Page 5 of The Spy Ring

I swallowed hard before clasping my hands on my lap. “A marriage certificate, ma’am.” I willed my eyes to stay on her steel gray stare but faltered.

Not good.

“I know what it is. What I am asking, agent, is why your name is on it?”

My head raced with possible replies. Confess everything—tell her I drank on the job and let this happen—or lie through my teeth. Blame it on Tennessee. Make it into one of his stupid pranks.

“Surprise,” I waved my hands in the air like a magician, “I’m married.”

Her thin lips frowned. I should have known better not to make a joke about it. Katlin Chester did not help create the newly formed ITA, Inter-Terrorism Agency, a specialized go-between of the CIA and FBI, because she had a sense of humor.

This place was so secret that most people in the CIA and FBI didn’t know of its existence. A person doesn’t get asked to help form a new government agency because they were good at cracking jokes.

Katlin sat in her government-issued black chair and focused on the certificate. “It says here this was in Nevada three weeks ago, back in June. I seem to recall you being on a reconnaissance mission to gather info on the Jewel, Emma Hawthorne, in Las Vegas in June. You got lucky when she spilled everything and you had the opportunity to bring her in.”

Despite the smirk on her face, I knew her words were no compliment. She had already congratulated me a few weeks ago when I brought back the criminal, we nicknamed the Jewel, that we had been targeting for over a year. Emma Hawthorne was planning to infiltrate the government with her family and friends and destroy it like ice in a cement crack.

Despite the takedown, I fucked up. I made one very big mistake that I hoped my boss wouldn’t find out about. I don’t know which was worse, believing my boss—who had access to every piece of information about every government employee—wouldn’t find out I got married, or, that I never did anything about getting a divorce.

“Did you decide that would be a great time to bring your fiancée along and have a cheap wedding on the government’s dime?”

My jaw ticked. “No.”

She placed the paper on her brown particle board desk and leaned forward. I tensed knowing this was far from over as she placed her elbows on the arms of her chair and steepled her fingers to her lips.

“I never realized you were engaged, agent. Why did you never say anything? Did you have an engagement party? I figured you would have invited someone from the department. I don’t recall anyone mentioning it. Your partner, Golden, never said a word.”

Crap, that was the second time she called me agent. I was in some deep shit now.

“I was drunk,” I mumbled.

She cupped her ear. “I’m sorry, agent, I don’t believe I heard you.”

I rolled my head back staring at the drop ceiling. “I was trailing some of her son’s friends who happened to be at the hotel bar. I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to gather some intelligence and they bought me a drink.”

Katlin held up her hand. “Wait, they bought you a drink? Did you even test the contents? Were you drugged?”

This wasn’t going well.

Why did I let my dick do my thinking that night?

Oh, I know. Because the woman was beautiful and funny and sweet. There was something about flirting and spending time with her that felt wonderful. I missed it. Being a government spy for eight years in the CIA and then the past two years in ITA, I missed being a normal guy hitting on a woman in a bar.

There were too many steps I had to take just to consider having sex with a woman. Background checks, credit checks, pulling up files on her friends and family. And after all that, I’m only allowed to sleep with them, nothing more.

Technically, I’m allowed to have a relationship with someone, but that would mean I had to lie to them on a regular basis. Never tell them the truth about me. Something about all that felt wrong.

My life could be lonely but at least I had Cate. I liked Cate, well, I liked her body. I rubbed my chest. There was an odd sensation that made me frown when I thought of Cate.

That never happened before.

“No, I wasn’t drugged.”

I remember everything perfectly clear.

“You realize you compromised the mission, yourself, and the agency?”

I nodded.

---