Page 135 of Covert Mission

“I do. I know him well enough to tell you that his left eye is fake.”

Her brow creases. For a beat, she stares at me, contemplating something.

“You don’t believe me?”

“I’ve never seen him.”

I pull back as I feel my own brows drop down. “You work for him, but you’ve never seen him?”

“He’s secretive…”

My burst of laughter surprises her. “That’s so fucking Nighthawk. He’s always so dramatic. You’d think he was a teenager in a high school play.”

There’s outright disbelief and confusion on her face.

I grin and shake my head at the weird coincidence. “I worked with him. In the Teams.”

She closes her mouth and pulls her hand away from mine. “Then you know he’ll fire me in an instant. He gave me an hour to solve the problem… about four hours ago. Now I’m supposed to report in for a debrief. I’ll be fired too, I’m sure.”

“Maybe, maybe not. He’s not going to just throw away a good asset like you.”

“But, Lucas, I slept with you and lost?—”

The waitress returns, cutting off what she was saying.

I pass the woman the menus. If my stomach wasn’t mounting a mutiny, I’d ask her to return again later. “Please pick something for the two of us. Whatever you think is best tonight.”

The waitress shrugs. “Okay. Would you like beer or wine? We have an outstanding menu of regional favorites, made right here in Vandemora.”

I’m looking at Camile when I say, “No, thanks. Bring two bottled waters.”

Recognition flares in my girl’s pretty hazel eyes.

I could care less about drinking. I want her happy.

When the waitress leaves, I bring her hand to my mouth and kiss the back of her knuckles. “Now, let’s finish talking about Nighthawk.”

Camile sits forward suddenly, her eyes widening. “Oh, my god. I know what I’m going to do. I’m going rogue.”

My brows don’t just lift, they shoot up.

Rogue?

“Full stop. That’s a hard no.”

Her expression turns fierce. She smacks her hand on the table. “I’m going rogue. That’s the answer. I’m going to finish my investigation. Unravel the corruption and theft inside FamFind, and then I can hand over the information to PCI. They won’t lose their client that way. This is perfect.”

Sitting forward more, her eyes spark. “I’ll go back to town with you and pretend that I’m not bothered about losing the FamFind job. I’ll just lurk around and gather the intel I need.”

I’ve got a ring of heat forming around the base of my neck.

“Poppy,”I growl. “You’re not going rogue. You’re not going sneaking around, digging into something that could be dangerous. Look at what’s happened already!”

She looks positively determined.

“Lucas, you don’t understand. I have to make this work. I have to succeed. There’s no safety net. I have no one. And I’m never going back to being the person I was before. I won’t be directly involved with the company anymore. I can just watch and see if I can tell what’s happening. That’s it. I just need to be the observer. Something’s about to happen. And I think it involves a couple of crates that were in the inventory when we arrived in town.”

I stand up, never letting her hand go, and move around the table. I drag her into my arms, crushing her in a hug, tucking her under my chin. “Dammit, woman.”

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