemy.

“You’ve got a lot of things going on here, brother. I hate to say this, but I feel like this shit is clouding your judgment on this situation.”

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