No Limit (Armed & Dangerous #1)(9)

I glanced at myself in the mirror. “Flattery will get you nowhere, Avery.”

He shrugged. “Just speaking the truth.”

“No sense on wasting your game when no one here cares for it.”

“Can you honestly not accept a compliment?”

“Not from you.”

“I can’t believe you don’t like my southern charm.” He looked completely bewildered.

“The ladies love that shit, even if they’re stuck-up Yankees.”

I let out a dry laugh. “I’ve lived in the south too, numbskull. My father was in the Navy so we traveled a lot.”

“Now we’re getting somewhere. I thought I could hear a bit of twang in there. Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

Sighing, I took a final look at myself in the mirror and turned around. “No, it was just my mom, dad, and me.” I walked past him to the kitchen and kept my back to him while I poured a shot of his whiskey, tossing it back quickly.

“Do they live in Maine too?”

Clenching my teeth, I poured another shot. “What’s with all the questions?” I glanced at him over my shoulder.

With narrowed eyes, he studied me. “I’m good at reading people, but I can’t seem to figure you out.” Sliding his laptop over, he opened it and typed away. “With just a touch of a few keys, I can find out anything I want about someone. You? I can’t find shit.”

I turned around, hands on my hips. “So you’ve been investigating me, why?”

He closed his laptop. “I worked with a guy for years who f*cked over my entire team without us knowing. That’s how good he was. He wanted someone on the inside of the government so he could help his brother with all sorts of illegal shit. Not to mention, the f*cker almost killed my sister in his quest for revenge. Trust is a big issue with me.”

“It is with me too. Do you not think I am who I say I am?”

“I don’t know. All I could find was an article with you and your uncle at his bed and breakfast and that you graduated from George Washington University. It’s like you’re a ghost.”

“Obviously not everything was taken away if you were able to find that.” I stalked over to him, eyes blazing. “But if you want to know the truth, I’ll tell you. You should be able to recognize if I’ve been lying or not. It’s one of the first things we learned.”

“You’re right, but the problem is, you haven’t told me a f*cking thing about yourself. I have nothing to go on, no base for my trust.”

“Fine.” I twisted the seat beside him and sat, knees to knees with my hands palms up in his lap. “I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.”

The second he touched my wrists, my pulse spiked. “Nervous?”

I kept my focus on his eyes, knowing I couldn’t lie. “Yes, but only because I’m not used to being touched.”

“Do you think I’m sexy?” he asked, winking.

I jerked out of his hold, glaring. “I didn’t offer to do this so you could provoke me. Just ask your questions so we can get to work.”

He grabbed my wrists and put his thumbs back in place. “Is your name Aylee McFadden?”

“Yes.”

“Are you really an FBI agent?”

“Yes.”

“Why is your profile untraceable?”

I sighed. “Because I don’t want to be found.”

“Why?”

“There was a time many years ago when someone tried to find me to get to my dad. They ended up finding my mother instead.”

“What happened?” he asked, sounding concerned.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Either you talk about it with me now, or I will find it myself. I don’t think you want me picking apart your life.”

His threat was not a bluff because I could see it in his eyes. “My father was big into gambling. I didn’t know until later that we moved around a lot because he’d made enemies. One night, he lost big and didn’t have the money to pay. Before he could get us out of town, the men came . . .” My voice cracked and took a deep breath, blowing it out slowly.

“My father was able to get me out of the house unseen and he told me to run, so I did. They were coming for me as payment. It wasn’t until I was working for the bureau that I saw what they did to them. My uncle lied to me and said they were shot, but that wasn’t the case. They raped my mother in front of my father and then beat her to death. The men left, leaving my father alive, but he ended up taking his own life before the cops arrived.”

Tears fell down my cheeks and Jason let go of my wrists so he could wipe them off. I flinched at the contact. “I’m sorry, Aylee.”

“Not many people know. I don’t ever talk about it. At the time, I was living in Florida, but then moved to Maine to be with my uncle and his boyfriend. Now they’re married. When I got older, I went to school and was lucky enough to get where I am today.”

“Did the police ever catch the men who killed your parents?”

I shook my head. “I did. I got good at tracking people and I found them.”

Instead of checking my pulse, he caressed his thumbs soothingly across my wrists. “Then what did you do?”