East Bound by Nana Malone (best value ebook reader .txt) 📗

he was right. Hell, I had already anticipated this, so why did it hurt to hear him say it? "Oh, I know. I'm just trying to get close enough to tag him."

He stared at me then. "You plan on tagging Theroux?"

"Yes. If we'd had our meet, I could have accomplished it. They have these tracking devices that are wafer thin. I might have acquisitioned one or two from Amelia."

He blinked at me. "Who are you? The Nyla Kincade I know is dogged, determined and absolutely fierce, but there’s no way in hell she’d take that kind of fucking risk."

"Look, I tried not going back into Interpol. I tried to pull off half the things I've been doing without Interpol. But I need to be inside. I need it for access, Theroux needs it for whatever he's doing, not to mention that it could be useful to the London Lords as well. So it's done."

He sat up. "Like hell, it's done. If you need something, you tell me, and I’ll get it."

I laughed, and his frown only deepened. Perhaps laughing was not the right choice. "Oh, like I'm the little missus? This little missus is very good with guns."

"You're not even supposed to carry a gun."

"I know. And I generally don't. It's because I'm former MI5 that I still get to have mine. It’s in my safe."

He frowned at me then. "You weren't a field agent for MI5, were you?"

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

That deep crease in his brow only grew deeper and deeper. "Were you a field agent, or weren't you?"

"Yes, but as it turned out, I was better suited for something like Interpol. Oddly, I’m happier there, even with the stress and pressure of having my father and Denning around."

"You were a field agent?" He was genuinely surprised.

"For the last time, yes. What's the problem?"

"I just... I don't know. I knew you'd been MI5 before. I had assumed just as an analyst."

"No. Field Ops."

"That would certainly explain how you know how to fight."

“Yes, but why are you making such a big deal out of this? It's really not."

East rubbed a hand through his hair, making him look even more sexily disheveled. "I just... I don't know. I knew you were Interpol, and I knew that you were dangerous to me. I just didn't picture you being, you know, in the line of fire that often."

Ahhh, he was going all protective. "East, I'm sorry you didn’t understand.” I sighed. Why did I even need to reassure him? "Okay look, Interpol isn't really even an agency in and of itself. Technically, I'm still an MI5 officer. Hence, I have a gun. Think of Interpol as a giant inter-agency task force. We're all on loan from our respective agencies, and we all work together. So, while my father and Denning are my bosses, I still do monthly reports to MI5 on any urgent cases I'm working on." I tried another tactic. "Okay, what worries you about me and Theroux?"

He frowned. "What worries me is what he has you doing. The risks he asked you to take."

"Those are risks that I stand up for. Even as an Interpol agent, I take risks every day. When I was chasing you lot down, at any moment, I could have been hurt or discovered. And can I just say that Ben and Livy are extremely difficult to track? Just the two of them. I had a team watching everyone at that Gem Gala thing, but we got nothing because the stupid lights went out."

His lips tipped into a smile at the corners.

"Oh, wait… You had something to do with that?"

He shrugged. "Carry on."

"All I'm saying is that I face danger every single day in some form. I went back because I'm good at my job. It’s possibly the only thing I'm good at. Obviously, I am shit with relationships."

"Something we are rectifying."

"Oh, we are rectifying? Because I swear to God, you're worse at relationships than I am."

His jaw dropped, and he looked mock affronted. "I'm not that bad."

"Yes, you are."

He shrugged. "Okay fine, I am. I just don't trust Theroux."

"Good. I don't trust him either. What I do trust is that no matter what he's got on you or whatever reason he wants me back at Interpol, even if he thinks he's using me, I have every intention of bringing him in. He can act like he's playing me all he wants, I'm okay with that. If I even get anything on him, that's already a huge clue because he’s such an enigma. For once, I want to be able to do something big, something important, and prove that I am my own person. I don't want to be Roger Kincade’s daughter or Denning Sinclair's jilted girlfriend, though those comparisons are really unfair."

"They are unfair because Denning’s lucky you even went out with him in the first place."

"Right? But anyway, my point is that I went back because even if Theroux plans on double-crossing me, I get a real shot at bringing him in. A real shot. Closer than my father has ever been. I get to make my own mark. And to be honest, it's easier to chase things down if I'm inside Interpol. The civilian life sucks. I'm no super hacker."

"But I am a super hacker. And even then, sometimes it's hard to get information."

"Exactly. But anyway, that's why I went back. And I can use that access to help you lot as well."

He cradled my face in his hands then. "Nyla, I don't want you to get hurt. I feel like the farther you go down this path the more likely it is that’s going to happen."

"I'm not. And before you ask, I did tell Amelia about Theroux. But no one else in Interpol. Amelia has been so focused on the London Lords it hasn’t come up again. I haven't told anyone else at Interpol what's happening. And let’s just say she’s not speaking to me at the moment, so it’s unlikely