Page 38 of A Secret and a Lie
“I’ve stopped, and you’re safe,” I inform her carefully. “I’m going to lift you in my arms now.”
When I do, her plump lips part just enough that I can see the bottom of her two front teeth. Clutching her tightly, I cradle her in my arms, and I swear she curls into me, but I could’ve imagined that. Instead of going to the couch where I took Sloane, I move to the bed, settling against the headboard with Genevieve still in my embrace.
With her head tucked just below my chin, pressed to my chest, I think about how easy it’d be to press a kiss to the top of her head. Suddenly, that’s the only thing in the world I want.
But this is the last lesson Genevieve is giving me, and I need to find a way to keep her from walking away. Not just because I haven’t gotten any of the information I’ve been tasked with retrieving, but because I want to know what her lips taste like.
I’m in a fuck ton of trouble.
“Can you talk to me?” I question, my register low as my fingers continue to glide over the soft strands of her bleach-blonde hair.
Just then, Sloane appears next to the bed, holding out a bottle of water with a small smile on her lips and a slight blush to her cheeks. I take it from her and nod, hoping it’ll dismiss her from the room so Genevieve and I might have a moment together. However, she doesn’t leave. In fact, she perches on the end of the bed.
As soon as the mattress dips, I know I’ve lost Genevieve entirely. Her body tenses, and she sits up fully. I have no choice but to let her edge away from me, making the six inches of space between us feel as vast as the Atlantic Ocean. I offer her the water, andshe takes it from me, propping herself up just beneath the circular mirror.
“Are you okay?” I repeat my question.
She sighs, but I can’t decipher if it’s a huff of annoyance or the sound of resignation. “Yes, of course. I’m…fine.”
“Are you sure?” Sloane pushes.
Genevieve’s lips purse, but she doesn’t snap at the doe-eyed woman. Instead, she nods. “I wanted to see how Ford would manage if I actually safe-worded.”
What?That can’t be right…can it? I handled things with Sloane just fine. There must be more going on here, but what? And is she actually okay?
Even Sloane’s eyebrows furrow, her lips curling upside down, but Genevieve speaks again before either of us can say anything. “I really think that the two of you will be just fine without me.”
Panic races through me as my mind whirs, scrambling to create a reason why I would need to keep the Madam around. I can’t bail on the FBI without the intel, and I can’t get that without her. She keeps shutting down every avenue that leads to her, blocking me out and walling me off. I thought maybe I could talk Genevieve into giving us a few more lessons, but evidently not. The hard glint in her eye tells me that’s off the table.
I’ll have to find another way to get to her.
She must read the turmoil written on my face as anxiety about being on my own with Sloane, because she declares, “You’ll be alright, Clark. You’ve got a lot of promise as a Dom. I’m not worried about your capabilities.”
I can’t even respond before she’s continuing.
“And you’ll take care of him, right?” she directs at Sloane, who nods, a grin on her face.
Great.
The only woman I’m interested intaking careof me, slips off the mattress, straightening her shoulders as she passes Sloane, squeezingher shoulder. Gazing at me, she pins me to the bed with a gentle smile that wraps itself around my ribs. “See you around, Superman.”
“Samuel Choi is in custody,” Jackson explains through the burner phone’s speaker.
Pinching the bridge of my nose, I nod, settling back in my seat as I swirl my scotch around absently, the smell of smoke and fire wafting to my nose. “Not surprising, based on those headlines this morning.”
“She leaked that intel.”
He doesn’t have to tell me who theshein question is. After all, there’s only one person we’d be discussing during this check-in call.
The trajectory of this conversation has me running through every spoken word from our lesson last night. Had there been a natural way to probe Gen for information? Was there enough time to have snooped a bit more? Could I have gotten her to slip up and leak intel accidentally?
I needed to take some time to establish trust with Genevieve and Sloane. It’s not as if they’d naturally tell me what I needed to know, and with Jackson pushing me harder to wrap this up, the window to ask questions is rapidly closing.
It’s next to impossible to execute a successful op without smoothly infiltrating the intended mark’s environment and the fact that I’ve been pushed to do so pisses me off. That’s precisely how a target gets spooked, and someone ends up with a bullet in their brain.
“How do you know that?” I ask dubiously.
“Choi told me himself in interrogation this afternoon and he passed a polygraph.”
