Page 88 of Hate Mates

The Assignment by Becca Steele

ONE

Kinslee

From this height, the throngs of people threading their way through London’s streets looked like ants. Dark clouds rolled in, almost at my eyeline, shrouding the skyscraper across from me, and I swallowed, stepping away from the floor-to-ceiling glass window. This building was a marvel of curved metal and glass, but it left me feeling exposed.

Still, I needed to get used to it, and fast. I had no idea what my new job would entail, but I knew that entering the employment of Credence Pope meant I should be prepared for the unexpected. This was my trial run after an intensive training period, my first real assignment, and if I impressed Creed enough…well, the sky was the limit. He’d chosen to recruit me, therefore, he believed I was capable, and I was going to do whatever it took to make it work.

“There’s nowhere to hide here. Remember that. This suite is secure, but outside of here, you need to remember just how dangerous these people are. The assignment may sound simple, but there’s plenty of shit that can go wrong, and I don’t have time to babysit the newbie.”

I spun around at the low, masculine tone, a protest on my lips that died away when I got a good look at the man standing in the doorway of the hotel suite.

The incredibly sexy man standing in the doorway.

Thick, dark hair, a defined jaw that was visible even with the closely cropped beard he was sporting, and deep brown eyes accentuated by a pair of black-framed glasses. His full lips were curved into a sneer, which immediately set my teeth on edge, but I couldn’t stop my gaze from dragging down his body, drinking him in.

He was wearing a navy suit jacket and pressed trousers, with a lighter blue shirt underneath with the top two buttons undone. An expensive-looking watch peeked from the cuff of his jacket. A slim belt circled his narrow waist, and the outfit was finished off with a pair of tan loafers buffed to a soft shine.

I’d put him at around a similar age to me. Maybe slightly older. Twenty-three, twenty-four, perhaps.

“Are you finished or are you going to stare all day?” he snapped, and it was as if I’d been doused with a bucket of icy water.

“Excuse me. Who are you?”

“She speaks,” he muttered, and I rolled my eyes. I was used to dealing with assholes disguised as pretty packages. My best friend’s boyfriend Caiden Cavendish came to mind, although he no longer fell into that category, most of the time, and this guy was completely deluded if he thought I’d let him get away with speaking to me like that.

Stalking up to him, I jabbed my fingernail into his chest. “I asked you a question. Who. Are. You?”

His gaze narrowed, his thick lashes fluttering. “I’m your handler, as much as I wish I wasn’t.”

“My handler? I don’t need a handler.”

“Take it up with Creed, not me,” he said in a bored tone, his hand circling my wrist and lowering it from his chest. Stepping around me, he headed over to the closed door that I hadn’t had a chance to investigate yet and threw it open.

Oh.

From where I was standing, I could see that what I thought had been an additional bedroom or possibly another living space was, in fact, a high-tech computer room filled with so much equipment it made my head spin. I suddenly wished for my phone, so I could take photos for my two hacker friends, Lena and Weston. This would be their idea of a dream room. But all my possessions had been securely locked up before I’d been directed to come to this hotel, and all I’d been allowed to bring other than a small case filled with clothes that weren’t my own was a handbag containing a bank card and ID with a false name, and a temporary phone programmed with two numbers.

Creed hadn’t given me much information. Just that this was my first taste of a real assignment before he decided where to place me in his organisation, and it was safer if I knew as little as possible. Any other relevant information would be given to me on a need-to-know basis, and all I knew was that my name was now supposed to be Lindsey Davenport, I was a twenty-two-year-old postgrad student, and I was supposed to blend in with the other guests in the hotel while my partner did their job. I was there as his cover, to pretend to be his girlfriend?—

This man. He’d called himself my handler. He couldn’t be the person Creed had been referring to, could he? What was I saying? Of course he was.

I entered the computer room to find the man had ditched the suit jacket and had his shirt sleeves rolled up to expose his forearms flexing where he was bent over the desk, his brows pulled together as he studied the computer screen in front of him intently.

“Are you my partner?”

He ignored me. Dick.

“Fine. If you’re going to be that way, I’ll go out and explore.” I took one step backwards, and he whipped around, lightning fast, flying across the space between us to grab my upper arm.

“You’re not going anywhere,” he growled.

TWO

Hunter

She stared up at me, all wide, innocent amber eyes framed by long lashes. Her tongue swiped across her pouty lips, leaving them glistening, and it pissed me off even more. What the fuck had Creed been thinking, bringing her in on the job? She wasn’t one of his sirens. She was completely green, and I didn’t have fucking time to babysit anyone, even if they were as gorgeous as her.

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