Page 60 of Sweet Little Spies

There was a part of Aidan praying she would tell him no andhe was on his fucking own.

There was a bigger part praying she didn’t give up thischance. If she walked, he wasn’t sure they ever came together again. If theywere together, they had a shot. If she said no, it would be too easy to lettime go by, to come up with excuse after excuse why to put off trying again.

“I want to go,” Carys said, handing the glass Aidan’s way.“I need another.”

Something eased inside him. He would get his shot. He wouldget a chance to decide if they could work in this new world they foundthemselves in, the one where Tris was different but still so familiar.

And that meant starting to act like the man he wanted to be.He took the glass. She hadn’t listened to a thing he’d said all day. “Not ifyou’re going to play, you don’t. You’re right, baby. You’re tough. From what Ican tell nothing’s broken and you won’t even bruise. So are we playing orshould I get you another drink?”

Tristan’s lips curled up in a decadent smile. “You soundready to play, partner. I think she wants it. I think her inner brat is beggingfor it. The fight with Kala was nothing but a warm-up.”

Carys sighed, and her eyes closed as she sat back. “It won’tmean anything. Not anything beyond I need a session and it would take foreverto train a new top.”

“Sure, tell yourself that, baby,” Tris shot back.

Her eyes opened. “Just because I play with you tonight onlymeans we’re sexually compatible, and I’m lazy when it comes to finding what Ineed. It doesn’t mean we’re together.”

“It’s exactly what it means if we’re running this op,” Trissaid. “You’re with me through this op or this op doesn’t happen.”

“What?” Zach looked at Tris like this was completely newinformation to him.

Tristan sat back, his eyes still on Carys even though he wastalking to Zach. “I’ve decided they’re more important than taking down Huisman.If she won’t let me close to her, I can’t protect her. Same with Aidan.”

“You can’t be serious.” The captain sat up straight, leaningover. “You know what’s at stake. You’ve always known. We have reason to believesomeone got files out of the Tandy Medical Group the night the Canadiansraided. Huisman knew what was there. I think it was him. He has the formula forthe weaponized anthrax. If he finds the right delivery system…”

“Anthrax?” Aidan took a seat beside Carys. “No one mentionedbioweapons.”

Carys’s eyes had opened, and she was suddenly way moreinterested. “Yes, this is new information. What is Tandy Medical? Is it apharmaceutical company?”

Zach stood and looked out over the lounge, waving atsomeone. It was mere seconds before Tasha walked up, her hand in her fiancé’s.Dare Nash had come in during the middle of the sparring match, sitting besideTasha and wincing with the rest of them as the cousins had seemingly tried totake each other out.

He was being overly dramatic. When he looked at Carys hecould see she wasn’t truly injured.

And she’d been kind of hot as she’d taken on a woman mostmen in the group would be wary of sparring with.

“Hey, Zach. We didn’t think you would join us until we headto Canada,” Tasha said.

Dare held out a hand, shaking Zach’s. “Good to see youagain.”

Zach offered them the cozy love seat, switching to a paddedtable for himself. He looked way too big, but it held. “You should know we’vegot a contractor on this op.”

Tasha sat back. “Does his name rhyme with Shadam Giles?”

“Yep.” Tristan snorted slightly but he smiled, a genuinesmile and not the fuck-the-world expression he’d seen on his best friend’s faceso often in the last few years. “My father called in some favors. He’s prettymuch done with me…how did he put it…fucking up my whole world, and he’s sick ofwaiting to bury me. Uncle Ian’s right. Papa is overly dramatic. Anyway, he’scoming in, and we should expect the olds to be super feisty. You know how theylike to go at each other.”

“What does Adam joining the team have to do withbioweapons?” Aidan asked. Having Adam on the team meant someone might have halfa chance of reining in Tris’s reckless streak.

He wasn’t sure what had happened with Tris’s parents, butTris seemed more like Tris than he had in years.

Tasha’s brows rose in obvious surprise. “Wow. We’re doingthe whole talk about classified intel around Zach now? I thought we usuallyleft him out of those fun chats so he has plausible deniability.”

Zach shrugged. “I’m going with the Taggart flow. If we’rebringing in civilians, they deserve to know what’s at stake and in plain terms.Telling them Huisman is probably a supervillain isn’t going to cut it, and ifthey have doubts, it could cost them their lives. So I thought Dare would takethis one. They asked about Tandy.”

Dare sighed, a weary sound. “Tandy Medical was part of myfather’s company. The Nash Investment Group used to fund medical research, andwe owned stakes in a bunch of research companies. They did cutting-edge stuff.”

“Like the Huisman Foundation,” Aidan pointed out.

“Yes, though Huisman is bigger than we ever were, and Iwould say we were pretty big,” Dare replied. “Tandy Medical was doing researchinto emerging viruses and bacteria. Funguses sound funny, but they pose a realthreat to humanity as we move through climate change. Tandy was supposed toresearch ways to combat those threats.”

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