The Cinderella Mission (Family Secrets #1)(51)
Author: Catherine Mann

The hell of it was he could not touch her again until he had his head on straight and a plan of action in place. Sleeping on the sofa sucked when the woman he wanted waited warm and willing up a flight of stairs. She deserved better than some half-baked plan for a day-to-day future.

The future. Sweat beaded Ethan’s brow.

Director Hatch leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest as he watched without a word.

Did the man ever sleep? Ethan wrestled with images of a younger Hatch and Aunt Eugenie tearing up the world in their field-agent days, a reminder that this lifestyle didn’t last.

How would he and Kelly end up? Going separate ways? Both of them living out their lives alone? Ethan returned his attention to the discussion at hand.

Carla Juarez grasped tweezers and pinched the miniscule listening device, rolling her wheelchair toward Ethan. The size of a grain of rice, the device would lie out of sight in his ear canal. He never questioned how it stuck there. Wasn’t sure he really wanted to know. Juarez had proposed they give Kelly a dry run using the device to become accustomed to multi-tasking with several voices transmitting through the earpiece. Ethan had welcomed the chance to leave the apartment and put some people between himself and Kelly.

Except it wasn’t helping.

Hatch pulled a roll of antacids out of his pocket and thumbed one free. “We finally caught up with your tour guide from the mine. He says someone paid him a thousand dollars to send you down the wrong shaft and rig the generator. Said the guy gave the excuse of being a jealous boyfriend. We’ve got a sketch artist working on it.”

Ethan had been hoping for more. “And Brittany Hill?”

“No suspicious movement.” Hatch popped the antacid in his mouth and clicked it to the side. “We’re keeping a tail on her.”

Juarez leaned closer, the tweezers tickling Ethan’s ear. “The power of young love.”

“Very funny, Juarez.” Ethan scratched a hand over his burning gut.

“Quit fidgeting!” Carla Juarez chastised him. “Do you want me to rupture your eardrum?”

“Lovely image. Thanks.”

“No problem, hotshot.”

Ethan flipped the folded notepaper between his fingers again like a quarter in a sleight-of-hand trick. The message from Samantha had arrived just as he’d warmed up the Jag while waiting for Kelly. He still didn’t know how he planned to handle Samantha’s request that they meet, whether to include Kelly or not.

She would be mad, but he couldn’t afford to let that influence him.

“All done.” Juarez wheeled her chair around. “Okay, Kelly. Your turn.”

Kelly hooked her feet together and tucked them under her seat—ankle boots her footwear choice of the day designed to make his life a living hell.

Juarez winked. “You look great, kiddo.”

Kelly smiled. “Thanks, Carla.”

“I’ll say.” Davidson emitted a low whistle from beside the map of the ballroom on the wall. “You do clean up well, Taylor. Pencil me in on your dance card. I’ll rest up this bum leg of mine just for you.”

Kelly swacked his arm. “You’d better not set one foot out of headquarters and leave me high and dry with no backup.”

“No fair. Rich boy over there gets all the fun.” Davidson pitched a marker at Ethan.

Ethan shot him a glare in the timeless communication of one male to another that said without question, mine.

Davidson cocked a brow before stepping back with a slight nod of acknowledgment.

Juarez rolled away from Kelly. “Okay. All set.” She passed Ethan and Kelly each a tiny clip-on microphone. “Tech support is working a set into your clothing buttons now. With a heist in the works, we decided planting the mikes in jewelry might not be such a wise idea.”

Kelly turned her back and whispered, “Ethan? Are you there?”

Her voice echoed in his head—sheer pleasure and torture in one silken-toned package. He shifted in his seat. “Yeah, Kel, I’m here.”

Her laugh tripped free as she spun to face him. “Oh, man. This is so cool.”

Cool?

It seemed mighty damned hot in the room to Ethan.

Juarez passed Ethan and Kelly each a small plastic case. “Your contact lenses. They’re tinted to just the right level to counteract the effects of the Laser Dazzler if it needs to be activated.”

Kelly cradled hers as if they were the crown jewels. “You came through.”

Intellectually, he understood the need to keep the volume low so as not to burst the eardrum, but God help him, her husky tones spiraled through his mind like tendrils of smoke.

Juarez grinned. “Didn’t want you to have to resort to one of those other options suggested by the Marines over in the Urban Warfare Battle Lab.”

Davidson chuckled. Good. No temptation in hearing that voice.

“Ah, come on.” Davidson rubbed a hand along his thigh absently. “It would have been fun watching the Gastonian ambassador try to wade through the sticky foam. Or the microwave gun singe the polyester right off the girlfriend of the Holzberg secretary of state.”

“All in the name of compassionate combat,” Juarez chimed, her wheelchair offering a glaring reminder of the price of war. She rolled toward the door. “Come on, Kelly. Let’s take a spin around the office and gab with people, while the guys talk in here. You can get used to processing all the different channels of information coming your way at once.”

Kelly held open the door. “It’s so wild hearing you in double, literally and through Ethan’s mike.”

“You’ll also have the command post voices back here to contend with, but you’ll adjust before you know it,” Juarez said, her voice dimming as she wheeled into the hall. The door swished closed behind them.

Too bad the image of Kelly’s animated face remained in Ethan’s mind as real as her voice in his ear.

Hatch shoved away from the wall. “Davidson, run through the security checklist again. Taylor can listen in. Won’t hurt to hear it repeated.”

“Sure.” Davidson grabbed another marker from the metal tray. A map of the ballroom with the plastic overlay for notes sprawled across the wall.

Ethan tipped back in his chair. Markers squeaked as Davidson drew a series of Xs resembling a basketball play grid. Their background chatter would offer enough for Kelly to process as she walked the halls back to her desk.

Soaking up compliments from too-damned-pushy men.

She wouldn’t be lacking for date offers after this op ended. Offers from a pack of fools who hadn’t been able to appreciate her diamond-in-the-rough beauty before.