Page 90 of Sweet Little Spies

“Hey, Ben,” Lou replied with a smile, though her boyfriendhad taken a place in front of her like she needed to be protected.

“I can’t lie to her.” Aidan had paled, ignoring what wasgoing on around them. “I promised I wouldn’t ever again.”

He’d hoped Carys had missed Tara’s mention of The Court. Shewas a smart woman who could put two and two together quickly. He was absolutelycertain it was what had put a blank expression on her face.

She’d gone cold on him again. She hadn’t demanded they talk.

She wasn’t going to fight him, wasn’t going to ask forexplanations. She was going to do what she’d done the first time. Walk away.

“Lou is traumatized,” Kala said.

“Not really,” Lou countered.

Tristan barely heard the argument going on around him. Hisgut ached with the implications of what had happened. “I’ll talk to Carys, butif she knows you knew, she’ll feel alone again and she’ll shut you out, too.”

“Tristan, are you with us?” Ian stood staring at him, hisbest dumbass-is-doing-what look on his face.

Uncle Ian had perfected the look, though his dad was alsogiving him a good approximation.

He forced a blank expression on his face. He had to dealwith this. He should be happy Carys was handling the situation this way, but hewished she was telling them all the meeting would have to wait. He wouldgreatly prefer she upend the whole op than write him off so quickly. “Ofcourse. Let’s move to the dining room. I believe we’ve already set it up. Mr.Parker, did Tara send a copy of her report to you?”

They needed CSIS on this or they could get booted right backto the States. And despite what Ben had said, no team they put together wouldhave as much access as this one.

“Do you honestly think I’m happy about working with thewoman who recently took the only parachute and jumped out of a plane filledwith foreign agents who were going to kill me?” Parker argued.

Ian’s eyes went wide.

Shit. If Ian didn’t know something, Kala was absolutely atthe heart of it, and she was about to get in serious trouble. He’d known theteam had worked—and he used the word loosely—with the Canadian several times inthe last few months, but he hadn’t heard about Kala trying to kill the dude.

Kala shrugged. “You survived, buddy.”

“No thanks to you,” Parker shot back.

Kala’s eyes rolled. “Yes, thanks to me. You’re the jackasswho jumped without a parachute. I’m the one who caught you at twenty K and heldonto you until we landed safely.”

“And then you dosed me with a sedative and left me in themiddle of a rice paddy in Mongolia.” Parker loomed over her like they wereabout to go at it.

He was yelling at the wrong Kara. Or he was yelling at theright one and putting out sexual tension to the wrong one. Or the wholesituation was way more fucked than he’d known. Maybe Parker was a masochist,and then he would do better with Kala, who was never in ten million years goingto give him any more affection than a kick in the balls.

He would take a kick in the balls if it meant Carys talkedto him.

“I had what I needed. I had the hard drive. I wasn’t aboutto fight you for it,” Kala said. “Besides, you looked like you needed a nap.”

Parker loomed over her. “There are snakes in rice paddies.”

“There certainly was one when you were there,” Kala replied.

“Kara.” Lou shook her head her best friend’s way and provedhow well Ian trained them all. Lou wouldn’t screw up and call Kala by her name.“We should move on.”

Kala looked around and seemed to read the room a little. Sheshook her now strawberry-blonde hair. Charlotte had disappeared. She usuallywould be in on all of the shenanigans.

But the twins had dyed their hair to something close totheir natural color, which meant they looked even more like their mom. SoCharlotte would deny Parker the ability to see them side by side.

Which meant Ian would be even more cranky than usual.

“Does he know?” Parker wasn’t following Lou’s excellentadvice. He gestured Cooper’s way. “Does your boyfriend know how you danced withme in Croatia? How you almost kissed me?”

Cooper’s hand came up. “Told you. Not her boyfriend.”

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