Page 98 of Covert Mission

After another loaded silence where I start to sweat between my breasts, he finally speaks. “I’ve known Beast a long time.”

Now I look at him, unsure of where he’s going with this. I don’t even mean to, but I hinge forward, waiting.

Truck—I don’t know his real name—steeples his fingers and looks at me over the top of them. “He’s a very good friend. A brother, really.”

The fierceness in his voice rolls through me.

I study him and try to force my lungs to work, but it feels like I’m squeezed in a vice.

“I’m glad he has your friendship,” I reply softly, unable to raise my voice.

“I expect you to treat him with the respect he deserves. He’s a man of honor.”

Truck unnerves me, drilling me with his fathomless, cold eyes.

My tongue feels thick, my palms are clammy. The wavering nausea is pushing up into my throat.

When all I do is sit, frozen, he stands up, towering over me. “I’ve got to do some work. You should eat. It’s going to be a long day.”

“I need some water.” My voice squeezes out as a raspy whisper.

“There are some bottles on the shelf in the bathroom. Help yourself. Mi casa es su casa.”

I shoot to my feet, desperate to get away from his observation. On legs that feel like they belong to someone else, I stumble across the room on my bare feet.

I didn’t even grab my boots when I left Lucas’s bungalow. How stupid was that?

My hands are shaking when I reach for one of the small bottles on the shelf. My lips tremble when I put it to my mouth.

God.What am I going to do?

I can’t be fired… I can’t tell these men what they want to know.

From the other room, I hear Truck answer a phone call. I ease the bathroom door shut. I pace the small room. Two steps one way. Two steps the other.

Get it together, girl. You have to keep your act together.

I’ve never felt so rattled. I shouldn’t have gotten involved—as in slept with Lucas, let him hold me all night, let myself feel something…

I inhale sharply in the wake of a painful memory of how good he felt protecting me.

I was so stupid. What got into me?

I had a job to do.

Now Lucas and his men are tangled up in something they shouldn’t have been involved in.

And now I’ve got to deal with a double-decker problem. I might befired.The ripple from that isn’t a ripple. There’s a tsunami following in its wake.

I take another drink of water and wait as the liquid squeezes down through my clenched esophagus to a stomach that’s probably never going to work right again.

Why would Ralph fire me?

It doesn’t make sense. Unless he busted my cover…

No. I was so careful.

My head begins to throb.

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