Bad Attitude (B.A.D. Agency #1)(21)
Author: Sherrilyn Kenyon

She glanced at him. “Well, we’ve got a lot of open road between there and here. Our ‘other’ friend could easily come back and finish what he started.”

“In that case, find a place to pull over and let’s see if Andre left us anything in the trunk that’s worth having.”

Syd obeyed, and within a few minutes, they found a rifle case and two suitcases in the trunk. Steele could feel his eyes shining in glee as he caressed the rifle. It was well oiled, without a scratch on it. Even though he’d forsaken his sniper’s post, it felt good to touch another sniper rifle after all this time.

Too good.

Maybe Jack had been right when he said that snipers weren’t chosen, they were born already made. And once made, the only way to unmake them was to kill them. ’Cause God knew, he hadn’t felt like this since the day he’d been arrested. There was a special bond a sniper felt with his weapon. It was like marriage. You took care of it, and it took care of you.

Closing the case and putting those thoughts away, he turned toward Syd. “Get us to Virginia. We have a score to settle.”

Syd shook her head at the enthusiasm on Steele’s handsome face and the gleam in those deadly brown eyes. He was ready to make the assassin pay, and she couldn’t blame him. Personally, she’d like to give the man a piece of her training too.

She headed back to the driver’s seat while he took the rifle and a new handgun, along with their ammunition, to his side of the car. She watched as he inspected them.

“You can’t have weapons out in the car like that. You know that’s illegal in Virginia, right?”

“Only if we get caught.”

She rolled her eyes as she drifted back into traffic. Steele reminded her of a kid in his favorite toy store as he went over the weapons.

“Does it all meet your approval?” she asked.

“Andre has good taste.” He slammed a loaded clip into the handgun before he locked a bullet into the chamber.

“Yes, he does,” she agreed as she kept her senses alert to all the cars around them. She kept expecting the Escalade to turn up again.

“Don’t be so paranoid.”

She glanced back at Steele, who had his head tilted back and his eyes closed. “Why not?”

“He won’t be back right away. He’ll give us time to relax our guard. Not to mention he still has to evade the cops and reload and replan.”

He was probably right. “How you feeling?”

“Like I got shot and then dragged out of bed.”

She frowned at the sight of blood just seeping through the sweatshirt. “You’ve been holding up like a pro.”

He opened his eyes to give her a hard stare. “I am a pro, Syd. Isn’t that why you sprung me?”

She nodded. “But you’ve exceeded all my hopes.”

“Don’t get soft on me, Vicious. I won’t know how to deal with you if you do.”

She wondered about his words. He didn’t really seem like he enjoyed interacting with people in general and her in particular. It made her curious as to what he would have been like had they met as two strangers on the street. “Do you know how to deal with anyone?”

“Not really,” he whispered. “People skills have never been my forte. It’s why it was so easy to be a sniper. I only have to interact with my spotter. Everyone else can go to hell.”

“So I take it long-term relationships were never a part of your future plans.”

He snorted at that. “Not really. Women either confuse me or they irritate me. Never have I met one I could stand to be around for more than a few months before I’d had enough of her.”

She made a disgusted noise at him. “On behalf of my entire gender, I am seriously offended by that.”

“Yeah, well, I don’t see a ring on your finger either, babe. Why is that?”

Syd gripped the wheel. “None of your business.”

“Touche.”

Syd had a feeling there was more to his curt dismissal, though. She remembered the file on him that she’d been reading that morning before she’d picked him up. He’d been engaged at the time they’d arrested him. “Does your opinion of women include Melissa?”

He frowned. “Who?”

“Your fiance?”

“Margaret,” he said quietly. “Her name was Margaret.”

“Sorry. Didn’t she aggravate you too?”

“Yes, which is why we’d broken up a year before my episode with my CO.”

“Your file said you were still engaged at the time of your arrest.”

‘My file,” he said in a totally dispassionate voice, “was wrong. I dumped her the day I opened the door to her apartment and found her on her knees with another guy in front of her. Kind of killed any thoughts I had of having a future with her.”

Her stomach shrank in sympathy for him. Man, that was a harsh way to learn someone was cheating on you. Poor guy.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. It was probably the best thing that could have happened to the two of us. Believe me, there wasn’t any love lost. And at least I found out the truth before it cost me half of everything I own…. Then again, all I own right now is a headache. Maybe I should have married her after all. I’d love to split this with her.”

Syd gave a half laugh at his humor. He was definitely one of a kind. “What was so special about her that ye who profane marriage so emphatically actually asked her to marry you?”

“She could suck the chrome off a trailer hitch…. Too bad she didn’t limit herself to one make or model.”

Syd cringed at his crude words. “You pig! You are so offensive.”

He let out a long breath. “Yeah. I try hard at it too.”

And in that moment, she understood what he was doing. He was trying to keep the wall up between them…and he was doing a good job of it.

“Really, Steele, why did you ask her to marry you?”

He paused as if he were trying to recall the reason himself. “I don’t know. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. We’d been going out for a year, and she kept hinting at it. Teresa, my spotter’s wife, said that it was time I either made an honest woman of her or let her go.”

“So you proposed.”

“Yeah. I still don’t know why. Not really. She was all right, but the worst part was that after we broke up, I actually felt relieved.”

She glanced over at him. “Do you think you asked because you wanted a family?”

Steele didn’t speak as her words went through him. Damn, she was astute. Frighteningly so. It wasn’t something he liked to talk about, but yes. He’d spent way too many hours watching those corny TV shows as a kid where Dad was there with Mom. His own family had been far too dysfunctional for him.

He’d always wanted that special loving relationship, like some pathetic sitcom. How could a grown man be so stupid as to hold on to such a dream? And yet there was no denying what he felt.

“What about you, Syd? Is there some agent or other hanging around who curls your toes?”

She cast him a feral glare. “No, and there never will be.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t trust you guys. You’re always bragging and strutting around like you own the world. The last thing I want to be is some guy’s doormat.”

He nodded. “I can respect that.” He fell silent as he watched the traffic out the window. “Why does Hollywood fill us so full of shit anyway?”

“What do you mean?”

“You know. The whole one man, one woman for eternity baloney. Here they are, Mr. and Mrs. Brady and their perfect six kids, running around a house with only one bathroom for nine people. No one ever really fighting, and every dilemma in life has a perfect solution that only takes half an hour to reach.” He sighed.

“I don’t know,” she said in a distracted voice, as if she were really thinking about it. “I guess ’cause deep down we all want the fantasy of it. It would be a nice life, wouldn’t it?”

One corner of his lips quirked up. “I don’t know. You don’t strike me as the stay-at-home mom.”

She smiled. “Not unless she’s undercover and armed to the teeth.” She gave him a strange look that made something inside him ache. “Tell me something, Steele.”

“What?”

“What is it with you guys that you—” She paused, as if she had caught herself in the middle of a thought. “Never mind.”

Even more curious, he sat up in the seat. “Never mind, what?”

“Nothing. It’s stupid.”

He could tell that she wanted to change the subject, even though he was dying for an answer. Deciding that it wasn’t wise to question her further while she was packing heat, he found himself wondering what it would be like to date Syd. She didn’t strike him as the kind of woman to dote on a man. No doubt she’d be the kind to kick his ass and make him go get it himself.

“How long has it been since you had a steady boyfriend?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. Define steady.”

“Someone who has a key to your place.”

She answered without any hesitation. “Never. I don’t trust any man with a key to my place. What’s mine is mine, and I like to keep it that way.”

Hmm…he’d misjudged her there. “Why? You cheat too?”

“No!” she said in an extremely offended tone. “I wouldnever do that to someone. I think Margaret should have had her butt kicked for doing it to you. You don’t hurt people that way.”

By her indignation, he could tell that she’d experienced that betrayal firsthand herself. “I agree. A pox on all their houses.”

Her face softened into that gentleness that had a way of setting him on fire. “I like your take on Shakespeare.”

Steele sat quietly as he watched her navigate traffic. She was still looking around, aware of every car in front and behind them. She was so incredibly capable. But more than that, she was beguiling.

Before long, he found himself staring at those lips again. Lips he could still feel against his. And as he watched her, he realized something. “Where are your glasses, Syd?”

“I’m wearing contacts. I was afraid that we might have to do some running around, and it’s hard to shoot straight with them slipping down my nose.”

He laughed at the thought of that. God, she was beautiful with her black hair down and her sharp green eyes flashing. After their escapade that morning, he should be sated.

He wasn’t. If they weren’t being chased, he’d ask her to pull over right now and see about the new ache he had.

But he couldn’t afford to do that.

And for that he owed the assassin an ass-whipping before he killed him. Not that it really mattered. Knowing Syd, she’d rack him if he even suggested another romp.

Still, he wanted to reach over and touch her. To bury his face against the softness of her neck and just inhale that sweet perfume of hers. There was something about her that just calmed him down. Made him ache and yet at the same time excited him. If he could have one wish, it would be to have one single day with her in his bed.

Yeah, that would be heaven….

They rode for miles in silence as Syd continued her surveillance and Steele tried his best to ignore her presence.

Steele’s body continued to ache as he fought against sleep. The last thing he needed was to be sluggish if Syd needed him. But even so, he found himself drifting in and out of consciousness.

“We’re getting near Calverton,” Syd said, jerking him out of his catnap. “Where are we headed?”

Clearing his throat, he opened his eyes and looked around. There wasn’t much but open farmland surrounding them. “I don’t know. Pull over at the first Pop-owned hardware store you see, and I’ll make an inquiry.”

“What?”

“Have faith in me, Syd. Jack isn’t the kind of person to trust others. I’m sure he’s holed up somewhere out in the middle of nowhere and has barricaded himself in for the duration. He can go without food, but he’ll never go without tools. Since he doesn’t like big stores, he’ll have bonded with whoever owns the smallest hardware in town.”

He half expected her to argue more, but for once she didn’t. Instead, she followed his orders as she left the highway and then pulled in at a small, independent hardware store.

Steele took a minute to survey the area in case they’d been followed before he got out and headed into the store, with Syd one step behind him.

A tiny bell sounded as they entered the dusty place.

There were two men inside around the age of fifty, standing at the counter and chatting about the weather and what they thought it would do to the crops.

The one behind the counter, who was dressed in overalls and a dark blue shirt, looked up at him. “Can I help you, son?”

“Yeah. I’m looking for Jack Taylor. I know he comes in here from time to time, and I was wondering if you could direct me to his house.”

The customer frowned but didn’t speak.

The man behind the counter leaned over to grab a plastic Coke bottle that was under the cash register. He spit his tobacco juice into it, then set it back.

He chewed on the tobacco so slowly that Steele could almost swear he saw the man’s mind working on whether or not he should say anything. “I don’t know you from Adam, son. Why would I tell you
something like that, even if I knew it?”

Steele exchanged a look with Syd over his shoulder. “I’m a friend of his from the Army. If you have his number, you can call him up and verify it.”

“I don’t know no Jack Taylor. Sorry.”

Steele knew the man was lying. He could tell it by his expression. “C’mon. I really need to talk to him. My name is J.D. Steele, and—”