An Act of Persuasion(18)

She scowled at him. “What is this? The nineteen hundreds? Do I look like I can’t handle this on my own?”

Immediately, he backed off. After all, it wasn’t exactly like he was on Ben’s side in this situation. The man had been Mark’s rival for more years than he cared to admit. The aggravating part of the rivalry was that he didn’t think Ben reciprocated it.

And why should he? The man had always been one step ahead of him. Mark used Ben as a benchmark as he made his climb up the ladder within the ranks of the agency. Mark pushed himself as hard as he could to catch up to the man who had beaten him into the service by three years.

Only, he never did. Somehow Ben was always a grade higher and always a step ahead on the job. So like any man embittered with constant defeat at the hands of a self-appointed rival, Mark competed in the one area where he knew he could get even—seduction.

If Ben was interested in a woman, that woman became Mark’s next conquest. And he was sure to beat Ben every time. The man was atrocious at the art of seducing a woman. The concept of flirting was no doubt alien to him.

Yet, while Ben’s interest in a particular member of the fairer might have been piqued from time to time—enough for him to even pursue a sexual relationship—it never held for long.

So, really, what did it matter that Mark repeatedly got the girl when he knew Ben never really cared one way or the other.

Except not this girl, Mark thought, looking at Anna. She meant something to Ben. Strange, because he would have thought she was way too young for Ben. He had to be nearing forty-five and Anna was only twenty-eight. But Mark could see she was older than her years—no doubt the effect of having been abandoned then spending most of her childhood in various foster homes. She would probably be annoyed that he knew her history since it wasn’t something she’d offered up during her interview, but collecting information on people was simply his nature.

He hadn’t yet managed to discover exactly what had happened between her and Ben. Something obviously had—the woman was pregnant, after all. But that something should have been an absolute showstopper for Ben. The guy had always avoided any personal connection with people who worked for him.

Mark spent years in various assignments reporting to Ben and watching female agent after female agent try to engage him in a sexual relationship. Some, Mark imagined, did so because they were actually attracted to Ben. More did so because they thought sleeping with a spymaster was a pretty cool notch to have in their belt. And every single one of them did so because Ben was a big fat walking challenge.

But he didn’t mess around with agents assigned to him. Period. It was a rule he’d never broken, as far as Mark knew.

Only he’d broken it with Anna in a hell of a big way. Maybe it had to do with the whole almost-dying thing. But it was hard to imagine Ben reacting to death that way. Not when Mark had seen Ben, on more than one occasion, confront it head-on. The man was fearless. Mark didn’t see cancer changing that.

Someday he would get the story from Anna. Ferreting information from reluctant sources was a particular gift of his. Given that she was his employee, he had all the time in the world to work on her. Eventually she would cave.

Of course, as soon as Ben found out that Mark was in Philadelphia and that she was working for him things were going to get a lot more interesting.

Ben might suspect Mark was up to his old tricks and had moved here solely for the purpose of continuing the competition. My business against yours, let’s see who can make the most money kind of a thing.

Maybe that was true to a certain extent. Mark still liked to needle Ben any time he had a chance. Plus aspiring to Ben’s level of success was great professional motivation. Mark had done his due diligence as soon as he arrived. He knew what the Tyler Group was, knew Ben’s reputation around town and had pretty extensive background information on every single person working for the Group. It was only natural. Two former clandestine operators living in the same city, hell yes they were going to know what the other was up to. It was simply how they were programmed.

And when Mark’s routine searches into Ben’s employees turned up a résumé on a job search site from one Anna Summers, he knew he’d hit pay dirt. The ultimate steal. Anna wasn’t just some woman Ben showed interest in, she had been his trusted assistant for six years. Six years. As far as Mark knew this was the most committed and long-term relationship Ben had ever had with a woman besides his mother.

But as intriguing as competing with Ben in the private sector might be, the reality was Mark had much more personal reasons for making Philadelphia his home.