Fatal Diversion (The Keeper's Series #4) - Stephanie St. Klaire Page 0,13
and puts his arm around you? It’s disgusting. He barely knows you, and by the way…the whole world has seen. He isn’t shy about you being his next mission.”
“You’re gross, Coy. Really gross,” she fired back with a disgusted look. “I’m doing my job. That’s it. If any feelings are involved or a mission is underway, it’s completely one-sided.”
“So is that really the job?” Coy turned his attention to Mercy. “I might have to make out with random people too to protect them? I mean, it sounds a little cheap, and we may need to renegotiate my contract if extra deeds are involved.”
“Why did you bring him?” Dillon also targeted Mercy with anger. “Seriously, he couldn’t stand for more training or something? He’s going to blow this whole case if he can’t see past me being his sister and treat me like a damn colleague.”
“She’s not wrong, kid,” Eli added. “You have to remove all emotions. All of them. She’s just like one of the guys. We have her back but how she does her job and runs her case is up to her. This is a unique situation with a lot on the line.”
“Can you handle that, or do I need to send you home and call someone else up to fill in for Cane?” Mercy asked. “This isn’t the place or time for petty bullshit. We are in the highest office of the land, covertly protecting the most powerful leader in the free world. It isn’t just his life on the line. It’s the entire country at stake and literally in our hands at the moment until we get to the root of all this.”
Coy dropped his head heavily in defeat and rested it in his palms as he leaned forward to work out the reality he and the team were facing. “I can do it. I just… I wasn’t expecting this. I wasn’t expecting the president to be constantly hitting on my sister. I also wasn’t expecting him to be your brother, Mercy, or that my sister would be this deep undercover and to this extent. It’s a little…weird, for lack of a better word.”
“I get it. You’re used to working alone.” Dillon’s tone softened. “And you’re definitely not used to me doing a job much like your own. If you think this is crazy and hard to handle, we shouldn’t share old war stories. Being a woman in this career field has proved beneficial in many ways, and I don’t think you’ll like any of them.”
“Jesus,” Coy said. “I’d rather not share those details.”
“She’s smart and good at what she does,” Killion added as a voice of reason. “She’s one of the best in our field. You have nothing to worry about when it comes to Dillon. She’s a badass, man.”
Coy looked at his sister and really took her in for the first time since reconnecting. He learned her true identity and what she did for a living when he joined the Keepers to help on a trafficking case Cane O’Reilly was working. Learning his sister was an elite operative, much like himself, had come at a great shock and understandably so. Seeing her in action was just as shocking.
He tipped his head back and laughed. “It’s sort of hard to think of you as a badass in that outfit.”
Dillon looked down, taking in her attire for the day, and joined him in laughter. “I kind of agree. Skirts have never been my thing, but you know what I can hide up this thing? I’m strapped…knife, gun, zip ties…”
“Under that?” Gannon took in the fitted calf-length skirt she was wearing and the low v-cut top that hugged her curves just as much. “How? Where?”
“Perks of being a girl. And when I put on that little jacket over there, I can hide even more. Kind of smart.”
“If you think we’re all moving to skirts…” Eli started.
C.T. tossed his hands up. “I’m out. I quit. This is not the shit I signed up for.”
“You’re just not secure in your masculinity.” Dillon shrugged. “Real men wear skirts.”
“I think that’s only the Scottish,” C.T. said. “I’m a beautiful mix of Italian and Spanish. We don’t wear skirts.”
“I’d wear one,” Killion said. “I find the tradition of Scottish kilts fascinating. Did you know it represents…”
When the group burst into laughter, Killion halted his history lesson, taking it as a hint that he was once again sharing senseless knowledge that nobody cared to know, or they’d google it themselves.