Actual Stop (Agent O’Connor #1)(22)

Mark burst into my office suddenly and stumbled to a halt. He looked nearly as surprised as I felt, and I hurriedly slammed the folder with the Akbari notes shut. I hoped I didn’t look too guilty but somehow doubted it. Why the hell was he was running around the nearly empty office, and what’d prompted him to come charging into my work-space?

“O’Connor.” Mark’s eyes darted around the room skittishly before settling back on me. He appeared to be even more wound up than usual.

I was so flummoxed I completely forgot to argue with him for calling me that. “Sir.”

We stared at one another for a long moment.

“Aren’t you supposed to be conducting a PPD advance today?”

Ire, sharp and acrid, clawed at the back of my throat and grated painfully like sand behind my eyes. Was he checking up on me? It wouldn’t surprise me. Tripping me up seemed to be his goal in life lately. But there was no way for him to know I’d be in this early, so that couldn’t have been it.

“Yes, sir.” I wanted to snap at him, but a small part of me thought it might be time to at least attempt to keep the smart-ass-ery to a minimum. Especially considering his current mood.

“Do you plan to do that from behind your desk?”

I gripped my kneecaps tightly, using the dull ache the pressure produced to ground myself. “No. I’m waiting for the PPD lead. She’s at the gym. I was just catching up on a couple phone calls.”

Mark regarded me intently for a long moment, and I had to force myself not to fidget or squirm under the scrutiny. For lack of anything better to do, and in an attempt to retreat from this awkward situation as fast as I could, I swept the Akbari folder into a pile with some other advance paperwork I had lying around and shoved the whole lot into my bag. I stood and moved out from behind my desk toward the door.

Before I could walk past him, Mark abruptly spun around and stalked out without uttering another word. Frowning, I closed and locked the door behind me. It wasn’t until I’d almost made it to my car that I realized he hadn’t said a word to me about why he’d come to my office.





Chapter Eight


About an hour after I’d fled her naked presence in the locker room, Allison emerged from the building. She looked stunning in a charcoal suit and pale-ivory button-down shirt with a leather satchel over her shoulder. Her hair tumbled loosely to her shoulders, and she moved with the easy confidence I remembered. I clenched the steering wheel, determined to stop being turned on by every single thing she did.

Allison slid into the passenger seat next to me, focused completely on her BlackBerry.

“Any thoughts on breakfast?” I asked.

“Mmm? Oh. Uh, yeah. Why don’t we go to that diner I like in Chelsea. Is that okay?”

“Sure.” I carefully pulled out into traffic and pointed the car in the direction of the Brooklyn Bridge. Allison was reading an email, so I stayed quiet.

“We have a walkthrough at oh-nine-hundred,” Allison said. “A police meeting at thirteen-hundred and a countdown meeting at eighteen-hundred. Oh, and we need to find time to meet with the second supe.”

I wrinkled my nose at the mention of a meeting with her boss as I tried to mentally schedule the day. My work cell phone vibrated on my belt, interrupting me. I pulled it out of the holster and started to answer it.

Allison snatched the phone out of my hand. “Oh, no, you don’t.”

“What are you doing?”

“Keep your eyes on the road.” I grabbed for the phone, and she jerked it out of reach. “Both hands on the wheel.” She slapped at me with her free hand.

“I need to answer that!”

She shook her head and answered. “Hello?”

“Uh…Hello?” a voice said through the speaker.

“Hello?” Allison said again.

“Ryan?”

I made a face as Allison held the phone up closer to me. “Yeah?”

“Oh, hey, Ryan. It’s Jim.”

He was the backup of the squad. Kind of like the assistant manager. He was the same pay grade I was, only the poor guy had a hell of a lot more headaches and responsibility and none of the fun.

“Hey, Jim. You’re in early. What’s up?”

“I have a problem. Aaron’s on vacation, and we’ve got guys who didn’t take their PT tests last quarter. We need to administer them to the squad ASAP and backdate them so they’re in compliance.”

I sighed. I was in no mood to oversee anyone’s physical-fitness tests, let alone falsify government documents. “I’m the field office counterpart for the POTUS visit Monday. Then I have to do some interviews before I roll into the Iran visit Thursday.”

“I know. The timing sucks. I’m really sorry.”

I searched for a way to make the situation work. “Okay, wheels up is scheduled for twelve-hundred hours Monday. I’ll just come to the office after the visit. I can administer the test to half the guys and take care of the rest Tuesday morning.”

“Just make sure you enter the results into the mainframe by the end of the week.”

“No problem. Hey, can you make sure Meaghan’s schedule stays clear Tuesday and Wednesday? I’m taking her on those interviews with me.”

“Consider it done.”

“Thanks. Also, I forgot to tell you, my recertification for rescue swimmer is coming up. I need you to block out the dates for me so I don’t get picked up for another assignment.”