Page 52 of Wicked Temptations

“Definitely.”

He opened the door and grabbed the two towels he had hanging on the rack, handing her one. He wanted to dry her off himself, but he had a feeling that they would never make it out of there if he did that. Taking the second towel, he stepped out of the shower. He made quick work of drying himself off and then walked into the bedroom. She took her time and he wondered about that. After grabbing a pair of knit boxers and slipping them on, he popped his head back in the bathroom. She was standing in the shower, holding the towel against her, seemingly lost in thought.

“Tamilya?”

She blinked and looked at him with a smile. “Sorry, I was just thinking about stuff.”

“About us?”

“No.”

He cocked his head. “No?”

She shook her head as she stepped out of his shower. “I was thinking about the case.”

“Well, nice to know that I rocked your world so much that you are thinking about work.”

Tamilya snorted. “No. I mean you did, but maybe it’s allowing me to think of other things.”

“Things like what?”

“There has to be something that connects the Virginia Star to this case. I mean, at first, I had that typical knee jerk reaction when the name came up.”

The tone she used made him think she was putting herself down.

“You’re too hard on yourself, Tammy.”

Her gaze softened. “I know, but it’s the truth. There is no other way to describe what I did. But we were thinking the connection was Golubev.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s not. Think about it. He had sworn off that attack and turned secrets over to the FBI.”

“Okay, but he seems like the logical point. Something caused him to change his mind, and it looks like it was the Virginia Star bombing.”

“What if he wasn’t involved this time? What if he’s the patsy? Like, we didn’t know he was still alive, so here he is, deader than a doornail, all these connections to other attacks. We would go down that rabbit hole looking at all of HIS connections. Li would come up right away.”

“Of course.”

“But what if Li and someone else—someone he had a relationship with in the past that we didn’t know about—lured him here just to kill him?”

“The woman,” he said as everything started sliding into place.

“Right! And, if she could convince him, she had to know that he was still alive. It had to be someone from his past.”

“Is that going to be easy to find out?”

She shrugged, hung up her towel, then hurried out of the bathroom. “I need to text TJ and see if he can find that out.”

“Whoa, Tammy, it’s just after dawn. Maybe we get dressed and start breakfast before you bug the Hammer.”

She frowned and looked up at him. “I said not to call me that.”

“You didn’t mind last night or this morning.”

“Then is fine, not at work.”

He felt his mouth twitch as he pulled out a pair of jeans. Marcus wondered if she realized how much she told him with that one line. And he liked that idea. He would have a secret name just between them. “Okay.”

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