Page 37 of Baby Take Me Home

He hesitated, or at least I thought he did, although it was difficult for me to gauge the passage of time. “I guess,” he finally said slowly, “it’s because those times didn’t feel like this one.”

Suddenly, I was floating. Not dreaming. Not asleep. Just drifting somewhere warm and peaceful. I was happy. TJ Russo might have just told me he loved me, and it made me happy. I would have to ponder that in the morning when I was wide awake.

“My turn,” he whispered.

His deep, smooth voice was enough to make me want to give him his turn at anything and everything.

“Have you ever been in love, Ashlee Armand?”

Had I? I wasn’t sure I had. Maybe because I’d only ever fit men in around the edges of what I considered my real life. First my education, then my career, and always my friends and family. I hadn’t everwantedto be in love, until—maybe—now. I made my living with words, but I didn’t know how to explain that to him, or to anyone.

“On or off the record?” I asked, buying time.

“Whichever makes the lady happy.”

Hemade me happy. For what might have been a first for me, I didn’t want to question it, investigate it, label it. I smiled and snuggled deeper under my covers. “No comment.”

CHAPTER 15

Ashlee

On Tuesdayat 12:45 p.m., a car pulled up outside my house. I locked my front door, crossed the lawn, and climbed into the back seat. My driver was in his early thirties, had a clean-shaven head and face, and bright blue eyes. He reached over the seat as if to shake my hand and slipped a tiny comms unit into my ear.

“A gift from Jensen,” he said.

I smiled at him. “Thanks, Martin. And thanks for the lift.”

“My pleasure. And also, protocol.”

I slid the comms into my ear, then cleared my throat. “Hello?”

“Hi Ashlee. It’s Cynthia Kessler. How are you feeling today?”

“Okay,” I said. “Ready for this, I think.”

“Good. You’ll be fine. Just treat this like the other interviews you’ve had with Luka.”

“I will.” I licked my lips, which were suddenly dry. “But we only had two other in-person meetings. They were brief. We didn’t have lunch.”

“You’re going to be fine,” Cynthia assured me. “I’m going to be right here in your ear, and watching both of you on a surveillance camera to see the body language so I can talk you through anything, okay?”

I let out a long breath. “Okay. It will be fine. I know that.” I wanted to know about TJ, about where he would be, and whether he would be watching my meeting with Luka, but it would be inappropriate to ask. “Will the whole team be listening?” I asked instead.

“Hi, Ashlee,” TJ said in my ear, as if he’d known I was asking specifically about him. “We can all hear you, but there are a lot of conversations that happen during these ops, which can throw you off if you’re not used to it, so you’ll only hear Kessler.”

“Okay, thanks. Oh, and hi.”

“Hi,” he said again.

“Okay!” Cynthia broke in brightly. “Our fearless leader is going to get back to his job and I’m going to keep you entertained for the next ten minutes while Penn drives you to the restaurant.”

She kept her promise, asking me about my kickboxing training, my nieces, whether I’d taken a vacation recently, and where I’d gone. These were topics TJ and I had discussed during our time alone in his apartment at HEAT. I wondered if TJ was paying attention to our conversation and thinking the same thing.

In what seemed like less than ten minutes, we pulled up in front ofTaberna de Galicia, a trendy Spanish restaurant on the western fringes of DC.

“Pull out your phone,” Martin said quietly. “And don’t forget to tip me.”

Luka was waiting on the sidewalk. When he spotted me in the back seat, he pulled open the car door and helped me out.