Page 106 of My Temptation

She winked before heading for the stairs, and I followed. I didn’t have a comeback for that. I was struggling with how to handle all of this now that we were home. It was easy to pretend to be a couple. It wasn’t going to be as easy to pretend we never were, especially in front of the people we work with.

“Welcome back,” Leah called out just as we pushed through the door.

“Thanks, Leah,” I said but kept walking when Mila slowed to talk to her. I thought they were becoming friends before we left, which made sense, considering they were the only two females employed by Elite.

Walking into the conference room felt like coming home. I jerked up my chin at Brody and Jax, who were already seated at the table, along with Striker and Kyle.

Sitting down, I looked up when Kyle spoke. “Happy to be back?”

“You have no idea, man,” I answered honestly. “Just us today?”

“And Mila,” Jax answered.

Kyle smirked. “Thought she’d be with you.”

My eyes shifted to Brody, who watched me closely, but I quickly looked back at Kyle. “Met her in the parking garage. She’s talking to Leah.”

“Right. Met her in the parking garage,” he teased, but I didn’t take the bait.

“Just waiting for Director Reed,” Jax said, probably in an effort to sidetrack Kyle.

“Where’s the rest of the team?” I asked.

“On assignments,” Jax replied. “They’ve been carrying the bulk of the load over the past two weeks. They’ll be happy to have everyone back.”

“What about Nick?” I asked, assuming he’d want to be here for the updates.

Jax grinned. “Maddie needed him for a few hours this morning to do some wedding shit.”

I laughed. “He was probably the only person who wanted to be out of town this past weekend working this case.”

Jax snorted. “Probably.”

“Look who I found,” Mila announced while walking through the door with Director Reed right behind her.

Jax stood and shook his hand, as did Brody, before pointing at the chair next to him. “Have a seat.”

Mila circled the table until she got to the chair beside me and sat down. That wasn’t unusual, considering it was where she usually sat, but it still felt like all eyes were on us.

Director Reed gestured toward us. “There’s my dream team.”

My eyebrows pulled together. “Dream team? What does that mean?”

“That means you found a way to access an organization we’ve been investigating for years. If I could think of a way to lure you into the FBI, I would’ve already made that proposal.”

Mila put her elbows on the table, completely ignoring that comment, leaned forward, and got right down to business. “I’m surprised to hear Samson was part of a bigger organization.”

“Honestly, me too,” Jax admitted.

“I don’t think it was by choice,” Director Reed explained. “Daniel Sullivan’s business had a lot of moving parts. He was in bed with some powerful men whose stipulations were that nothing could be tied to them. As the organization grew, Sullivan learned that if he had people working for him and with them scattered all over the US, it would be much harder for the FBI to tie it all together. Separately, all of the players seemed to be involved in petty crimes, at best, nothing that would be on the FBI’s radar, but collectively…”

“They were running one of the biggest crime rings the US has seen,” Jax concluded.

He pointed at Jax. “Exactly, and in order for Samson to keep Sullivan’s affiliations after he died, Samson had to play ball. From what we’ve seen, though, he was beginning to cut out some of the major players, which would’ve eventually meant more money in his pocket.”

“How do you know that?” Mila asked.

He grinned. “We have some disgruntled people talking.”

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