Page 17 of Dangerous Protocol

A completely ridiculous question. She’d fallen hard for him after their first night together. Maya had gone into their … dalliance thinking it would be a fun distraction until her work on the task force was completed and she returned to London. Never in her wildest imaginings had she thought he would root so deeply into her heart and stay there. Especially since she’d gotten quite good at shielding that particular organ.

Water under the bridge, she thought to herself.

Jeffrey held nothing but disdain for her now and was only tolerating her because of their daughter.

“I love you, too, and I’ll see you and your brother in about a month.” He spun his chair to face the desk, and after a brief glance at Maya, the remnants of his smile fell away. “Bye, Ashling.”

Maya wanted desperately to know more about the people who meant so much to him but had no right to encroach on his private life. As soon as they found Isla—and theywouldfind her—she would take her daughter and return to their life, and Jeffrey would return to his well-ordered existence.

A terrifying thought flashed through her mind. What if he fought for custody of Isla? He was a very powerful man and could argue a life on the run was no life for a child—and, dammit, he would be right. Would he do that to Maya? Would he take her daughter away from her?

Like acid, the thought burned her insides.

“Are you going to take Isla away from me?” The words blurted from her mouth unbidden.

“Am I going to—” He shook his head in disbelief. “Why would you ask that?”

“Because you’re angry with me, rightfully so, and could easily punish me by taking her away from me.”

“You really don’t know me at all, do you?”

She opened her mouth to respond, but his phone beeped.

He looked at the screen and stood. “I’ll be right back.” Without another word, he left his office.

“Dammit, Jeffrey.” Enough was enough.

Maya shoved up from her chair and charged into the hallway. She slapped her palm against the metal door just before it clicked shut behind him and entered a dark room that smelled like … popcorn?

“Look, I know you’re upset with me, but I do not appreciate being kept in the dark.” She jammed her hands on her hips and challenged him. “If this is about our daughter, I have every right to know what’s going on!”

Was she shouting? Absolutely, she was. Did she care that the young man with a handful of popcorn halted halfway to his mouth was staring at her like she’d lost her mind?Not. One. Bit.

Black-rimmed glasses framed his brown eyes, had a head full of wild curly hair, and wore a thick sweater. He sat in front of a wide computer console with lots of flashing buttons, surrounded by monitors of varying sizes. Some were powered down. Others had lines of code clicking across the dark blue screens. There was an impressive floor-to-ceiling array of electronics, and a steady hum of white noise was created by the computers and cooling system.

“Maya, you can’t be in here.” Jeffrey took hold of her arm.

She jerked loose of his hold. “Isla is my daughter!”

“She’s my daughter, too!” Jeffrey stepped up to her and actually raised his voice. Something she’d never witnessed before.

“I insist on being kept informed of every detail where she is concerned!” Maya leaned closer to him.

“You think I don’t know that?” Jeffrey was so close she could feel his warm breath on her lips. “My primary goal right now is to find her. I want the chance to meet her and get to know her. To be her father, dammit!”

She sensed the computer fellow watching their back-and-forth exchange like he was at center court at Wimbledon.

He interjected, “Um, excuse me—”

They both turned and shouted, “What?”

“I have some information about Nadim Al-Mansoori.” He waggled a piece of paper in the air. “I was going to tell you, but you guys were too busy yelling at each other. This seems pretty important, so I decided to interrupt.” He gave a negligent shrug and tossed popcorn in his mouth.

The guy stood behind his desk and handed the paper to Jeffrey. He was almost as tall as Jeffrey and built like a swimmer—lean with long arms, narrow hips, and wide shoulders. He wasn’t as muscled as Jeffrey but still appeared to be in great shape.

“I’m Casey.” He wiped his hand on his jeans and extended his arm over a large computer panel. “You must be Maya.”

“I see Jeffrey’s told you who I am.” She gave his hand a quick shake and released it. She rubbed her fingers together. Apparently, Casey enjoyed butter on his popcorn.

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