Chances Are - By Christy Reece Page 0,5
it, is he?”
“It's not his job to like an assignment. He'll do what he has to do.”
Not exactly encouraging words. Bad enough that Jake would be worried about her, but to have him forced to work with her wasn't going to be pleasant for either of them.
“Maybe you should assign me to someone else.”
“All operatives on this case will have a partner.” Noah paused a beat, and then with that adamant edge that meant he wouldn’t back down, he added, “Jake is yours.”
A hundred different emotions raced through Angela as she silently left the room. Setting aside her anxiety about Jake for the time being, she reveled in what lay ahead. She was getting what she had wanted almost from the moment she’d walked into a small, slightly shabby hotel room and met Noah and Milo for the first time.
After describing her qualifications, eagerness had lit up their faces like they’d just been handed their most wished-for Christmas present. Even then, her computer skills, mostly self-taught, were crazy mad.
A few months before he was killed, she’d had a conversation with Milo about this very thing. He had understood her need to do more but told her when the time came, she’d probably have to fight both he and Noah for the chance. Not because she was so good at research but because she meant so much to both of them.
Milo had been gone for almost four years now. An LCR operative turned traitor had sold them out. Milo had paid the price. Even now, it was still hard to deal with that loss. She knew that Noah missed him daily. Milo had been an inspiration to all who knew him.
The elevator landed on the first floor and Angela headed to her desk. She’d clear up a few things and be gone before Jake’s meeting with Noah ended. She told herself she wasn't being a coward. She honestly did have a lot of things to do. It was just that when Jake found out, he would probably come looking for her. She had no problem holding her own with most people. Jake wasn't most people.
Falling in love with a man who only wanted to be your friend was a sure path to heartbreak. She was idealistic when it came to a lot of things but not this. If one didn’t look beneath the surface, Angela knew she shocked people. But beneath the façade she wore for her job lay the soul of a true romantic. She wanted candlelight dinners, long walks in the park, and multiple orgasms. And she wanted forever. That wasn’t anything Jake would ever offer her. Okay, maybe she could wear him down eventually to where he could provide the multiple orgasms. But she wanted much more than that. She wanted to be Jake Mallory’s everything.
Chapter Two
“Come on, sweetheart, you know you want it. Come and get it. I won’t hurt you.”
It had once been said that Jake Mallory’s gruff whisper could charm the birds from a tree, the snarl off a grizzly and the panties from the most virtuous woman. He had never seen it happen but the talk had always made him laugh.
Today he was trying to do nothing more than charm a mouse from behind his fridge. Didn’t seem fair to kill the poor thing but dammed if he wanted to share an apartment with it. The cheese, an expensive Gruyere, had been a small sacrifice. Now if only the creature would cooperate.
His eyes scanned the miniscule kitchen with its two-eyed burner, coffee-stained sink and 1960s-style fridge. He needed to find a nicer place. The flat had been temporary digs to hang his clothes when he’d first moved to Paris. Working for Last Chance Rescue had seemed like the perfect job but he counted on nothing anymore. Everything in his life was on probation, especially the things that seemed too good to be true.
Working for LCR had panned out so far. He’d been an operative about four months now, been on a dozen or so rescues, saved lives, and helped put bad people away.
Nice to know that some things actually were what they seemed.
A year ago he hadn’t trusted a soul. Betrayal and a boatload of guilt will do that to a man. And now, he trusted an entire organization. Working for LCR had restored his faith in people. Not all of them. Hell, he’d seen too much evil shit for that to happen. Even now, he stayed wary, just in case. Jake didn’t trust