Bad Attitude (B.A.D. Agency #1)(15)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

She frowned as she recognized Carlos’s weapon. Why did Steele have it? How did he have it? Carlos was about as paranoid as anyone could get. It wasn’t like him to leave a weapon lying about. Syd unloaded it, then left it in the kitchen drawer before she went back to the sofa bed to make it up.

Deciding the blanket should be washed lest Carlos figure out what they’d done in his place, she went back into the kitchen to search out Carlos’s washer and dryer.

As the water came on, she heard Steele curse in the bathroom. “Sorry!” she called, but even so she didn’t turn the washer off. She was too afraid she’d forget and leave evidence behind.

She still couldn’t believe that she’d allowed Steele do that to her. “I have to be the dumbest human to ever live and breathe,” she whispered to herself. “When am I going to learn?”

But maybe it had been a good thing. Steele no doubt needed the release. Now he should be able to focus.

And maybe she could too.

Maybe.

She jumped as her cell phone rang. Answering it, she found Andre on the other end.

“Whereare you?”

“We’re still in Carlo’s apartment. Steele was asleep when I got here, and now he’s getting dressed.”

“Well, shake a leg. We can’t stay here all day.”

“I know. We’ll be there shortly.” As she hung up the phone, Steele left the bathroom…still completely nak*d. Now he was dripping wet and looking way too choice.

She ground her teeth at the damp perfection of that body. “That was Andre, telling us to hurry.”

“I’m hurrying,” he said with a wink. “Can’t you tell?”

“No. You look like you’re crawling from here.”

Tsking playfully at her, he walked past to grab his clothes from the floor by the couch.

Syd frowned as she realized he didn’t have anything else to wear. “Remind me, we need to get you some clothes later.”

He snorted. “I’d much rather you get me nak*d again later.”

Her stomach shrank at his teasing tone. “Look, Steele, this didn’t happen, okay? We didn’t do anything here as far as I’m concerned.”

A hurt look flashed across his face before he concealed it. “Don’t worry, Syd. I’ve had enough one-night stands in my life to know how to behave afterward.”

Now it was her turn to be stung. “I’ll bet you have. You’re probably one of those guys who promises to call and then never does.”

He tugged his shirt over his head. “I’ve never in my life made a promise I didn’t keep. Never.”

“Then promise me that you’ll forget all about this and never mention it to anyone.”

“Done. Didn’t happen. It’s forgotten already.” He turned his back on her and folded up the bed back into the couch.

Even though those words should thrill her, they didn’t. Instead, it left a hole in her stomach that ached.

It’s for the best.

Still, that hole was there. Burning. Empty. Consuming. Swallowing against the pain of it, she nodded as she led him toward the door.

As she opened the door, Steele caught her and pulled her to a stop. “But answer me one thing, Syd.”

“What?”

“Canyou forget about it?”

Syd didn’t answer him. As he’d pointed out, she wasn’t that good a liar. “We have people waiting on us.”

The look on his face was harsh and condemning. “One day, Sydney, you’re going to have to face me.”

She lifted her chin until their gazes were locked. “I have no trouble facing you. But tellme
something,Steele. Why is it you never use your given name? Could it be you’re even more afraid of intimacy than I am?”

By the expression on his face, she knew she’d struck the truth.

“Yeah,” she said in a meaningful tone. “We can talk about what happened here today when you let me call you something other than Steele.”

But even as she walked out the door, she didn’t feel any satisfaction at being right. She was sad that their encounter hadn’t been a tender interlude between lovers. It’d been a hurried encounter between two lonely people who only wanted to keep the world at a distance.

And that made her want to cry, but she was long past tears. This was the way her life had to be. She knew it. She understood it. There was no place in her world for a boyfriend or lover.

Like Steele, she was alone in the world, and that was all there was to it. Yet even as the thought went through her, a tiny, buried part screamed out in denial. It wanted more than this.

It wanted…

The impossible. There was no use in pining for something she couldn’t allow herself to have. Her heart had been trampled one time too many.

They had a job to do, and that’s all she was concerned with. He was out of her system. Her curiosity was appeased, and he’d scratched his itch.

End of story.

It wasn’t until they were in the elevator that Steele approached her again. He moved to stand so close to her that she could feel the heat of him. The intensity.

“There’s just one thing about this morning that you probably don’t want to forget.”

“And what is that?” she asked irritably.

His look turned scorching as a wry grin twisted his lips. He leaned down so that he could whisper in her ear. “You forgot to get your panties back, and I have to say that the thought of you standing there with nothing underneath that short skirt is seriously turning me on again.”

Eight

Steele wasn’t amused, as he had to move covertly from the apartment to the street where a group of three cops were chatting together. They stood only a few feet from Syd’s Honda.

She cursed at the sight of them.

“Good call,” Steele said sarcastically.

She glared at him as she pulled a pair of sunglasses out of her handbag, then handed them to him. “Put these on and keep your head down. Hopefully they won’t even glance at us.”

He was disgusted by it, but even so, he put the sunglasses on. “If you hadn’t told people I was an escaped murderer, it would help. I ought to let them capture me just to get me out of this.”

“Fine,” she said, stepping away from him. “There’s the door.” She indicated the glass double doors that separated him from the police.

He growled. “I really hate you people.”

“Yeah well, you should have paid attention to the small print on your contract. Use any means necessary.”

“The means suck, Syd.”

She paused to look up at him. “How were you ever in the military? You have been resistant to my plans from the beginning.”

“The Army taught me well what happens when you blindly follow someone else’s orders. All it gets you is a bullet in the head and a lame letter sent to your family saying you died during a training exercise.”

“Fine,” she said, opening the door. “Get yourself caught then. I’m tired of fighting you.”

She paused just outside the doors to look up at him with those gut-wrenchingly green eyes. “Besides, we can’t call them off you until after you complete this mission. We need you to be a fugitive to give legitimacy as to how it is you’ve turned up to work for APS when you’re supposed to be serving a twenty-five-year sentence.”

He narrowed his eyes on her, something that was less than effective since she couldn’t see his eyes for the sunglasses.

What he hated most was the fact that she knew as well as he did that he wasn’t about to go back to jail if he could help it. “So how do you propose getting me through airport security later?” he asked before they started toward her car.

“We’re not going through the airport. The chopper’s waiting a few blocks over at the stadium, but we need to get a move on it. Jake can’t stay there long before he gets a crowd gathering.”

Steele followed her to the car. The cops stopped talking as they approached.

“Hi, officers,” Syd said cheerfully.

Two of them greeted her in kind, but the one who was equal in height to Steele frowned. “Do I know you?” he asked.

Steele shook his head. “I don’t think so. Ever been to North Carolina?”

The cop didn’t look convinced. “Nah. But I swear I know you from somewhere.”

“I just have one of those faces. Good day, gentlemen.” Steele moved with a nonchalance he didn’t feel as he got into the car and tried not to tell Syd to floor it out of there. They couldn’t afford to raise the cop’s suspicions any more.

But he could feel Syd’s tenseness. He had to give her credit though. She didn’t show it. She was remarkably cool and calm as she pulled away from the curb and headed down the street.

Meanwhile, he expected the cops to recognize him at any moment and give chase.

It wasn’t until they were out of sight that he began to breathe a little easier. “That was too close.”

“Yeah,” Syd agreed. “You work well under pressure.”

He snorted at that. “You haven’t seen pressure, little girl. Trust me. That was easy.”

She cast a sideways glance at him. “Kill the arrogance, Steele. I wasn’tthat impressed.”

“Trust me. You will be.”

She shook her head as she turned a corner toward the stadium. “We’ll see.”

It only took them a few short minutes to reach the stadium where the helicopter that had brought Steele in was waiting. Syd parked in an empty space nearby, then turned the car off.

They got out and headed for the chopper. Jake and Tony were arguing as they climbed on board.

“Oh, wait,” Tony said as he saw them. “They’re here. Guess we can’t leave them after all.”

“Go to sleep, Tone,” Jake said.

Syd ignored them as she moved to sit beside Andre, who was already strapped in and waiting for them as well. “Nice of you two to finally join us.”

Steele didn’t respond as he strapped himself in, but he noticed the sudden flush that came to Syd’s skin. She gave him a furtive look, which he ignored, as she pulled the hem of her skirt lower. He had yet to return her panties to her—something he refused to do until she got that stick out of her butt and learned to treat him like a human being.

Not to mention he liked teasing her. But not nearly as much as he liked knowing that there was nothing on underneath that dark blue skirt.

Andre handed him a phone, making him want to curse as it diverted his attention away from the thought of what Syd tasted like.

Andre leaned his head back and shouted at the pilot. “Jake, keep the engines off until I give you the heads-up.” He looked back at Steele. “You need to give our friend another buzz. Let him think that you’re already in Virginia.”

Steele nodded as he pressed the send button. Dillon answered on the second ring.

“Hi, it’s Steele.”

“I was wondering if you’d changed your mind about that job. I saw on the news last night that there was an escaped convict headed out west. Scary stuff, isn’t it?”

He glanced at Syd and for the first time agreed that she’d been right to turn his name over to the media. It did add legitimacy to his story. “The world is a bitch. Hope the poor guy makes it to Pasadena.”

“I heard that. It’s a long way from Kansas. But, man, with that kind of heat…a guy has to be careful, you know?”

“Yes. Yes, I do. So can you help hook me up with some immediate work?”

“Yeah, but I want you to know that I had to call in all kinds of favors on this. It’s not the same as if you were working for me, you know? I’m having to send you over to one of my partners and he doesn’t like dealing with new talent. He prefers I train the new recruits and then send them over to him after they have a few years on them. But for you…I’m willing to bend the rules a little. You’re not going to be one of those take-and-forget kind of guys, are you?”

“Never.”

“Good. My partner, Randy Wallace, owns a security company down in Georgetown called Asset Protection Systems. You ever heard of it?”

“Not really.” Steele gave a thumbs up to Andre and Syd to let them know that it was working.

“Well, it’s a good company. I told Randy you’d be in about three o’clock this afternoon. Can you make it?”

“Sure.”

“Good. He’ll be able to interview you in person and see if you’re suited to the company. You got something to write the address down with?”

He motioned to Andre’s pen that he was holding in his lap. Andre handed it over with a piece of paper.

“I’m ready.” Steele wrote the address down as it was given to him. “Thanks, Dillon. I really appreciate this.”

“No problem, you just keep your nose clean, kid.”

“Don’t worry. I fully intend to.” Steele hung up the phone and tossed it to Andre. “We’ve got an appointment with them this afternoon.”

“And that is why we needed you,” Andre said. He leaned back and smiled in triumph. “Yo, Jake, get us out of here. We got an appointment to keep.”

Jake nodded as he started the blades.

Steele watched as Andre and Syd established what looked like a fully operational command center between their seats. It was impressive. They had all kinds of data, such as the schedule for the Uhbukistani president’s arrival in America and a record of the son’s latest phone calls to America. Hell, they even had a list of the call girls the boy had contacted for his first night in town.

Steele frowned as they reviewed the limo route from the airstrip to the hotel. “Won’t they change their plans just in case someone like, say,us, happens to be planning a coup or murder?”

Andre shook his head. “These were encrypted. They’ll think they’re absolutely safe.”