Covert Alliance (12 page)

“Great.” Alan put both bags on top of the table, hearing a slight
thump
as the wine bottle touched the surface. “Do you have any wineglasses?”

The smile on her lovely face grew even wider. “I sure do. Wine sounds wonderful tonight.”

And she looked wonderful tonight. He had a sudden urge to move around to where she was now reaching into the cabinets above the counter to the left of the sink and extracting a couple of long-stemmed glasses.

Not that he wanted any kind of reimbursement for tonight’s meal, but he suddenly craved a thank-you kiss. Or a kiss for any other reason. Or no reason.

“I’ve got something to tell you about Stan Grodon and that meeting this afternoon that might give you another angle to look into to find evidence about what happened to Andi,” Kelly said, putting two glasses on the table. “Do you need a corkscrew?”

“Yes,” he said. “That would be great.” And so was the reminder about why he was really here—not to see this gorgeous and sexy woman socially, but to work with her for their mutual purpose of bringing down the man who had most likely killed her sister.

She turned her back once more and reached into a drawer near the sink, extracting a wine-bottle opener. It looked generic enough to have come with the apartment, since the place appeared to have been rented furnished and perhaps even with dishes and flatware.

Alan wondered what Kelly had told the leasing agent about where she’d come from, and why she was here, not to mention how long she was staying.

“Want me to do it?” She looked at the bottle Alan had placed on the table, food containers beside it.

“Let me.” He reached out, and she placed the corkscrew into his hand.

“Yes, sir, Mr. Deliveryman.” She laughed, then got some serving spoons from another drawer. She had already put plates, forks, knives and napkins onto the table so they were ready to go.

In a few minutes, they were sitting at the table, facing each other. They both had Chinese food on their plates: kung pao chicken, fried rice and stir-fried vegetables. Alan lifted his wineglass in a toast.

“May we find all the answers we need to suit both of us—and make Judge Treena happy, too,” he said, staring into Kelly’s pretty brown eyes to gauge her reaction to the latter. What did she think of Judge Treena—and making her happy?

“I’ll drink to that.” Kelly lifted her glass and took a sip. “Although I haven’t talked to her, I suspect that if I asked Judge Treena what I could do to make her happy, she’d insist on something I’m just not ready to do now.”

“Like move back to the location and job where she placed you? Maybe obey a few orders?” Alan knew that his wryness had an edge of irritation to it. All that had been done for Kelly had been intended to keep her safe. Now here she was, practically mocking the ID Division. And Judge Treena.

“I only wish I could.” The sorrowful expression that suddenly washed over Kelly’s face almost made Alan feel sympathetic. “But that’s one of the things I want to talk about tonight. I said I have some potentially helpful information for you, and I do. But first—seeing Eli haphazardly that way, not really being able to talk to him or learn what’s going on or how to help him... I need for us to discuss some kind of plan for me to fix things for him. And if you want to help, too, that would be fine.”

* * *

Kelly watched Alan’s face change from hard and maybe even angry to pensive. She was challenging him, sure, but it was within his purview as a CIU agent to help her with what she had asked.

Would he? She really hoped so.

“I understand that’s why you’ve come here, Kelly,” he finally said. “And why you felt you had to break every promise you made to get the Identity Division to help you. But—”

“But you don’t really get it.” She looked down at her plate rather than at him, keeping her tone level, trying to swallow her disappointment.

They’d talked some about becoming allies, working together toward their important and related goals. Well, she absolutely wanted him to achieve his: finding compelling evidence to convict Stan of doing whatever he had done to her sister.

Did he want her to achieve hers—convicting Stan, and even more pressingly, helping her nephew?

“I do, Kelly. Definitely.” His voice was soft now, and when she looked back up at him, his deep brown eyes captured hers in a glance that truly did appear sympathetic.

But he was part of the Identity Division. Everyone affiliated with the agency, particularly the Covert Investigations Unit, was a good actor. It went with the territory.

He stood up then, crossing his arms in front of what she knew was a hard chest. “I realize you don’t necessarily believe me, but I’ve been keeping an eye on young Eli every time I see him in Government Plaza and elsewhere. I don’t know about mentally, but he didn’t appear physically abused until the last few days. I’ve made notes and taken photos when I could. When I get the evidence I need on his father, I’ll be able to take him out of the picture. Even before you showed up here, since I knew his history—and yours—I assumed I’d be able to turn him over to his aunt eventually. But your being here changes things, and could make it even more difficult for me to deal with Stan Grodon.”

“I... I didn’t want that.” Kelly melted downward into her chair. This entire situation had always been hard for her. It had to be a nightmare for Eli, and when he’d felt bad enough to hint about it on social media, she’d felt compelled to forget her own needs and come here, to help him.

But she also wanted to make sure Stan Grodon was taken down, as he should be.

“Of course you didn’t.” He looked as if he might stride toward her and she tensed, both wanting him close and hoping he wouldn’t get near her. If he tried to comfort her by holding her, she was afraid she’d fall apart.

Instead, he seemed to hesitate for a few seconds, then resumed his seat. As if he had not stood at all, he took a sip of wine and began eating again.

Kelly took the opportunity to tell him about having seen Jerome Baranka with Stan that morning, heading for the meeting. She described the situation before her sister had disappeared: the real estate mogul, his apparent friendship with—bribery of?—Stan. Stan’s arguments with his real estate agent wife.

“I knew some of that,” Alan said when she was done. He’d finished his meal and looked across the table toward her, his craggy dark eyebrows furrowed. “I’d looked into Baranka Real Estate when I first got here, and they were on my list to check out further. But from my initial investigation, that real estate angle was only one of several possibilities, and Stan and Baranka weren’t in as close contact as Stan was with some others on my list. But you can be sure I’ll examine that transaction more closely now. Not sure it’ll yield anything solid in the way of evidence against Stan, but we’ll see.”

“To me, it still seems the most likely possibility,” Kelly said. She hadn’t finished her dinner, mostly because she wasn’t really that hungry, not with all the emotional mental flogging she’d been doing to herself.

No. It was her brother-in-law’s doing. And she really did need to help her nephew.

She took a long swig of wine, then looked across the table intently at the man who was here to bring Stan down. “Look, Alan, I know you’re mad at me on behalf of the ID Division, and maybe otherwise, but we’ve already decided to help each other. And first thing, I have to make sure Eli’s okay. You see him more than I do, and I appreciate your giving me notice so I can pop in on him at Government Plaza. But...well, I’ve been contemplating trying to become Councilwoman Arviss’s good buddy so I can hang out with her more, but have a lot of reservations about it. There’s got to be some way for me to get closer to Eli, and I’ve wondered if she’s the key. What do you think?”

“Bad idea, at least for now,” Alan said. “She seems to be a strong and helpful presence in Eli’s life. If you press her, question her, she might ask too many questions, of Stan and of you. I’ll try to sound her out if I get the opportunity, but you should avoid her for the time being.”

“Okay. You’re right. That’s kind of what I decided. I don’t want to ruin her acting as a friend to Eli. He needs someone in his corner. He’s probably suffering...” Kelly hadn’t meant to raise her voice like that, but everything she had been holding inside suddenly erupted. Still staring into his handsome face, she tried to figure out what Alan was really thinking...before she felt tears start dampening her own cheeks. “I... I’m sorry,” she said, again looking away from him.

“Me, too.” Alan’s voice was gentle—and it came from beside her. “I wish I had a magic solution for you. Or that I’d found everything I was looking for to bring Stan Grodon down so you didn’t have any reason to come here. But I didn’t. And we have to go from here.”

“I—I just thought I’d at least figure out a way to see Eli more while I’m here, to help him,” she blurted. “But everything I come up with could hurt him—and maybe me—more.”

She felt a touch on her shoulder and turned to see Alan right beside her. She rose, he pulled back her chair, and suddenly she was in his arms.

She hadn’t meant to cry. Not at all, and not like this. But she felt as if all the fear and stress she’d been holding inside was now erupting, and that it was okay since she was being held by the one person who, even if he didn’t agree with her, understood best what she was going through.

She stood there for a minute getting herself back under control. Or trying to. At least the tears stopped flowing.

But she realized she liked where she was—being held by Alan, comforted by him...and more.

Her body started tingling, reacting to him in all the most sensitive places. He was one sexy guy.

But that wasn’t appropriate. She needed to get away from him. She moved to look up at him, tell him she was fine...and wound up looking right into his eyes.

They were blazing with desire. That stimulated her even more. And when his mouth came down and met hers, she was ready for it. More than ready.

She realized she had been waiting, hoping for this as the kiss grew deeper. Hotter.

Waiting for this—and more.

Chapter 10

A
lan hadn’t intended to kiss Kelly. To touch her like this. He had only wanted to soothe her, yet he was affected by the way she looked at him. Seemed to wait for him. To want him...

She tasted wonderful, slightly spicy like their dinner. He tested her taste even as he teased her tongue with his.

Her breasts against him felt warm, curvaceous. And when he reached down to grasp her bottom, pull her closer, he nearly gasped with pleasure as she pushed against his erection, hardening it.

What would she be like naked...?

She must be thinking the same as him, since her hands were suddenly at the back of his shirt, lifting it, touching his flesh with her soft, exploring hands. And then they dipped lower, as if she wanted to grasp his butt as well, but not through his pants. Inside them.

But as he moved a little to help her, to start removing her clothes first, she pulled back and gave a small laugh.

“Hey, this may be the role we’re playing in front of people, but for real?”

The role. Pretending to be attracted to each other so they could be together in public, sharing where they were, talking to each other, without anyone suspecting, hopefully, what they were really about.

The thought that he wasn’t the first CIU member to come up with this plan rocketed suddenly through Alan’s mind. He had wound up helping at the end of that other agent’s assignment, seeing him with the woman he’d needed to help, recognized that their attraction to each other might have started as a role but had morphed into reality.

Would that happen between Kelly and him? No way. Too many differences between them, in attitude and more.

Alan pulled back a little, his breathing uneven, then stopped. He wanted her. No matter what or why. He grinned down at her gorgeous face, her teasing smile. Her challenging, sexy eyes. “We can always rehearse when we’re by ourselves,” he said. Then he didn’t want to talk anymore.

He reached toward her, moving his hand inside her flowing, low-cut top until he could grasp one full, firm breast over her bra, then the other. He kept his eyes on hers, though, knowing he would make himself stop if that was what she wanted.

“Rehearsal sounds good,” she said in a husky voice. And when she reached out to grasp his erection through his pants, he knew they were a go.

* * *

Kelly felt as if all her concentration was on her breasts, where Alan touched them. Teased them. Brushed, then gently squeezed, her nipples.

“I think this rehearsal needs to move into the bedroom,” she managed to say, even as she continued to gently cup the area where his arousal extended his jeans, wanting to rub it harder. To feel its flesh.

Maybe even to taste it.

This was so strange. She’d had relationships on and off while living here before in Blue Haven, but none since she had shed her old persona and become Kelly.

Now, for the first time in forever, Kelly craved sex. Not just any sex.

Sex with this man.

“I agree.” Alan’s voice was raspy, but he backed away enough so she could no longer reach him. Nor was he still touching her breasts.

“This way,” she said immediately.

Was she being foolish? Could be, but sex wasn’t really going to change things between them—except physically. But they were both here for similar, if not identical, reasons, and if they happened to become closer, maybe they could work together even better.

She grabbed his hand and led him from the kitchen into the tiny hallway, and then flicked on her bedroom light as she pulled him through the door.

“Nice room,” he said, glancing around. She tried to see it through his eyes. It was small, with one double bed in the middle, a narrow three-drawer dresser against the wall near the door, and a night table near the headboard. The furniture was serviceable, but not especially attractive. She hadn’t spent any time or money decorating the place. There were no pictures on the walls, only a fluffy area rug beneath the bed on the wood floor. In short, it looked like the rest of this place—like a hotel suite where she was sleeping, eating and doing little else.