Page 38 of Hidden Ascent

“I haven’t exactly treated you that well.”

“That is true. But you’ve been through a lot. I’m trying to give you the benefit of the doubt.” He rested his hand over hers. “Stop fidgeting.”

“I can’t help it.”

“You really have nothing to worry about. As far as undercover work goes, this is a straightforward job. You don’t have to pretend with Whitlock, so you only have to do enough to sell your presence. It’s not the sort of gig you need any experience with.”

“But I do have experience.”

“I thought you said you didn’t have any. I thought that was why you were nervous.”

“No. I did it once. It didn’t go well.”

“By that you mean…”

She looked out the side window to hide the flush that warmed her cheeks. When he chuckled, she knew he’d seen it and misinterpreted.

“It’s not like that,” she said.

“Why don’t you tell me about it, then?”

“Why?”

“It might make you feel better.”

“It won’t.”

“You are really painful, you know that?” He squeezed her hand. “I’d like to know what happened.”

She hadn’t seen this kindness in him before. “You really want to know?”

“Yeah.”

“I was supposed to go in as a buyer. I was really cocky about it,” she scoffed. “We were all boasting about how it would go down and the look on the perps’ faces when they realized they’d been taken for a ride. I had my character all worked out. I’d done well in the training and was so sure I would ace it.” She shook her head. “But when my partner and I arrived in the parking lot and met with these guys, I blew it.”

“How?”

“They asked me a question, and I froze. Then, I overcompensated.”

“That’s it? Things like that happen when you get too cocky. It’s a blessing in disguise. You needed to be brought down a notch.”

“It did more than that.”

“Isla, you messed up one job, and you now consider yourself incapable? It was your first time out. You can’t be that hard on yourself.”

“I can when they shot my partner because I couldn’t do my job properly.”

“Oh.”

“It took the ambulance fifteen minutes to arrive. I held my hand on his wound to stop the bleeding, exactly like I did for Fogarty. Doesn’t do much good. My partner was dead before he could get any help. So, you can dress me up in these fancy clothes, but when I walk in there, I can’t pull off the part of some wealthy philanthropist. I’ll get it wrong. So make sure your life doesn’t depend on it.”

“Our lives won’t be at risk in there. The worst that will happen is we’ll get kicked out.”

“That’s not the worst thing. Whitlock could be in on it and have us murdered and our bodies chopped up so they’re never found.”

“That would be bad. But if that happened, it wouldn’t be connected to your acting abilities. Besides, you’ve got me, and I’m excellent undercover.”

“I hope you’re right.”

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