bag he’s holding out and frown. “I didn’t ask for anything.”
“I did.” Cole reaches around me, snatches the bag, and turns me to him. “I might be your eyes, but if you think I’m going to let you waltz in there on your own without ears, you lost brain cells along with all that blood.”
He yanks the bag open and produces a handful of gold.
Jarvis steps forward. “Not only ears but this will record everything. You get the shady Senator to talk, we’ll have record of it.”
I look down as Cole clasps a gold cuff around my wrist followed by a choker with a gemstone set in the middle that matches my wig. “I couldn’t exactly set you up with equipment from work without anyone asking me a million questions. Sucks to not be in the field anymore so Crew took care of it.”
“We tested it before we got here—you’re good to go.” Jarvis tosses a set of keys to Cole. “Here. You want to look like you’re exhaling money, you need to act the part. No offense to your truck.”
“None taken.” Cole swings the keys around his finger and looks at me. His eyes are sharp and his stare cuts through me like the blade I have tucked in the lining of my clutch.
Abbott hops down from her barstool and runs to her father. “Daddy, when will you be back?”
Cole tosses her up into his arms and kisses her cheek. “It’ll be late and you’ll be asleep. But tomorrow is Sunday and you know what that means.
Abbott’s face lights up. “Donuts!”
“Have fun with your grandpa. Love you.”
She wraps her little arms around Cole’s neck, making him seem larger than life. “Love you, too, Daddy.”
He puts her down and I might as well not be here because she doesn’t spare me a glance.
But Cole does.
He extends his hand for me, not unlike an olive branch. “Like old times. Let’s do this.”
And that, right there, shouldn’t excite me. It shouldn’t settle low in my belly or make my lacy, hardly-there thong wet. And it definitely shouldn’t make my nipples so hard, I’m suddenly overly grateful Gracie thought of everything and added petal stickers so I didn’t nip out.
Working alongside Cole Carson again … well, it does all that.
And that scares me.
It also excites me.
And that scares me more than anything.
Chapter 14
Exoneration
Bella
“I hope there’s room in your big head to remember I’ve managed plenty long without you. An arsehole Senator is nothing compared to the roads I’ve navigated.”
“I know,” he states coolly. He might as well be a commercial for the most expensive cologne, or maybe bourbon, as he speeds Jarvis’s shiny black Porsche across the bridge over the Potomac, the Washington Monument coming into view as the sun sets. “You didn’t get yourself into a pinch until you stepped foot onto American soil. No one knows better than me that you’re more than capable of handling any situation on your own.”
“Then why have you insisted on squeezing your way into my overtly simple and straightforward op?”
His big paw lands high on my thigh bared through the slit of my dress causing it to inch higher. “How many reasons do you want?”
I place my hand on his to keep it out of the dangerous-to-my-insides territory. My focus needs to be sharp and I don’t need to worry about what Cole’s touch is doing to me. “I don’t know, I’d ask for your top-ten countdown but we’re almost there. I’ll settle for three.”
He throws me a glance before exiting the highway. “I know you’re better but you’re not up to taking down armies on your own yet and you know it. I watched you outside yesterday and saw you trying to jog. I know you’re still hurting and I can’t let you go in there by yourself when you’re not one hundred percent.”
I let out a breath and shift to watch the cars zip by as he waits to turn left. I had no idea he saw. Had I known, I would have pushed through, no matter the pain—and hell, the pain was bad.
He doesn’t stop talking. “I’ve also looked into Randolph and I get why we’re here. I had to dig, but I found the connection you’re chasing.”
My eyes widen and turn back to him. “You did?”
He lets off the brake when he gets an arrow to turn. “I did. I’ve got to admit, you’re swinging for the fences on this one, but if you’re right—”