Page 14 of Dangerous Devotion

That drew a target on his gorgeous, muscled back.

From the corner of her eye, she studied her partner. On the surface, Henner appeared to be calm, but a tendon in the crease of his angular jaw revealed a strain humming just beneath the surface.

The champagne flute in her hand posed as a prop more than a drink, and she used it to disguise how shaken she was too. She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of what Henner’s commanding officer had ordered him to do.

Lifting the glass to her lips, she spoke to him. “If we keep moving, we’ll draw less attention.”

That tendon fluttered in response.

She set off through the chatty guests, navigating the ballroom with ease. Henner stuck close to her, his presencea calming anchor in this mission. They were in this together. When one lacked in skills, the other could fill in the gap.

Parties she could do. How many of these things had she attended in her life? Dozens. With her father, two uncles and an older brother working in the family business dealing with explosives, May had tagged along with them to everything from war zones to secret parties. Even if some people didn’t appreciate her family, the government did. They got all the contracts, went to all the clandestine places and were sworn to secrecy on everything they did.

And she learned everything she knew at the knee of the best in the business—her father.

They stopped between groups of people. She focused on their talk, but none of it seemed important to what she and Henner were here to accomplish.

Then his posture changed—an unmistakable stiffening of his solid spine.

“Goddammit, I’m gonna kill Con.”

Before she could ask the question poised on her lips, he vanished in the crowd.

Did he just ditch me?

With a gulp of panic, she brought the champagne to her lips to cover her discomposure. When she looked up and saw a man walking toward her, her stomach tightened.

He wasn’t looking at her, but where AJ had disappeared.

With a neutral—and even serene—expression, she casually turned, taking a sip of champagne as she did. AJ was nowhere to be seen, but she couldn’t just stand here.

Moving with purpose, she passed clusters of guests. Half a dozen men surrounded a general, all vying for his attention and pretending to hang on his every word. One man’s eyes traveled over her body.

She gave him a small nod of acknowledgement before moving on. “I’m going to kill Henner,” she murmured under her breath.

He had to bail on the situation, and that was understandable. But he could have at least taken her with him.

About ten minutes later, after combing the entire ballroom for him, she found him with his back to a wall in a corner away from the bar. His easy stance didn’t give away that he was upset in the least—or that he’d just left her to fend for herself.

He laid eyes on her. The grim clamp of his lips passed for a smile.

“Thanks for abandoning me,” she breezed out, stepping up beside him.

“I had no choice.” He gripped his drink and brought it to his lips.

She shifted to face him, forcing him to meet her head-on. “You knew that man?”

“Went to boot camp with him.” He sipped again.

“Should you be drinking on duty?”

Long ago, she’d finished her champagne and ditched the glass. So when he held out his glass to her, she took it.

“Taste it.”

She sniffed the contents before bringing it to her mouth. What appeared to be Crown and Coke was really just Coke.

“Did the guy from boot camp recognize you?”

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