Page 29 of No More Spies

You’ve given her like a week, dude.

He shut down the reasonable part of his inner voice. Theangelic voice that told him to be patient.

Get her in bed and everything will fall into place.That’s all you need to do. Fuck her. Give it to her better than she’s ever hadit. Prove to her you’re not the kid who broke her heart. Show her you’re a manwho can handle all that darkness. With your dick.

Yeah, the devil was pretty much in charge and had been sincehe watched her almost die.

Kenz was giving him a big-eyed stare that let him know shethought he was being a weirdo. “I forgot you guys make appointments. The restof us kind of go with the flow.”

Sometimes he missed being on teams where he hadn’t grown upwith his teammates. When he’d been strictly Navy, he hadn’t had to deal withpeople who remembered him at the age of five.

“To get back to the point, all I’m saying is Huisman is outthere, and we have to be ready,” Tristan reiterated.

“And Zach.” Tasha walked into the conference room, carryinga laptop. Behind her, Cooper could see her fiancé, Dare, walking back to hisoffice.

Zachary Reed. Damn, it hurt. He wasn’t even sure why. He’donly recently gotten close to the captain. Zach was closer to Tristan, but thelast few months he’d taken to hanging out with Cooper. He’d even given Zachflying lessons, helping him get his license. Only days before Zach had satacross from him at a diner. He’d brought along TJ’s sister, Devi, since theyseemed to be a couple. Or had been. Cooper had sat beside Kala, and he’d feltlike they were on a double date. Like they’d done when they were in highschool, sharing meals and movies with Tris and Carys and Aidan.

I thought we were hanging out.

Would his fifteen-year-old self follow him always?

“Zach wouldn’t hurt Kala,” Tris argued.

“We don’t know that.” TJ suddenly seemed interested insomething besides his girlfriend—or a snack. TJ was mostly muscle and oftenslept through these meetings. “I do think Devi might need a bodyguard.”

“He’s not going to hurt Devi.” Tris turned TJ’s way.“There’s something going on that we don’t understand. I know Zach.”

“Well, if you know him, why don’t you tell us all why heskipped out on us?” a husky voice said.

Just the sound of her voice made his dick go tight. Kalawalked into the conference room wearing her normal uniform of stylishly rippedjeans, an old concert tee, and combat boots, her newly pink hair in a highponytail. She had her leather jacket over her arm and started walking towardthe seat Lou had held for her.

He was going to break her of the habit. Someday she wouldlook his way and know her place was at his side. Okay, even the little devilinside him said that kind of thinking would get him in serious trouble.Hisplace was atherside. Yeah, he would put it like that.

There were definitely days he wished he was wireddifferently, wished he could give her the submission she seemed to need.Instead, what he could offer was to be the king at the side of the queen.

She stopped and then turned, coming his way. She sank downnext to him, and every eye was on her. “What?”

Kenzie’s lips turned up, and she shook that perfectlyidentical head. They’d been strawberry blonde for the last mission, but twodays ago they’d shown up for work and the magenta-colored hair they’d gottentheir handle from—Ms. Magenta—was back. “Nothing. Just wondering if thetherapist is still alive. You look weirdly calm for having to talk about yourfeelings for an hour.”

“Oh, she doesn’t,” Lou assured them. “I’m pretty sure shesits there and has a stare off with Lena. I kind of don’t blame her. I’m goingto be honest. I didn’t like the woman. She told me I’m trying to turn TJ intomy dad. I don’t know what that means. She said I have abandonment issues, but Idon’t. My bio dad died. Do you think she means I’m trying to turn TJ into him?Because he was an asshole from everything I know, and honestly, TJ’s not greatat math.”

Cooper snorted. Louisa Ward was considered a genius by mostof the people who knew her. She was an engineer and inventor, a true innovator,but in this she wasn’t very self-aware. “She’s not talking about your bio dad.She’s talking about how TJ is slowly morphing into Boomer.”

“Am not,” TJ said around a mouthful of muffin.

Kala’s lips curled up in one of those pure amusement grinsshe rarely shared. “Last night he ate all the lasagna we had left over. Kenzmade an extra-large and thought we would eat it for a week. TJ managed to downit in an hour.”

“It was good,” TJ said apologetically. “And it was leg day.You know I get really hungry on leg day. I’ll get us takeout tonight.”

Lou’s head tilted the way it did when she was thinking.“Huh. That makes more sense.”

“When he starts bringing home every sad-sack homeless animalhe can find, we’ll know his transition is complete. I don’t think it’s a badthing,” Kala replied, and then seemed to get serious. “Where’s the big guy, anddo we have a babysitter today?”

The door to the conference room opened again, and the answerwas clear. Drake Radcliffe walked in followed by the aforementioned big guy,Ian Taggart, and his wife, Charlotte. Drake was in his mid-forties and had oncebeen a deadly operative, but he’d shifted into management, and he and his wife,Taylor, were the team’s liaisons with the Agency.

Kala had stiffened beside him, though her expression hadn’tchanged.

She was worried Drake was here to shut them down. At onepoint he would have cheered the very idea, but two years of watching her workhad made him understand how much she needed this. She’d been born for thiswork. He could have been happy in any number of jobs, but there was only onefor Kala Taggart. Yes, he could have been happy in several jobs, but he couldonly be happy with one woman. Her.

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