Page 152 of Carnal Urges

Except our boys are dangerous grown men who do bad things for a living.

On day eight, I’m watching the ten o’clock news on TV in the guest bedroom when a report comes on about the sudden death of the deputy director of the FBI. At only forty-eight years old, he succumbed to a fatal heart attack at his home in Virginia.

They found him in bed. His housekeeper said she thought he was sleeping late and left him alone when she arrived to clean in the morning.

The picture on the screen is of the black-haired man who offered me the job as a spy.

I sit bolt upright in bed, spilling my wine all over the comforter.

I know it’s Declan’s doing. I just don’t know how.

Ten minutes later, Kage knocks on my bedroom door. “You up?”

Wearing one of Natalie’s nightgowns, I yank open the door and stare at him.

“Your man called. He wants you ready to leave in thirty. I told him to make it in the morning, but he said he couldn’t wait that long.”

My heart beats so hard, I have to press a hand over my chest. “I’ll be ready. Is he coming here?”

“Unbelievably, yes.”

“Why is that unbelievable?”

He simply looks at me.

“Oh. You could kill him.”

“Yes.”

“But you won’t.”

“No, I won’t.”

We look at each other for a moment, until I say, “Thank you.”

He huffs out an aggravated breath. “Do you have any idea what would happen to me if I harmed him now?”

“Yes. Nat would surgically remove your balls.”

“Correct.” He pauses. His dark eyes grow darker. “But my men aren’t held to the same standard.”

“Understood. Honestly, I think he’d be disappointed in you if it were too easy.”

He nods thoughtfully. “Tell him I said I’d love to know how he came by the information he gave me.”

“What information?”

“That the FBI had been compiling a file on me going back a dozen years with the goal of putting me in prison. He sent me everything. Apparently, they were getting damn close. But somehow, all that information is gone now. Wiped clean like it never existed in the first place.”

His dark eyes drill into mine. “You know anything about that?”

“No,” I say without hesitation, not flinching under his penetrating gaze. “I don’t know anything about that.”

After a moment, he says drily, “And even if you did, you wouldn’t tell me.”

I say softly, “It’s not out of disrespect for you.”

“I know what it is. And I gotta say, I didn’t think you had it in you.”