Deadly Lies (Deadly #3)(3)

Her breath caught. “I can do this.” Desperation edged the words.

“Maybe.” Hyde shook his head. “But I want you back in the office. Dante has point on this one. If he wants to use you, well—”

“Don’t do this,” Sam managed, choking back the lump in her throat. She’d been busting her ass to make sure that she still could work the detail. “I know my job. I know—”

“I know my people.” No expression crossed his dark face. He towered over her, cold and unfeeling. “And I know you aren’t ready.”

She wouldn’t crumble. Not here. Not in front of him. Not him. “You’re the one who sent me out on the Phoenix case.” The Phoenix investigation had been the last big case she’d worked, and Hyde had been the one to send her out on that arson case as backup. “If you didn’t think I was ready, you shouldn’t have sent me.”

“You don’t belong in the field, Agent Kennedy.”

She stumbled back and felt the jab right in her heart. “You don’t think I’m strong enough, do you?” It had always been there, right from the beginning. She wasn’t like the other agents. Sam knew that she didn’t have their experience or their hard edge. She’d just skated past her twenty-fourth birthday so yes, she was younger, but she’d passed the same exams, done the drills, and proven herself, dammit.

“I know you’re strong.”

His words had her blinking.

“The problem is that you don’t know that.”

Her lips parted but she didn’t speak.

“And you’re scared. So scared that if you came face-to-face with a perp, I don’t know what you’d do, Kennedy.”

Neither did she.

“We both know you haven’t worked best in the field.”

No, she’d always been better back at the office, surrounded by her computers. But she couldn’t stay with them forever, and there were times—like with the Watchman case—when she’d had to go into the field.

And the results hadn’t been pretty.

Her breath barely fluttered out. I can do this.

“Go back to the office,” he said again. “If Dante needs you…”

With an effort, she managed a slow nod. She’d been called to the scene today because the other SSD agents were working other cases. Proximity and availability. But Sam had also been called in because she knew this case. This case and the others like it that had occurred just weeks before Jeremy Briar’s disappearance.

She’d been the one to first notice the pattern. She always noticed the patterns.

Sam forced her back to straighten. “I’m not going to fail, Hyde.” That was all that she’d say because she wouldn’t beg. Not yet.

His dark eyes just watched her.

Forcing out a hard breath, refusing to let the stench get to her, she shouldered past him. She kept her chin up and didn’t so much as blink, not until she was back at her car.

Sam climbed in and slammed the door closed. She curled her raw palms around the steering wheel and blinked.

Two tears slid down her cheeks.

Dammit.

Didn’t he see? Without the job, she had nothing.


Sam wasn’t normally the type for casual sex. She was the kind of woman who went for commitment, romance, and candlelight.

No, she had been that kind of woman. Now she was different, and she needed. Needed to forget who she was and just feel.

Can’t work the cases. Can’t sleep at night. Can’t even close my eyes without remembering…

Sam took a deep breath.

Forget.

Right then, she’d do just about anything to forget.

Sam had left the crime scene hours before. When she’d gotten back to her place, the invitation to this expensive party had been waiting on her porch, courtesy of her meddling mother. The woman thought Sam might find a potential mate at one of these boring society gigs.

Sam didn’t want a mate. She just wanted a screw. Hot sex. Hard and wild. And she knew the perfect man to give her everything she needed.

Her perfect man stood across the room from her, separated by the crush of bodies. The party was too hot and too noisy by far with the fake laughter and high voices and the people who were pretending to be interested in each other.

Pretending. She was so sick of pretending.

Sam snagged a drink off a waiter’s tray. She downed the champagne in two gulps and pushed her way toward her target.

He’d know who she was. Sam didn’t doubt that. Well, he’d better know.

They’d had sex two weeks ago. Sex that had left her sore and aching and satisfied. Satisfied—for a time.

Until she’d wanted more.

She really hoped that the guy remembered her.

She sure remembered him.

Max Ridgeway. Tall, dark, and sexy. The man who’d made her come in two minutes. The man who’d made her scream.

The man who’d turned her on to casual sex.

Max was lover number three in her lifetime, not that he knew that. She’d been sure to play the game. After all, she could pretend, too. She’d acted cool and confident and made sure that she didn’t screw things up.

“You.” His voice, deep and rumbling, caught her, and she looked up to see him striding toward her.

Game face, girl. Get it on. Sam lifted her chin and let her lips curl into a smile that was as fake as all the others in the room. Forget. Forget everything but him.