“His happy tailor will get backlogged.”
She smiled. “Hickam does credit you with saving his life.”
“He’d’ve done the same for me.” He paused, then said, “So you’re leaving?”
“After everything…” She made a small gesture with her hands. “I have to make a change. Start fresh.”
“I get that.” He looked around the empty office before coming back to her. “Where are you going?”
“I haven’t decided.” Then she blurted, “You had work done on the cherub?”
“Oh. Yeah. It would’ve been cheaper to buy another one. But Mom put her there, and she loved the thing, so I had the missing arm replaced. Also had a landscaping service come in and clean up the courtyard, paint the staircase. It looks almost respectable.”
To cover the catch in her throat, she asked if he was going to make the townhouse in the Quarter his permanent address.
“No. It’ll still be a place I come back to.”
“When you need somewhere to lay low.”
He slid his hands into the rear pockets of his jeans. “Actually, I’m not working undercover these days.”
That goosed her. “What?”
“You remember the girl in Mexico?”
“Who would die bloody without better training?”
“I said that so many times to so many people that it finally made it to the wrong ears. Or the right ears, I guess. The right ears said if I didn’t want people dying bloody, why didn’t I start training them better? Piqued my interest. But I laid down some conditions.”
“Such as?”
“No relocation to Quantico. I’d get final say on accepting or rejecting a candidate, and I’d be a hard-ass because I’d be teaching them stuff that’s not in the handbook.”
“And?”
“No bureaucrat looking over my shoulder and harping about policy or proper procedure. I won’t have my methods second-guessed by someone who’s never wallowed in the gutter with the Panellas of the world.”
“And?”
“No necktie or haircut like Wiley’s. That would have been the real deal breaker.”
“What did they say?”
He raised a shoulder. “They said, ‘You got it.’”
“They must value what you have to offer.”
“Galled Hickam no end. Anyhow, I’m working out of a facility near Atlanta, the location of which is classified. Of course most of the training takes place outside the classroom.”
“That sounds exciting. Will you be—”
“Jordie?”
“What?”
“Enough of this shit.”
He was on her in an instant, his hands clasped around her head, his mouth on hers. They kissed with such heat and hunger that she was surprised when he ended it way too soon. “Jordie, when it all went down, I had to walk away. I—”