Page 5 of Dangerous Lies

“Come on, sis. Ginger is sexy as hell, and he's good at his job. He's going towatchover you and Tyler. Just pretend like he's notthere.”

Right, like shecouldpretend the six-foot-three man built of steel walking around her house wasn'tthere. As if on cue, he jogged back down the stairs. He raised a brow when he caught her checking him out.

“I wish you would have talked to me about this first, but I will do anything to protect Tyler.”

“How is he?” Brit sent a card on Tyler's birthday and Christmas. She never talked to him, always coming up with an excuse, but Rose understood why her sister kept her distance.

“He's doing really good. He started kindergarten this year and has way more friends than either of us did.”

It also helped her son had clean clothes, attended a good school, and was sociable. Brit and Rose were lucky if they had enough clothes for a week. Then when they did attend school, they tried to stay under the radar so nobody would ask to sleep over at their house. A house they lost. She and Brit lived in an abandoned building for four years until Brit met her husband, Seth. He changed everything. He gave them a roof over their head, food, and hope.

Everything went perfectly untilitdidn't. Seth disappeared and her sister vanished on a mission to find him. Years later, she was still on the same op. This wasn't the first time she claimed to be close to finding answers.

“Give him a hug from me,” Brittany whispered. “Tell Ginger I'll be in touch.”

Before shecouldrespond, the phone line went dead. Rose pulledback the phone and looked at the screen, wondering what the hell her sister just got her into.

Ginger strode across the room, grabbed the phone from her hand, and brokeitin half.

She frowned at the two pieces. “Why the hell did you do that?”

“I don't trust your sister,” Ginger replied. “She seems to keep a lot of secrets, and she hasn’t done one thing to gain my trust.”

“Then why are you here?”

Rose unzipped the biohazard suit and pulled her arms out of the sleeves, followed by her legs. She setthe suitto the side and gave the man her full attention. No matter how much she loved her sister, she understood the man probably had every right not to trust Brit. Brittany still treated Rose like a teenager, but she was in her late twenties, had a successful business, and was raising a little boy.

“I asked myself the same question before I came here,” Ginger said. “But when I sat down with my team and discussed this we agreed our best option was for me to fly here, because your sister is our only key to our target.”

Great, another man using her togetwhat he wanted. The story of her life. “I can just pretend like you were here and relay anything she says.”

“Not happening. Brittany is our only link to Carter at the moment. She promised me intel in exchange for me being your bodyguard. My commander agreed to keep me off the grid. I need Carter to think I'm dead. So, for the next month, I'm staying here.”

“A month,” she replied, not sure she’dheardhim right. She’d lived with Seth for a few years, but he’d spent hours at the lab. There were times she wouldn’t see him for months. Her mom died in a car accident when she was eight, leaving her Dad the only parent, but he spent his time at the bar and he died of a drug overdose when she was twelve.

“Is that going to affect your dating? I didn'tseeanything that showed another man living here. A boy, but not a man.” His voicewas gravelly.

Jesus, he was like a wet dream, but he stood in her living room.

She shook her head. “The only guy in my life is my son, Tyler.”

Ginger closed the distance between them and held out his hand. “I think we got off on a bad start. I'm Tim Mueller, but my teammates call me Ginger.”

“Rose,” she replied, as she shook. “That's kind of rude to call you Ginger.”

For years, she’d hatedwhen the other kids teased her about her hair color, hence the black dye she kept stocked in her vanity.

He shrugged. “Many of us got worse nicknames.”

She let go of his hand, realizing she’d helditway too long. Yep, this man made her lose her mind.

“Coffee?”

At least that would give her something to do because she wanted to kiss him and find out if his lips were as soft as they looked.

“That would be great, thanks.”

She sauntered to the kitchen and pulled two mugs down from a cabinet. The first one had a picture of a cockroach drinking coffee, and the second one said Save The Bugs. She handed Ginger the one with the cockroach and filled hers from the carafe of already brewed coffee on the counter. When she turned around, he was staring at the cup.

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