lied, scowling at him, glancing away, looking for something to clean us up with.
He threw his arms around my neck and leaned, hanging on for dear life. “You wanted me to know something, and now I do. I know I’m all yours, Croy. And I’m scared to death, because it’s so fast, too fast, but I can’t take my eyes off you, and I’ve never wanted anything to work this bad in my life, so just—say it.”
I lifted his head and kissed him, and he smiled against my lips.
“Now. Just say it.”
“I want us to be together.”
“Oh, baby, me too,” he said, and his sigh was long.
Twelve
Early the next morning, I was having tea in the kitchen when Dallas came around the corner and into the living room, hair in wild disarray, only one eye open, shivering as he started across the floor to me.
“Good morning,” I greeted him.
“I have a feeling I’m never going to get up before you,” he said, reaching the barstool and sliding into it, putting his head down onto his folded arms.
“I’m a morning person,” I confessed to him. “And I suspect you can’t think of anything worse for a person to be.”
“Kiss of death for this relationship,” he grumbled.
I chuckled, poured him some coffee, mixed in the half-and-half I now knew he liked, and put it down close to him.
Slowly, he lifted his head and squinted at me. “You put the milk in for me.”
“Milk is disgusting,” I apprised him, adamant on this subject. “It’s far too thin for coffee, so you have half-and-half, but yes, there you go.”
He took a sip like it was the elixir of the gods.
“I got a call from…Truman?”
“Trousdale,” he corrected. “Took him a hundred and fifty years to tell you whatever it was, right?”
“Yes.”
“He’s been here covering while our boss was in DC, even though we have two assistant AICs here and all he’s been doing is warming the seat.”
“Well, he told me that Suárez’s people arrived at the home of one of their business associates, and at the house in Southern Highlands.”
“Another fancy neighborhood,” he told me grumpily.
“I assumed that would be the case,” I said, watching as he took several more sips of coffee. “Now I’m just waiting on a call from someone in the entourage to get us an address and time for the meet.”
“Okay,” he said, not looking happy in the least.
“I showered, but I need to change. You need to do both.”
“All right,” he agreed, getting up and heading back toward the hall.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing’s wrong with me,” he snapped.
“Stop.”
He did as I asked, and when he turned to me, I read his face, the clench of his jaw and the furrow of his brows.
“Oh, come on,” I said cheerfully. “These are your people; have a little faith.”
“This was never a good idea, and I let you talk me into it and––”
“It’s a great idea, and I didn’t talk you into anything. We had a conversation.”
“No. You told me what was going to happen.”
The man was arguing just to argue, period. “You need to drop it, and you know that.”
He took a shaky breath. “I just this second realized that I hate this so much more than I thought I would, and I might even throw up!”
I moved around the island and jogged over close, stopping in front of him and taking hold of his hand. “You’ll be right there to protect me.”
“Which is a problem, right?” he groused, slipping his hand from mine and stalking a few feet away before pivoting back around. “I mean, if it’s you or the op, I’m gonna save you, no questions asked.”
“Yes, but that would be the same with anyone,” I reminded him. “You’re not blowing the op for me. The FBI are not mercenaries who decide who they are, or are not, going to protect.”
He crossed his arms tight, and for a second, I thought he was going to vent his frustration at me and really let me have it, but he only stood there and fumed.
“I heard that Murray will be there, so hopefully you can extract him cleanly, but if this whole thing gets blown, at least he’ll be back in the US.”
He was scowling at me.
“And after this,” I cajoled, kissing his cheek, “you can put in for vacation and maybe even fly back to Chicago with me.”
He grunted.
“Everything will be all right.”
“How do you know?” He sounded hoarse, hopeful and scared at the same time.
“Because it’s a drug cartel, yes,