her blond ponytail flipping over her shoulder as she turned. “That’s just it. The inventory on this is for produce.” She pointed at the screen. “All lettuce— cabbage, butter, romaine, iceberg, even fucking arugula. More varieties than I even knew existed, and they’re all there.”
Weird.
I leaned close, read the columns and saw that sure enough, they were sorted by lettuce variety, and each variety was broken up into shipments. So many that my mind spun and my already tired brain blanked. I straightened, pushed up my glasses, and sighed. “Can you make me a copy before you go? I’ll dive into it once I’ve had some sleep.”
Laila grinned and handed me a flash drive. “Gotcha covered. Get some shut-eye.”
I nodded, headed for the door, pausing when Laila called, “Hey, Av?”
I stopped and turned back. “Yeah?”
“Don’t forget to wash that beautiful muddy hair.”
Olive snorted, even as Laila burst into obnoxious laughter. I snagged a towel by the door, balled it up, and launched it at my friend.
“You’re hilarious,” I muttered.
Laila caught the towel. “And you’re so pretty.” A beat. “And muddy.”
For fuck’s sake, I wouldn’t be living that down anytime soon.
Five
KTS Satellite Headquarters
Munich, Germany
14:22hrs local time
Dan
I woke as I always did—suddenly and with absolute stillness, mind absolutely clear and senses taking stock of my surroundings.
The room was quiet but not empty. I could feel the imprint of someone to my right. The person wasn’t moving or making noise, but I could sense their presence, feel the underlying human aura radiating across the room to prickle my nerves. Inhaling slowly, I caught the scent of disinfectant and of something sweet, almost fruity—
Ava.
Lids flying open, my gaze narrowed in on her.
She was sitting at the desk in the corner of the room, her wet hair slicked back into a ponytail that had dampened a U-shape on the back of her T-shirt. She was focused on the computer screen, the light from the monitor highlighting the gentle slope of her nape, the slender build of her shoulders. Fuck, I wanted to be able to stroke those soft, curving lines with my fingers, to trace them with my tongue. I was desperate to have permission to touch her, not just during a sparring session or for simple work purposes. I ached to touch her like a man would touch the woman he needed with every fiber of his being.
But she didn’t want that.
So I didn’t.
Biting back a sigh, I tore my eyes from her and forced myself to scan the remainder of the room. As I’d sensed initially, it was empty except for me and Ava. The tray of tools, the cabinets along one wall, the hand sanitizer mounted by the door all confirmed that I was still in the infirmary.
Silently, I propped my elbows beneath myself, readied to push up.
“Slowly,” Ava murmured, not turning from the screen. “Olive said you’re likely to be nauseous after the morphine.”
I didn’t startle. There was a reason I preferred to have Ava at my back. She was a damned good agent, so there was no surprise she’d sensed me using the same skills she’d honed over the years.
Of course, agent skills didn’t explain why I’d known deep-down it was Ava before I’d even opened my eyes.
That was something inexplicable.
That was the invisible string tying us together. The one that had been stitched into my soul from the moment I’d met her and had only strengthened over the years.
When I didn’t respond, she spun slowly in her chair. “You going to pass out again?”
Shaking my head, I pushed up. Slowly, because while I might be a stubborn pain in the ass in most situations, I wasn’t one to disregard sound advice when it came my way. And since my head was spinning and my mouth felt like some mythical creature had died inside it and was desperate to escape, Poltergeist-style, I inched up until I was in a seated position.
“No,” I said, once I’d made it. “What did Olive give me? Elephant tranquilizers?”
One side of her mouth hitched up. “Apparently, you’re a light bone.”
My brows drew down. “What—? Oh,” I added, the memories pouring back in. Light bone. Lightweight. Pretty hair. Mud.
She grinned, and it was such a rare gift that I felt my lungs momentarily freeze.
“Damn,” I said, cheeks feeling a bit hot, but knowing there was nothing to be done for it. “High, medication-buzzed Dan doesn’t have any game.”
“No, he doesn’t.” She shook her head, turned back to the screen. “Laila has threatened to change my call