Page 63 of No Going Back

“I don’t know, Kelly. I don’t want to promise something that I can’t go through with. I really like him. Christ, it would be damn easy to fall in love with him. I know he’s working through some stuff, but I have to think about me. Seeing him is not going to make it any easier. Nothing’s changed. We never should have slept together. I loved being his friend. It never works mixing business with pleasure.”

“Er, have to disagree with you there.”

Mira sighed. “You guys are the exception, and you were together before you joined Onyx. You’ve known each other forever.”

“Doesn’t matter. If you want something to work, you make it work. Do you want Tyler?”

Mira nodded, wiping at her eyes. She wanted him with every cell in her body. “But he doesn’t want me, not the same way. But the way he looks at me, the things he says. It’s like he’s giving me mixed signals. He’s messing with my head and I can’t deal with that.” Her phone pinged again and she groaned.

Tyler: Mira? Are you OK?

“I’d switch the damn thing off but for work.” She flung the phone down on the cushion.

“What if he’s changed his mind about what he wants?” Kelly asked. “Men can be fickle you know. Takes them a little longer to see what’s right under their nose.”

“He told me he cared about me. But whatever’s going on with him hasn’t just disappeared.” Mira leaned her head back on the sofa, closing her eyes. “I don’t know what to think. It’s been a hell of a day. The man has me spinning in circles. Right now, I need some sleep and some space.”

“Do you want me to ask him to back off? That you’ll reach out when you’re ready.”

Mira opened her eyes. “I can’t ask you to do that.”

“Sure you can. If you text him back and tell him to back off, he probably won’t listen and will try even harder. If I do it as your friend, he might. Like you said, we go back a long way.”

That did make sense and, she could do without a barrage of texts from him.

“You’re sure you don’t mind? I mean, I don’t expect you to get involved in our personal shit.”

Kelly smiled. “I’m not getting involved. I’m helping two people I care about. So, no, I don’t mind.”

“Thank you, Kelly. For everything.”

“You don’t need to thank me. It’s what friends do. Now go up to bed and get some sleep. If you need anything, let me know. I’ll text him now to try and catch him before they board.”

Mira hugged her friend, then made her way upstairs, anticipating a restless night.

***

MIRA AND KELLY STEPPED into the elevator the next morning on their way to the third floor of the San Diego FBI field office. Mira was feeling better after a few hours sleep. There had been no further texts from Tyler. Whatever Kelly had said must have worked. This morning, Kelly had kept the conversation light, not mentioning him either. She was grateful, needing to work through this in her own way.

They walked into the office and found Sam already there.

“Good morning, ladies.”

“Morning, Sam,” they said in unison.

“Kelly? Wasn’t expecting you. Not that it’s not nice to see you.” He smiled.

“Yeah, I have some intel I want to go over with Ray. Easier in person.”

Mira glanced at her friend. She knew damn well she could have done that via video from the Farm, but she had chosen to drive her back here this morning instead.

“Sounds good. Raven should be landing in a couple of hours. CIA will be waiting for them to take Gomez in for questioning.”

“Since Gomez was selling weapons to Reborn, maybe he’ll have some answers on Aziz, too,” Mira said.

“Perhaps. Maybe you can use your old contacts at CIA to ensure they play nice and share,” Sam said.

“I can certainly try.” Mira sat down, ready to start work, which she hoped would be a very welcome distraction.

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