Wasted Lust - JA Huss Page 0,6

back—barely touching her at all—to guide her around the front entrance and towards the tarmac, where a stairway has already been extended up to the Agency jet.

Sasha moves ahead of my hand, maybe to avoid any contact. I take a moment to wonder if she likes the touch or not. I’ll get information on that soon enough, so I put that thought aside and wave her forward when we reach the stairs.

I let her get a few steps ahead so I can look at her ass on the way up, but just as I’m about to climb behind her, Madrid shuffles past and blocks my view.

“Don’t be a pig,” she whispers as she passes. “She’s not that kind of girl.”

“Madrid,” I sigh, wanting to tell her to shut up. But Madrid is not under my direction. She is along to make sure nothing inappropriate happens. Not sexually, of course. Legally. I am not to make offers. I am not to make promises. I am not, my DC superiors stressed, to become friendly with her, anger her, or push her into a corner which might make her flee or react with force.

Why don’t we just kill her? It would make all this fuss go away immediately. I guess they’re afraid of what her friends might do in retaliation. Or perhaps the gold mine of information is worth all these precautions and risk?

The only other idea I can come up with is that they really do want her to join the Agency.

We take our seats, Sasha on one end of a long leather couch, and myself on a chair that faces her. I’m not going to miss an opportunity to look at her. She immediately puts her seatbelt on and doesn’t gape around the interior cabin, which is nice, but nothing more. This jet can seat between twenty and twenty-two people comfortably. It has a small dining area, an office section, and a nice lavatory. There’s a staff of five, two in the cockpit and three back here.

Sasha closes her eyes and crosses her legs again. I stare openly this time. Madrid is asking for orange juice and isn’t paying attention. Sasha opens her eyes, busts me, and then turns her attention to the closest attendant. “Did I hear you have orange juice?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the attendant replies. “Would you like some?”

“Yes,” Sasha says, with a sigh. “With vodka, please.”

I smile at that. “Are you a rebel, Miss Aston?”

“I’m a paleontologist, Agent Jax. I spend my time digging in dirt for ancient bones, hoping to find some small scrap to give my day meaning. I live alone in a great big house, and all my friends are other diggers. So do you think I’m a rebel?”

I wink at her with a smile. She pulls her chin back, as if offended. Perhaps Madrid is right. She’s not that kind of girl. But what she lacks in social rebellion, she makes up for professionally. Not the digging. How boring that is. But she’s failing to mention her ties to hackers and killers. “I think you have potential, Miss Aston.”

She looks over at Madrid, and when I look at Madrid she’s mouthing something derogatory about me. “Agent,” I say, stopping her mid-word.

But when I look back at Sasha, she’s smiling at Madrid like they are sharing a secret.

Girls.

“Would you like to see a recent picture of Nick Tate, Miss Aston?” I ask, flipping the authority and control back to me. “I have one. Madrid, bring me my case.”

Madrid huffs a breath as she unbuckles her belt, walks over to a cabinet, gets the case, hands it to me, and then sits back down just in time to buckle up before the drinks are served and the captain begins to taxi the plane towards the runway.

Sasha stares at the case in my hands, then recaptures her composure. “How old is the photo?”

“Three months,” I say, and then add, “We think. This was the last thing this particular insider sent before she disappeared.”

“She?” Aston has a very hard time hiding her contempt for the gender of my insider.

“It could be because she’s dead or it could be because she’s turned on us. We’re not sure.”

“The picture?”

A few moments pass as I try to work out if she’s jealous, or if she thinks she might know who our infiltrator is.

“Yes,” I say, setting the case down on a small table as the plane accelerates for takeoff. I wait until we’re climbing before opening it and then shuffle around inside