Page 41 of Covert Mission

I wince.

“Travel was good. Not much interesting to tell you.”

His silence is laced with razor wire.

I’m mostly forthright with him. I’ve learned to get your facts before you speak. I need to do more work. But there technically might be two developments. One of them, I definitely need to ferret out. The other I can manage.

So, I go on with my check-in. “The family is enjoying Alaska, we haven’t caught any fish. I’ll be sure to call if we do, I’m sure you’ll want to hear all about it.”

He harrumphs. The line goes dead.

Freaking-A. I exhale. I need an aspirin. The man always hangs up on me.

“Fishing in Alaska?”

I whirl and find two very hard brown eyes locked on me. They’re not warm and chocolaty now. They’re like circles of flinty brown stone.

His lips compress as he glances down at my gear.

“B-Beast,” I stammer. “I didn’t realize you were there.”

ChapterTwelve

Camile elicits all kinds of weird emotions inside of me. Mostly annoyance.

Especially given the way she’s looking at me with shock and anger.

I feel ya, honey. We’re on the same page. My default grump emerges. “You need to stay where I can see you.”

Her delicate pink tongue licks across her lips. Not just once, but twice, as she drops to her haunches and leans over her backpack. Her hands are shaking as she shoves things into her bag.

Whatever is on the ground, she’s hell-bent on me not seeing.

Probably tampons.

Women freak out when a dude sees their tampons. Never understood why. It’s not dirty. It’s not gross. It’s just biological.

“I just…came back here, um,” she stammers, “because I had to make a couple of calls.”

Hm. My brows lock down as I watch her struggle.

The smile she plasters on is so fake it could be made of wood. “I talked to my boss, by the way. This will make you happy. He’s going to let me use some funds for security.”

She quickly zips her pack up and tosses it in the cab of FamFind’s remaining truck.

When she turns to look at me. Her whole body is wooden. Accompanied by a flinty determination in her eyes. As she stiffly stands in front of me, she announces, “I’m going to hire local security.”

Looking right into her nervous eyes, I give her my unwelcome opinion. “Good luck. Maybe some teenagers with machetes can help you out.”

The fake smile drops. There’s a tick in the muscle under her eye. “What are you doing back here? I thought you liked glaring at everyone that walks by the tent?”

“Checking on you.”

“I’m fine.”

“It’s not safe to wander around alone. We’ve already talked about this. Guess it took all of two hours for you to forget.”

“I didn’t forget.” She looks up at the sky as if she’s gathering strength. Or praying I’ll evaporate.

---