Spy Games (Tarnished Heroes #1)(12)

She turned the faucet on and dug out a bottle of shampoo-conditioner stuff out from behind the medicine cabinet that could at least get the job done.

Rand.

She almost couldn’t believe he was there. That she’d finally seen him face-to-face.

He still made her knees a little weak and her heartbeat erratic. It didn’t matter that time and distance had separated and changed them. At least not to her heart.

What was she going to do?

She loved him, but she wasn’t sure going into hiding with him was the right decision, either.

Then, there was the little fact that he believed she’d been sold out.

There was no denying she’d had a tracker put inside of her without her consent. She’d seen it. With her own eyes. The air in her lungs had seemed to freeze, and she wanted to curl up into a little, tight ball. That thing had been inside her for years. Someone, likely a person she trusted, had violated her.

But were they certain someone was tracking her? Maybe the people following her had just lost sight of them when they’d entered the pharmacy.

And there was the package. That most certainly had a tracking device on it, or it did before Rand deactivated it. Why would the MSS agents track her and not the package if they had access to that sort of thing? Even with the delay, they should be able to locate it. But they hadn’t. Which put the focus right back on her. What value was she to them without that? If she left, would they care? She had no knowledge other than where she dropped stuff at and when her flights were leaving. The only reason she knew of Rand was because of an accident. An oversight.

Or was it?

Besides her handler and the director in China, the only person she knew the name of was Rand. On any given trip she did eight to a dozen dead drops. In all that time the only name that had been said around her was Rand’s. Why?

She picked out her bra and panties from the pile of clothes and used the shampoo to scrub them as clean as she could. Leaving her wardrobe choices up to a man wasn’t ideal in this situation, but she couldn’t be too choosy, either.

The facts, as she knew them, began and ended with the knowledge that she was in danger and Rand was part of her life again. Everything else was pure speculation. She had to believe that Rand was trustworthy, no matter what had happened in their past.

Sarah turned the faucet off and stood on the cool tiles, letting the water drip off her. The wound ached, but the pills had dulled the worst of it. Too bad they didn’t begin to touch the twisted feelings she had about Rand.

Seeing him again… All she wanted to do was kiss and strangle him. Too bad he’d never crossed the line. There’d been more than a few moments over the years where, if they’d had five more minutes, she knew in her gut something would have happened. Matt always did have the worst timing. Being cooped up with Rand like this pushed all those frustrated feelings to the surface. She needed air, to think about something else, besides him and the very real problem that someone had betrayed her. More than once now.

She took a towel out of the cabinet and dried off, careful with her arm and the still-tender flesh.

One thing at a time.

First, they’d get the package to the assets. Then, they could figure out who they could trust.

The lock scraped on the other side of the wall.

Sarah pressed her back to the bathroom door and listened, holding her breath.

“It’s me,” Rand announced.

She closed her eyes, reveling in the brief comfort of that knowledge.

Things would be okay. Rand wouldn’t leave her.

She hung her bra and panties up to dry, knotted the towel around her chest, and stepped out into the chilly apartment.

“Please tell me you got more food. I’m starving.” The tile floor chilled her toes, but at least she smelled better.

“I did one—” Rand turned.

“One?” She glanced down at her arm. Was it bleeding again? What was his deal? He’d seen her in towels before. It wasn’t anything new. “That smells amazing.”

“I did one better. I got us dinner.” He lifted a plastic bag and shook it at her.

“My stomach will love you.”

He put the bag down. “Let’s see your arm first.”

“Do we have to?” She was whining, but dang it, all she wanted to do was eat.

“You want to lose your meal?”

“Fine.” She plopped down in the desk chair, clutching the towel to her. Even more of a reason to not put on real clothes. Getting blood on them would suck.

Rand crossed to the desk and pulled a medical bag out of the bottom drawer.

“This is going to hurt, isn’t it?” She eyed the suture kit as he laid it all out.

“Yes.”

“You sure you can’t just give me a Band-Aid and kiss it to make it better?” She smiled and batted her eyelashes.

“This is a bit worse than a skinned knee.” He pulled out a bottle and a prepackaged syringe. “Lucky for you, the anesthesia should take the edge off.”

“Oh, goodie.”

“I don’t want to give you too much. Just in case, you know?”

Just in case they had to run or she needed to use her hand. Yeah. She got it.

“You clean this out in the shower?” he asked.

“Best of my ability.”

“Good.”