The Cinderella Mission (Family Secrets #1)(39)
Author: Catherine Mann

What kind of person did it make her that she’d wanted nothing more than something so shallow? And what kind of person did it make her now that she would run from the possibility of pushing for anything more?

She’d justified her desire to sleep with him by claiming “friendship.” Now she was forced to face two options. Either she was the kind of woman out for sex and sex alone, a thought that unsettled her by what it said about her and the way she would be using Ethan.

Or she truly had some deeper feelings for him, beyond any silly crush.

And that more than unsettled her, because where did it leave her if she was falling for a man who’d been too hurt to ever fall again?

“I want Kelly off the case before she gets hurt.” Ethan planted his feet on the plank floor and tried like hell to ignore the sound of water shooshing in the background.

Kelly.

In the shower.

The water pipes moaned in the paneled walls. Ethan echoed the sentiment.

Hatch hung his trench coat over a hook on the wall. “Oh, really? Want to tell me why?”

Ethan paced around the rustic room, adrenaline surging, in need of an outlet. “She’s had a few too many accidents lately for my comfort level.”

“So you’ve reported. More than once.” Hatch nodded, making his way around a sofa to take up residence in the rocker. “Are you saying she’s not capable of carrying off this mission?”

Guilt pinched Ethan hard as he thought back to the way he’d questioned Kelly’s capability nearly two weeks ago in Hatch’s office. “No. Not at all. She’s been a surprisingly quick study.” Well, hell, he’d be talking her into a promotion into a war zone before long. “I’m more concerned that all these accidents are too coincidental.”

The director steepled his fingers against his mouth. “Do you have direct evidence that your cover has been compromised?”

Even one busted cover could sound a death knell to time in the field. Once word leaked out, he couldn’t work undercover ops anymore. Neither could she.

Then he could have Kelly.

Except he didn’t have the right to steal from her a life he knew she wanted. A life he had been called to live himself. He would resent anyone who took that from him.

A rogue memory whispered of times Celia had begged him to give up agency work, and the risks he’d faced then had been nothing to the ones he saw now in ARIES. Her tender pleadings had torn him in two.

And frustrated the hell out of him.

Ethan scooped Kelly’s blanket from the floor and pitched it in the other chair. “There’s no concrete indication.”

“Well, son, I hate to point out the obvious, but this is what you do. Bag the bad guys. Your job has risks. Taylor knew what she was signing on for. Do you have any thoughts on persons outside the scope of this operation who could be responsible for the incidents?”

“There was a professor who…” Ethan scrubbed a hand over his jaw, steadied his breathing, searched for some of the professional objectivity that had carried him through missions in the past. “Who attacked her in grad school.”

Hatch stared back, no hint of surprise showing in his eyes.

Ethan stopped pacing beside the stone mantle. “You knew?”

A ghost of a smile flickered across Hatch’s face. “I know everything there is to know about all of my people.”

Of course he did. Operatives abandoned rights to personal privacy when they signed on with ARIES. He should have realized the same applied for everyone in ops support, as well. The job might come with certain losses of personal freedom, but it also came with some hefty connections and Ethan intended to use them now. “I want him put away.”

Hatch’s perceptive eyes probed Ethan until he wondered if the old man knew him better than he knew himself. Finally, Hatch released Ethan from the visual interrogation. “Don’t you think that’s Taylor’s call to make?”

“She did what she could. Now I’m going to do what I can. With or without your help, sir.”

Hatch nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you.” A look of understanding that transcended age passed between them, and Ethan could see himself in Hatch, thirty years into the future.

Jaded but not broken. Driven. Alone.

The creak of the water pipes increased until the shooshing sound of water stopped. Ethan turned to leave.

“Williams.” Hatch pushed to his feet. “Is there anything else I should know?”

Talk about caught between a rock and a gem mine. If he told of their involvement, it could look bad for Kelly, especially rough at the start of her career.

Ethan opted for the obvious. The truth. His truth. “I’ve stepped over the line. I’ve become emotionally involved and it’s screwing with my judgment.”

The director’s face stayed blank. “And Taylor?”

Ethan shook his head. “She doesn’t know how I feel. And believe me, sir, she’s not looking for a wedding ring from me.”

A fact that still jabbed his pride.

“Hmm.” Hatch stood. Grabbing a fireplace poker, he prodded the embers in the grate. “And what about you?”

Ethan ignored the question. “I want her reassigned. Let her work surveillance. She’s trained well. But my gut tells me things are off-kilter with this one and I want her out of the line of fire.”

Hatch replaced the poker and faced Ethan. A calculating look narrowed his eyes. “What if I told you I’ll take her off the assignment, but you’ll lose access to the file on your parents’ murder. What would you say to that?”

Ethan swallowed down a wad of regret and gave the only answer he could. “I’d say okay.”

Those probing eyes stabbed clear to Ethan’s soul and for once, he let someone look inside him if it would keep Kelly safe. A log fell, popped in the silence.

“Nice try, Williams. But she stays.”

“You don’t believe me?”

“Oh, I believe you. That answer told me plenty, as if I didn’t already know.” He closed in on Ethan. “Do you really think I was that clueless about the two of you when I paired you for this assignment? You overestimate yourself, son, and that’s far more dangerous than any out-of-control hormones.”

Hatch backed a step. “You’re the team for this op. People work with partners they’re attracted to every day. Do you think you’re the only one it’s happened to? I can personally guarantee you’re not.”