Page 4 of My Temptation

I didn’t want to tell him where I worked or who I worked for, but there was no point in hiding it. My father was Sam Kavanaugh, a respected military general who took an equally high-ranking position in the FBI after he decided to leave his military career. He could get any information on anyone he chose. All he had to do was make a few calls.

“Are you implying you don’t already know where I am and who I’m working for?” I challenged, knowing the answer he likely wouldn’t admit.

“You said you wanted a fresh start, and I respect that.” He paused, and I braced for the guilt trip he was working up to. “I just want to see for myself that you’re doing well.”

And there it was. He was playing dad or at least the dad I knew growing up. He was supportive and loving, encouraging me to reach for the stars. Until those stars were behind the doors of one of the last boy’s only institutions, and then I saw a different side to my father.

One that I hated.

“This is my first assignment with my new team, Dad, and I don’t want to give them any reason to think I’m not fully committed.” Playing on his sense of duty was probably a wasted effort, but I was willing to try anything to avoid a trip back to Washington, DC.

“What’s the assignment?”

“It’s confidential.”

“I don’t need names, Mila.”

His tone told me he was tired of talking and not getting exactly what he wanted. “I’m protecting a witness.”

“Is she allowed to leave the state?”

She.

There it was.

He knew, and he wasn’t attempting to hide the fact that he not only knew but lied about knowing. I could call him on it, but it wouldn’t do me any good. He was a very smart man. He was letting me know without saying directly that there would never be a time that he wouldn’t know exactly where I was and what I was doing.

“Yes,” I replied simply.

“Then I don’t see the problem.” His tone changed to the one I recognized as my superior. “I’ll expect you in my office tomorrow morning, nine o’clock.”

I didn’t have to pull my phone away to see he’d ended the call, but I did anyway. No goodbye, no I love you. Just silence. The days of my father being the father I grew up with were long gone, and I needed to accept that, but it was hard to let go of the man I thought I knew.

With another long sigh, I pulled up my contacts and hit call.

“Mila.”

I wasn’t surprised by the way Jax answered the phone. I’d gotten used to his abruptness over the past month. “I need to go to DC.”

“How long?”

“Probably a couple of days.”

He was silent for a moment, and I wasn’t sure what that meant. I was good at reading people, but without him in front of me, I struggled. “Sure it’s a good idea?”

“No,” I admitted. “But I don’t see a way around it.”

“Beth?”

Inhaling deeply, I once again looked toward the door.

Beth.

My first assignment was one of the most important I’d ever had.

The half sister of one of the biggest drug smugglers on the East Coast and certainly the biggest North Carolina had ever seen was assigned to me.

Years ago, Elite helped the FBI find and eliminate Daniel Sullivan, the man responsible for not only bringing an enormous amount of drugs into North Carolina but also running a prostitution ring that rivaled any I’d ever heard of.

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