“Understood,” I said before finishing the call and tossing my phone onto one of the beds.
How the hell was I going to warn King about the danger he’d be in without betraying my own chain of command and risking my career?
22
King
When I entered the bedroom, I could tell Falcon had reached an unhealthy level of nerves. His shoulders were around his ears.
“Are you always this bad before ops?” I asked, pulling off my shirt. “Because I have a surefire way of getting rid of pre-heist jitters.”
Falcon shook his head. “No… I just had a call with my boss…” He shook his head. “Never mind, I think you’re right. I haven’t been on a mission this important in a while. If ever. I’m sure it’s just nerves. Is that why you were doing more recon?”
I shook my head. “No, that was an important part of the job. But also… I wanted some time to myself. I have this… pre-job ritual thing that I do.”
Falcon looked up at me, curiosity sparkling in his eyes. “Tell me.”
“Argh,” I groaned. “It’s so stupid. It’s embarrassing.”
“Tell Papa Bear what it is.”
I laughed. “I changed my mind about calling you Papa Bear. It’s too creepy.” I blew out a breath. “Okay, here goes. Before my very first heist, I called my sister just to hear her voice. I was nervous and homesick, and I needed something from home to ground me. But I misdialed and got the Hobie librarian by accident.”
Falcon was already trying not to laugh. I ignored him and continued.
“Her name is Doreen. And she’s known me since I was like three or something. Somehow, she recognized my voice, and we started chatting. It was so… normal. It was such a visceral taste of home. But there was no family guilt associated with her, no feeling of having to explain why I hadn’t been home for a while. She just… I guess she just gave me a reminder that there are good people in this world. That op went well, and I realized Doreen’s calming presence on the phone had worked its magic. So now I call Doreen before every job.”
Falcon stared at me. “Are you kidding? Your hometown librarian knows about—”
“No, god no.” I rolled my eyes at him. “Of course she doesn’t know. I simply call to tell her hello and to ask how her little poodle is and how many tomatoes have grown on her tomato plants or what Netflix show she’s been binge-watching with her husband, Ned. And she asks me if I’ve had any fancy French pastries lately or whether I’ve discovered a new artist in a museum she should read up on. It’s just… grounding, I guess.”
Falcon looked at me with suspicion. “So you just took a walk in order to call Doreen the librarian?”
I groaned. “Stop. Now you have to tell me something embarrassing about you. Do you have any pre-mission rituals?”
Falcon gave me a look. “Yeah, I checked my comms unit, my weapon—”
I punched him in the shoulder. “Shut up. I get it. You’re calm, cool, and collected Agent Falcon of the FBI. Not all of us are quite as cool as you are.”
I continued undressing until I was completely naked and Falcon was staring. Then I sauntered into the bathroom with a little extra swing in my step in hopes he would take it as an invitation. There wasn’t enough time for much, but I could at least follow through on the offer of pre-mission relaxation techniques.
But when we were finally together under the hot spray, I felt the tension he still carried in his shoulders and tried to work it out with my fingers. “This isn’t normal. You really are worried. What’s going on?”
When Falcon clenched his jaw, it looked even broader, more masculine. It was the look that I had originally thought was intimidating when I first saw him in a video press conference.
He spoke in a low voice. “They said they want to use you to sneak the crown back into the parliament building.”
That was interesting. “Me? Really?”
Falcon shrugged. “I’d originally floated the idea early on, not really thinking they’d do it. But Linney had a good suggestion.” He explained her idea of mimicking what I’d done with the coins in the museum in Berlin.
“You don’t really have my DNA, do you?” I asked.
Falcon’s lashes were flecked with water droplets, making his stormy eyes even more striking. “I can neither confirm nor deny my use of subterfuge to ensure the desired outcome of a—”
I groaned and slapped my hand over his mouth. “Stop. I don’t want to hear you lie to me again, jackass. I would have done it anyway.”
He shook my hand off. “Not with us. You would have gone rogue.”
Falcon knew me better now than he had at first.
“You didn’t know that at the time.”