Page 14 of Covert Temptation

“I guess time will tell. She’s still under watch.”

She slipped her fingers through the hair on her temple, brushing back the dark, glossy strands so opposite of Kennedy’s. “And I hear you’re going to be her personal bodyguard now.”

He jerked his head.“What?”

Alyssa gave him a small smile. She knew exactly what she was doing when she leaked that information.

He raked his fingers through his hair but there was no way to alleviate the annoyance rippling over every inch of his body. Not only was he always stuck behind a computer screen instead of in the field, now, once he actually got in the field, he was relegated to common guard duty?

She patted his arm. “By the way, you should know Kennedy is afraid of the dark.”

What the hell? The dark? Why would he care about that?

Alyssa walked away, moving quickly down the corridor and turning the corner that would take her back to Chase, who didn’t have any problem at all hunkering down against threats with the woman he’d fallen head over heels for.

Dante turned back to the one-way glass. Kennedy was on her feet, facing the glass and glaring at him like she knew he was out there.

Alyssa might have forgiven her, but Dante wasn’t so quick to jump on that train. No matter how convincing Kennedy sounded, he wasn’t buying it. Not completely. She’d been trained in protocols for working with the ambassador, had access to the same secure systems as the rest of them.

If her phone had been compromised, it wasn’t because she didn’t know better—it was because she’d stepped outside the lines. Whether by accident or design, she wasn’t owning up to her part in it. And that was a problem.

His jaw clenched as an old memory flickered, sharp and unwelcome—his parents breaking rules with so muchcarelessness. In the end, it hadn’t been them who paid the price. It was him and his four younger siblings, scattered into the system like grains of dust.

There were always choices. Every damn day people stood at the crossroads of right and wrong, and Dante devoted his life to pulling them back from the edge—or cleaning up when they jumped.

People liked to say life was shades of gray. Complicated. Messy. But not to him. For Dante, life had always been black and white. And Kennedy? She was still hiding something in the shadows. Eventually, he would uncover her secrets.

He found Con in the kitchen, rummaging through the fridge. He used his shoulder to nudge the door shut and turned to the big granite kitchen island with sandwich fixings in hand.

Seeing Dante, he grunted. “You want a sandwich?”

“No. I want answers.”

Con didn’t ruffle easily. He only arched a brow at him. “About?”

“Alyssa says I’m going on Kennedy watch.”

He spread four slices of bread on a paper plate and began layering them with ham and roast beef. “How is that different from what you’ve been doing?”

“I was in charge of check-ins. And now we can’t trust her not to run.”

Con resealed the packages of deli meat and reached for the sliced cheddar. “People with much higher rank than you or me want to keep her alive, and that means you’re following orders.”

No point in arguing in that case.

“We’ve got bigger issues than Kennedy right now.”

Dante leaned on the bar. “I’m listening.”

“None of the crime syndicate members or their associates were on the street when Shaw was shot.”

He stared at his CO for a long beat. “The footage was combed through thoroughly?”

He gave a single nod. “I called the TV stations too. Turns out they received a tip to be at the courthouse.”

“Distraction before attack. We’ve seen it before during some of the bombings. It’s Cipher’s fingerprint for sure.”

He nodded. “We can’t take any chances with the one person who might give us a link to him. I know you don’t like this, but you’re taking Kennedy into protective custody.”

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