Page 53 of Wicked Temptations

After stepping into his jeans, he grabbed at TFH polo. Tamilya was already halfway dressed when she picked up the phone and started texting again. After sending it, she dropped the phone on the bed and finished getting dressed. He had hoped for a little more time this morning, but they did have a big case hanging over their heads. With Tamilya’s revelation, it might push the case into overdrive.

She grabbed her phone and followed him as he walked out into the kitchen. The coffee was already brewing when they stepped into the kitchen. Her phone dinged.

“TJ said they didn’t have anything on record, but he’s going to dig into it.”

“Why didn’t you ask Addie?”

She glanced up at him. “What?”

“Wouldn’t she have good connections to help us?”

She sighed. The sound was so damned lonely and painful that it made him want to pull her into his arm. He didn’t because he knew her so well. She wouldn’t welcome the comfort right now.

“I don’t trust her completely.”

“Since when?”

She didn’t answer right away, and she didn’t look at him either. Instead, she studied her phone as if it held the answers to everything.

“Tamilya.”

She looked up at him. “Once she threw me under the bus, I haven’t completely trusted her. I was sure that other people would think I was insane, but who does that to their protégé—for lack of a better word? I wouldn’t. At first, it was just a little worry here and there, but over the years, I remembered things she did.”

“What do you mean? Do you think she’s dirty?” He hadn’t thought that, but he would like it to be that way.

“No. I think she made some really shitty decisions that ended up screwing up the investigation. I realize that a lot of the clout she had at the FBI was because of who she knew, not what she did. She isn’t that good of an agent.”

“And that doesn’t piss you off?”

“No. Wait, it did at first. I would get so angry knowing that while I made a few mistakes in the investigation, as my supervisor, she should’ve known more than I did. She seemed to be following my lead. Then the years went by and I realized that I was a fucking fantastic agent, but I like myself better now. There I was always worried about making mistakes.”

He thought back to those days on the task force together in DC. “Hmm.”

“What?”

He shrugged as he handed her a mug of coffee. “I just never saw you as anything but a badass.”

She snorted as she opened the fridge and grabbed some creamer. “Yeah, well, I wasn’t. Not back then. I tried to make everyone think I was, but inside I was terrified of being found out.”

“And now?”

The brilliant smile she offered him made him blink. “Now I know I’m a badass.”

“That you are,” he said, slipping a hand around her and pulling her closer. He brushed his mouth over hers.

In the next instant, there was a rumble in the distance, something akin to thunder. It was odd because he’d only heard thunder once in the last several years living in Hawaii. He looked at Tamilya, who was frowning.

“What the hell was that?” she asked.

He shook his head as both their phones went off with alerts. When Marcus read his phone, his blood turned cold.

Explosion near Neil S. Blaisdell. Report to headquarters.

ChapterTwelve

By the time they made it into TFH, Honolulu was a myriad of closed streets and detours. Tamilya was just happy that she’d stayed at Marcus’ apartment. Only a few minutes from TFH, but it still took them about thirty minutes.

“Maybe we should have walked,” Marcus said as he pulled into their parking lot.

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