Page 13 of Covert Temptation

“I don’t hate you.” Alyssa’s whisper cracked. “I would’ve gone.”

Kennedy’s breath caught. “I know I disappointed you. I’m sorry.”

Alyssa looked down. “I didn’t know what to believe before. But I realize now you weren’t trying to hurt me. Or betray anyone. You didn’t know what was going on. Like you said, you were being used.”

Kennedy’s hands trembled in her lap. She fought the sting in her eyes. “You mean that?”

“I do.”

Kennedy blinked hard, but a tear escaped. She turned her face slightly, embarrassed. “I thought we were friends,” she murmured. “When I lost that, I wasn’t sure I even knew who I was anymore.”

Alyssa looked at her, softer now. “We’ve still got work to do to find out the truth. A lot of it. But I don’t think you’re the enemy.”

She nodded. “I want to help take him down. I need to.”

Alyssa rose slowly. “Then let’s figure out how.” As she walked out, she paused at the door, glancing back once.

Kennedy stayed seated in the empty room, letting herself feel the first flicker of hope in weeks.

Maybe she wasn’t alone anymore.

THREE

Dante stood outside the interrogation room with his arms crossed tightly over his chest. When the team took over the mansion for their base, a big pane of two-way glass had been added to this space. His gaze was fixed on it so hard that the glass might crack under the force of his stare.

Inside, Alyssa sat across from Kennedy. Their working relationship had morphed into a natural friendship, only to be shattered by betrayal and distrust. The tension coiled between them like a serpent, almost too ugly for him to look at.

Kennedy appeared composed, but he’d been on enough battlefields to know when someone was barely holding the line.

During the chopper ride, he’d spent a lot of time studying the woman. He didn’t know what he was searching for in her face, but he never found it.

What he’d discovered was that her eyes still held a softness, a vulnerability even when she was glaring at him, which was every chance she got.

As he looked on, she pulled her black coat around herself, almost huddling into the depths. The overhead lights were high quality, not those harsh lights of a standard interrogation room, and they caught the golden streaks of her hair.

Everything about Kennedy was too perfect, too polished, like she didn’t know a damn thing about the kind of dirt the world could throw, even though her job as the assistant to the ambassador must have taught her a lot.

While she and Alyssa talked, her eyes—warm brown like espresso—took in everything. They weren’t sharp or guarded, but aware.

She was the kind of woman who turned heads without trying, who walked into a room and made it brighter just by existing. And that made Dante suspicious. He couldn’t tell if she was truly soft, or simply knew how to move through shadows without making a sound.

Maybe Kennedy wasn’t soft at all. Maybe she’d just learned to look like it.

The speaker outside the room projected every word they said. He watched the whole interview, shocked to hear the workings of Kennedy’s mind spoken out loud to Alyssa, when she’d been close-mouthed with him.

She spoke with intelligence, had thought things through.

But he couldn’t help but wonder if she was manipulating Alyssa, casting the suspicion on someone else.

The interview concluded, and he stood back from the door as Alyssa exited. She stopped when she saw him.

“I never would have forgiven her that easily,” he said.

Alyssa drew up straighter. She was small but carried herself with the authority of someone much larger and older than her years. “I’ve had some time and space to gain a fresh perspective. Over the past few weeks, I realized Kennedy did nothing to hurt me. She was just doing her job, doing her best to survive, like everyone else.”

“So you believe she really didn’t know about the spyware on her phone?”

Alyssa shook her head. “I don’t believe she knew.”

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