Page 27 of Dangerous Affair (The Phoenix Three #2)

“Y ou look like a cat burglar.” Liam’s gaze traveled over her. “A very sexy one.”

Quinn bowed. “Thank you, kind sir.” She’d found everything she wanted on her shopping trip: a black, long-sleeved T-shirt, black leggings, black socks and running shoes (she sure hoped she didn’t have to do any running, though), and a black knit beanie to hide her hair under.

That had been her most important purchase since her red hair was memorable.

Overkill maybe, but this was her first spy operation, and she wanted to be an invisible spy.

“Did you shop for black clothes, too?” He wore a black T-shirt and black jeans.

“No, brought them with me. Never know when you might need to blend into the shadows. Open your phone and give it to me.”

She handed it to him. “What are you doing?”

“Adding a tracking app. I’m not going to let it happen, but I’m trained to prepare for the unexpected. If we should get separated, I want to be able to find you.”

“Oh, good idea.”

He handed her back the new phone he’d gotten her before they’d left Myrtle Beach. “You ready for this?”

“As ready as I can be. Do you have your gun?”

“Let’s hope we don’t need it, but…” He lifted his T-shirt to show her the gun holster on the right side of his belt and a knife holster on the left side. Then he lifted a pant leg to show her his ankle holster.

“You forgot to give me a gun when we were in Myrtle Beach.”

“You just worry about taking pictures, and I’ll worry about keeping you safe. Deal?”

“Deal.” She held her hand up for a high five. Instead of high-fiving back, he wrapped his hand around hers and pulled her to him.

“I think a kiss for good luck is necessary.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

He lifted his hand to the back of her neck and lowered his mouth to hers.

No one had ever kissed her the way Liam did.

He had a way of kissing her that was soft yet demanding and possessive.

It wasn’t just that he was a great kisser, which he was, it was that he made her feel as if nothing and no one in this world mattered to him but her.

He pulled away and pressed his forehead to hers. “Want to blow off this op, get naked with me, and let me kiss my way from your toes to your nose?”

“Hmm.” She gave him a quick peck on his lips. “Save that thought for later.”

“You’re no fun,” he grumbled as he followed her to the car.

She only smiled because she had her back to him and he couldn’t see.

* * *

Liam found a secluded stretch of land a mile from the mill where he was able to park the car so that it was hidden from the road.

It took them fifteen minutes to fast walk to the mill, and Liam was right, they did operate a night shift.

She stood next to him at the tree line, scanning the area around them.

All the windows were lit up, and there were cars in the parking lot. A small group of men and women were standing outside the entrance smoking cigarettes. “It must be break time.”

“Yeah.” He put his hand on her back. “Let’s circle around the building.”

It was dark, they were dressed in black, and were far enough away that no one noticed them. Even knowing that, Quinn’s heart raced. If someone did see them, what would they do? Chase them? Call the police? “How do you stay so calm?”

“Training. It also helps knowing there’s not an enemy sniper or two out there with me in their sights.”

“Well, when you put it that way.” There weren’t any drums in the back that they could see, which was a disappointment. “Maybe they keep them inside.” If so, it would be impossible to get photos of them.

“Maybe, but it appears like they have a good bit of property back here. Let’s look around.”

It took about ten minutes, but behind a shed set back in the trees, they found the drums. She counted sixteen of them. “Yes!” She pumped her fist in the air. “It feels like we found gold.”

He chuckled. “Most women want flowers and candy. My girl just wants rusty barrels.”

She should take umbrage at being called his girl, but she kind of liked it. She got her camera out of the fanny pack she’d bought with her spying outfit.

“You don’t need light to take your pictures?”

“It would be nice to have light, but I don’t need it, thanks to the light posts in the parking lot.

I can work with that.” She adjusted her camera settings, and when they were to her liking, she took her pictures.

She got shots of all of the drums together, then up-close ones of several of them.

For the last few, she backed up, wanting to get the drums with the mill in the background.

“All done,” she said after she finished. “What are you doing?” He was prying open the lid on the top of a drum.

“This one’s full. We can get a sample of what’s in it to send to the lab. If the lake is contaminated, and the chemicals in here match, that’s pretty good proof, don’t you think?”

“You’re so smart. You even thought to bring a vial. Where’d you get that?”

“At the store today while you were getting your spy clothes. Thought if we did find the drums, we might get lucky and find one that was full.” After filling the vial, he stoppered it then handed it to her. “Put that in your pack.”

As soon as her camera and the sample were put away, she said, “Let’s get out of here before our luck runs out.”

“Roger that.”

They hadn’t taken ten steps when their luck ran out.

“Stop unless you want to be shot,” a man said, stepping around the shed, his gun aimed at them.

Oh, God. It was the man who’d shot at them when they were fleeing her home.

Liam shoved her behind him. “We don’t want any trouble. We were down at the lake and got a little turned around trying to find our car.”

“You think I fell off a turnip truck? I know who you are, and the little lady has something that doesn’t belong to her. We want it back. There’s no getting out of this.”

She peeked around Liam’s shoulder. “How would I have something of yours? I don’t even know you.”

“I’m not playing games here. Jasper said you have the thumb drive. I want it and the camera you had in your hands a few minutes ago.”

What he didn’t know was that she had her Nikon set to automatically store any photos she took in the cloud, so they’d still have the proof that the drums were here. He also didn’t seem to know that they had a sample of what was in the drums.

Since she wasn’t going to argue with a man pointing a gun at her, she unzipped her fanny pack, removed her camera, and tossed her very expensive Nikon to him. “It’s all yours, but I can’t give you what I don’t have, and I don’t have your thumb drive.”

As the man reached his hand out, his attention on catching the camera with his free hand, Liam did some kind of body twist in midair and slammed his foot against the hand holding the gun. The weapon went flying, landing ten feet away. She rushed to it and grabbed it.

The two men were circling each other, but then Liam stopped and dropped his hands to his sides. He smirked at the man. “I’ll give you a chance to walk away without a broken nose or worse. You should take it.”

What was Liam doing? That man wasn’t going to just walk away.

The man laughed. “You’re a dead man. You just don’t know it.” He glanced at her. “And you and me, pretty lady, we’re gonna have a little fun before I send you to hell with him.”

Should she shoot him? She’d never wanted to shoot a person before, but she sure wasn’t up for the kind of fun the man insinuated, and also, she’d do it to protect Liam. As if he knew what she was thinking, he positioned himself between her and the man, taking away her chance to pull the trigger.

“You touch her, you die,” Liam said in the coldest, deadliest voice she’d ever heard in her life.

The man growled and launched himself at Liam, aiming her Nikon at Liam’s face.

“Liam,” she gasped. He was going to let the man hit him with her camera, and that was going to hurt.

Just as the Nikon was inches away from connecting with Liam’s jaw, he ducked, and at the same time, he brought his fist up, landing an uppercut right into the man’s gut.

The man doubled over, wheezing as he tried to get air into his lungs.

He dropped her camera, and Liam picked it up, tossing it to her.

One hard hit to the man’s jaw and he crumpled to the ground, out cold.

“Let’s go,” Liam said.

She was all for that. She handed Liam the man’s gun, then dropped her camera into her fanny pack. He grabbed her hand, and they ran through the woods.

At the car, she put her hands on the hood and tried to catch her breath. “Not fair. You’re not even breathing hard,” she said.

He grinned. “I could give you mouth-to-mouth.”

Did nothing faze this man? “We almost got killed and all you can think about is kissing me?” He’d been magnificent and seeing him in his element had been hot. She could have done without having a gun pointed at her, though.

“I think about kissing you all the time, and trust me, you didn’t come close to getting killed. I wouldn’t have allowed that to happen on my watch. Now, get in the car and let’s get out of here before they come looking for us.”

As they drove back to the cabin, he took her hand and put it on his leg. “I’m proud of you. You did good back there. You need a reward.”

“I think so, too, and I know just what I want.”

“And what’s that?”

“You. You’re my reward.”

“Oh, the sacrifices I make.” He grinned at her. “But if you insist…”